I kind of enjoy it because now even after I die, people are going to remember me forever. Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers were best friends. It had been a long fight to clear their names, and the odds seemed better than ever. Like Misskelley in the first trial, Baldwin received a life sentence. Berlinger and Sinofsky expected a similar result to come quickly in the West Memphis Three case. In fact, for the better part of 1993, it was nearly impossible to find anyone who believed they were innocent. On the evening of May 5, 1993, 8-year-olds Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore went missing in West Memphis, Arkansas. Unaware of what was to come, Allen explained that he just wanted to ask him some questions. Their bikes were found by a pipe nearby. 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. 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. But none of that support has been able to fully exonerate the trio, something theyre still fighting for. I never foresaw that they would in turn save us.. 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.. Pam Hobbs divorced Terry Hobbs in 2004 and has reversed her position on the West Memphis Three's guilt. Even today, years after his name was cleared and authorities ruled Lams death accidental, Morbid still receives threats. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Baldwin remembers grabbing a Mountain Dew and a burrito and sitting down, still unaware of what he was about to watch. McCaughey says her sister is very upset. All three had been submerged face down in the mud, stripped naked, and bound with their shoelaces. Main Page; Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. 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. 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. Mojo had a different idea of what might get the man he affectionately called J.B. out of prison. Echols tweeted, New technology and evidence in science would now allow us to test DNA in amounts so small that it would have been previously impossible. The great irony of the 18-year quest to free the West Memphis Three is that it didnt begin as a crusade. Heavy metal music, role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, and horror movies were regarded as gateways to evil. Nobody was saying, This is an outrageous case that needs to be looked into.. Although Damein Echols had a teenager's typical disdain for authority, he nevertheless trusted that the system would work in his favor. Terry Hobbs, Todd Moore, and Dana Moore still maintain that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley murdered their sons. A later confession during the trial phase would prove equally problematic. 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. Sheila Nevins, the HBO exec who pushed for Berlinger and Sinofsky to make that initial trip to Arkansas, is most proud of the companys willingness to let her finance three documentaries over 18 years without knowing where they would go. 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. The test results showed that no genetic material on the crime scene evidence was a match to Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley, reported the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. With their 2007 request for a new trial rejected, time was running out for the West Memphis Three. 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. Jesse was gonna take it anyway. A graveside service will be conducted on Wednesday, March 17 at Cloverdale Memorial Park beginning at 11am. of Auburndale, FL passed away Monday, August 16, 2021. I just checked again and HE IS STILL MISSING. I had a big box. Terry Castleman is a data . The boys were so mutilated, investigators thought the murders were part of some kind of Satanic ritual. Wading into the murky water, Allen unknowingly dislodged the pale, grotesquely arched form of Micheal Moore. I didnt want to stop with us being that close. By 2005, Rollins himself had raised $100,000 for the cause. With the guards blessings, Mojo led Baldwin to Varners visitation room, where everything had been put away aside from two chairs set up in front of a cart holding a small TV and a VCR. Case Number : 2:21-BK-21177. At the time of the West Memphis Three trial, Griffis claimed to have given seminars to 38,000 police officers all over the globe. 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. At the suggestion of the police, Hutcheson hid microphones in her home and borrowed occult books from the library to inspire Echols' interest. Echols is an author and mystic living New York with his wife, architect Lorri Davis. And they used that visibility to help raise funds for the defense. They formed the organization Proclaim Justice, a nonprofit that reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people. Echols' disdain for authority, penchant for black clothes, and propensity to make shocking statements didn't help his plight. Under order of the Arkansas Supreme Court, there were to be new evidentiary hearings in the case. On August 19, 2011, all three accepted the deal and were immediately released from prison. And that is why Echols has attorneys who want to use a new DNA test called M-Vac, a wet vacuum system that can find more DNA than older tests. She said it was one of the highest-rated pieces they had. The sheer mountain moving amount of money it cost to prove the obvious innocence of Jessie, Jason, and Damien still staggers me. Essentially, it allows the accused to assert their innocence while pleading guilty, conceding that the prosecution has an overwhelming amount of evidence to procure a conviction. Terry Hobbs was born in 1958 and grew up in Northern Arkansas. . 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. Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life without parole while Echols received the death penalty. 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. Terry. The reason for the credit gets less curious when hes asked about it: He was a huge Metallica fan. Almost 30 years ago, three eight-year-old West Memphis boys were found murdered and three teenagers were charged in the murders. 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. Case Details. February 27, 2023 (76 years old) View obituary. 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. Much of Cecil Hotel focuses on the amateur investigators who turned coincidences into conspiracy theories, ultimately accusing an innocent person of her death. Maines won the lawsuit; police have never named Hobbs a suspect or charged him in connection with the killings.). 21, 2021 at 1:51 PM PDT CALHOUN COUNTY, Fla.. ", According to Devil's Knot, a week after the discovery of the bodies, Detective Don Bray interviewed Vicki Hutcheson, a truckstop employee. 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. Terry Hobbs is absolutely terrible. 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. The community's worst fears were confirmed. Over two decades after the murders, what really happened to Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore on the evening of May 5, 1993, remains a mystery. Covered in wounds, all three showed signs of having been beaten. The third put forth the unusual theory that the killings were committed as a cult ritual. I don't entirely think Hobbs did it, but I . Initially, Misskelley repeatedly denied having knowledge of the crime, aside from rumors that Damien Echols was involved. The news was devastating beyond just word of his friends suffering. Hobbs denied the accusation, saying that his family does have secrets, but none of them have to do with murder. So, how much is Terry Hobbs worth at the age of 50 years old? On Aug. 11, 2011, the West Memphis Three entered the courtroom for the final time. 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. That included Mojo, who came calling around 2 a.m. that day trying to coax him out of his cell. 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. The causes most high-profile moment came in 2000, when Trey Parker said the slogan at the MTV Movie Awards while collecting an award for Best Musical Sequence. Leave your condolences to the family on this memorial page or send flowers to show you care. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. In 2007, new DNA and physical evidence arose that seemed to further distance the West Memphis Three from the murders. Baldwin, the youngest member of the trio that had come to be known as the West Memphis Three, was serving a life sentence after being convicted on charges connected to the 1993 killings of three 8-year-old boys. In August 2011, Jason Baldwin was pulled from his prison cell under confusing circumstances once again. Update: I was totally wrong. (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.) I deeply admire that and I thought it was worthy of putting on film.. But they werent just voices in the growing choir calling for the West Memphis Threes releasethey were leading the movement. Three teenage boys were arrested for the crimes Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. and prosecutors argued they killed the boys as part of a Satanic ritual. He knew that if he ever got out, hed want to do that in a more organized way. Baldwin is the co-founder of the legal advocacy organization Proclaim Justice. 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.. The state of Arkansas continues to attempt to prevent this testing from happening. 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. 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. 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. A murderer was loose in West Memphis. After ending his first marriage, he wed Pamela Hicks Branch in 1986, when her son Stevie was almost 2 years old. Terry Wayne Hobbs was born on May 21st, 1958. They werent connected in any direct way, Bakken says. He said Boxful of Nightmares is his memoirs unedited. Hobbs says his book is 25 years in the making, adding it is called Boxful of Nightmares for a reason. Example video title will go here for this video. 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. This case was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, Tennessee Western Bankruptcy. Timeline Of The West Memphis Three Victims, Motivations For Investigating The West Memphis Case. There are no events scheduled. The Latest CD: 92 YEARS YOUNG: JAMMIN' AT THE GIBBS HOUSE. 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. there are no assignments to cushion your grade, so either pass or fail. 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. 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. All of those factors combined to create a tipping point, says Leveritt. Getting that kind of creative validation was exciting, but we were also extremely frustrated that it didnt move from the entertainment page of the newspaper to the editorial page, Berlinger says. By the end of Paradise Lost, you cant believe they were found guilty, Bakken says. 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. However, within the first crucial hours after the bodies were discovered, mistakes were made at the crime scene that negatively impacted the investigation. The bodies of Branch, Byers, and Moore were found in a drainage ditch in West Memphis May 6 . The cult part of the Commercial Appeals headline signaled how the case would be defined by both the media and prosecutors. 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. 34465541-95D0-45B0-BEEB-B9E0361A315A The knife was thrown into the lake by Baldwin's mother a year before the murders. On the evening of May 5, 1993, three 8-year-old boys disappeared from the streets of West Memphis, Ark. 