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. Support came from unlikely corners: a classroom of kids who held a cookie sale that raised $30, local bands in Chicago who held a benefit show and sent $150. But they werent just voices in the growing choir calling for the West Memphis Threes releasethey were leading the movement. Self. In an email to The Ringer, Rollins stressed that inaction was not an option., Myself and the many people I worked with did what we could to help bring attention to the case and generate much needed financial aid, he wrote. During Misskelley's trial, Hutcheson testified that she had attended an "an occult Satanic meeting" she referred to as an "esbat." It was so emotionally taxing to watch and go through it again, he says. The three teens were arrested after Misskelley said they committed the crime after 12 hours of interrogation. Events. Misskelley, who had entered the West Memphis police station that morning with hopes of reward money he might use to purchase a new truck for his father found himself instead charged with murder and facing life plus 40 years in prison. The community's worst fears were confirmed. On August 19, 2011, all three accepted the deal and were immediately released from prison. 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. 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. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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. Speaking by phone last month, he comes across, in many ways, like the person Berlinger says he encountered in prison in 1994: polite, deferential, soft-spoken. Terry Hobbs's income source is mostly from being a successful Actor. Mojo was right. It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Terry Lee Hobbs of Auburndale, Florida, born in Winter Haven, Florida, who passed away on August 16, 2021, at the age of 56, leaving to mourn family and friends. For Rollins, it was a moral imperative: Id find myself up at 3:30 a.m. thinking about Damien. Its evidence that Damien Echols attorneys wanted to do new DNA testing on. And the seemingly endless stream of threats against them and the frequent clashes with Mark Byers did nothing to dissuade them. The third put forth the unusual theory that the killings were committed as a cult ritual. Hobbs denied seeing the boys that night and questioned why eyewitness evidence surfaced 16 years later. 34465541-95D0-45B0-BEEB-B9E0361A315A 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. That was more than the people deciding the case were able to hearthe presiding judge made the expert give most of his testimony without the jury in the courtroom because he questioned its relevance. Certain that, under what he felt were ridiculous circumstances, Echols' confidence and, on occasion, flippant attitude during the trial was often misinterpreted as evidence of his coldness toward the victims and their families. 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 what was happening behind the scenes. November 03, 2021 November 4, 2021 . WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. But it wasnt in the ways its directors had hoped. The sneaker ligatures in which Terry Hobbs' DNA was found in," Soury said . This case was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, Tennessee Western Bankruptcy. Years of solitary confinement and the abuse he said he suffered at the hands of prison guards had taken its toll. Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers were best friends. 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. There have also been several high-profile incidents of laypeople reinvestigating decades-old cold cases in more rigorous, journalistic ways and helping bring them to a resolution. 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. Im seeing the things I experienced, but not through my own point of view. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of West Memphis Three murder victim Stevie Branch, has denied any involvement in slayings of Branch and his two friends. A year after the DNA results were released, Hobbs sued Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines for defamation, claiming she implied he was a murderer on the bands website and at a 2007 rally, according to The New York Times. To learn more, watch The Forgotten West Memphis Three on Saturday, March 28 and Sunday, March 29at 8/7c on Oxygen. there are no assignments to cushion your grade, so either pass or fail. But they never had any physical evidence that connected us to this crime, Echols said in 2012. I never foresaw that they would in turn save us.. 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/. The first being that boys were killed by someone they knew. Hobbs said he wrote the book so people, especially other victims of crime, could understand the tragedy he has gone through and how it impacted his life. But Berlinger also believes that the sequel is important for documenting the power of citizen activism. Terry Hobbs is the one suspected of murder and the wounds that were inflicted on my nephew were where turtles bit his face. They saw this movie and they felt like, I have to do something.. 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. I deeply admire that and I thought it was worthy of putting on film.. Terry L. Hobbs, 63, of Caldwell, HOBBS, Terry L., passed on March 7,2021 at the age of 63. On the evening of May 5, 1993, 8-year-olds Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore went missing in West Memphis, Arkansas. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. The attorneys representing Echols and Baldwin believed that the juries wouldnt accept the prosecutions versions of eventsthat they were too fantastical and tied to second-hand informationand that without conclusive proof, their clients would walk. Hes since parlayed the popularity of the show into a booming podcast network and documentary deal with Oxygen. Echols is correct. By 2005, Rollins himself had raised $100,000 for the cause. 