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. 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. When the pair got the call from Nevins, they mobilized immediately, landing in Arkansas shortly after the arrests. 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. Hide Self (6 credits) 2012 48 Hours: Hard Evidence (TV Series) Self. 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. Hes since parlayed the popularity of the show into a booming podcast network and documentary deal with Oxygen. Luminol tests, which reveal the hidden presence of blood, were not performed at the scene until six days later. Like Misskelley in the first trial, Baldwin received a life sentence. 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. At the request of West Memphis authorities, the two were picked up and questioned by Oceanside police. 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. By getting to the story quickly, the directors were able to document the post-arrest period and two trials that followed in painstaking detail. According to Devil's Knot author Mara Leveritt, the investigation of the murders was divided along three lines. 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. March 8, 2021, Terry Hobbs passed away on March 8, 2021 in Boise, Idaho. The idea of the average citizen becoming embroiled in a criminal investigation isnt far-fetched in 2021, decades removed from the launch of WM3.org. The pair abruptly fled to Oceanside, Calif., four days after the murders. eyewitness evidence surfaced 16 years later. They werent connected in any direct way, Bakken says. And yet Hobbs was not interviewed at all in the months after the crimes. The next to be found was Stevie Branch, quickly followed by Christopher Byers. He began his career in the plumbing business at a very young age, workingfor his . It's affected a lot of lives, but for some reason it keeps being brought up," said Hobbs. They had a daughter together, Amanda Hobbs, who was 4 years old at the time of her brothers death. The districts current prosecuting attorney, Keith Chrestman, did not respond to requests for comment for this article, but his predecessor Scott Ellington, whose office negotiated the deals, told The New York Times in 2011 that while new trials would have likely resulted in acquittals, We dont think that there is anybody else. The Moore family has been outspoken about the end result, vehemently protesting the 2012 Oscar nomination for the third Paradise Lost installment. 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. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers were best friends. "Everyone has a story and this just happens to be mine," said Hobbs. I didnt want to stop with us being that close. Due to marital problems stemming from Stevies death, the couple divorced in 2004, reported CNN. 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. William Holford Griffiths. In August 2011, Jason Baldwin was pulled from his prison cell under confusing circumstances once again. Case Details Parties . Although blood scrapings were taken, the West Memphis police lost the evidence. Under order of the Arkansas Supreme Court, there were to be new evidentiary hearings in the case. February 27, 2023 (82 years old) View obituary. They were found nude and hogtied in a creek in a wooded area in West Memphis. The final scene Berlinger and Sinofsky filmed may have been the piece that stuck with viewers the most: the image of Baldwin and Echols being led out of the courthouse in handcuffs and bulletproof vests, now property of the state. There also were issues with other details he provided, including how the victims were bound and whether the boys were raped. I didn't even comprehend that the situation could get this serious that it can go this far. I never foresaw that they would in turn save us.. " Every crime, no matter what it is, gets blamed on Satanism.". But its closing moments point to how the filmmakers felt: that a horrific tragedy had just been compounded by a monumental miscarriage of justice. One of the prosecution's key pieces of evidence linking Jason Baldwin to the crime a survival knife with a serrated edge recovered from a lake behind his home has also come under scrutiny. Today, Berlinger calls Revelations the weakest of the three films in the trilogyadvocacy in search of a story as opposed to the in-the-moment, on-the-ground approach of the first Paradise Lost and the in-depth exploration of new evidence in 2011s Purgatory. The case status is Pending - Other Pending. Bray asked her if she knew about rumored cult activity in the community. It's one. Hobbs says his book is 25 years in the making, adding it is called Boxful of Nightmares for a reason. 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. every single person in my class was either . Mara Leveritt, a journalist who followed the case throughout the 1990s and wrote the 2002 book Devils Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three, calls the strain of Christianity that runs through the region very literal and says that even her children faced harassment as teenagers for playing Dungeons & Dragons and listening to Ozzy Osbourne. 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. By 2005, Rollins himself had raised $100,000 for the cause. 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. 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. Explore. The state of Arkansas continues to attempt to prevent this testing from happening. 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. Local 24 News EXCLUSIVE: Terry Hobbs on his new memoir on the West Memphis 3. (Despite Misskelleys statement, the coroners examination found no injuries on the victims consistent with sexual assault.) Mike Allen arrived on the scene. Terry Hobbs Memphis 32, 14-Jun, Superior Funeral Home-Hollywood. More than 2,500 people attended and the story dominated the local press for days. Terry Hobbs was born in 1958 and grew up in Northern Arkansas. We are sad to announce that on September 11, 2021 we had to say goodbye to Terry Hobbs of Sweetwater, Texas. They formed the organization Proclaim Justice, a nonprofit that reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people. People in West Memphis are going to tell their kids stories. "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. When it didnt, the praise heaped on Paradise Lost felt hollow. Misskelley returned to life in West Memphis. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. It has happened to a lot of people that just dont have the spotlight of a documentary, he says. However, in 2010, a series of rapidly unfolding developments turned the tide for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley. 25, 2021. 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. The evolution of how the teens were perceivedon behalf of both the filmmakers and even part of the defense teamis captured on camera early as Stidham and his colleagues began to consider whether Misskelleys confession had been coerced. 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. Echols is correct. Beyond the black-and-white print of the newspaper, there was a movement brewing. Terry. When the case was given the option for DNA evidence, everyone but Terry Hobbs said yes. Over the years there has been lots of speculation and finger pointing as to who was responsible. The Latest CD: 92 YEARS YOUNG: JAMMIN' AT THE GIBBS HOUSE. 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. Hobbs has never wavered in his conviction that justice was served the first time around. However, within the first crucial hours after the bodies were discovered, mistakes were made at the crime scene that negatively impacted the investigation. One of the keys to understanding the West Memphis Three murders is the phenomenon known as the Satanic Panic. https://t.co/dXOtQkmjee. 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. He died on April 4, 2019 in Panama City Beach, Florida, USA. The three teens were arrested after Misskelley said they committed the crime after 12 hours of interrogation. Thursday, August 19th 2021. All three had been submerged face down in the mud, stripped naked, and bound with their shoelaces. Little kids will be looking under their bed 'Damien might be under there! Who Killed The Forgotten West Memphis Three? 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. He says his students seem to have a better grasp on the idea of coerced confessions than any of his peers in 1994. With the area secured, Detective Bryn Ridge volunteered to search the ditch. The second is by looking at it as an act of passion and perseverance. This is not a smoking-gun-type case.. 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. At the time of the West Memphis Three trial, Griffis claimed to have given seminars to 38,000 police officers all over the globe. Misskelley told Hutcheson that he really didn't know much about Echols other than that he was "a weird person." Auburndale, FL - TSGT Terry Lee Hobbs, USAF, ret. Also, law enforcement chose not to focus on the victims' families as the starting point of the investigation as is the norm. Here were these guysat best they were neutral. Dec 13th, 2021. . And that makes him hopeful that exoneration is on the horizon. No knives and not weapons were used," says Jo Lynn McCaughey. 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. To learn more, watch The Forgotten West Memphis Three on Saturday, March 28 and Sunday, March 29at 8/7c on Oxygen. Terry Hobbs says he is a church member, a father, and working man and in no way a killer. Baldwin is the co-founder of the legal advocacy organization Proclaim Justice. WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. 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. By the time she got done watching it, her life was forever changed. 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. (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.). 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. 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. Robin Lynn Jones. In the years since the trial, John Mark Byers, adoptive father of Christopher Byers, and Pamela Hobbs, mother of Stevie Branch, became vocal supporters of the West Memphis Three. Terry Hobbs is the one suspected of murder and the wounds that were inflicted on my nephew were where turtles bit his face. 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. October 13, 2018 - Happy 94th Birthday Terry! As rumors of a Satanic sacrifice swept the community, the minds of many in West Memphis were already made up. Its first season ostensibly focused on the disappearance of a Georgia beauty queen, but it spent nearly as much time digging through the salacious details of the victims love life and dipping into amateur psychology as it did looking at evidence. But for every Your Own Backyard or Ill Be Gone in the Dark that has applied journalistic rigor to their research in the past two decades, theres an Up and Vanished, which has been at the center of ethical debates since the podcast debuted in 2016. The IMDb credits page for the first Paradise Lost is modest, but impressive. Damion Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley were convicted of murdering the children in 1994. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. For Rollins, it was a moral imperative: Id find myself up at 3:30 a.m. thinking about Damien. 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. Debates still occur regularly onlinethe West Memphis Three subreddit is fairly active for one on a 28-year-old caseand podcasts have looked at the crime from all angles. '", In 1999, a more mature Echols explained the comment. They even hired experts to examine the case, including a forensic criminal profiler who discovered what appeared to be bite marks on one of the victims that didnt match any of the convicted. 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. Terry Wayne Hobbs was born on May 21st, 1958. Griffis also found the devil in nearly every number associated with the crime. Investigators kept minimal notes and omitted pertinent details including criminal records. A murderer was loose in West Memphis. Baldwin remembers the dire circumstances laid out during the call. The first being that boys were killed by someone they knew. Unfortunately, for three teen outsiders, the West Memphis Police Department chose to focus on the cult angle to the detriment of their efforts to investigate the other two, more likely scenarios. Self. 