"Everyone has a story and this just happens to be mine," said Hobbs. Despite the best efforts of the police, dozens of volunteers, a search-and-rescue team, and a helicopter dispatched from nearby Memphis, Tenn., searchers came up empty handed. That came partially through the exposure they got through this film., But perhaps the best measure of Paradise Losts impact is the work being done by Baldwin today. Hobbs denied the accusation, saying that his family does have secrets, but none of them have to do with murder. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of eight-year-old victim Stevie Branch, has been named in documents released in Marian, Arkansas by the attorneys for Pam Hobbs, Stevie's mother. I wouldn't do something like that. By 2005, Rollins himself had raised $100,000 for the cause. They were naked and hog-tied with their own shoelaces, and showed signs of blunt force trauma and mutilation, the latter of which may have been the work of wild animals, reported the, Three teenage boys were arrested for the crimes , Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life without parole while Echols received the death penalty. Debates still occur regularly onlinethe West Memphis Three subreddit is fairly active for one on a 28-year-old caseand podcasts have looked at the crime from all angles. One of the prosecution's key pieces of evidence linking Jason Baldwin to the crime a survival knife with a serrated edge recovered from a lake behind his home has also come under scrutiny. That story line would make up the bulk of 2000s Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, a rare sequel for a documentary, especially before the streaming era proved that true crime series like Making a Murderer and The Staircase could maintain audience interest for years. Nobody was saying, This is an outrageous case that needs to be looked into.. Echols said in 2012, he will never give up his mission to exonerate himself. Leave your condolences to the family on this memorial page or send flowers to show you care. McCaughey says her sister is very upset. Except this was 1996, and home internet was still in its infancy. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as: names, dates, place of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships. That type of support made observers question the verdicts perhaps more so than any rock star who shouted Echolss name into a mic because of an HBO documentary. Hes since parlayed the popularity of the show into a booming podcast network and documentary deal with Oxygen. Baldwin, who had been coached by his lawyers to avoid speaking to the press, says money was the only reason he agreed to the added pressure of appearing in the documentary, especially when everyone else in a position of authority seemed adversarial toward him. Under order of the Arkansas Supreme Court, there were to be new evidentiary hearings in the case. Investigators kept minimal notes and omitted pertinent details including criminal records. The idea of the average citizen becoming embroiled in a criminal investigation isnt far-fetched in 2021, decades removed from the launch of WM3.org. "They said close to the crime scene because at one time I did walk near where they had found the kids with Terry Hobbs But I didn't wear hats back then, my hair could have blown around anywhere, Jacoby told Memphis NBC affiliate WMC-TV in 2013. (WMC) - Not a single piece of evidence ever connected the West Memphis Three, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, to the 1993 murders of Steve Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore. Jessie took a polygraph. I dont know if they were questioning it, but they werent mistreating me and telling me that what I was telling them wasnt true., While Berlinger admits that he and Sinofsky may have tilted pro-prosecution in the early days of filming, that quickly changed after witnessing how the cases came together and spending time with the three teens during pretrial jailhouse interviewsparticularly Baldwin, who Berlinger describes as sweet and studious.. It was a call about Damien Echolshe wasnt dead, but his wife, Lorri Davis, feared he might be soon. Quickly, however, he realized Berlinger and Sinofsky were taking a different approach. Over two decades after the murders, what really happened to Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore on the evening of May 5, 1993, remains a mystery. The bodies had been removed from the water and placed on the adjacent embankment, possibly disturbing physical evidence or otherwise contaminating the scene. Hobbs said, I still believe in my heart that Jessie, Jason, and Damion Echols are responsible for what happened to our children., He added, You look at what happened and then you wonder, what if this did not happen, where would our boys be today? They had a daughter together, Amanda Hobbs, who was 4 years old at the time of her brothers death. Auburndale, FL - TSGT Terry Lee Hobbs, USAF, ret. However, under pressure, leading questions, and scare tactics, Misskelley wove a contradictory story that