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. weaving supposedly anti-Christian and occult messages into their songs, he discovered her while Googling cold cases, funded an extensive private investigation, a November 2010 Arkansas Supreme Court ruling, biggest allies in the years before his 2020 death, acquitted of capital murder in 2018 after a 25-year legal saga. Sheriff's deputies in Calhoun County say Terry Hobbs was reported missing on Saturday, April 20, 2019. eyewitness evidence surfaced 16 years later. We have estimated Terry Hobbs's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets. Few celebrities at the time did as much as Henry Rollins, however. Except this was 1996, and home internet was still in its infancy. Mara Leveritt, a journalist who followed the case throughout the 1990s and wrote the 2002 book Devils Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three, calls the strain of Christianity that runs through the region very literal and says that even her children faced harassment as teenagers for playing Dungeons & Dragons and listening to Ozzy Osbourne. 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. And yet Hobbs was not interviewed at all in the months after the crimes. 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. The Latest CD: 92 YEARS YOUNG: JAMMIN' AT THE GIBBS HOUSE. Quality. 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. Their advocates believe the Alford pleas represent their own form of injustice, but correcting that is a less pressing issue than the early battlesthe men are free and have been able to mostly live their lives in the years since their release. After hours of questioning, a frustrated Morgan blurted out that he had been hospitalized for drug and alcohol abuse and might have committed the murders. Bray asked her if she knew about rumored cult activity in the community. The second is by looking at it as an act of passion and perseverance. A benefit album was released in 2000, and the phrase made it into a Dawsons Creek episode when Pacey shouted Free the West Memphis Three over an airport intercom. 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. Griffis also found the devil in nearly every number associated with the crime. In August 2011, Jason Baldwin was pulled from his prison cell under confusing circumstances once again. Unaware of what was to come, Allen explained that he just wanted to ask him some questions. Now, evidence from the case of the West Memphis Three is either missing or destroyed. He died on April 4, 2019 in Panama City Beach, Florida, USA. Baldwin remembers grabbing a Mountain Dew and a burrito and sitting down, still unaware of what he was about to watch. of Auburndale, FL passed away Monday, August 16, 2021. 1.0. . . A source said the evidence was transferred to shipping containers where there was a fire, and some of the evidence was destroyed. It has happened to a lot of people that just dont have the spotlight of a documentary, he says. 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. The story felt personal for all of them, but especially Sauls: He had grown up in Florida and Georgia as an outcast obsessed with art and reading some of the same books Damien Echols had. 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. Also part of the plea was the provision that the three could not sue the state. Damion Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley were convicted of murdering the children in 1994. 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. But the lawyer quickly noticed inconsistencies in Misskelleys purported confession. When the pair got the call from Nevins, they mobilized immediately, landing in Arkansas shortly after the arrests. None of the early interviews with the parents were recorded. Yet, Judge David Burnett accepted Griffis as an expert. Here's when clocks will 'spring forward' in 2023. Spotting a small, black tennis shoe in the water, Jones radioed for help. 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. He said Boxful of Nightmares is his memoirs unedited. 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. California Obituaries - Latest Obituaries in California - Echovita Social media didnt fully exist yet, but the group managed to harness the potential of the nascent information superhighway to bring attention to their cause. October 13, 2018 - Happy 94th Birthday Terry! 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. On the evening of May 5, 1993, 8-year-olds Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore went missing in West Memphis, Arkansas. 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. Iwould journal something and put it in the box, said Hobbs. In 1996, a screener for Paradise Lost passed her desk. TERRY HOBBS OBITUARY Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. 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. 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. Make a life-giving gesture Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. 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. November 03, 2021 November 4, 2021 . New access to evidence thought destroyed in 1993 'West Memphis - KAIT In an email to The Ringer, Rollins stressed that inaction was not an option., Myself and the many people I worked with did what we could to help bring attention to the case and generate much needed financial aid, he wrote. 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. "People probably think I'm in Satanism because what they don't understand they try to destroy or ridicule. Updated: 9:42 AM CDT June 11, 2019. I never foresaw that they would in turn save us.. Echols' disdain for authority, penchant for black clothes, and propensity to make shocking statements didn't help his plight. Terry Hobbs was born on November 25, 1969 in Columbus, Georgia, USA. Local 24 News EXCLUSIVE: Terry Hobbs on his new memoir on the West 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. In 2013, Jackson and Damien Echols produced a fourth documentary about the case. That story line would make up the bulk of 2000s Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, a rare sequel for a documentary, especially before the streaming era proved that true crime series like Making a Murderer and The Staircase could maintain audience interest for years. Im not the judge. In this first confession, Miskelley often agreed to details suggested by the police or attributed to prior statements which he did not make. 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. To this day, it is still unclear who is responsible for the killings. 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. At the time of the West Memphis Three trial, Griffis claimed to have given seminars to 38,000 police officers all over the globe. In 1996, HBO released the documentary film Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. The bodies of Branch, Byers, and Moore were found in a drainage ditch in West Memphis May 6 . 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. 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. And that makes him hopeful that exoneration is on the horizon. hangyermoon 2 yr. ago. It just needed a catalyst. 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. Terry Hobbs Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family But they were saying that he was about to die.. He says that while he was in the supermax prison in Varner, he would write letters trying to drum up support for not just himself, but also for other inmates he believed were wrongfully convicted. The Paradise Lost cameras captured not only the defenses discussions, but the full testimony, in Misskelleys trial, of an expert on coerced confessions. Although the appeals were repeatedly denied, a new batch of DNA testing done in 2007 reignited the investigation. Terry Hobbs Breaks His Silence | WREG.com That included Mojo, who came calling around 2 a.m. that day trying to coax him out of his cell. Over the years there has been lots of speculation and finger pointing as to who was responsible. But I had to. 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. La Mirada, California. Terry Roland Hobbs September 11, 1959 ~ September 11, 2021 (age 62) Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. 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 Castleman is a data . But none of that support has been able to fully exonerate the trio, something theyre still fighting for. Cinemorgue Wiki. They werent connected in any direct way, Bakken says. In November, Judge David Burnett, who had presided over the trial, was elected to the state senate. After ending his first marriage, he wed Pamela Hicks Branch in 1986, when her son Stevie was almost 2 years old. He just didnt know it would take another 14 years to happen. To learn more, watch The Forgotten West Memphis Three on Saturday, March 28 and Sunday, March 29at 8/7c on Oxygen. 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. Terry Hobbs is apparently still missing : r/UnexplainedPhotos - reddit Terry Hobbs didn't kill those boys : r/WestMemphisThree Terry Hobbs says he is a church member, a father, and working man and in no way a killer. It allowed them to get out of prison after almost 20 years. The three teens were arrested after Misskelley said they committed the crime after 12 hours of interrogation. He could have been me, he told Rolling Stone in 2011. 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. Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life without parole while Echols received the death penalty. According to Griffis, black hair, black T-shirts, and black jeans were signs that a kid was in league with the devil. 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. 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.