In this first confession, Miskelley often agreed to details suggested by the police or attributed to prior statements which he did not make. Bray asked her if she knew about rumored cult activity in the community. 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. He began his career in the. Self. Its evidence that Damien Echols attorneys wanted to do new DNA testing on. During the trials of Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols, Griffis drew tenuous links between circumstantial evidence, such as the killings taking place near the date of the pagan festival of Beltane. Berlinger and Sinofsky expected a similar result to come quickly in the West Memphis Three case. 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. Misskelley, who reportedly had an IQ of 72, changed his story several times, and only a small part of his statements was recorded. of Auburndale, FL passed away Monday, August 16, 2021. They couldnt have been cooler, recalls Berlinger, who would go on to direct the 2004 documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster alongside Bruce Sinofsky. 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/. June 29 Terry Hobbs, 34, 1718 Spyglass Lane, Mishawaka, booked on a warrant from Elkhart County. They saw the same thing you did. Jesse was gonna take it anyway. Share Memories & Support the Family. He could have been me, he told Rolling Stone in 2011. 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. To learn more, watch The Forgotten West Memphis Three on Saturday, March 28 and Sunday, March 29at 8/7c on Oxygen. 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. People would drive by and yell at us, Theyre going to burn in hell, Sauls says. But on that early morning in 1997, Jason Baldwin wasnt concerned with Berlinger and Sinofskys craft, or legal precedent, or crusading celebrities. So when I saw this tiny little article in the Times, I wasnt about to free anybody that was guilty. Sheriff's deputies in Calhoun County say Terry Hobbs was reported missing on Saturday, April 20, 2019. La Mirada, California. What a story it is. 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. 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. For Rollins, it was a moral imperative: Id find myself up at 3:30 a.m. thinking about Damien. 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. Terry Hobbs's income source is mostly from being a successful Actor. (WMC) - Its a case that has captured the nation and certainly the Mid-South. 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. 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. Who Is Terry Hobbs, Stepfather Of West Memphis Three Victim? | True February 27, 2023 (76 years old) View obituary. Hes subdued when discussing the facts of the case, but he comes alive while recounting his work with the Jaycees while in prison, or buying Metallicas Black Album when it came out in 1991. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. 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. Im not the judge. 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. Over the years there has been lots of speculation and finger pointing as to who was responsible. And yet Hobbs was not interviewed at all in the months after the crimes. (At one point, Sauls says, it landed on Yahoos list of the top 100 websites.) 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? Griffis also found the devil in nearly every number associated with the crime. 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. The great irony of the 18-year quest to free the West Memphis Three is that it didnt begin as a crusade. So with less urgency surrounding full exoneration and no documentary cameras rolling, the question 25 years later becomes: Who is paying close enough attention to the case to pick up the fight? (WJHG) By Nikki Sheaks Published: Jul. The obituary was featured in Idaho Press Tribune on March 13, 2021. Bakken and Sauls say they tried to avoid offering theories about the case publicly, opting instead to try to work through official channels. 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. New access to evidence thought destroyed in 1993 'West Memphis - KAIT 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. I don't know if the other 2 did, but even if they did polygraphs aren't admissible in court. Who Killed The Forgotten West Memphis Three? Terry Hobbs is apparently still missing : r/UnexplainedPhotos - reddit ", According to Devil's Knot, a week after the discovery of the bodies, Detective Don Bray interviewed Vicki Hutcheson, a truckstop employee. With a large population of fundamentalist Christians, the American South was particularly subject to occult paranoia. On 04/08/2021 Terry Hobbs was filed as a Bankruptcy - Chapter 13 lawsuit. Case Details Parties . He is from USA. The whole point of the web sleuths presented in the Cecil Hotel is that you cannot assume something is truthful just because circumstantially it seems interesting. " (Detective Allen) told me if I knew anything, that there was a $35,000 reward, and if I could help them out, we'd get the money," said Misskelley, as quoted by Mara Leveritt in Devil's Knot. A native of Winter Haven, born December 21, 1964, Terry . When the case was given the option for DNA evidence, everyone but Terry Hobbs said yes. Over the course of the initial investigation, a number of alternate suspects and scenarios came to light that were largely ignored or otherwise dismissed by authorities. 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. Their main worry was Damien, who was staring down the threat of lethal injection should the appeals fail. Damien Echols (@damienechols) July 7, 2021 Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Branch who was under suspicion but never charged, said he welcomes new DNA testing. They formed the organization Proclaim Justice, a nonprofit that reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people. On the evening of May 5, 1993, 8-year-olds Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore went missing in West Memphis, Arkansas. A source said the evidence was transferred to shipping containers where there was a fire, and some of the evidence was destroyed. Branded the West Memphis Three, the mens case was featured in multiple documentaries, earning them support from an array of high-profile musicians, celebrities and activists. A native of Winter Haven, born December 21, 1964, Terry has been a lifelong resident of Auburndale. Terry Roland Hobbs September 11, 1959 ~ September 11, 2021 (age 62) Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. The second postulated that they had been slain by one or more strangers. I never foresaw that they would in turn save us.. (Despite Misskelleys statement, the coroners examination found no injuries on the victims consistent with sexual assault.) But the lawyer quickly noticed inconsistencies in Misskelleys purported confession. 