first placed him at the crime scene as an eyewitness to the murders and then as an active participant. Misskelley initially told police that the killings happened during the day; knowing that they actually occurred some time after dusk, the officers corrected him, helping him retrofit his story to the cases few known facts. . And the seemingly endless stream of threats against them and the frequent clashes with Mark Byers did nothing to dissuade them. Although blood scrapings were taken, the West Memphis police lost the evidence. When the pair got the call from Nevins, they mobilized immediately, landing in Arkansas shortly after the arrests. A theory held is that Terry Hobbs was the one who actually killed the three boys and had pinned it on the Memphis 3 boys. The state of Arkansas continues to attempt to prevent this testing from happening. February 27, 2023 (82 years old) View obituary. Although Damein Echols had a teenager's typical disdain for authority, he nevertheless trusted that the system would work in his favor. She said it was one of the highest-rated pieces they had. While Berlinger says that the work of people like Bakken and Sauls was more impressive than that of any celebrity, its undeniable that the famous and influential brought a megaphone and funding mechanism to this case that most never get. This is a story of justice delayed and justice denied. On August 19, 2011, all three accepted the deal and were immediately released from prison. No explanation has yet been given as to why such a seemingly important lead was dropped. So much progress had been made in the fight for new trials, most notably a November 2010 Arkansas Supreme Court ruling that ordered a hearing on new DNA analysis and other evidence not considered in 1994. Its headlined by not only the films directors, but also Sheila Nevins, its executive producer and winner of 32 individual Emmy awards, more than any other person in history. - The West Memphis 3: Free (2012) . Also part of the plea was the provision that the three could not sue the state. On 04/08/2021 Terry Hobbs was filed as a Bankruptcy - Chapter 13 lawsuit. This is a brand new website dedicated to the internationally famous musician, Terry Gibbs. The idea, Berlinger says, was to tell a story of disaffected youthabout kids killing kids., There was no reason not to believe the press, Berlinger says. In February, Netflix released Berlingers Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, a docuseries that looked at the 2013 death of Elisa Lam, a Canadian student who died while vacationing in Los Angeles. Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, defense attorneys working for the West Memphis Three filed multiple appeals on their behalf scrutinizing the lack of physical evidence against them. Its evidence that Damien Echols attorneys wanted to do new DNA testing on. On the evening of May 5, 1993, 8-year-olds Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore went missing in West Memphis, Arkansas. June 29 Terry Hobbs, 34, 1718 Spyglass Lane, Mishawaka, booked on a warrant from Elkhart County. But I had to. As more people learned about the case from Paradise Lost and the work of people like Bakken and Sauls, the phrase Free the West Memphis Three caught on as a slogan for progressive musicians and actors in the 1990s, up there with Save the Rainforest and Free Tibet. Eddie Vedder became an early leading voice, soon followed by the likes of Peter Jackson, Johnny Depp, and Natalie Maines from the band then known as the Dixie Chicks. The footage included raw jailhouse interviews with the defendants, strategy sessions held by legal teams on both sides, and extended monologues from Mark Byers, the tall, goateed stepfather of one of the victims, who spoke as though he were reciting the Book of Revelation and who, at one point in Paradise Lost, fired a handgun at a pumpkin while reciting the names of the accused. None of the initial trio behind WM3.orgnor their friend Lisa Fancher, who later became a key part of the efforthad ever considered themselves an activist to that point. So the minute youre done, you just want to know more. Terry Hobbs USAF Ret. He was just taking in the enormity of the defining event of his life to that point, which had been committed to film and was now playing for him inside the cavernous, auditorium-style visitation room. Nevertheless, Echols made no incriminating statements. The obituary was featured in Idaho Press Tribune on March 13, 2021. Hobbs has never wavered in his conviction that justice was served the first time around. In the joint trial of Baldwin and Echols, which took place separately from Misskelleys, Berlinger and Sinofsky filmed the surreal moments that juries were actually present for: a rundown of the books Echols checked out of the library, a parade of band T-shirts worn by the pair, a copy of a Blue Oyster Cult record found in Damiens girlfriends house that became evidence because of the word cult and song titles like Dont Fear the Reaper. What the cameras couldnt capture, however, was the introduction of physical evidencethe prosecution didnt offer much of that aside from a knife that was never directly linked to the crimes and fabric threads deemed microscopically similar to items found in Baldwins and Echolss homes, an assertion that has been questioned in the years since the trials. Terry Hobbs Memphis 32, 14-Jun, Superior Funeral Home-Hollywood. '", In 1999, a more mature Echols explained the comment. In November, Judge David Burnett, who had presided over the trial, was elected to the state senate. After ending his first marriage, he wed Pamela Hicks Branch in 1986, when her son Stevie was almost 2 years old. Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie Hobbs. It hurt all over again, he said. The documentarians found me in one of the worst things a person could go through, Baldwin says. All of them were convicted after Misskelley confessed to helping Echols and Baldwin with the murders, which he later recanted. Titled West of Memphis, the film, directed by Amy J. Berg, presents an overview of the West Memphis Three's 18 years in prison, the revelation of new evidence, and explores the possibility of an alternate suspect. They formed the organization Proclaim Justice, a nonprofit that reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people. A month later, authorities arrested Baldwin, Echols, and Misskelleythree teenagers who lived in trailer parks near West Memphis and had previous run-ins with the law, though nothing rising to the level of murder. None of the early interviews with the parents were recorded. The three teens were arrested after Misskelley said they committed the crime after 12 hours of interrogation. (WJHG) By Nikki Sheaks Published: Jul. Sinofsky family connection aside, Berlinger says this was an important part of the film: The prosecutors had put heavy metal lyrics and Baldwins and Echolss Metallica fandom on trial as much as the teens themselves. Baldwin, the youngest member of the trio that had come to be known as the West Memphis Three, was serving a life sentence after being convicted on charges connected to the 1993 killings of three 8-year-old boys. It was also revealed in 2012 that Hobbs nephew allegedly told his friends, My Uncle Terry murdered those three little boys," and that the killings were a Hobbs family secret, according to, I still believe in my heart that Jessie, Jason, and Damion Echols [sic] are responsible for what happened to our children, Hobbs told Memphis ABC affiliate. They didnt even think he would physically survive through December, Baldwin says. Almost 30 years ago, three eight-year-old West Memphis boys were found murdered and three teenagers were charged in the murders. At the time of the West Memphis Three trial, Griffis claimed to have given seminars to 38,000 police officers all over the globe. But they were saying that he was about to die.. However, in 2010, a series of rapidly unfolding developments turned the tide for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley. Their main worry was Damien, who was staring down the threat of lethal injection should the appeals fail. Damion Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley were convicted of murdering the children in 1994. And without substantial physical evidence, police zeroed in on a pair of teens they knew well: Echols, a self-professed Wiccan who wore all black and read Stephen King, and his best friend Baldwin, who was considered an outsider because of his love of drawing and bands like Metallica. It ranges from Mark Byers, the crusading stepfather who became one of the West Memphis Threes biggest allies in the years before his 2020 death, to famed FBI criminal profiler (and Mindhunter inspiration) John E. Douglas. MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) - More than 25 years after the murders of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, a new book gives a first-person account of . We are sad to announce that on September 11, 2021 we had to say goodbye to Terry Hobbs of Sweetwater, Texas. With a large population of fundamentalist Christians, the American South was particularly subject to occult paranoia. I deeply admire that and I thought it was worthy of putting on film.. Misskelley returned to life in West Memphis. A benefit album was released in 2000, and the phrase made it into a Dawsons Creek episode when Pacey shouted Free the West Memphis Three over an airport intercom. But on that early morning in 1997, Jason Baldwin wasnt concerned with Berlinger and Sinofskys craft, or legal precedent, or crusading celebrities. (At one point, Sauls says, it landed on Yahoos list of the top 100 websites.) By staying on this subject for the next couple of decades, they gave these men a chance and really decades of freedom afterward. In August 2011, Jason Baldwin was pulled from his prison cell under confusing circumstances once again. Their advocates believe the Alford pleas represent their own form of injustice, but correcting that is a less pressing issue than the early battlesthe men are free and have been able to mostly live their lives in the years since their release. hangyermoon 2 yr. ago. The second is by looking at it as an act of passion and perseverance. But it wasnt in the ways its directors had hoped. Filing Date : He died on April 4, 2019 in Panama City Beach, Florida, USA. In 2004, Vicki Hutcheson recanted her trial testimony, stating that she had lied on the stand. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Branch who was under suspicion but never charged, said he welcomes new DNA testing. Berlinger and Sinofsky expected a similar result to come quickly in the West Memphis Three case. Two questions plagued the conservative, middle-class community: Why would anyone commit such a heinous act, and, more importantly, who? He said, J.B., youre going home, man, youre going home.. Luminol tests, which reveal the hidden presence of blood, were not performed at the scene until six days later. William Holford Griffiths. He had always maintained he didnt commit the crimes, and outside the Varner Units walls, a growing chorus of activists and legal observers were arguing that same thing on his behalf. At the request of West Memphis authorities, the two were picked up and questioned by Oceanside police. Getting that kind of creative validation was exciting, but we were also extremely frustrated that it didnt move from the entertainment page of the newspaper to the editorial page, Berlinger says. She has since expressed her belief that her ex-husband was involved in the murders, citing the discovery of her son's favorite pocket knife in Terry Hobbs' belongings. Misskelley's coerced confession, as contradictory as it seemed to the evidence, was consistent in implicating Echols and Jason Baldwin. While thats cooled from the days of concerts in the shadows of the Arkansas Supreme Court building, the documentaries still live on HBO Max, where they pull in new viewers to this day. Terry Hobbs's income source is mostly from being a successful Actor. This is before considering the 2013 dramatized movie based on the events (and Leveritts book), Stidhams plans to release the book Harvest of Innocence, and how elements of the case made their way into True Detectives third season. The first and likely simplest gauge is continued interest in the case. Mara Leveritt, a journalist who followed the case throughout the 1990s and wrote the 2002 book Devils Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three, calls the strain of Christianity that runs through the region very literal and says that even her children faced harassment as teenagers for playing Dungeons & Dragons and listening to Ozzy Osbourne. So advocacy and diligence become tantamount, because most people in a similar situation to the one he was in dont have the benefit of filmmakers and musicians fighting on their behalf. Make a life-giving gesture With the guards blessings, Mojo led Baldwin to Varners visitation room, where everything had been put away aside from two chairs set up in front of a cart holding a small TV and a VCR. In her recantation, Hutcheson stated that when she asked Echols directly if he had killed "those three kids," he replied, "No. The causes most high-profile moment came in 2000, when Trey Parker said the slogan at the MTV Movie Awards while collecting an award for Best Musical Sequence. Id like to see this put to rest. It'll be sort of like I'm the West Memphis boogeyman. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. By the end of Paradise Lost, you cant believe they were found guilty, Bakken says. I don't know if the other 2 did, but even if they did polygraphs aren't admissible in court. He was an actor, known for Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988), Fast Food (1989) and In the Heat of the Night (1988). When the case was given the option for DNA evidence, everyone but Terry Hobbs said yes. To send flowers or plant a tree in memory of Terry Hobbs, visit the Tribute Store. " Every crime, no matter what it is, gets blamed on Satanism.". The concept of citizen investigations intrigues Berlinger just as much as it did in the 1990s, though today hes often more concerned with the moral implications. Echols is an author and mystic living New York with his wife, architect Lorri Davis. Produced and directed by filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, the film and its two sequels, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations and Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, gave audiences a unique and detailed look into the case, the accused, and the families of victims. Essentially, it allows the accused to assert their innocence while pleading guilty, conceding that the prosecution has an overwhelming amount of evidence to procure a conviction. Lying in the open air in near 80-degree temperatures accelerated the decomposition of the bodies. Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. Mojo, however, was considerably more fired up, believing the same thing many of Paradise Losts viewers did: that the movie showed an incredible miscarriage of justice, one that would surely be fixed.
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