Terry Hobbs is absolutely terrible. The killings came at the peak of the so-called Satanic Panic, a time of heightened worries about ritualistic abuse. Although the appeals were repeatedly denied, a new batch of DNA testing done in 2007 reignited the investigation. The third put forth the unusual theory that the killings were committed as a cult ritual. Terry Hobbs Memphis 32, 14-Jun, Superior Funeral Home-Hollywood. 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. Knowing that the police were already focusing on Damien Echols, Hutcheson asked her neighbor, Jessie Misskelley Jr., about the brooding teen and his occult connection. (Police questioned Byers several times during the investigation, but never considered him a suspect.) On the morning of June 2, 1993, Jessie Misskelley Jr., a 17-year-old high school drop out with a reported IQ of 73, was taken into custody by Detective Mike Allen. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. A graveside service will be conducted on Wednesday, March 17 at Cloverdale Memorial Park beginning at 11am. 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. He retired from the US Air Force, and he was the Deputy Supervisor for Polk County Supervisor of Elections. Covered in wounds, all three showed signs of having been beaten. Years of solitary confinement and the abuse he said he suffered at the hands of prison guards had taken its toll. He died on April 4, 2019 in Panama City Beach, Florida, USA. 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. Eventually, they began traveling to Arkansasabout 35 trips in total, always on their own dime, Bakken and Sauls sayto collect case documents, which they scanned and uploaded to the site, also transcribing the documents so that the text could be searchable. 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? The three have always maintained their innocence. It just needed a catalyst. A native of Winter Haven, born December 21, 1964, Terry has been a lifelong resident of Auburndale. Filming the activists work seemed like the best place for Berlinger and Sinofsky to turn their attention; what better way to show the continued plight of the West Memphis Three than to show regular people dedicating their free time to fighting for them? 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. Bray asked her if she knew about rumored cult activity in the community. The specter of the church looms over Paradise Lost, best represented by an early scene in which Mark Byers leads his congregation in prayer and song. 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. 2011 Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (Documentary) Self - Stepfather of Stevie Branch. Updated: 9:42 AM CDT June 11, 2019. After 18 years in prison, the West Memphis Three were finally free, but not exonerated. The next day, their bodies were found in a nearby canal. 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. 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. He died on April 4, 2019 in Panama City Beach, Florida, USA. He said, J.B., youre going home, man, youre going home.. The prosecutor would later say, There was a lack of physical evidence to tie anyone or anything to the crime scene, while the lead investigatorthe same one who told the press the case was an 11 out of 10would concede, Youve got a lot of circumstantial evidence is what youve got. The consequences of that online campaign were ruinous: The person they targeted, a Mexican metal musician who worked under the name Morbid, was harassed into hiding. 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. 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. 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. He was handed the phone. So with less urgency surrounding full exoneration and no documentary cameras rolling, the question 25 years later becomes: Who is paying close enough attention to the case to pick up the fight? 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. Replacing Burnett was Circuit Court Judge David Laser. 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. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Branch who was under suspicion but never charged, said he welcomes new DNA testing. Case Details. He just didnt know it would take another 14 years to happen. Its my perspective of what happened in 1993, 26 years ago in West Memphis, Arkansas, said Hobbs. 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. Although Damein Echols had a teenager's typical disdain for authority, he nevertheless trusted that the system would work in his favor. Berlinger says that after months of filming, the parents of one of the victims raised the issue of payment. 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. - The West Memphis 3: Free (2012) . The level of corruption in the American justice system is glaring and sickening.. The great irony of the 18-year quest to free the West Memphis Three is that it didnt begin as a crusade. the only grade you receive is from quizzes, exams, and the final. In 1994, Dr. Dale W. Griffis was a retired police officer who had embarked on a second career as a self-styled consultant on occult and cult-related crime. The IMDb credits page for the first Paradise Lost is modest, but impressive. He was an actor, known for Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988), Fast Food (1989) and In the Heat of the Night (1988). 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. They saw the same thing you did. Its no surprise the juries found the prosecutions narrative compelling, Leveritt says: For them, the image of killer satanists headbanging to Metallica was more than plausible. He graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. Like Misskelley in the first trial, Baldwin received a life sentence. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. 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. 