I'm not stupid." Id like to see this put to rest. Although the bodies were discovered at 1:30 p.m., investigators didn't call the coroner until 3:58 p.m. By the time the coroner arrived, fly larvae were already present in the nostrils and eyes of the victims. One person who has come up in the investigation is Terry Hobbs, although police have never named him a suspect or charged him in connection with the case. Terry Roland Hobbs <p>Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021.</p> <p>Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie Hobbs .Terry graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. Hobbs denied seeing the boys that night and questioned why eyewitness evidence surfaced 16 years later. They had a daughter together, Amanda Hobbs, who was 4 years old at the time of her brothers death. In 2007, new DNA and physical evidence arose that seemed to further distance the West Memphis Three from the murders. By getting to the story quickly, the directors were able to document the post-arrest period and two trials that followed in painstaking detail. Theres no smoking gun. (2 weeks at #1, on for 19 weeks!) Although Damein Echols had a teenager's typical disdain for authority, he nevertheless trusted that the system would work in his favor. 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. Berlinger says that after months of filming, the parents of one of the victims raised the issue of payment. Terry Hobbs Net Worth. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of West Memphis Three murder victim Stevie Branch, has denied any involvement in slayings of Branch and his two friends. Michelle McNamara helped crack the Golden State Killer case by poring over thousands of pages of case files while working on her book Ill Be Gone in the Dark, which was published two years after her 2016 death, while Chris Lambert and his podcast Your Own Backyard were highlighted by authorities after two arrests in April in connection with the 1996 disappearance of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart. When he was released in 2011, he met John Hardin, who worked with the West Memphis Three support group Arkansas Take Action, and the two bonded over a desire to do for others what had just been done for Baldwin. He says that while he was in the supermax prison in Varner, he would write letters trying to drum up support for not just himself, but also for other inmates he believed were wrongfully convicted. Berlinger says that he counts Errol Morriss The Thin Blue Line as one of his greatest influences, not just for the innovations Morris brought to the documentary genre, but also because it helped free Randall Dale Adams from a sentence for the murder of a Texas police officer that he did not commit. Misskelley told Hutcheson that he really didn't know much about Echols other than that he was "a weird person." A later confession during the trial phase would prove equally problematic. Although she was unable to recall the exact location or anyone who attended the alleged meeting, she claimed a drunken Echols confessed to the murders. Once there got to be this global pressure, and there was a big concert here with really big-name musicians within a mile of our Supreme Court building, things started suddenly to change, she says. But none of that support has been able to fully exonerate the trio, something theyre still fighting for. Terry L. Hobbs, 63, of Caldwell, HOBBS, Terry L., passed on March 7,2021 at the age of 63. Investigators never found any evidence that tied him, Jason Baldwin, or Jessie Misskelley to the murders of the boys, Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers. Quality. Self. Another hair found near the crime scene on a tree stump was found to be consistent with the DNA of Hobbs friend, David Jacoby, according to court documents obtained by Oxygen.com. A native of Winter Haven, born December 21, 1964, Terry . October 14, 2017: #26 on the JazzWeek chart! It was clear that Paradise Lost was resonating. We were finally winning, he says. The knife was thrown into the lake by Baldwin's mother a year before the murders. Terry Hobbs was born in 1958 and grew up in Northern Arkansas. A quarter-century later, what does the documentary tell us about citizen activism, the criminal justice system, and the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 90s? I deeply admire that and I thought it was worthy of putting on film.. It hurt all over again, he said. every single person in my class was either . Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! 24 to Jun. Hide Self (6 credits) 2012 48 Hours: Hard Evidence (TV Series) Self. 2 (WMC) - Its a case that has captured the nation and certainly the Mid-South. Earlier this year, he told Action News 5 he welcomes new DNA testing. And that makes him hopeful that exoneration is on the horizon. Metallica had never licensed a song for a film before, but when they learned about the case, Berlinger says, they made an exception. Although the appeals were repeatedly denied, a new batch of DNA testing done in 2007 reignited the investigation. Spotting a small, black tennis shoe in the water, Jones radioed for help. Misskelley, who reportedly had an IQ of 72, changed his story several times, and only a small part of his statements was recorded. I don't entirely think Hobbs did it, but I . Paso Robles, California. However, in 2010, a series of rapidly unfolding developments turned the tide for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley. But for every Your Own Backyard or Ill Be Gone