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. You still dont really know what happened to these kids. Terry Hobbs, one of the men named in the documents. 1.0. . of Auburndale, FL passed away Monday, August 16, 2021. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Funeral Home Services for Terry are being provi. 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. In West Memphis, Hobbs worked as an ice cream delivery man and Hicks worked at a restaurant. Now a judgewho coincidentally works part time in the courtroom where Misskelley was convictedStidham spends time speaking to law students about the judicial system. During Misskelley's trial, Hutcheson testified that she had attended an "an occult Satanic meeting" she referred to as an "esbat." The story felt personal for all of them, but especially Sauls: He had grown up in Florida and Georgia as an outcast obsessed with art and reading some of the same books Damien Echols had. October 14, 2017: #26 on the JazzWeek chart! November 03, 2021 November 4, 2021 . Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as: names, dates, place of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships. 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. Terry Hobbs is absolutely terrible. Share Memories & Support the Family. Timeline Of The West Memphis Three Victims, Motivations For Investigating The West Memphis Case. He was an actor, known for Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988), Fast Food (1989) and In the Heat of the Night (1988). Further down, it includes names such as Rick Dior, a sound mixer who worked on Apollo 13 and Dirty Dancing, and Bob Richman, a three-time Emmy-nominated cinematographer whose rsum also includes renowned docs like An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for Superman. Their bikes were found by a pipe nearby. On Aug. 11, 2011, the West Memphis Three entered the courtroom for the final time. 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. of Auburndale, FL passed away Monday, August 16, 2021. Its like ripping a Band-Aid off a wound. Hobbs described what it was like the day the three walked free. But inside, he was just another prisonerBaldwin didnt know who he could trust. (Police questioned Byers several times during the investigation, but never considered him a suspect.) I wouldn't do something like that. I think I introduced my dad to it because that was not his normal genre., Three Metallica songsOrion, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), and Call of Ktuluwould play throughout the documentary. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. This is the true story of the West Memphis Three murders. And the seemingly endless stream of threats against them and the frequent clashes with Mark Byers did nothing to dissuade them. 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. And then there was the public pressure: In August 2010, Vedder and Maines headlined yet another benefit concert, this one in Little Rock. None of the three believed that, but Echolss healthand the possibility that even if he survived, he would still be on death row should the fight for retrials failmade it an imperative. 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. Some believe the West Memphis Three are guilty to this day, and others, including some victims family members, point to their innocence and maintain the real perpetrator is still at large. June 29 Terry Hobbs, 34, 1718 Spyglass Lane, Mishawaka, booked on a warrant from Elkhart County. 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. The Alford plea is a seldom-invoked and somewhat confusing legal maneuver, but the basics are fairly straightforward. Among them was a disoriented, muddy, and bleeding African-American man who stumbled into a West Memphis Bojangles restaurant men's room less than a mile from the crime scene. (WJHG) By Nikki Sheaks Published: Jul. TSGT Terry Lee Hobbs, USAF, ret. Mojo had a different idea of what might get the man he affectionately called J.B. out of prison. 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 WATN in June 2019. They were releasedfrom prison in 2011 on whats called an Alford plea, after new forensic evidence was presented as part of the case. Their main worry was Damien, who was staring down the threat of lethal injection should the appeals fail. Id like to see this put to rest. Searching obituaries is a great place to start your family tree research. Hobbs was Branch's stepfather. Echols, who prosecutors argued was the ringleader, was sentenced to death. 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. 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. La Mirada, California. Even without a smoking gun, the circumstantial evidence was enough for a conviction in a place like Crittenden County, Arkansas. Feigning a romantic interest in Echols, she asked Misskelley to arrange a meeting. A graveside service will be conducted on Wednesday, March 17 at Cloverdale Memorial Park beginning at 11am. Jessie took a polygraph. 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. There are no events scheduled. He graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. Although the bodies were discovered at 1:30 p.m., investigators didn't call the coroner until 3:58 p.m. By the time the coroner arrived, fly larvae were already present in the nostrils and eyes of the victims. 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. Berlinger and Sinofsky began to take notice. Terry Roland Hobbs September 11, 1959 ~ September 11, 2021 (age 62) Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. 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. A native of Winter Haven, born December 21, 1964, Terry has been a lifelong resident of Auburndale. Bakken and Sauls say they tried to avoid offering theories about the case publicly, opting instead to try to work through official channels. 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. Inevitably, the West Memphis Three case always comes up. 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. the only grade you receive is from quizzes, exams, and the final. I had a big box. 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. 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.

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