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. every single person in my class was either . Terry Hobbs was born in 1958 and grew up in Northern Arkansas. Critics were effusive in their praise and stunned by the footageparticularly Roger Ebert, who wrote in a four-star review that at the end of the film I was unconvinced of their guilt. The film won Emmy and Peabody awards to go with more than a dozen other nominations. If the state of Arkansas has a deep and abiding belief that the West Memphis Three are child murderers and did these terrible crimes, then shame on them for letting them out after 18 and a half years because a bunch of celebrities are whining about it, Berlinger says. To send flowers or plant a tree in memory of Terry Hobbs, visit the Tribute Store. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. 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.. The first and likely simplest gauge is continued interest in the case. He could have been me, he told Rolling Stone in 2011. As the West Memphis Three languished behind bars for 18 years, thousands of supporters called out for their freedom while others vehemently declared their guilt. That included Mojo, who came calling around 2 a.m. that day trying to coax him out of his cell. So when I saw this tiny little article in the Times, I wasnt about to free anybody that was guilty. He knew that if he ever got out, hed want to do that in a more organized way. It'll be sort of like I'm the West Memphis boogeyman. With their 2007 request for a new trial rejected, time was running out for the West Memphis Three. She also stated that beyond the single meeting at her trailer, she had no further contact with Echols. Sheriff's deputies in Calhoun County say Terry Hobbs was reported missing on Saturday, April 20, 2019. "I knew from when I was real small that people were going to know who I was," Echols said in 1994. Their bikes were found by a pipe nearby. The state of Arkansas continues to attempt to prevent this testing from happening., New technology and advances in science would now allow us to test DNA in amounts so small that it would have been previously impossible. 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. He retired from the US Air Force, and he was the Deputy Supervisor for Polk County Supervisor of Elections. Feigning a romantic interest in Echols, she asked Misskelley to arrange a meeting. Replacing Burnett was Circuit Court Judge David Laser. Their main worry was Damien, who was staring down the threat of lethal injection should the appeals fail. "I'd like to see this put to rest. 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. 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. By staying on this subject for the next couple of decades, they gave these men a chance and really decades of freedom afterward. Investigators kept minimal notes and omitted pertinent details including criminal records. Hobbs was Branch's stepfather. One of the keys to understanding the West Memphis Three murders is the phenomenon known as the Satanic Panic. This family in-fighting led to him shooting his brother-in-law. "Everyone has a story and this just happens to be mine," said Hobbs. According to Devil's Knot author Mara Leveritt, the investigation of the murders was divided along three lines. You still dont really know what happened to these kids. Defense attorneys also pointed out that Griffis' doctorate was obtained through a notorious diploma mill and had been awarded with Griffis having never attended a single class. doesn't know how to teach the material and you will end up teaching yourself everything. He was 56. Although Damein Echols had a teenager's typical disdain for authority, he nevertheless trusted that the system would work in his favor. Hobbs says his book is 25 years in the making, adding it is called Boxful of Nightmares for a reason. Family and friends can send flowers and/or light a candle as a loving gesture for their loved one. October 14, 2017: #26 on the JazzWeek chart! He graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. Dan Stidham, the original attorney for Misskelley, who would also work on Baldwins and Echols appeals, says he has the answer. Stidham, who was just 30 years old and not long out of law school when the court appointed him to be Misskelleys attorney, went in thinking he would negotiate a deal for his client, who had told police that his acquaintances Baldwin and Echols committed the crimes and that he was present and played a role as an accessory. McCaughey says her sister is very upset. Armchair detectives of today, I think a lot of them dabble in conspiracy theory, Berlinger says. hangyermoon 2 yr. ago. 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. But Echolss situation changed Baldwins thinking. 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 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper. " Every crime, no matter what it is, gets blamed on Satanism.". My first thought is, I hope this dude isnt trying to pull me into some type of escape, Baldwin says nearly a quarter-century later. They were released after prosecutors agreed to an Alford plea, in which the men maintained their innocence but pleaded guilty. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. She said it was one of the highest-rated pieces they had. You need corroborating evidence.. Find the obituary of Terry Hobbs (1957 - 2021) from Caldwell, ID. He was 56. 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. 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 1996, a screener for Paradise Lost passed her desk. Bakken immediately showed her friends Burk Sauls and Grove Pashley, who were both equally gripped by what they had just watched. All three had been submerged face down in the mud, stripped naked, and bound with their shoelaces. Berlinger also concedes Revelations had some ethical problems, chiefly because it raised the possibility that Mark Byers committed the killings. After roughly 18 months of editing, Paradise Lost debuted at Sundance in January 1996 before heading out to other festivals. 