In 2013, Jackson and Damien Echols produced a fourth documentary about the case. 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. (Despite Misskelleys statement, the coroners examination found no injuries on the victims consistent with sexual assault.) It ranges from Mark Byers, the crusading stepfather who became one of the West Memphis Threes biggest allies in the years before his 2020 death, to famed FBI criminal profiler (and Mindhunter inspiration) John E. Douglas. But they were saying that he was about to die.. One of the keys to understanding the West Memphis Three murders is the phenomenon known as the Satanic Panic. They werent telling me I was lying, even if they may have been saying that in their minds. Terry Hobbs's income source is mostly from being a successful Actor. Terry Hobbs Obituary (1957 - 2021) | Caldwell, Idaho - Echovita Local 24 News EXCLUSIVE: Terry Hobbs on his new memoir on the West Memphis 3. The Paradise Lost cameras captured not only the defenses discussions, but the full testimony, in Misskelleys trial, of an expert on coerced confessions. Hobbs, with the help of an author, put all that journaling intoa book about the 1993 murders of his stepson Stevie Branch, and Branchs friends Michael Moore and Chris Byers. What a story it is. They were released after prosecutors agreed to an Alford plea, in which the men maintained their innocence but pleaded guilty. 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. Lying in the open air in near 80-degree temperatures accelerated the decomposition of the bodies. They began attending appeal hearings and visiting Baldwin, Echols, and Misskelley in prison. They formed the organization Proclaim Justice, a nonprofit that reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people. When he was released in 2011, he met John Hardin, who worked with the West Memphis Three support group Arkansas Take Action, and the two bonded over a desire to do for others what had just been done for Baldwin. 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. They were releasedfrom prison in 2011 on whats called an Alford plea, after new forensic evidence was presented as part of the case. At approximately 1:30 p.m., Steve Jones, a juvenile parole officer from Crittenden County, peered over the steep bank of a water-filled ditch in the woods near the Blue Beacon truck wash. Terry Hobbs Obituary 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. On 04/08/2021 Terry Hobbs was filed as a Bankruptcy - Chapter 13 lawsuit. February 27, 2023 (82 years old) View obituary. Jessie took a polygraph. A later confession during the trial phase would prove equally problematic. He retired from the US Air Force, and he was the Deputy Supervisor for Polk County Supervisor of Elections. She said it was one of the highest-rated pieces they had. Paradise Lost is a narration-free documentary filmed with a journalistic remove. In 1994, the FBI said there was scant evidence that violent satanic crimes had ever occurred in America outside of a few isolated incidents, but that was long after TV hosts like Geraldo, Sally Jessy Raphael, and Oprah had spread moral hysteria about musicians weaving supposedly anti-Christian and occult messages into their songs, and long after wrongful convictions were handed down in the infamous McMartin Preschool sexual assault trials. Its first season ostensibly focused on the disappearance of a Georgia beauty queen, but it spent nearly as much time digging through the salacious details of the victims love life and dipping into amateur psychology as it did looking at evidence. The documentarians found me in one of the worst things a person could go through, Baldwin says. 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. October 13, 2018 - Happy 94th Birthday Terry! His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. He was an actor, known for Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988), Fast Food (1989) and In the Heat of the Night (1988). That didn't make sense to me. Show more Show more What's next for West. Berlinger says that after months of filming, the parents of one of the victims raised the issue of payment. Terry Hobbs Obituary (1988 - 2021) - Memphis, TN - Legacy.com 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. 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? At the time of the West Memphis Three trial, Griffis claimed to have given seminars to 38,000 police officers all over the globe. I spoke with one of the jurors, years later after the trials and convictions, and he said he had no doubt that people could throw their lot in with the devil and be commanded to do things that they wouldnt have done otherwisethat they have basically made the deal with the devil, Leveritt says. We were finally winning, he says. Terry Hobbs | 2:21-BK-21177 | Court Records - UniCourt It was a call about Damien Echolshe wasnt dead, but his wife, Lorri Davis, feared he might be soon. Heavy metal music, role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, and horror movies were regarded as gateways to evil. This is a brand new website dedicated to the internationally famous musician, Terry Gibbs. 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. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Branch who was under suspicion but never charged, said he welcomes new DNA testing. Make a life-giving gesture It allowed them to get out of prison after almost 20 years. We didnt see them grow up.. In her recantation, Hutcheson stated that when she asked Echols directly if he had killed "those three kids," he replied, "No. Luminol tests, which reveal the hidden presence of blood, were not performed at the scene until six days later. . West Memphis 3 / Terry Hobbs 2022 Update New Scott 94.5K subscribers Subscribe 241 Share 20K views 8 months ago https://www.crimeonline.com/2022/05/. He could have been me, he told Rolling Stone in 2011. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. 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 first being that boys were killed by someone they knew. And then there was the public pressure: In August 2010, Vedder and Maines headlined yet another benefit concert, this one in Little Rock. In this first confession, Miskelley often agreed to details suggested by the police or attributed to prior statements which he did not make. I didnt want to stop with us being that close. 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. Armchair detectives of today, I think a lot of them dabble in conspiracy theory, Berlinger says. I wouldn't do something like that. 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. Terry Roland Hobbs (1959-2021) - Find a Grave Memorial Its gone from a controversial legal theory to an accepted phenomenon. All of them were convicted after Misskelley confessed to helping Echols and Baldwin with the murders, which he later recanted. $10,000 reward for new information leading to a missing man - WJHG 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. 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. West Memphis is pretty much like a second Salem," Echols stated in the 1996 documentary Paradise Lost: The Murders at Robin Hood Hills. When they searched online, they found little to no information about the case. Not everyone believes that the West Memphis Three are innocent of the killings of Michael Moore, Stevie Branch, and Christopher Byers. 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. Id like to see this put to rest. The final scene Berlinger and Sinofsky filmed may have been the piece that stuck with viewers the most: the image of Baldwin and Echols being led out of the courthouse in handcuffs and bulletproof vests, now property of the state. Terry Hobbs Obituary (1959 - 2021) | Sweetwater, Texas - Echovita And that makes him hopeful that exoneration is on the horizon. Hobbs said, I still believe in my heart that Jessie, Jason, and Damion Echols are responsible for what happened to our children., He added, You look at what happened and then you wonder, what if this did not happen, where would our boys be today? Minutes later, Sgt. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! every single person in my class was either . Since the West Memphis Three were released, no one else has been charged in the murders of Stevie, Christopher and Michael. (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.). 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. (2 weeks at #1, on for 19 weeks!) That the slain boys were each 8 years-old was important because eight was a "witch's number." Iwould journal something and put it in the box, said Hobbs. None of the early interviews with the parents were recorded. I think we were the first internet sleuths, but we were not internet sleuths.. La Verne, California. As the appeals processes stretched across several years and the buzz of the initial film faded, the directors began looking for ways to keep the story alive. Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! Blood and urine samples from both men were collected and sent to the West Memphis Police Department. Terry L. Hobbs, 63, of Caldwell, HOBBS, Terry L., passed on March 7,2021 at the age of 63. - The West Memphis 3: Free (2012) . Female Rappers Who Are Scorpios, Northampton Crematorium Funerals Today, Articles T