The killings came at the peak of the so-called Satanic Panic, a time of heightened worries about ritualistic abuse. (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. 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. 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. Timeline Of The West Memphis Three Victims, Motivations For Investigating The West Memphis Case. The cult part of the Commercial Appeals headline signaled how the case would be defined by both the media and prosecutors. In May of that year, police discovered the bodies of Michael Moore, Stevie Branch, and Christopher Byers in the Robin Hood Hills, a small wooded area near the I-40/I-55 exchange. The Paradise Lost cameras captured not only the defenses discussions, but the full testimony, in Misskelleys trial, of an expert on coerced confessions. 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. Im not the jury. 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. is terry hobbs still missing 2021 - laspalmasbr.com WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. During Misskelley's trial, Hutcheson testified that she had attended an "an occult Satanic meeting" she referred to as an "esbat." No charges have been brought against Jacoby, and he has never been named a suspect by the West Memphis Police Department. That's not the same Terry Hobbs. Few celebrities at the time did as much as Henry Rollins, however. His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. October 14, 2017: #26 on the JazzWeek chart! Damien Echols (@damienechols) July 7, 2021 Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Branch who was under suspicion but never charged, said he welcomes new DNA testing. So the minute youre done, you just want to know more. They werent connected in any direct way, Bakken says. 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. 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. Berlinger and Sinofsky expected a similar result to come quickly in the West Memphis Three case. 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. Beyond the black-and-white print of the newspaper, there was a movement brewing. The Latest CD: 92 YEARS YOUNG: JAMMIN' AT THE GIBBS HOUSE. On August 19, 2011, all three accepted the deal and were immediately released from prison. But they were saying that he was about to die.. I said, Im going to send some kids down there., Those kids turned out to be Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, the young documentarians who had recently completed the acclaimed Brothers Keeper, a film chronicling a death and the resulting trial in a small upstate New York village. Two of the West Memphis Three's most ardent supporters were director Peter Jackson, best known for The Lord of the Rings films, and his partner Fran Walsh. But none of that support has been able to fully exonerate the trio, something theyre still fighting for. Terry Hobbs | Cinemorgue Wiki | Fandom To this day, it is still unclear who is responsible for the killings. The Messed Up Truth About The West Memphis Three Murders - Grunge.com And then there was the public pressure: In August 2010, Vedder and Maines headlined yet another benefit concert, this one in Little Rock. We made a promise early on that we would never pretend to be law enforcement or detectives, Sauls says. 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. 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. 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. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. 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 says his dad and Berlinger werent seeking notorietydocumentaries certainly werent a means to get rich or famous in those days. However, within the first crucial hours after the bodies were discovered, mistakes were made at the crime scene that negatively impacted the investigation. 2012 West of Memphis (Documentary) Self - Steven Branch's Stepfather. Rather, they were fighting for something they believed in. West Memphis 3 / Terry Hobbs 2022 Update - YouTube After new DNA evidence was discovered, the West Memphis Three were released from prison in August 2011 by agreeing to an Alford plea, which allowed him to proclaim their innocence while admitting the prosecution had enough evidence to convict him. The case status is Pending - Other Pending. A graveside service will be conducted on Wednesday, March 17 at Cloverdale Memorial Park beginning at 11am. Their bikes were found by a pipe nearby. 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. "I knew from when I was real small that people were going to know who I was," Echols said in 1994. That there were three victims was a link to the biblical number of the beast. 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. New access to evidence thought destroyed in 1993 'West Memphis Three case 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. I deeply admire that and I thought it was worthy of putting on film.. We didnt see them grow up.. She also stated that beyond the single meeting at her trailer, she had no further contact with Echols. The next day, their bodies were found in a nearby canal. Self. They formed the organization Proclaim Justice, a nonprofit that reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people. Hide Self (6 credits) 2012 48 Hours: Hard Evidence (TV Series) Self. "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. Baldwin remembers the dire circumstances laid out during the call. Explore. of Auburndale, FL passed away Monday, August 16, 2021. (WMC) - Its a case that has captured the nation and certainly the Mid-South. I think we were the first internet sleuths, but we were not internet sleuths.. 