He responded proudly, 11.. Now a judgewho coincidentally works part time in the courtroom where Misskelley was convictedStidham spends time speaking to law students about the judicial system. Baldwin remembers the dire circumstances laid out during the call. They were naked and hog-tied with their own shoelaces, and showed signs of blunt force trauma and mutilation, the latter of which may have been the work of wild animals, reported the, Three teenage boys were arrested for the crimes , Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life without parole while Echols received the death penalty. 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. The first and likely simplest gauge is continued interest in the case. 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. Self. 34465541-95D0-45B0-BEEB-B9E0361A315A Because I was thinking, if you haven't done anything, then they can't prove you did something you haven't actually done. 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. La Verne, California. Terry Hobbs, Actor: Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers. Its my perspective of what happened in 1993, 26 years ago in West Memphis, Arkansas, said Hobbs. "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. Its gone from a controversial legal theory to an accepted phenomenon. 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 what was happening behind the scenes. But I had to. 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. 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. Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life without parole while Echols received the death penalty. 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. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. In 1996, HBO released the documentary film Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. Well, perhaps not nobody. While Berlinger says that the work of people like Bakken and Sauls was more impressive than that of any celebrity, its undeniable that the famous and influential brought a megaphone and funding mechanism to this case that most never get. 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. Case Details. The case status is Pending - Other Pending. But on the subject of Paradise Lost, he speaks emphatically: He understands how important the movies were in helping him, Echols, and Misskelley walk free 10 years ago this August. Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers were best friends. There also were issues with other details he provided, including how the victims were bound and whether the boys were raped. Produced and directed by filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, the film and its two sequels, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations and Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, gave audiences a unique and detailed look into the case, the accused, and the families of victims. Misskelley told Hutcheson that he really didn't know much about Echols other than that he was "a weird person." Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. 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. The killings came at the peak of the so-called Satanic Panic, a time of heightened worries about ritualistic abuse. At the time of the West Memphis Three trial, Griffis claimed to have given seminars to 38,000 police officers all over the globe. Cinemorgue Wiki. Echols' disdain for authority, penchant for black clothes, and propensity to make shocking statements didn't help his plight. That November, he says, HBO agreed to give an honorariumroughly $5,000to the families on both sides. I'm not stupid." Terry Hobbs was born on November 25, 1969 in Columbus, Georgia, USA. 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. A hair found on one of the ligatures to bind the boys, however, was found to be consistent with the DNA of Hobbs, according to court documents obtained by Oxygen.com. 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. After ending his first marriage, he wed Pamela Hicks Branch in 1986, when her son Stevie was almost 2 years old. But then the verdicts arrived: Both Baldwin and Echols were found guilty on all counts, just like Misskelley had been six weeks before them. 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. WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. The concept of citizen investigations intrigues Berlinger just as much as it did in the 1990s, though today hes often more concerned with the moral implications. Blood and urine samples from both men were collected and sent to the West Memphis Police Department. 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. Another hair found near the crime scene on a tree stump was found to be consistent with the DNA of Hobbs friend, David Jacoby, according to court documents obtained by Oxygen.com. In August 2011, Jason Baldwin was pulled from his prison cell under confusing circumstances once again. 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. Although Damein Echols had a teenager's typical disdain for authority, he nevertheless trusted that the system would work in his favor. With their 2007 request for a new trial rejected, time was running out for the West Memphis Three. 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. 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. On 04/08/2021 Terry Hobbs was filed as a Bankruptcy - Chapter 13 lawsuit. It's one. Baldwin is the co-founder of the legal advocacy organization Proclaim Justice. Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! 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 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. To learn more, watch The Forgotten West Memphis Three on Saturday, March 28 and Sunday, March 29at 8/7c on Oxygen. West Memphis is pretty much like a second Salem," Echols stated in the 1996 documentary Paradise Lost: The Murders at Robin Hood Hills. As the movement to free the West Memphis Three gained traction, a number of celebrities joined the cause, bringing the case under more scrutiny. I didn't even comprehend that the situation could get this serious that it can go this far. . Terry. Investigators kept minimal notes and omitted pertinent details including criminal records. Griffis also found the devil in nearly every number associated with the crime. 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. 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. 