One of the keys to understanding the West Memphis Three murders is the phenomenon known as the Satanic Panic. 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. Luminol tests, which reveal the hidden presence of blood, were not performed at the scene until six days later. Paradise Lost also led to a famous citizen-activist campaign championing the release of the three teens that caught on at the dawn of the Internet Age and would eventually pull in Eddie Vedder, Henry Rollins, and a whos who of the rich and famous. 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. Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie. Except this was 1996, and home internet was still in its infancy. In 1996, HBO released the documentary film Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) - 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 . 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. 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. 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. In West Memphis, Hobbs worked as an ice cream delivery man and Hicks worked at a restaurant. '", In 1999, a more mature Echols explained the comment. 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. We made a promise early on that we would never pretend to be law enforcement or detectives, Sauls says. He was 56. During Misskelley's trial, Hutcheson testified that she had attended an "an occult Satanic meeting" she referred to as an "esbat." As reported by the Arkansas Times, examination of the shoe laces used to bind Michael Moore contained hair "not inconsistent" with that of Stevie Branch's stepfather, Terry Hobbs. Timeline Of The West Memphis Three Victims, Motivations For Investigating The West Memphis Case. They had a daughter together, Amanda Hobbs, who was 4 years old at the time of her brothers death. 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. Terry Hobbs was born on November 25, 1969 in Columbus, Georgia, USA. 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. My first thought is, I hope this dude isnt trying to pull me into some type of escape, Baldwin says nearly a quarter-century later. Dec 13th, 2021. 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. Heavy metal music, role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, and horror movies were regarded as gateways to evil. Terry Hobbs Memphis 32, 14-Jun, Superior Funeral Home-Hollywood. Paso Robles, California. 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. No explanation has yet been given as to why such a seemingly important lead was dropped. Example video title will go here for this video. . Leave your condolences to the family on this memorial page or send flowers to show you care. We have estimated Terry Hobbs's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets. Hes since parlayed the popularity of the show into a booming podcast network and documentary deal with Oxygen. Share Memories & Support the Family. The next day, their bodies were found in a nearby canal. Now a judgewho coincidentally works part time in the courtroom where Misskelley was convictedStidham spends time speaking to law students about the judicial system. 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. The state of Arkansas continues to attempt to prevent this testing from happening., New technology and advances in science would now allow us to test DNA in amounts so small that it would have been previously impossible. However, in 2010, a series of rapidly unfolding developments turned the tide for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley. 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. So, how much is Terry Hobbs worth at the age of 50 years old? every single person in my class was either . The boys were so mutilated, investigators thought the murders were part of some kind of Satanic ritual. Berlinger and Sinofsky began to take notice. Blood and urine samples from both men were collected and sent to the West Memphis Police Department. 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. On the evening of May 5, 1993, 8-year-olds Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore went missing in West Memphis, Arkansas. Terry Hobbs says he is a church member, a father, and working man and in no way a killer. Despite the best efforts of the police, dozens of volunteers, a search-and-rescue team, and a helicopter dispatched from nearby Memphis, Tenn., searchers came up empty handed. He was 56. 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. On the surface, 18-year-old Damien Echols, an intelligent, but psychologically troubled teen with interests in Wicca and extreme music, fit the profile. 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. They couldnt have been cooler, recalls Berlinger, who would go on to direct the 2004 documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster alongside Bruce Sinofsky. But the list of people who have looked at the facts of the case and come away believing Baldwin, Echols, and Misskelley are innocent is long. 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. More than 2,500 people attended and the story dominated the local press for days. 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. WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. La Mirada, California. I never foresaw that they would in turn save us.. 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. Terry Wayne Hobbs was born on May 21st, 1958. And the seemingly endless stream of threats against them and the frequent clashes with Mark Byers did nothing to dissuade them. 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. Terry. 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. 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. 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. 