terry hobbs 2021 terry hobbs 2021

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. Theyve had several victories, including the case of Daniel Villegas, who was acquitted of capital murder in 2018 after a 25-year legal saga. To bolster their assertions that the killings were related to occult activity despite virtually no evidence prosecutors brought in their own so-called expert on cult murders. 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. That November, he says, HBO agreed to give an honorariumroughly $5,000to the families on both sides. Published: Dec. 21, 2021 at 9:56 PM CST WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. 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. Griffis also found the devil in nearly every number associated with the crime. What has never been definitively answered, however, is who committed the 1993 murders, and The Forgotten West Memphis Three, premiering Saturday, March 28 at 8/7c on Oxygen, reexamines the case and key theories. 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 CNN. 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 2004, Vicki Hutcheson recanted her trial testimony, stating that she had lied on the stand. While thats cooled from the days of concerts in the shadows of the Arkansas Supreme Court building, the documentaries still live on HBO Max, where they pull in new viewers to this day. Wading into the murky water, Allen unknowingly dislodged the pale, grotesquely arched form of Micheal Moore. 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. It was born out of genuine admiration for the fact that these guys took the time out of their lives to dedicate, to go down to Arkansas, to build a website, to really step out of their lives, Berlinger says. Case Number &colon; 2:21-BK-21177. TERRY HOBBS OBITUARY Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. Bakken immediately showed her friends Burk Sauls and Grove Pashley, who were both equally gripped by what they had just watched. (WJHG) By Nikki Sheaks Published: Jul. 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.. 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. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. You still dont really know what happened to these kids. 34465541-95D0-45B0-BEEB-B9E0361A315A Terry Hobbs is absolutely terrible. A month later, authorities arrested Baldwin, Echols, and Misskelleythree teenagers who lived in trailer parks near West Memphis and had previous run-ins with the law, though nothing rising to the level of murder. We were finally winning, he says. Misskelley returned to life in West Memphis. To authorities working in West Memphisa largely Southern Baptist communitysatanic activity seemed to be the most likely cause for the killings, in part because the boys bodies were bound and appeared to have been mutilated. 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. 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. 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. All three had been submerged face down in the mud, stripped naked, and bound with their shoelaces. It's one. The attorneys representing Echols and Baldwin believed that the juries wouldnt accept the prosecutions versions of eventsthat they were too fantastical and tied to second-hand informationand that without conclusive proof, their clients would walk. Hobbs was Branch's stepfather. 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. It wasnt hard for him to imagine his teenage self ending up in Echolss situation. In this first confession, Miskelley often agreed to details suggested by the police or attributed to prior statements which he did not make. Few celebrities at the time did as much as Henry Rollins, however. Terry L. Hobbs, 63, of Caldwell, HOBBS, Terry L., passed on March 7,2021 at the age of 63. WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. That story line would make up the bulk of 2000s Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, a rare sequel for a documentary, especially before the streaming era proved that true crime series like Making a Murderer and The Staircase could maintain audience interest for years. Now, evidence from the case of the West Memphis Three is either missing or destroyed. 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. Classmates at Weaver Elementary School, the three were active in their Cub Scout troop and responsible enough to be trusted to roam their neighborhood without supervision. 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. Last year, I noticed that Terry went missing. 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. . What a story it is. Find the obituary of Terry Hobbs (1957 - 2021) from Caldwell, ID. 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. Hide Self (6 credits) 2012 48 Hours: Hard Evidence (TV Series) Self. Terry Hobbs Memphis 32, 14-Jun, Superior Funeral Home-Hollywood. 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. Since the West Memphis Three were released, no one else has been charged in the murders of Stevie, Christopher and Michael. I kind of enjoy it because now even after I die, people are going to remember me forever. 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. Terry Hobbs Net Worth. 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. The second postulated that they had been slain by one or more strangers. Inevitably, the West Memphis Three case always comes up. 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. . But most notably, his initial timeline of events didnt match what was known about the crimes, and every time he offered a detail that diverged from the accepted chronology, the interrogating officers seemed to steer him back in the direction of the official version. On the surface, 18-year-old Damien Echols, an intelligent, but psychologically troubled teen with interests in Wicca and extreme music, fit the profile. Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelly and Jason Baldwin were originally convicted of the killings and released from prison in 2011 after making a deal with prosecutors. He had been expecting a visitation, but was instead led to the prison chapel office, where inmates were typically brought only if someone close to them had died. The state of Arkansas continues to attempt to prevent this testing from happening. But they werent just voices in the growing choir calling for the West Memphis Threes releasethey were leading the movement. 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. Like everyone else who was familiar with the case, they wanted to know who committed the crimes, but their main goal was advocacy, not using the opportunity to play investigators. TSGT Terry Lee Hobbs, USAF, ret. 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? 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. October 13, 2018 - Happy 94th Birthday Terry! 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. 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. 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. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. Not everyone believes that the West Memphis Three are innocent of the killings of Michael Moore, Stevie Branch, and Christopher Byers. 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 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Except this was 1996, and home internet was still in its infancy. Echols' disdain for authority, penchant for black clothes, and propensity to make shocking statements didn't help his plight. 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. None of the early interviews with the parents were recorded. 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. A native of Winter Haven, born December 21, 1964, Terry has been a lifelong resident of Auburndale. 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. Over the years there has been lots of speculation and finger pointing as to who was responsible. Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie Hobbs .Terry graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. Make a life-giving gesture - The West Memphis 3: Free (2012) . 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. She also stated that beyond the single meeting at her trailer, she had no further contact with Echols. Hes since parlayed the popularity of the show into a booming podcast network and documentary deal with Oxygen. 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. Griffis also knew how to spot a Satanist. (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.) 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. 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 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. Covered in wounds, all three showed signs of having been beaten. Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. He is from USA. 21, 2021 at 1:51 PM PDT CALHOUN COUNTY, Fla.. The next day, their bodies were found in a nearby canal. Terry Hobbs was born in 1958 and grew up in Northern Arkansas. Here's when clocks will 'spring forward' in 2023. Example video title will go here for this video. You need corroborating evidence.. "Everyone has a story and this just happens to be mine," said Hobbs. Jesse was gonna take it anyway. 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. every single person in my class was either . But on that early morning in 1997, Jason Baldwin wasnt concerned with Berlinger and Sinofskys craft, or legal precedent, or crusading celebrities. People in West Memphis are going to tell their kids stories. Paradise Lost is a narration-free documentary filmed with a journalistic remove. Hobbs denied the accusation, saying that his family does have secrets, but none of them have to do with murder. So when I saw this tiny little article in the Times, I wasnt about to free anybody that was guilty. West Memphis is pretty much like a second Salem," Echols stated in the 1996 documentary Paradise Lost: The Murders at Robin Hood Hills. Leave your condolences to the family on this memorial page or send flowers to show you care. Almost 30 years ago, three eight-year-old West Memphis boys were found murdered and three teenagers were charged in the murders. 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. In 2013, Jackson and Damien Echols produced a fourth documentary about the case. I deeply admire that and I thought it was worthy of putting on film.. Echols is correct. And without substantial physical evidence, police zeroed in on a pair of teens they knew well: Echols, a self-professed Wiccan who wore all black and read Stephen King, and his best friend Baldwin, who was considered an outsider because of his love of drawing and bands like Metallica. However, within the first crucial hours after the bodies were discovered, mistakes were made at the crime scene that negatively impacted the investigation. Terry Hobbs passed away in Nampa, Idaho. During the trials of Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols, Griffis drew tenuous links between circumstantial evidence, such as the killings taking place near the date of the pagan festival of Beltane. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Paso Robles, California. Misskelley, who reportedly had an IQ of 72, changed his story several times, and only a small part of his statements was recorded. "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. This is a story of justice delayed and justice denied. 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. More than 2,500 people attended and the story dominated the local press for days. So much progress had been made in the fight for new trials, most notably a November 2010 Arkansas Supreme Court ruling that ordered a hearing on new DNA analysis and other evidence not considered in 1994. A murderer was loose in West Memphis. 