People have come out of the woodwork and said this and this and people have done things and a lot of them are wrong, said Hobbs. 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. Everybody Id come in contact with was hostile to the truth, Baldwin says. 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. Even though they said they didnt murder the three boys, they are technically convicted killers. Baldwin remembers grabbing a Mountain Dew and a burrito and sitting down, still unaware of what he was about to watch. Self. After hours of questioning, a frustrated Morgan blurted out that he had been hospitalized for drug and alcohol abuse and might have committed the murders. Case Number &colon; 2:21-BK-21177. Their bikes were found by a pipe nearby. La Mirada, California. The state of Arkansas continues to attempt to prevent this testing from happening. The next day, their bodies were found in a nearby canal. Branded the West Memphis Three, the mens case was featured in multiple documentaries, earning them support from an array of high-profile musicians, celebrities and activists. Yes, the West Memphis Three are out of prison, but as long as they are considered guilty in the eyes of the state, the case is closed, meaning no further investigation can occur. They began attending appeal hearings and visiting Baldwin, Echols, and Misskelley in prison. The arrest, trial, and conviction of the three young men known as the West Memphis Three came under national scrutiny as details of the case became public. Hobbs says his book is 25 years in the making, adding it is called Boxful of Nightmares for a reason. 2011 Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (Documentary) Self - Stepfather of Stevie Branch. 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. Quickly, however, he realized Berlinger and Sinofsky were taking a different approach. 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. 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. 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 sneaker ligatures in which Terry Hobbs' DNA was found in," Soury said . All of them were convicted after Misskelley confessed to helping Echols and Baldwin with the murders, which he later recanted. He retired from the US Air Force, and he was the Deputy Supervisor for Polk County Supervisor of Elections. 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. When they searched online, they found little to no information about the case. That there were three victims was a link to the biblical number of the beast. the only grade you receive is from quizzes, exams, and the final. 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. 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. This is a brand new website dedicated to the internationally famous musician, Terry Gibbs. Terry Hobbs, Actor: Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers. So the minute youre done, you just want to know more. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. The case status is Pending - Other Pending. 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. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. This article was updated after publication to add more context about the honorariums paid to the families of the victims and the West Memphis Three and also to correct the time frame in which Berlinger and Sinofsky informed HBO about the changing scope of the documentary. 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. But it wasnt in the ways its directors had hoped. Not everyone believes that the West Memphis Three are innocent of the killings of Michael Moore, Stevie Branch, and Christopher Byers. . Echols' disdain for authority, penchant for black clothes, and propensity to make shocking statements didn't help his plight. 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. 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. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Terry Hobbs to show support. 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. 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. By 2005, Rollins himself had raised $100,000 for the cause. Terry Hobbs says he is a church member, a father, and working man and in no way a killer. 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. The IMDb credits page for the first Paradise Lost is modest, but impressive. 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. They werent connected in any direct way, Bakken says. Nevertheless, Echols made no incriminating statements. Then youd try to find it, and it didnt exist, because when we went out to discussion groups, no one knew about the case yet., After learning that the teens were still in prison, Bakken, Sauls, and Pashley decided to make full use of the budding technological revolution. This is not a smoking-gun-type case.. 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. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! One of the keys to understanding the West Memphis Three murders is the phenomenon known as the Satanic Panic. Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers were best friends. The pair abruptly fled to Oceanside, Calif., four days after the murders. The reason for the credit gets less curious when hes asked about it: He was a huge Metallica fan. 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. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of West Memphis Three murder victim Stevie Branch, has denied any involvement in slayings of Branch and his two friends. 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.. He was an actor, known for Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988), Fast Food (1989) and In the Heat of the Night (1988). Its my perspective of what happened in 1993, 26 years ago in West Memphis, Arkansas, said Hobbs. 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. Case Details Parties . In fact, for the better part of 1993, it was nearly impossible to find anyone who believed they were innocent. More than 2,500 people attended and the story dominated the local press for days. There are no events scheduled. 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. They formed the organization Proclaim Justice, a nonprofit that reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people. We are sad to announce that on September 11, 2021 we had to say goodbye to Terry Hobbs of Sweetwater, Texas. Spotting a small, black tennis shoe in the water, Jones radioed for help. 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. Bakken and Sauls say they tried to avoid offering theories about the case publicly, opting instead to try to work through official channels. None of the initial trio behind WM3.orgnor their friend Lisa Fancher, who later became a key part of the efforthad ever considered themselves an activist to that point. Boxful of Nightmares is the personal memoirs of Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of one of the children murdered. With the area secured, Detective Bryn Ridge volunteered to search the ditch. 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. They were releasedfrom prison in 2011 on whats called an Alford plea, after new forensic evidence was presented as part of the case. That type of support made observers question the verdicts perhaps more so than any rock star who shouted Echolss name into a mic because of an HBO documentary. 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. Timeline Of The West Memphis Three Victims, Motivations For Investigating The West Memphis Case. No charges have been brought against Jacoby, and he has never been named a suspect by the West Memphis Police Department. It had been a long fight to clear their names, and the odds seemed better than ever. 