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. Terry Hobbs Net Worth. " (Detective Allen) told me if I knew anything, that there was a $35,000 reward, and if I could help them out, we'd get the money," said Misskelley, as quoted by Mara Leveritt in Devil's Knot. 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. - The West Memphis 3: Free (2012) . 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. That the slain boys were each 8 years-old was important because eight was a "witch's number." Little kids will be looking under their bed 'Damien might be under there! But it wasnt in the ways its directors had hoped. 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. Explore. Hobbs has never wavered in his conviction that justice was served the first time around. According to Dan Stidham, the attorney for Misskelley, that money became essential for the cash-strapped defense teams, who needed to pay for expert witnesses and other expenses. 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. Updated: 9:42 AM CDT June 11, 2019. (WMC) - Not a single piece of evidence ever connected the West Memphis Three, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, to the 1993 murders of Steve Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore. Griffis also found the devil in nearly every number associated with the crime. By staying on this subject for the next couple of decades, they gave these men a chance and really decades of freedom afterward. 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. The consequences of that online campaign were ruinous: The person they targeted, a Mexican metal musician who worked under the name Morbid, was harassed into hiding. Attorneys for Echols have submitted a formal request to inspect the records that are available, involving cataloguing of the evidence as well as information on the loss of the evidence. Branded the, What has never been definitively answered, however, is who committed the 1993 murders, and , Due to marital problems stemming from Stevies death, the couple divorced in 2004, reported, The test results showed that no genetic material on the crime scene evidence was a match to Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley, reported the, The West Memphis Police Department interviewed Hobbs, who was dismissive of the findings, claiming the hair could have been picked up during a visit to his home since the victim "played with our little boy regularly," according to the, "They said close to the crime scene because at one time I did walk near where they had found the kids with Terry Hobbs But I didn't wear hats back then, my hair could have blown around anywhere, Jacoby told Memphis NBC affiliate, A year after the DNA results were released, Hobbs sued Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines for defamation, claiming she implied he was a murderer on the bands website and at a 2007 rally, according to, In 2009, three witnesses filed affidavits claiming they saw Hobbs with the murdered boys the night they disappeared, contradicting Hobbs previous statements to police, according to. Other possible suspects includedBrian Holland and Chris Morgan, two young men from Memphis, Tenn., with a history of drug offenses. But Berlinger also believes that the sequel is important for documenting the power of citizen activism. He retired from the US Air Force, and he was the Deputy Supervisor for Polk County Supervisor of Elections. People in West Memphis are going to tell their kids stories. According to Griffis, black hair, black T-shirts, and black jeans were signs that a kid was in league with the devil. 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. Paso Robles, California. She also stated that beyond the single meeting at her trailer, she had no further contact with Echols. 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. No knives and not weapons were used," says Jo Lynn McCaughey. Mike Allen arrived on the scene. 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. You still dont really know what happened to these kids. I wouldn't do something like that. 25, 2021. This is the true story of the West Memphis Three murders. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Branch who was under suspicion but never charged, said he welcomes new DNA testing. 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. He began his career in the. The sneaker ligatures in which Terry Hobbs' DNA was found in," Soury said . 2012 West of Memphis (Documentary) Self - Steven Branch's Stepfather. 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. Bakken immediately showed her friends Burk Sauls and Grove Pashley, who were both equally gripped by what they had just watched. 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. 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. He also lost the defamation case because of his violent past. In 1996, a screener for Paradise Lost passed her desk. In West Memphis, Hobbs worked as an ice cream delivery man and Hicks worked at a restaurant. 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. But then the verdicts arrived: Both Baldwin and Echols were found guilty on all counts, just like Misskelley had been six weeks before them. Knowing that the police were already focusing on Damien Echols, Hutcheson asked her neighbor, Jessie Misskelley Jr., about the brooding teen and his occult connection. "I'd like to see this put to rest. 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. In 2004, Vicki Hutcheson recanted her trial testimony, stating that she had lied on the stand. He is from USA. 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. Terry Hobbs USAF Ret.

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