in the Dark that has applied journalistic rigor to their research in the past two decades, theres an Up and Vanished, which has been at the center of ethical debates since the podcast debuted in 2016. Terry Hobbs is absolutely terrible. When Alex Sinofsky is asked about his fathers work on the film, he recalls the frequent trips and long hours spent editing film on a Steenbeck he kept in the house. After 18 years in prison, the West Memphis Three were finally free, but not exonerated. But further down, in the section for the music department, theres a curious inclusion of a consultant who never worked in film again: Alex Sinofsky, the son of Bruce who was 12 at the time of Paradise Losts release. Heavy metal music, role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, and horror movies were regarded as gateways to evil. Terry Hobbs, Actor: Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers. West Memphis is in the heart of the Bible Belt: just a two-hour drive from where, legend has it, the devil tuned Robert Johnsons guitar, in a state thats 46 percent evangelical Protestant. He died on April 4, 2019 in Panama City Beach, Florida, USA. 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 second is by looking at it as an act of passion and perseverance. Echols tweeted, New technology and evidence in science would now allow us to test DNA in amounts so small that it would have been previously impossible. He said Boxful of Nightmares is his memoirs unedited. Iwould journal something and put it in the box, said Hobbs. Years of solitary confinement and the abuse he said he suffered at the hands of prison guards had taken its toll. In the Bible Belt, the Satanic Panic took hold with a vengeance. Feigning a romantic interest in Echols, she asked Misskelley to arrange a meeting. Paradise Lost is a narration-free documentary filmed with a journalistic remove. (At one point, Sauls says, it landed on Yahoos list of the top 100 websites.) 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. Inconsistencies in Terry Hobbs' alibi, as well as revelations about subsequent violent acts, have also led many to believe that he may be the actual killer. After ending his first marriage, he wed Pamela Hicks Branch in 1986, when her son Stevie was almost 2 years old. (Maines briefly became a part of the story when Terry Hobbs, stepfather of another . Jason Baldwin had no idea what was happening when a fellow inmate at the supermax prison in Varner, Arkansas, woke him up early one morning in 1997. But I had to. The governor of the state of Arkansas who will one day pardon the West Memphis Three is probably in junior high right now, he says. Like Misskelley in the first trial, Baldwin received a life sentence. The story felt personal for all of them, but especially Sauls: He had grown up in Florida and Georgia as an outcast obsessed with art and reading some of the same books Damien Echols had. Berlinger and Sinofsky began to take notice. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. A source said the evidence was transferred to shipping containers where there was a fire, and some of the evidence was destroyed. Echols' disdain for authority, penchant for black clothes, and propensity to make shocking statements didn't help his plight. 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.. Echols is an author and mystic living New York with his wife, architect Lorri Davis. This is the true story of the West Memphis Three murders. Im not the jury. One of those shows, Truth & Justice With Bob Ruff, became the basis for an Oxygen docuseries last year titled The Forgotten West Memphis Three, which took a closer look at the three victims and tried to shine new light on the evidence. Well, perhaps not nobody. Covered in wounds, all three showed signs of having been beaten. 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 WMC-TV. The case status is Pending - Other Pending. 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. 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. By the end of Paradise Lost, you cant believe they were found guilty, Bakken says. They procured the domain WM3.org and made a website, updating it with whatever information they could track down. (Maines briefly became a part of the story when Terry Hobbs, stepfather of another of the victims, sued her for defamation after she wrote a blog post pointing out that physical evidence at the crime scene potentially pointed at him and not the three convicted for the crime. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. As for Paradise Lost, it was the inciting incident in the two-decade chain of events that led to the release of the West Memphis Three. Now, evidence from the case of the West Memphis Three is either missing or destroyed. Minutes later, Sgt. But it wasnt in the ways its directors had hoped. The state of Arkansas continues to attempt to prevent this testing from happening. Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie Hobbs .Terry graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. That there were three victims was a link to the biblical number of the beast. He was an actor, known for Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988), Fast Food (1989) and In the Heat of the Night (1988). Hobbs described what it was like the day the three walked free. How do you measure the legacy of Paradise Lost, which is one of the best reviewed documentaries of all time and considered among the most influential, but whose mission is only partly complete? Replacing Burnett was Circuit Court Judge David Laser. The boys were so mutilated, investigators thought the murders were part of some kind of Satanic ritual. The Paradise Lost cameras captured not only the defenses discussions, but the full testimony, in Misskelleys trial, of an expert on coerced confessions. Mojo jumped up, Baldwin recalls. I think we were the first internet sleuths, but we were not internet sleuths.. La Verne, California. TERRY HOBBS OBITUARY Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. To send flowers or plant a tree in memory of Terry Hobbs, visit the Tribute Store. Much of Cecil Hotel focuses on the amateur investigators who turned coincidences into conspiracy theories, ultimately accusing an innocent person of her death. " Every crime, no matter what it is, gets blamed on Satanism.". This case was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, Tennessee Western Bankruptcy. 25, 2021. Terry Hobbs was born on November 25, 1969 in Columbus, Georgia, USA. He said, J.B., youre going home, man, youre going home.. As reported by the Arkansas Times, examination of the shoe laces used to bind Michael Moore contained hair "not inconsistent" with that of Stevie Branch's stepfather, Terry Hobbs. "Everyone has a story and this just happens to be mine," said Hobbs. Hes since parlayed the popularity of the show into a booming podcast network and documentary deal with Oxygen. eyewitness evidence surfaced 16 years later. Hobbs denied the accusation, saying that his family does have secrets, but none of them have to do with murder. As the first in a trilogy of Paradise Lost films about the case, the 1996 movie was a stunning example of cinma vrit, as directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky embedded themselves with the prosecution, the defense, and the families of both the slain and the accused to put human faces on a heart-wrenching tragedy, as well as highlight the overblown worries of satanic rituals and murderous cults that proliferated throughout the 1980s and 90s. And that is why Echols has attorneys who want to use a new DNA test called M-Vac, a wet vacuum system that can find more DNA than older tests. 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. But its closing moments point to how the filmmakers felt: that a horrific tragedy had just been compounded by a monumental miscarriage of justice. 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. Luminol tests, which reveal the hidden presence of blood, were not performed at the scene until six days later. In a last ditch effort, they entered an Alford Plea, a complex and seldom used legal maneuver that would see them plead guilty while still asserting their innocence. Published by The Commercial Appeal from Jun. To learn more, watch The Forgotten West Memphis Three on Saturday, March 28 and Sunday, March 29at 8/7c on Oxygen. Sheila Nevins, the HBO exec who pushed for Berlinger and Sinofsky to make that initial trip to Arkansas, is most proud of the companys willingness to let her finance three documentaries over 18 years without knowing where they would go. It's one. He knew that if he ever got out, hed want to do that in a more organized way. Hobbs said, I still believe in my heart that Jessie, Jason, and Damion, 'Feels Like Home:' electrical failure from a light fixture caused December fire that killed 1, Shelby County reporting an increase in drug-related overdoses, largely due to fentanyl, Severe weather threat is over | Prepare for a sunny weekend, Daylight saving time starts soon. They werent telling me I was lying, even if they may have been saying that in their minds. And they used that visibility to help raise funds for the defense. . Its affected a lot of lives, but for some reason it keeps being brought up, said Hobbs. 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. 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 what was happening behind the sce 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 what was happening behind the scenes. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! The test results showed that no genetic material on the crime scene evidence was a match to Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley, reported the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. No explanation has yet been given as to why such a seemingly important lead was dropped. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Branch who was under suspicion but never charged, said he welcomes new DNA testing. Peter Jackson, who would produce a separate documentary about the case titled West of Memphis in 2012, and his partner, Fran Walsh, funded an extensive private investigation and helped hire forensic experts to comb through evidence. (Police questioned Byers several times during the investigation, but never considered him a suspect.) June 29 Terry Hobbs, 34, 1718 Spyglass Lane, Mishawaka, booked on a warrant from Elkhart County. Dec 13th, 2021. It has happened to a lot of people that just dont have the spotlight of a documentary, he says. 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. I couldnt not watch it at this point. Terry Hobbs's income source is mostly from being a successful Actor. I think I introduced my dad to it because that was not his normal genre., Three Metallica songsOrion, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), and Call of Ktuluwould play throughout the documentary. 