2 Pam Hobbs divorced Terry Hobbs in 2004 and has reversed her position on the West Memphis Three's guilt. What has never been definitively answered, however, is who committed the 1993 murders, and The Forgotten West Memphis Three, premiering Saturday, March 28 at 8/7c on Oxygen, reexamines the case and key theories. Published by The Commercial Appeal from Jun. In 1996, HBO released the documentary film Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. 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. 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. Mojo had a different idea of what might get the man he affectionately called J.B. out of prison. As part of the deal, they cannot file wrongful-conviction lawsuits, which both Berlinger and Baldwin say couldve cost the state tens of millions of dollars. Nobody was saying, This is an outrageous case that needs to be looked into.. In 2013, Jackson and Damien Echols produced a fourth documentary about the case. Even without a smoking gun, the circumstantial evidence was enough for a conviction in a place like Crittenden County, Arkansas. Its affected a lot of lives, but for some reason it keeps being brought up, said Hobbs. Misskelley, who reportedly had an IQ of 72, changed his story several times, and only a small part of his statements was recorded. 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. Reaching its apex in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Satanic Panic was a wave of paranoia rooted in the belief that Satanic cults intent on corrupting the souls of the young had infiltrated American society. weaving supposedly anti-Christian and occult messages into their songs, he discovered her while Googling cold cases, funded an extensive private investigation, a November 2010 Arkansas Supreme Court ruling, biggest allies in the years before his 2020 death, acquitted of capital murder in 2018 after a 25-year legal saga. Creator Payne Lindsey, a filmmaker with no previous experience investigating crimes, had no connection to the victim before he discovered her while Googling cold cases in hopes of finding his own version of runaway successes like Serial and Making a Murderer. The three have always maintained their innocence. Baldwin remembers the dire circumstances laid out during the call. 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. He began his career in the. The great irony of the 18-year quest to free the West Memphis Three is that it didnt begin as a crusade. Terry Wayne Hobbs was born on May 21st, 1958. (WJHG) By Nikki Sheaks Published: Jul. Searching obituaries is a great place to start your family tree research. Evidence in West Memphis Three case missing or destroyed, Judge sets bond for 76-year-old woman accused of killing terminally ill husband, Woman accused of driving into home, killing former pro basketball player Galen Young granted diversion, DA Mulroy says he doubts any drag shows will violate Tennessees new drag bill, MPD finds alleged chop shop operating in plain sight, Congressman Cohen announces $1 million grant for Memphis YMCA, Red hot Memphis womens basketball ready to make a run in AAC Tournament. Much of Cecil Hotel focuses on the amateur investigators who turned coincidences into conspiracy theories, ultimately accusing an innocent person of her death. As the appeals processes stretched across several years and the buzz of the initial film faded, the directors began looking for ways to keep the story alive. Because I was thinking, if you haven't done anything, then they can't prove you did something you haven't actually done. Berlinger and Sinofsky, the latter of whom died in 2015 at age 58, were able to gain incredible and immediate access to seemingly everyone the case had touched: the families of the victims and the accused, the judge, the lead investigator, members of the community. To authorities working in West Memphisa largely Southern Baptist communitysatanic activity seemed to be the most likely cause for the killings, in part because the boys bodies were bound and appeared to have been mutilated. People in West Memphis are going to tell their kids stories. For the next two hours and 29 minutes, the two inmates sat in near silence watching Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, the landmark documentary released on HBO 25 years ago this week that captured the trials of Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley Jr., and Damien Echols, the three teenagers convicted in 1994 of the crimes that ripped through the small, working-class community of West Memphis, Arkansas. In 2004, Vicki Hutcheson recanted her trial testimony, stating that she had lied on the stand. They were releasedfrom prison in 2011 on whats called an Alford plea, after new forensic evidence was presented as part of the case. 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. As the 20th century turned to the 21st, the movement seemed to be picking up steam. Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! Rollins not only gave interviews to keep the effort alive in the press, he organized a string of benefit shows and released an album featuring Iggy Pop and Chuck D, with proceeds going to the defense. It was almost like an out-of-body experience., When the credits rolled shortly after the unforgettable final scene, which shows a now-convicted Baldwin and Echols leaving the courtroom in handcuffs and entering a police cruiser as Metallica plays, Baldwin sat stunned. Mike Allen arrived on the scene. 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. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Echols attorneys got a letter from the custodian of records for the West Memphis police department saying some of the evidence ended up lost, or misplaced, and some destroyed by fire. At that time, I was a little naive that what you read in the paper must have some truth to it, and all the press reports coming out of Arkansas were saying that this was like a slam dunk, an open-and-shut case with a confession that was printed in the newspaper..
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