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. Over the years there has been lots of speculation and finger pointing as to who was responsible. Its my perspective of what happened in 1993, 26 years ago in West Memphis, Arkansas, said Hobbs. I wouldn't do something like that. Initially, Misskelley repeatedly denied having knowledge of the crime, aside from rumors that Damien Echols was involved. She says she is too because they believe they are hearing different stories. As the 20th century turned to the 21st, the movement seemed to be picking up steam. The level of corruption in the American justice system is glaring and sickening.. A hair found on one of the ligatures to bind the boys, however, was found to be consistent with the DNA of Hobbs, according to court documents obtained by Oxygen.com. Also part of the plea was the provision that the three could not sue the state. By going into the courtroom and sticking with the case for its entire duration, Berlinger and Sinofsky were able to capture what may have otherwise been lost to time or left out of transcripts. In 2007, new DNA and physical evidence arose that seemed to further distance the West Memphis Three from the murders. 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. Terry Hobbs Obituary (1988 - 2021) - Memphis, TN - Legacy.com But Berlinger also believes that the sequel is important for documenting the power of citizen activism. 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. 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. Terry Hobbs was born on November 25, 1969 in Columbus, Georgia, USA. " (Detective Allen) told me if I knew anything, that there was a $35,000 reward, and if I could help them out, we'd get the money," said Misskelley, as quoted by Mara Leveritt in Devil's Knot. That the slain boys were each 8 years-old was important because eight was a "witch's number." Even today, years after his name was cleared and authorities ruled Lams death accidental, Morbid still receives threats. 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. Except this was 1996, and home internet was still in its infancy. But they werent just voices in the growing choir calling for the West Memphis Threes releasethey were leading the movement. (Shortly after Villegass acquittal, Baldwin had something of a full-circle moment with his client: He took him to a Metallica show in El Paso, Texas, where they hung out backstage on the invitation of Lars Ulrich.). Misskelley's coerced confession, as contradictory as it seemed to the evidence, was consistent in implicating Echols and Jason Baldwin. 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 clear that Paradise Lost was resonating. In fact, for the better part of 1993, it was nearly impossible to find anyone who believed they were innocent. Years of solitary confinement and the abuse he said he suffered at the hands of prison guards had taken its toll. But the lawyer quickly noticed inconsistencies in Misskelleys purported confession. He knew that if he ever got out, hed want to do that in a more organized way. The judge ruled that Hobbs could not establish actual malice, and ordered Hobbs to pay Maines legal fees amounting to more than $17,000, according to the Associated Press. Its something that Baldwin couldnt envision when he first agreed to let the documentarians interview him in jail in exchange for an honorarium, or even when Mojo played that VHS tape for him in 1997. He also lost the defamation case because of his violent past. He was an actor, known for Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988), Fast Food (1989) and In the Heat of the Night (1988). Case Details Parties . 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. . On the evening of May 5, 1993, 8-year-olds Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore went missing in West Memphis, Arkansas. 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 was 56. The second is by looking at it as an act of passion and perseverance. In 2004, Vicki Hutcheson recanted her trial testimony, stating that she had lied on the stand. He could have been me, he told Rolling Stone in 2011. Baldwin remembers grabbing a Mountain Dew and a burrito and sitting down, still unaware of what he was about to watch. Blood and urine samples from both men were collected and sent to the West Memphis Police Department. It has happened to a lot of people that just dont have the spotlight of a documentary, he says. Luminol tests, which reveal the hidden presence of blood, were not performed at the scene until six days later. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Show more Show more What's next for West. Terry Lee Hobbs (1964-2021) - Find a Grave Memorial He began his career in the. Dan Stidham, the original attorney for Misskelley, who would also work on Baldwins and Echols appeals, says he has the answer. In her recantation, Hutcheson stated that when she asked Echols directly if he had killed "those three kids," he replied, "No. there are no assignments to cushion your grade, so either pass or fail. Even without a smoking gun, the circumstantial evidence was enough for a conviction in a place like Crittenden County, Arkansas. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. Terry Hobbs didn't kill those boys : r/WestMemphisThree I had a big box. (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.) They had a daughter together, Amanda Hobbs, who was 4 years old at the time of her brothers death. But inside, he was just another prisonerBaldwin didnt know who he could trust. In June 1996, Paradise Lost debuted on HBO, bringing the story of the West Memphis Three to TV sets and showing the power of the camera in the courtroom. "People probably think I'm in Satanism because what they don't understand they try to destroy or ridicule. 