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. Theres no smoking gun. "I'd like to see this put to rest. Robin Lynn Jones. Terry Hobbs, Todd Moore, and Dana Moore still maintain that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley murdered their sons. Hobbs was Branch's stepfather. 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. Armchair detectives of today, I think a lot of them dabble in conspiracy theory, Berlinger says. After roughly 18 months of editing, Paradise Lost debuted at Sundance in January 1996 before heading out to other festivals. Echols is correct. The next to be found was Stevie Branch, quickly followed by Christopher Byers. The case status is Pending - Other Pending. Baldwin remembers grabbing a Mountain Dew and a burrito and sitting down, still unaware of what he was about to watch. But its closing moments point to how the filmmakers felt: that a horrific tragedy had just been compounded by a monumental miscarriage of 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.. With a large population of fundamentalist Christians, the American South was particularly subject to occult paranoia. Although blood scrapings were taken, the West Memphis police lost the evidence. All of those factors combined to create a tipping point, says Leveritt. Make a life-giving gesture Terry Hobbs's income source is mostly from being a successful Actor. (At one point, Sauls says, it landed on Yahoos list of the top 100 websites.) La Verne, California. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Branch who was under suspicion but never charged, said he welcomes new DNA testing. They procured the domain WM3.org and made a website, updating it with whatever information they could track down. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Well, perhaps not nobody. 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. And then there was the public pressure: In August 2010, Vedder and Maines headlined yet another benefit concert, this one in Little Rock. I don't know if the other 2 did, but even if they did polygraphs aren't admissible in court. What a story it is. After ending his first marriage, he wed Pamela Hicks Branch in 1986, when her son Stevie was almost 2 years old. It hurt all over again, he said. It has happened to a lot of people that just dont have the spotlight of a documentary, he says. Published by The Commercial Appeal from Jun. The Latest CD: 92 YEARS YOUNG: JAMMIN' AT THE GIBBS HOUSE. https://t.co/dXOtQkmjee. 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. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. The obituary was featured in Idaho Press Tribune on March 13, 2021. 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. Because I was thinking, if you haven't done anything, then they can't prove you did something you haven't actually done. There also were issues with other details he provided, including how the victims were bound and whether the boys were raped. But Echolss situation changed Baldwins thinking. Berlinger and Sinofsky expected a similar result to come quickly in the West Memphis Three case. It was a call about Damien Echolshe wasnt dead, but his wife, Lorri Davis, feared he might be soon. the only grade you receive is from quizzes, exams, and the final. 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. 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. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of West Memphis Three murder victim Stevie Branch, has denied any involvement in slayings of Branch and his two friends. His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. 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. In 2007, new DNA and physical evidence arose that seemed to further distance the West Memphis Three from the murders. Also, law enforcement chose not to focus on the victims' families as the starting point of the investigation as is the norm. Im not the judge. Stating that she would ask around, Hutcheson agreed to "play detective.". 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. 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. Its evidence that Damien Echols attorneys wanted to do new DNA testing on. Quickly, however, he realized Berlinger and Sinofsky were taking a different approach. Rather, they were fighting for something they believed in. We are sad to announce that on September 11, 2021 we had to say goodbye to Terry Hobbs of Sweetwater, Texas. 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. Case Number : 2:21-BK-21177. Also part of the plea was the provision that the three could not sue the state. Since the West Memphis Three were released, no one else has been charged in the murders of Stevie, Christopher and Michael. To date, no DNA evidence from the crime scene can be linked to Damien Echols, Baldwin, or Jessie Misskelley. Thursday, August 19th 2021. We were finally winning, he says. (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.). Case Details. The footage included raw jailhouse interviews with the defendants, strategy sessions held by legal teams on both sides, and extended monologues from Mark Byers, the tall, goateed stepfather of one of the victims, who spoke as though he were reciting the Book of Revelation and who, at one point in Paradise Lost, fired a handgun at a pumpkin while reciting the names of the accused. 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. Spotting a small, black tennis shoe in the water, Jones radioed for help. 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 WMC-TV. March 8, 2021, Terry Hobbs passed away on March 8, 2021 in Boise, Idaho. Case Details Parties . 21, 2021 at 1:51 PM PDT CALHOUN COUNTY, Fla.. The governor of the state of Arkansas who will one day pardon the West Memphis Three is probably in junior high right now, he says. Im seeing the things I experienced, but not through my own point of view. doesn't know how to teach the material and you will end up teaching yourself everything. Last year, I noticed that Terry went missing.

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