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. March 8, 2021, Terry Hobbs passed away on March 8, 2021 in Boise, Idaho. But they were saying that he was about to die.. "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. Among those active in the cause were singer Eddie Vedder of the band Pearl Jam, the country music trio The Dixie Chicks, punk rock icon and poet Henry Rollins, and actor Johnny Depp. In November, Judge David Burnett, who had presided over the trial, was elected to the state senate. Pam Hobbs divorced Terry Hobbs in 2004 and has reversed her position on the West Memphis Three's guilt. Hobbs denied seeing the boys that night and questioned why eyewitness evidence surfaced 16 years later. Everybody Id come in contact with was hostile to the truth, Baldwin says. Initially, Misskelley repeatedly denied having knowledge of the crime, aside from rumors that Damien Echols was involved. Terry Hobbs was born on November 25, 1969 in Columbus, Georgia, USA. Investigators kept minimal notes and omitted pertinent details including criminal records. He says his students seem to have a better grasp on the idea of coerced confessions than any of his peers in 1994. Echols is an author and mystic living New York with his wife, architect Lorri Davis. The third put forth the unusual theory that the killings were committed as a cult ritual. Thursday, August 19th 2021. As rumors of a Satanic sacrifice swept the community, the minds of many in West Memphis were already made up. But I had to. But its closing moments point to how the filmmakers felt: that a horrific tragedy had just been compounded by a monumental miscarriage of justice. Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie Hobbs. 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. One person who has come up in the investigation is Terry Hobbs, although police have never named him a suspect or charged him in connection with the case. Baldwins attorneys even avoided putting him on the witness stand or mounting much of a defense, believing the burden was on the state. Wherever it was screened, Berlinger says, it was followed by intense Q&As from audience members who couldnt believe what theyd just watched. Theres no smoking gun. Stating that she would ask around, Hutcheson agreed to "play detective.". Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! I couldnt not watch it at this point. Baldwin remembers grabbing a Mountain Dew and a burrito and sitting down, still unaware of what he was about to watch. At the suggestion of the police, Hutcheson hid microphones in her home and borrowed occult books from the library to inspire Echols' interest. 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.. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. It was clear that Paradise Lost was resonating. Baldwin remembers the dire circumstances laid out during the call. This is not a smoking-gun-type case.. 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. Even today, years after his name was cleared and authorities ruled Lams death accidental, Morbid still receives threats. They didnt even think he would physically survive through December, Baldwin says. Also, law enforcement chose not to focus on the victims' families as the starting point of the investigation as is the norm. The bodies of Branch, Byers, and Moore were found in a drainage ditch in West Memphis May 6 . As the 20th century turned to the 21st, the movement seemed to be picking up steam. 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. Im seeing the things I experienced, but not through my own point of view. Nobody was saying, This is an outrageous case that needs to be looked into.. Yet, Judge David Burnett accepted Griffis as an expert. Rollins not only gave interviews to keep the effort alive in the press, he organized a string of benefit shows and released an album featuring Iggy Pop and Chuck D, with proceeds going to the defense. 2011 Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (Documentary) Self - Stepfather of Stevie Branch. Hobbs described what it was like the day the three walked free. 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. The second is by looking at it as an act of passion and perseverance. As detailed by The Hollywood Reporter in 2011, Jackson and Walsh helped fund key investigations for the West Memphis Three's defense during the last seven years of their incarceration. They procured the domain WM3.org and made a website, updating it with whatever information they could track down. When the pair got the call from Nevins, they mobilized immediately, landing in Arkansas shortly after the arrests. 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. Events. Who Killed The Forgotten West Memphis Three? And yet Hobbs was not interviewed at all in the months after the crimes. In 1996, a screener for Paradise Lost passed her desk. He was handed the phone. 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. There also were issues with other details he provided, including how the victims were bound and whether the boys were raped. Well theres been a lot of things that happened over the years. Maines won the lawsuit; police have never named Hobbs a suspect or charged him in connection with the killings.). According to Devil's Knot author Mara Leveritt, the investigation of the murders was divided along three lines. During Misskelley's trial, Hutcheson testified that she had attended an "an occult Satanic meeting" she referred to as an "esbat." 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. They were released after prosecutors agreed to an Alford plea, in which the men maintained their innocence but pleaded guilty. All of them were convicted after Misskelley confessed to helping Echols and Baldwin with the murders, which he later recanted. 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. https://t.co/dXOtQkmjee. 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. 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. 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. Local 24 News EXCLUSIVE: Terry Hobbs on his new memoir on the West Memphis 3. 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. (WMC) - Its a case that has captured the nation and certainly the Mid-South. 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.