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. I never foresaw that they would in turn save us.. Local 24 News EXCLUSIVE: Terry Hobbs on his new memoir on the West Memphis 3. 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. They formed the organization Proclaim Justice, a nonprofit that reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people. 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. But inside, he was just another prisonerBaldwin didnt know who he could trust. Although Griffis' testimony was dramatic, it showed only a tenuous grasp of occult knowledge much of it, including a reference to a cult called "Crytos," was simply made up. 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. In her recantation, Hutcheson stated that when she asked Echols directly if he had killed "those three kids," he replied, "No. Im seeing the things I experienced, but not through my own point of view. 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. He had been expecting a visitation, but was instead led to the prison chapel office, where inmates were typically brought only if someone close to them had died. Hobbs has never wavered in his conviction that justice was served the first time around. 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. 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. At the suggestion of the police, Hutcheson hid microphones in her home and borrowed occult books from the library to inspire Echols' interest. People in West Memphis are going to tell their kids stories. Berlinger also concedes Revelations had some ethical problems, chiefly because it raised the possibility that Mark Byers committed the killings. "The reason I made the West Memphis boogeyman comment during the first film was because I was making light of the situation," Echols says in Paradise Lost 2: Revelations. 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. But on that early morning in 1997, Jason Baldwin wasnt concerned with Berlinger and Sinofskys craft, or legal precedent, or crusading celebrities. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. Branded the, What has never been definitively answered, however, is who committed the 1993 murders, and , Due to marital problems stemming from Stevies death, the couple divorced in 2004, reported, The test results showed that no genetic material on the crime scene evidence was a match to Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley, reported the, The West Memphis Police Department interviewed Hobbs, who was dismissive of the findings, claiming the hair could have been picked up during a visit to his home since the victim "played with our little boy regularly," according to the, "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, 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, In 2009, three witnesses filed affidavits claiming they saw Hobbs with the murdered boys the night they disappeared, contradicting Hobbs previous statements to police, according to. They saw this movie and they felt like, I have to do something.. All three had been submerged face down in the mud, stripped naked, and bound with their shoelaces. When the pair got the call from Nevins, they mobilized immediately, landing in Arkansas shortly after the arrests. Inevitably, the West Memphis Three case always comes up. At the request of West Memphis authorities, the two were picked up and questioned by Oceanside police. We are sad to announce that on September 11, 2021 we had to say goodbye to Terry Hobbs of Sweetwater, Texas. Echols, who prosecutors argued was the ringleader, was sentenced to death. 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. A native of Winter Haven, born December 21, 1964, Terry . 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. In 2013, Jackson and Damien Echols produced a fourth documentary about the case. 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. https://t.co/dXOtQkmjee. The news was devastating beyond just word of his friends suffering. Yet, Judge David Burnett accepted Griffis as an expert. He says his students seem to have a better grasp on the idea of coerced confessions than any of his peers in 1994. 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. 34465541-95D0-45B0-BEEB-B9E0361A315A Among those active in the cause were singer Eddie Vedder of the band Pearl Jam, the country music trio The Dixie Chicks, punk rock icon and poet Henry Rollins, and actor Johnny Depp. Terry Hobbs's income source is mostly from being a successful Actor. But its closing moments point to how the filmmakers felt: that a horrific tragedy had just been compounded by a monumental miscarriage of justice. 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. The second postulated that they had been slain by one or more strangers. Terry Hobbs is the one suspected of murder and the wounds that were inflicted on my nephew were where turtles bit his face. 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. 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. The Messed Up Truth About The West Memphis Three Murders, citing the discovery of her son's favorite pocket knife, One of the prosecution's key pieces of evidence linking Jason Baldwin, With their 2007 request for a new trial rejected, Baldwin is the co-founder of the legal advocacy organization Proclaim Justice. During the trials of Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols, Griffis drew tenuous links between circumstantial evidence, such as the killings taking place near the date of the pagan festival of Beltane. 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. Share Memories & Support the Family. 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. In West Memphis, Hobbs worked as an ice cream delivery man and Hicks worked at a restaurant. On the evening of May 5, 1993, 8-year-olds Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore went missing in West Memphis, Arkansas. I didn't even comprehend that the situation could get this serious that it can go this far. 