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. Hobbs has never wavered in his conviction that justice was served the first time around. Beyond the black-and-white print of the newspaper, there was a movement brewing. Nobody was saying, This is an outrageous case that needs to be looked into.. 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. But they never had any physical evidence that connected us to this crime, Echols said in 2012. 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. Robin Lynn Jones. I never foresaw that they would in turn save us.. every single person in my class was either . In the years since the trial, John Mark Byers, adoptive father of Christopher Byers, and Pamela Hobbs, mother of Stevie Branch, became vocal supporters of the West Memphis Three. 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. For the next two hours and 29 minutes, the two inmates sat in near silence watching Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, the landmark documentary released on HBO 25 years ago this week that captured the trials of Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley Jr., and Damien Echols, the three teenagers convicted in 1994 of the crimes that ripped through the small, working-class community of West Memphis, Arkansas. 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. They werent telling me I was lying, even if they may have been saying that in their minds. October 13, 2018 - Happy 94th Birthday Terry! It's affected a lot of lives, but for some reason it keeps being brought up," said Hobbs. Here's when clocks will 'spring forward' in 2023. Wherever it was screened, Berlinger says, it was followed by intense Q&As from audience members who couldnt believe what theyd just watched. Boxful of Nightmares is the personal memoirs of Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of one of the children murdered. 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.. 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. Bray asked her if she knew about rumored cult activity in the community. 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. Mike Allen arrived on the scene. Mojo jumped up, Baldwin recalls. 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. 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. William Holford Griffiths. By the time she got done watching it, her life was forever changed. According to Devil's Knot author Mara Leveritt, the investigation of the murders was divided along three lines. Over the years there has been lots of speculation and finger pointing as to who was responsible. 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. Except this was 1996, and home internet was still in its infancy. Terry Hobbs Memphis 32, 14-Jun, Superior Funeral Home-Hollywood. In 2007, new DNA and physical evidence arose that seemed to further distance the West Memphis Three from the murders. But its closing moments point to how the filmmakers felt: that a horrific tragedy had just been compounded by a monumental miscarriage of justice. 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. Almost 30 years ago, three eight-year-old West Memphis boys were found murdered and three teenagers were charged in the murders. Local 24 News EXCLUSIVE: Terry Hobbs on his new memoir on the West Memphis 3. The next day, their bodies were found in a nearby canal. The bodies of Branch, Byers, and Moore were found in a drainage ditch in West Memphis May 6 . Few celebrities at the time did as much as Henry Rollins, however. Websleuths, an online forum for discussions about unsolved homicides and missing-person cases, has more than 100,000 members, and internet vigilantes have used social media and other online breadcrumbs to help track down actual criminals, such as the Canadian murderer and subject of the documentary Dont F*ck With Cats, Luka Magnotta. La Mirada, California. The pair abruptly fled to Oceanside, Calif., four days after the murders. 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. No charges have been brought against Jacoby, and he has never been named a suspect by the West Memphis Police Department. 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. In fact, for the better part of 1993, it was nearly impossible to find anyone who believed they were innocent. Pam Hobbs divorced Terry Hobbs in 2004 and has reversed her position on the West Memphis Three's guilt. Id like to see this put to rest. Maines won the lawsuit; police have never named Hobbs a suspect or charged him in connection with the killings.). Here were these guysat best they were neutral. Support came from unlikely corners: a classroom of kids who held a cookie sale that raised $30, local bands in Chicago who held a benefit show and sent $150. (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.) Yet, Judge David Burnett accepted Griffis as an expert. Their bikes were found by a pipe nearby. 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. It just needed a catalyst. That didn't make sense to me. Jessie took a polygraph. March 8, 2021, Terry Hobbs passed away on March 8, 2021 in Boise, Idaho. 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. 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. While police had focused on Echols and Baldwin in the intervening weeks because of their reputation, the arrests came largely because of a confession by Misskelley, which was leaked to the largest newspaper in the area, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, and ran under the banner headline Teen describes cult torture of boys. At a press conference shortly after the arrests, the lead investigator was asked how confident he felt about the case on a scale of 1-10. McCaughey says her sister is very upset. He retired from the US Air Force, and he was the Deputy Supervisor for Polk County Supervisor of Elections. Hold for Elkhart County. 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. The prosecutor would later say, There was a lack of physical evidence to tie anyone or anything to the crime scene, while the lead investigatorthe same one who told the press the case was an 11 out of 10would concede, Youve got a lot of circumstantial evidence is what youve got. 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. As rumors of a Satanic sacrifice swept the community, the minds of many in West Memphis were already made up. 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.
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