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Iwould journal something and put it in the box, said Hobbs. On the evening of May 5, 1993, three 8-year-old boys disappeared from the streets of West Memphis, Ark. Local 24 News EXCLUSIVE: Terry Hobbs on his new memoir on the West Memphis 3. On the surface, 18-year-old Damien Echols, an intelligent, but psychologically troubled teen with interests in Wicca and extreme music, fit the profile. 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. But the lawyer quickly noticed inconsistencies in Misskelleys purported confession. "I knew from when I was real small that people were going to know who I was," Echols said in 1994. He says his students seem to have a better grasp on the idea of coerced confessions than any of his peers in 1994. This is a brand new website dedicated to the internationally famous musician, Terry Gibbs. 1.0. . 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. 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. Hobbs denied seeing the boys that night and questioned why eyewitness evidence surfaced 16 years later. At the request of West Memphis authorities, the two were picked up and questioned by Oceanside police. A spiritual successor to Errol Morriss The Thin Blue Line, and a forerunner of more recent documentaries like Making a Murderer, the film stands today as the most affecting examination of one of the most studied legal cases in U.S. historyone that put heavy metal lyrics and black T-shirts on trial and helped lay the groundwork for the current thinking around false confessions. The next to be found was Stevie Branch, quickly followed by Christopher Byers. But I had to. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. I don't entirely think Hobbs did it, but I . 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. 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. 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. 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. The whole point of the web sleuths presented in the Cecil Hotel is that you cannot assume something is truthful just because circumstantially it seems interesting. (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.). That November, he says, HBO agreed to give an honorariumroughly $5,000to the families on both sides. And then there was the public pressure: In August 2010, Vedder and Maines headlined yet another benefit concert, this one in Little Rock. Maines won the lawsuit; police have never named Hobbs a suspect or charged him in connection with the killings.). Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie. In fact, for the better part of 1993, it was nearly impossible to find anyone who believed they were innocent. Dan Stidham, the original attorney for Misskelley, who would also work on Baldwins and Echols appeals, says he has the answer. 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. I'm not stupid." 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. 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. Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie Hobbs. 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. 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. I don't know if the other 2 did, but even if they did polygraphs aren't admissible in court. They asked to see a cut, and they immediately said, Not only are we going to let you use all that music, but were not going to charge you anything for it., Metallica would be the first celebrities to throw their support behind the West Memphis Three, but they were far from the last. 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. 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. On 04/08/2021 Terry Hobbs was filed as a Bankruptcy - Chapter 13 lawsuit. 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. The three have always maintained their innocence. 25, 2021. 2011 Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (Documentary) Self - Stepfather of Stevie Branch. After 18 years in prison, the West Memphis Three were finally free, but not exonerated. 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. 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. The IMDb credits page for the first Paradise Lost is modest, but impressive. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. View Source Suggest Edits Memorial Photos Flowers Created by: Legend Added: 11 Aug 2021 Find a Grave Memorial ID: 230642037 I didnt want to stop with us being that close. This is a story of justice delayed and justice denied. Polygraph tests revealed deception in the answers of both men in regard to the crimes. 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. I think we were the first internet sleuths, but we were not internet sleuths.. 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. 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. They formed the organization Proclaim Justice, a nonprofit that reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people. He says his dad and Berlinger werent seeking notorietydocumentaries certainly werent a means to get rich or famous in those days. Terry Hobbs says he is a church member, a father, and working man and in no way a killer. Funeral Home Services for Terry are being provi. March 8, 2021, Terry Hobbs passed away on March 8, 2021 in Boise, Idaho. You still dont really know what happened to these kids. That the slain boys were each 8 years-old was important because eight was a "witch's number." Terry Hobbs stated both family and co-workers believed he was guilty from day one and continued to believe him guilty after the trial and convictions of the West Memphis Three. Unaware of what was to come, Allen explained that he just wanted to ask him some questions. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of West Memphis Three murder victim Stevie Branch, has denied any involvement in slayings of Branch and his two friends. Its affected a lot of lives, but for some reason it keeps being brought up, said Hobbs. Its gone from a controversial legal theory to an accepted phenomenon. 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. TERRY HOBBS OBITUARY Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. doesn't know how to teach the material and you will end up teaching yourself everything. To learn more, watch The Forgotten West Memphis Three on Saturday, March 28 and Sunday, March 29at 8/7c on Oxygen. Damion Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley were convicted of murdering the children in 1994. Echols said in 2012, he will never give up his mission to exonerate himself. He graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. 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. "People probably think I'm in Satanism because what they don't understand they try to destroy or ridicule. 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. Not everyone believes that the West Memphis Three are innocent of the killings of Michael Moore, Stevie Branch, and Christopher Byers. The Alford plea is a seldom-invoked and somewhat confusing legal maneuver, but the basics are fairly straightforward. I just checked again and HE IS STILL MISSING. Example video title will go here for this video. Id like to see this put to rest. The idea of the average citizen becoming embroiled in a criminal investigation isn't far-fetched in 2021, . 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. June 29 Terry Hobbs, 34, 1718 Spyglass Lane, Mishawaka, booked on a warrant from Elkhart County. Echols is correct. Once there got to be this global pressure, and there was a big concert here with really big-name musicians within a mile of our Supreme Court building, things started suddenly to change, she says. 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. They were released after prosecutors agreed to an Alford plea, in which the men maintained their innocence but pleaded guilty. Mojo was right. Searching obituaries is a great place to start your family tree research. No explanation has yet been given as to why such a seemingly important lead was dropped. They saw the same thing you did. He was handed the phone. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. 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. 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. 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. Case Number : 2:21-BK-21177. But its closing moments point to how the filmmakers felt: that a horrific tragedy had just been compounded by a monumental miscarriage of justice. 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. Terry Hobbs, one of the men named in the documents. Blood and urine samples from both men were collected and sent to the West Memphis Police Department. The second is by looking at it as an act of passion and perseverance. Inevitably, the West Memphis Three case always comes up. 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. " Every crime, no matter what it is, gets blamed on Satanism.". He is from USA. 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. She says she is too because they believe they are hearing different stories. 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. We were finally winning, he says. But they never had any physical evidence that connected us to this crime, Echols said in 2012. 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. Now a judgewho coincidentally works part time in the courtroom where Misskelley was convictedStidham spends time speaking to law students about the judicial system. Im not the judge. This is before considering the 2013 dramatized movie based on the events (and Leveritts book), Stidhams plans to release the book Harvest of Innocence, and how elements of the case made their way into True Detectives third season. . So the minute youre done, you just want to know more. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. But none of that support has been able to fully exonerate the trio, something theyre still fighting for. February 27, 2023 (76 years old) View obituary. (WMC) - Its a case that has captured the nation and certainly the Mid-South. Echols' disdain for authority, penchant for black clothes, and propensity to make shocking statements didn't help his plight.