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. Bakken immediately showed her friends Burk Sauls and Grove Pashley, who were both equally gripped by what they had just watched. West Memphis 3 / Terry Hobbs 2022 Update New Scott 94.5K subscribers Subscribe 241 Share 20K views 8 months ago https://www.crimeonline.com/2022/05/. When it didnt, the praise heaped on Paradise Lost felt hollow. Other possible suspects includedBrian Holland and Chris Morgan, two young men from Memphis, Tenn., with a history of drug offenses. (Echolswho is in better health today, though his eyesight has degenerated and he has premature arthritis from his time in solitary confinementin particular has maintained a relatively public life, through the five books hes published, performing magic for Patreon subscribers, and making TV appearances to discuss other cases he sees as similar to his.) 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. Additionally, the judge in the original trialswho under Arkansas law presided under the requests for retrials in the years following the convictionshad been elected to the state Senate that December, meaning someone new and possibly more sympathetic would oversee the case. Leave your condolences to the family on this memorial page or send flowers to show you care. He says his dad and Berlinger werent seeking notorietydocumentaries certainly werent a means to get rich or famous in those days. . I don't know if the other 2 did, but even if they did polygraphs aren't admissible in court. Paradise Lost also led to a famous citizen-activist campaign championing the release of the three teens that caught on at the dawn of the Internet Age and would eventually pull in Eddie Vedder, Henry Rollins, and a whos who of the rich and famous. He could have been me, he told Rolling Stone in 2011. Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie Hobbs. According to Griffis, black hair, black T-shirts, and black jeans were signs that a kid was in league with the devil. Today, Berlinger calls Revelations the weakest of the three films in the trilogyadvocacy in search of a story as opposed to the in-the-moment, on-the-ground approach of the first Paradise Lost and the in-depth exploration of new evidence in 2011s Purgatory. The three teens were arrested after Misskelley said they committed the crime after 12 hours of interrogation. They began attending appeal hearings and visiting Baldwin, Echols, and Misskelley in prison. He was handed the phone. With their 2007 request for a new trial rejected, time was running out for the West Memphis Three. He was 56. The level of corruption in the American justice system is glaring and sickening.. "I knew from when I was real small that people were going to know who I was," Echols said in 1994. One of Kathy Bakkens earliest jobs in Los Angeles allowed her a certain kind of cultural currency: She designed movie posters for an entertainment-advertising company, which meant she got to see films months before they were released. Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie. Terry Hobbs Memphis 32, 14-Jun, Superior Funeral Home-Hollywood. It's affected a lot of lives, but for some reason it keeps being brought up," said Hobbs. On August 19, 2011, all three accepted the deal and were immediately released from prison. As the movement to free the West Memphis Three gained traction, a number of celebrities joined the cause, bringing the case under more scrutiny. I had a big box. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. They were found nude and hogtied in a creek in a wooded area in West Memphis. The IMDb credits page for the first Paradise Lost is modest, but impressive. La Mirada, California. He retired from the US Air Force, and he was the Deputy Supervisor for Polk County Supervisor of Elections. Everybody Id come in contact with was hostile to the truth, Baldwin says. Its like ripping a Band-Aid off a wound. 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. McCaughey says her sister is very upset. You need corroborating evidence.. As recounted in Mara Leveritt's book, Devil's Knot, a thorough search of Robin Hood Hills directed by Chief Inspector Gary W. Gitchell of the West Memphis Police Department commenced early on the morning of May 6, 1993. On the evening of May 5, 1993, three 8-year-old boys disappeared from the streets of West Memphis, Ark. According to Devil's Knot author Mara Leveritt, the investigation of the murders was divided along three lines. The first film gave rise to a movement devoted to reopening the investigation in hopes of exonerating, and ultimately freeing, Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, and Jessie Misskelley. That the slain boys were each 8 years-old was important because eight was a "witch's number." Berlinger also concedes Revelations had some ethical problems, chiefly because it raised the possibility that Mark Byers committed the killings. Terry Hobbs says he is a church member, a father, and working man and in no way a killer. You still dont really know what happened to these kids. She says she is too because they believe they are hearing different stories. One of the keys to understanding the West Memphis Three murders is the phenomenon known as the Satanic Panic. Sauls says that the former Black Flag frontman was one of the few big names who dug deep into the evidence, wanting to learn as many details as he could about the case. The idea of killer teens in the Christian South, not any greater sense of purpose, was mainly what intrigued Sheila Nevins, then the head of HBOs documentary division, when she spotted a story about the case on the inside pages of The New York Times.
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