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. He says his students seem to have a better grasp on the idea of coerced confessions than any of his peers in 1994. By the time she got done watching it, her life was forever changed. (2 weeks at #1, on for 19 weeks!) In 1996, a screener for Paradise Lost passed her desk. After ending his first marriage, he wed Pamela Hicks Branch in 1986, when her son Stevie was almost 2 years old. While thats cooled from the days of concerts in the shadows of the Arkansas Supreme Court building, the documentaries still live on HBO Max, where they pull in new viewers to this day. 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. So the minute youre done, you just want to know more. There are no events scheduled. 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. 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. Well, perhaps not nobody. '", In 1999, a more mature Echols explained the comment. Terry-Hobbs - InkFreeNews.com Although the appeals were repeatedly denied, a new batch of DNA testing done in 2007 reignited the investigation. Because I was thinking, if you haven't done anything, then they can't prove you did something you haven't actually done. 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. Hobbs denied seeing the boys that night and questioned why eyewitness evidence surfaced 16 years later. Terry Hobbs, Todd Moore, and Dana Moore still maintain that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley murdered their sons. Polygraph tests revealed deception in the answers of both men in regard to the crimes. His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. And they used that visibility to help raise funds for the defense. One of Kathy Bakkens earliest jobs in Los Angeles allowed her a certain kind of cultural currency: She designed movie posters for an entertainment-advertising company, which meant she got to see films months before they were released. 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. Misskelley told Hutcheson that he really didn't know much about Echols other than that he was "a weird person." 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. But most notably, his initial timeline of events didnt match what was known about the crimes, and every time he offered a detail that diverged from the accepted chronology, the interrogating officers seemed to steer him back in the direction of the official version. Quickly, however, he realized Berlinger and Sinofsky were taking a different approach. They saw this movie and they felt like, I have to do something.. Terry Hobbs - Biography - IMDb Spotting a small, black tennis shoe in the water, Jones radioed for help. It's one. She says she is too because they believe they are hearing different stories. . 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 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper. As more people learned about the case from Paradise Lost and the work of people like Bakken and Sauls, the phrase Free the West Memphis Three caught on as a slogan for progressive musicians and actors in the 1990s, up there with Save the Rainforest and Free Tibet. Eddie Vedder became an early leading voice, soon followed by the likes of Peter Jackson, Johnny Depp, and Natalie Maines from the band then known as the Dixie Chicks. 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. Although blood scrapings were taken, the West Memphis police lost the evidence. Hes since parlayed the popularity of the show into a booming podcast network and documentary deal with Oxygen. 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. The reason for the credit gets less curious when hes asked about it: He was a huge Metallica fan. That type of support made observers question the verdicts perhaps more so than any rock star who shouted Echolss name into a mic because of an HBO documentary. 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. Maines won the lawsuit; police have never named Hobbs a suspect or charged him in connection with the killings.). After ending his first marriage, he wed Pamela Hicks Branch in 1986, when her son Stevie was almost 2 years old. Wading into the murky water, Allen unknowingly dislodged the pale, grotesquely arched form of Micheal Moore. 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. TERRY HOBBS OBITUARY Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. With their 2007 request for a new trial rejected, time was running out for the West Memphis Three. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. However, in 2010, a series of rapidly unfolding developments turned the tide for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley. They were releasedfrom prison in 2011 on whats called an Alford plea, after new forensic evidence was presented as part of the case. "I'd like to see this put to rest. In the minds of many, the bizarre nature of the Robin Hood Hills murders could only have been committed by one of Satan's minions. 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. Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. To send flowers or plant a tree in memory of Terry Hobbs, visit the Tribute Store. Although Griffis' testimony was dramatic, it showed only a tenuous grasp of occult knowledge much of it, including a reference to a cult called "Crytos," was simply made up. 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. Even without a smoking gun, the circumstantial evidence was enough for a conviction in a place like Crittenden County, Arkansas. 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. 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. That November, he says, HBO agreed to give an honorariumroughly $5,000to the families on both sides. He began his career in the plumbing business at a very young age, workingfor his . TsGt. Terry Hobbs USAF Ret. Obituary - The Ledger 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. Local 24 News EXCLUSIVE: Terry Hobbs on his new memoir on the West