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. When we were driving in the car a lot, wed play a lot of the Metallica album Master of Puppets, says Alex Sinofsky, who became a doctor instead of getting behind the camera himself. All of those factors combined to create a tipping point, says Leveritt. And then there was the public pressure: In August 2010, Vedder and Maines headlined yet another benefit concert, this one in Little Rock. The news was devastating beyond just word of his friends suffering. Filing Date &colon; 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. The knife was thrown into the lake by Baldwin's mother a year before the murders. Over the years there has been lots of speculation and finger pointing as to who was responsible. It was clear that Paradise Lost was resonating. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Branch who was under suspicion but never charged, said he welcomes new DNA testing. 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. According to Griffis, black hair, black T-shirts, and black jeans were signs that a kid was in league with the devil. Luminol tests, which reveal the hidden presence of blood, were not performed at the scene until six days later. Other possible suspects includedBrian Holland and Chris Morgan, two young men from Memphis, Tenn., with a history of drug offenses. Under order of the Arkansas Supreme Court, there were to be new evidentiary hearings in the case. Im not the jury. So when I saw this tiny little article in the Times, I wasnt about to free anybody that was guilty. 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/. By getting to the story quickly, the directors were able to document the post-arrest period and two trials that followed in painstaking detail. (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.). He began his career in the. In West Memphis, Hobbs worked as an ice cream delivery man and Hicks worked at a restaurant. Share Memories & Support the Family. 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. 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. All three had been submerged face down in the mud, stripped naked, and bound with their shoelaces. Local 24 News EXCLUSIVE: Terry Hobbs on his new memoir on the West Memphis 3. 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. October 13, 2018 - Happy 94th Birthday Terry! I wouldn't do something like that. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. Make a life-giving gesture Terry Castleman is a data . 2 The following day revealed the unthinkable, when the bloodied and bruised bodies of the three boys were found submerged in a muddy creek in a wooded area called Robin Hood Hills. A native of Winter Haven, born December 21, 1964, Terry . ", According to Devil's Knot, a week after the discovery of the bodies, Detective Don Bray interviewed Vicki Hutcheson, a truckstop employee. Heavy metal music, role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, and horror movies were regarded as gateways to evil. He graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. Jesse was gonna take it anyway. 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. 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. Rather, they were fighting for something they believed in. Hold for Elkhart County. 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. We were mainly in it for the aesthetics of filmmaking, but the last scene of Paradise Lost, when Damien is chained up and sent away to death row, that was just heartbreaking and devastating for us, Berlinger says. "They said close to the crime scene because at one time I did walk near where they had found the kids with Terry Hobbs But I didn't wear hats back then, my hair could have blown around anywhere, Jacoby told Memphis NBC affiliate WMC-TV in 2013. In 2013, Jackson and Damien Echols produced a fourth documentary about the case. Over the years there has been lots of speculation and finger pointing as to who was responsible. "People probably think I'm in Satanism because what they don't understand they try to destroy or ridicule. So, how much is Terry Hobbs worth at the age of 50 years old? Case Details. 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. Inevitably, the West Memphis Three case always comes up. 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. At the request of West Memphis authorities, the two were picked up and questioned by Oceanside police. Feigning a romantic interest in Echols, she asked Misskelley to arrange a meeting. Terry Hobbs is the one suspected of murder and the wounds that were inflicted on my nephew were where turtles bit his face. 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. This case was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, Tennessee Western Bankruptcy. This is the true story of the West Memphis Three murders. 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. Mojo was right. They werent telling me I was lying, even if they may have been saying that in their minds. Its affected a lot of lives, but for some reason it keeps being brought up, said Hobbs. Terry Wayne Hobbs was born on May 21st, 1958. Since the West Memphis Three were released, no one else has been charged in the murders of Stevie, Christopher and Michael. February 27, 2023 (76 years old) View obituary. When the pair got the call from Nevins, they mobilized immediately, landing in Arkansas shortly after the arrests. Like Misskelley in the first trial, Baldwin received a life sentence. 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. 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. 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. I didnt want to stop with us being that close. The sheer mountain moving amount of money it cost to prove the obvious innocence of Jessie, Jason, and Damien still staggers me. Here were these guysat best they were neutral. Terry Hobbs Memphis 32, 14-Jun, Superior Funeral Home-Hollywood. He says his students seem to have a better grasp on the idea of coerced confessions than any of his peers in 1994. 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. They were released after prosecutors agreed to an Alford plea, in which the men maintained their innocence but pleaded guilty. To this day, it is still unclear who is responsible for the killings. 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. Although Damein Echols had a teenager's typical disdain for authority, he nevertheless trusted that the system would work in his favor. 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. Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. When the case was given the option for DNA evidence, everyone but Terry Hobbs said yes. " Every crime, no matter what it is, gets blamed on Satanism.". Mike Allen arrived on the scene. It wasnt hard for him to imagine his teenage self ending up in Echolss situation. Berlinger contrasts this with the approach taken by Bakken, Sauls, and Co., who considered the truth sacrosanct and avoided rumor and innuendo in part because similar speculation helped convict the West Memphis Three. 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. Now a judgewho coincidentally works part time in the courtroom where Misskelley was convictedStidham spends time speaking to law students about the judicial system. 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? 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. In West Memphis, Hobbs worked as an ice cream delivery man and Hicks worked at a restaurant. eyewitness evidence surfaced 16 years later. They saw this movie and they felt like, I have to do something.. He died on April 4, 2019 in Panama City Beach, Florida, USA. A source said the evidence was transferred to shipping containers where there was a fire, and some of the evidence was destroyed. We were finally winning, he says. 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. A theory held is that Terry Hobbs was the one who actually killed the three boys and had pinned it on the Memphis 3 boys. In this first confession, Miskelley often agreed to details suggested by the police or attributed to prior statements which he did not make. Leave your condolences to the family on this memorial page or send flowers to show you care.