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 sneaker ligatures in which Terry Hobbs' DNA was found in," Soury said . 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. The knife was thrown into the lake by Baldwin's mother a year before the murders. 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. the only grade you receive is from quizzes, exams, and the final. The community's worst fears were confirmed. 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.. 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. They began attending appeal hearings and visiting Baldwin, Echols, and Misskelley in prison. " Every crime, no matter what it is, gets blamed on Satanism.". Websleuths, an online forum for discussions about unsolved homicides and missing-person cases, has more than 100,000 members, and internet vigilantes have used social media and other online breadcrumbs to help track down actual criminals, such as the Canadian murderer and subject of the documentary Dont F*ck With Cats, Luka Magnotta. In this first confession, Miskelley often agreed to details suggested by the police or attributed to prior statements which he did not make. 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. By staying on this subject for the next couple of decades, they gave these men a chance and really decades of freedom afterward. . 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. That included Mojo, who came calling around 2 a.m. that day trying to coax him out of his cell. In 2013, Jackson and Damien Echols produced a fourth documentary about the case. (Its worth noting that despite the issues raised by Lindseys work, the first season of Up and Vanished renewed interest in the case, which ultimately led to arrests, albeit of people that Lindsey hadnt previously covered on the podcast.). He began his career in the plumbing business at a very young age, workingfor his . 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. Although blood scrapings were taken, the West Memphis police lost the evidence. 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. Published by The Commercial Appeal from Jun. No knives and not weapons were used," says Jo Lynn McCaughey. The reason for the credit gets less curious when hes asked about it: He was a huge Metallica fan. Terry Hobbs Breaks His Silence | WREG.com The nonprofits work hasnt always been easyfundraising is hard, and because hes a convicted felon, hes unable to visit clients in prison or discuss pleasbut its been essential for him as he strives to live the words by 14th-century Persian poet Hafez that he keeps as an email signature: The small man builds cages for everyone he knows / While the sage, who has to duck his head when the moon is low / Keeps dropping keys all night long for the beautiful rowdy prisoners. Baldwin says hes learned that justice isnt a computer programthat you can input all the evidence and testimony and still get the wrong results. 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. 2011 Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (Documentary) Self - Stepfather of Stevie Branch. (Despite Misskelleys statement, the coroners examination found no injuries on the victims consistent with sexual assault.) Best selling books such as Lawrence Pazder's Michelle Remembers and disgraced evangelical comedian Mike Warnke's The Satan Seller fueled the madness with tales of ritual abuse and human sacrifice. 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. We have estimated Terry Hobbs's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets. To date, no DNA evidence from the crime scene can be linked to Damien Echols, Baldwin, or Jessie Misskelley. (Police questioned Byers several times during the investigation, but never considered him a suspect.) Echols said in 2012, he will never give up his mission to exonerate himself. So, how much is Terry Hobbs worth at the age of 50 years old? Terry Hobbs Memphis 32, 14-Jun, Superior Funeral Home-Hollywood. To send flowers or plant a tree in memory of Terry Hobbs, visit the Tribute Store. Terry Hobbs, Todd Moore, and Dana Moore still maintain that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley murdered their sons. Im not the judge. Minutes later, Sgt. But we stuck with it, and every so often something would happen, and little by little, people would come around., They spread word about the website through online discussion groups and by hanging flyers in the art houses that screened Paradise Lost, and by 2000, WM3.org was getting 4,000 to 8,000 hits a day. Terry Hobbs - IMDb When it didnt, the praise heaped on Paradise Lost felt hollow. 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. Its affected a lot of lives, but for some reason it keeps being brought up, said Hobbs. He said, J.B., youre going home, man, youre going home.. This case was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, Tennessee Western Bankruptcy. 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. New access to evidence thought destroyed in 1993 'West Memphis - KAIT Although Damein Echols had a teenager's typical disdain for authority, he nevertheless trusted that the system would work in his favor. 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. Terry Hobbs Obituary (1959 - 2021) - Sweetwater, TX - Sweetwater Reporter Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! Mojo had a different idea of what might get the man he affectionately called J.B. out of prison.