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. 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. The obituary was featured in Idaho Press Tribune on March 13, 2021. They had a daughter together, Amanda Hobbs, who was 4 years old at the time of her brothers death. He was an actor, known for Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988), Fast Food (1989) and In the Heat of the Night (1988). All of them were convicted after Misskelley confessed to helping Echols and Baldwin with the murders, which he later recanted. Terry Wayne Hobbs was born on May 21st, 1958. Self. 2012 West of Memphis (Documentary) Self - Steven Branch's Stepfather. I had a friend who was working on 20/20, and they had done a film about exorcism in one of the magazine pieces, Nevins says. Wherever it was screened, Berlinger says, it was followed by intense Q&As from audience members who couldnt believe what theyd just watched. Social media didnt fully exist yet, but the group managed to harness the potential of the nascent information superhighway to bring attention to their cause. But then the verdicts arrived: Both Baldwin and Echols were found guilty on all counts, just like Misskelley had been six weeks before them. Cinemorgue Wiki. 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. . In 1996, HBO released the documentary film Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. 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. Terry Hobbs, one of the men named in the documents. Hobbs denied seeing the boys that night and questioned why eyewitness evidence surfaced 16 years later. They began attending appeal hearings and visiting Baldwin, Echols, and Misskelley in prison. 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. In 2007, new DNA and physical evidence arose that seemed to further distance the West Memphis Three from the murders. I deeply admire that and I thought it was worthy of putting on film.. Maines won the lawsuit; police have never named Hobbs a suspect or charged him in connection with the killings.). Few celebrities at the time did as much as Henry Rollins, however. 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. One of the keys to understanding the West Memphis Three murders is the phenomenon known as the Satanic Panic. None of the early interviews with the parents were recorded. So the minute youre done, you just want to know more. The only possible culprits were 18-year-old Damien Echols, a poor teen with an interest in the occult and a record of mental illness, his friend Jason Baldwin, a quiet kid whose talent for art tended toward dark subjects, and Jessie Misskelley, a 17-year-old misfit with an IQ of 73. Share Memories & Support the Family. By the end of Paradise Lost, you cant believe they were found guilty, Bakken says. Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie Hobbs .Terry graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. West Memphis is pretty much like a second Salem," Echols stated in the 1996 documentary Paradise Lost: The Murders at Robin Hood Hills. Due to marital problems stemming from Stevies death, the couple divorced in 2004, reported CNN. 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. I couldnt not watch it at this point. When the case was given the option for DNA evidence, everyone but Terry Hobbs said yes. 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. 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. People would drive by and yell at us, Theyre going to burn in hell, Sauls says. There also were issues with other details he provided, including how the victims were bound and whether the boys were raped. of Auburndale, FL passed away Monday, August 16, 2021. The idea of the average citizen becoming embroiled in a criminal investigation isn't far-fetched in 2021, . That November, he says, HBO agreed to give an honorariumroughly $5,000to the families on both sides. 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. We have estimated Terry Hobbs's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets. Other details that have come to light include that many wounds on the slain children, originally attributed to human bites and/or a serrated blade, were the result of animals feeding on the bodies. I spoke with one of the jurors, years later after the trials and convictions, and he said he had no doubt that people could throw their lot in with the devil and be commanded to do things that they wouldnt have done otherwisethat they have basically made the deal with the devil, Leveritt says. 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. Luminol tests, which reveal the hidden presence of blood, were not performed at the scene until six days later. Baldwin remembers the dire circumstances laid out during the call. I went to a Baptist school and I got accused of being a devil worshiper because I was trying to learn how to write hieroglyphics, says Sauls, today a screenwriter and VFX designer. He is from USA. This is not a smoking-gun-type case.. He knew that if he ever got out, hed want to do that in a more organized way. He responded proudly, 11.. 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/. In November, Judge David Burnett, who had presided over the trial, was elected to the state senate. Case Details Parties . That there were three victims was a link to the biblical number of the beast. Terry Roland Hobbs September 11, 1959 ~ September 11, 2021 (age 62) Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. 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. 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. 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. He says his dad and Berlinger werent seeking notorietydocumentaries certainly werent a means to get rich or famous in those days. That's not the same Terry Hobbs.