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. In this first confession, Miskelley often agreed to details suggested by the police or attributed to prior statements which he did not make. The next day, their bodies were found in a nearby canal. 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. 34465541-95D0-45B0-BEEB-B9E0361A315A All three had been submerged face down in the mud, stripped naked, and bound with their shoelaces. of Auburndale, FL passed away Monday, August 16, 2021. But I had to. 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. November 03, 2021 November 4, 2021 . 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. It was a call about Damien Echolshe wasnt dead, but his wife, Lorri Davis, feared he might be soon. (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.) Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! And that makes him hopeful that exoneration is on the horizon. She says she is too because they believe they are hearing different stories. 2012 West of Memphis (Documentary) Self - Steven Branch's Stepfather. New access to evidence thought destroyed in 1993 'West Memphis - KAIT There have also been several high-profile incidents of laypeople reinvestigating decades-old cold cases in more rigorous, journalistic ways and helping bring them to a resolution. Its no surprise the juries found the prosecutions narrative compelling, Leveritt says: For them, the image of killer satanists headbanging to Metallica was more than plausible. On the evening of May 5, 1993, three 8-year-old boys disappeared from the streets of West Memphis, Ark. 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 third put forth the unusual theory that the killings were committed as a cult ritual. Misskelley and Echols were 36; Baldwin was 34. 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. Terry Gibbs We are sad to announce that on September 11, 2021 we had to say goodbye to Terry Hobbs of Sweetwater, Texas. (2 weeks at #1, on for 19 weeks!) 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. Years of solitary confinement and the abuse he said he suffered at the hands of prison guards had taken its toll. But on that early morning in 1997, Jason Baldwin wasnt concerned with Berlinger and Sinofskys craft, or legal precedent, or crusading celebrities. It's affected a lot of lives, but for some reason it keeps being brought up," said Hobbs. 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. 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. February 27, 2023 (82 years old) View obituary. Who Is Terry Hobbs, Stepfather Of West Memphis Three Victim? | True Quickly, however, he realized Berlinger and Sinofsky were taking a different approach. The community's worst fears were confirmed. In the joint trial of Baldwin and Echols, which took place separately from Misskelleys, Berlinger and Sinofsky filmed the surreal moments that juries were actually present for: a rundown of the books Echols checked out of the library, a parade of band T-shirts worn by the pair, a copy of a Blue Oyster Cult record found in Damiens girlfriends house that became evidence because of the word cult and song titles like Dont Fear the Reaper. What the cameras couldnt capture, however, was the introduction of physical evidencethe prosecution didnt offer much of that aside from a knife that was never directly linked to the crimes and fabric threads deemed microscopically similar to items found in Baldwins and Echolss homes, an assertion that has been questioned in the years since the trials. Terry Hobbs Breaks His Silence | WREG.com 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. New access to evidence thought destroyed in 1993 'West Memphis Three case 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. 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. Terry Hobbs was born in 1958 and grew up in Northern Arkansas. Paso Robles, California. 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. Auburndale, FL - TSGT Terry Lee Hobbs, USAF, ret. Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie. Beyond the black-and-white print of the newspaper, there was a movement brewing. All of those factors combined to create a tipping point, says Leveritt. March 8, 2021, Terry Hobbs passed away on March 8, 2021 in Boise, Idaho. Reaching its apex in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Satanic Panic was a wave of paranoia rooted in the belief that Satanic cults intent on corrupting the souls of the young had infiltrated American society. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! In August 2011, Jason Baldwin was pulled from his prison cell under confusing circumstances once again. 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. 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. 21, 2021 at 1:51 PM PDT CALHOUN COUNTY, Fla.. 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. 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 first and likely simplest gauge is continued interest in the case. 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. 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. In November, Judge David Burnett, who had presided over the trial, was elected to the state senate. This is not a smoking-gun-type case.. 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. Echols is correct. 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. Thursday, August 19th 2021. 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. Its evidence that Damien Echols attorneys wanted to do new DNA testing on. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. Main Page; Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. They didnt even think he would physically survive through December, Baldwin says. It allowed them to get out of prison after almost 20 years. 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. Terry Hobbs Obituary (1959 - 2021) | Sweetwater, Texas - Echovita Robin Lynn Jones. The killings came at the peak of the so-called Satanic Panic, a time of heightened worries about ritualistic abuse. This family in-fighting led to him shooting his brother-in-law. California exodus continues as population drops by 500,000 - Los The state of Arkansas continues to attempt to prevent this testing from happening. The case status is Pending - Other Pending. Terry Hobbs (1969 - 2019) Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers (Nightmare Vacation II) (1988) [Rob Darrinco]: Stabbed and hanged (after gaging), off-screen by Pamela Springsteen in Walter Gotell's office; his body is shown afterwards when Carol Martin Vines discovers him. The Legacy of 'Paradise Lost' & the West Memphis Three - The Ringer Case Details Parties . They formed the organization Proclaim Justice, a nonprofit that reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people. 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. WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. Terry Hobbs Obituary (1988 - 2021) - Memphis, TN - Legacy.com 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. 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. 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. (Despite Misskelleys statement, the coroners examination found no injuries on the victims consistent with sexual assault.) 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. Berlinger also concedes Revelations had some ethical problems, chiefly because it raised the possibility that Mark Byers committed the killings. 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. . As the 20th century turned to the 21st, the movement seemed to be picking up steam. Terry Hobbs - Biography - IMDb Terry Hobbs, one of the men named in the documents. Misskelley returned to life in West Memphis. With their 2007 request for a new trial rejected, time was running out for the West Memphis Three. Hobbs described what it was like the day the three walked free. In 1996, HBO released the documentary film Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. Family and friends can send flowers and/or light a candle as a loving gesture for their loved one. (Maines briefly became a part of the story when Terry Hobbs, stepfather of another . 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. He said, J.B., youre going home, man, youre going home.. Almost 30 years ago, three eight-year-old West Memphis boys were found murdered and three teenagers were charged in the murders. there are no assignments to cushion your grade, so either pass or fail. It was clear that Paradise Lost was resonating.