They formed the organization Proclaim Justice, a nonprofit that reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people. No charges have been brought against Jacoby, and he has never been named a suspect by the West Memphis Police Department. 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. There also were issues with other details he provided, including how the victims were bound and whether the boys were raped. The next day, their bodies were found in a nearby canal. Also, law enforcement chose not to focus on the victims' families as the starting point of the investigation as is the norm. 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. Few celebrities at the time did as much as Henry Rollins, however. Im not the jury. 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. 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. Now, I see they can. Hobbs denied the accusation, saying that his family does have secrets, but none of them have to do with murder. As the 20th century turned to the 21st, the movement seemed to be picking up steam. Terry Hobbs USAF Ret. 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. 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. (Maines briefly became a part of the story when Terry Hobbs, stepfather of another . To authorities working in West Memphisa largely Southern Baptist communitysatanic activity seemed to be the most likely cause for the killings, in part because the boys bodies were bound and appeared to have been mutilated. But inside, he was just another prisonerBaldwin didnt know who he could trust. 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. Investigators never found any evidence that tied him, Jason Baldwin, or Jessie Misskelley to the murders of the boys, Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers. We were mainly in it for the aesthetics of filmmaking, but the last scene of Paradise Lost, when Damien is chained up and sent away to death row, that was just heartbreaking and devastating for us, Berlinger says. The evolution of how the teens were perceivedon behalf of both the filmmakers and even part of the defense teamis captured on camera early as Stidham and his colleagues began to consider whether Misskelleys confession had been coerced. Once there got to be this global pressure, and there was a big concert here with really big-name musicians within a mile of our Supreme Court building, things started suddenly to change, she says. (WMC) - Its a case that has captured the nation and certainly the Mid-South. The three have always maintained their innocence. of Auburndale, FL passed away Monday, August 16, 2021. 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 second is by looking at it as an act of passion and perseverance. According to Griffis, black hair, black T-shirts, and black jeans were signs that a kid was in league with the devil. He graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. It was born out of genuine admiration for the fact that these guys took the time out of their lives to dedicate, to go down to Arkansas, to build a website, to really step out of their lives, Berlinger says. Essentially, it allows the accused to assert their innocence while pleading guilty, conceding that the prosecution has an overwhelming amount of evidence to procure a conviction. Due to marital problems stemming from Stevies death, the couple divorced in 2004, reported CNN. Berlinger and Sinofsky, the latter of whom died in 2015 at age 58, were able to gain incredible and immediate access to seemingly everyone the case had touched: the families of the victims and the accused, the judge, the lead investigator, members of the community. People in West Memphis are going to tell their kids stories. 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. Terry. Baldwin is the co-founder of the legal advocacy organization Proclaim Justice. Leave your condolences to the family on this memorial page or send flowers to show you care. Terry Hobbs passed away in Nampa, Idaho. The boys were so mutilated, investigators thought the murders were part of some kind of Satanic ritual. 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. Last year, I noticed that Terry went missing. I don't know if the other 2 did, but even if they did polygraphs aren't admissible in court. However, within the first crucial hours after the bodies were discovered, mistakes were made at the crime scene that negatively impacted the investigation. After ending his first marriage, he wed Pamela Hicks Branch in 1986, when her son Stevie was almost 2 years old. The Latest CD: 92 YEARS YOUNG: JAMMIN' AT THE GIBBS HOUSE. I deeply admire that and I thought it was worthy of putting on film.. 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. He died on April 4, 2019 in Panama City Beach, Florida, USA. " Every crime, no matter what it is, gets blamed on Satanism.". Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as: names, dates, place of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships. Mojo was right. Hold for Elkhart County. I didnt want to stop with us being that close. The following day revealed the unthinkable, when the bloodied and bruised bodies of the three boys were found submerged in a muddy creek in a wooded area called Robin Hood Hills. Hobbs denied seeing the boys that night and questioned why eyewitness evidence surfaced 16 years later. Quality. He had always maintained he didnt commit the crimes, and outside the Varner Units walls, a growing chorus of activists and legal observers were arguing that same thing on his behalf. 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. Heavy metal music, role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, and horror movies were regarded as gateways to evil. Damion Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley were convicted of murdering the children in 1994. Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie Hobbs .Terry graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. Baldwin remembers the dire circumstances laid out during the call. Echols' disdain for authority, penchant for black clothes, and propensity to make shocking statements didn't help his plight. 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. Make a life-giving gesture 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. Auburndale, FL - TSGT Terry Lee Hobbs, USAF, ret. 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. The trio assumed that the convictions had already been overturned by the time Bakken received the screenerthis was a modern-day witch hunt, they thought, and surely the state of Arkansas had already corrected the course. By going into the courtroom and sticking with the case for its entire duration, Berlinger and Sinofsky were able to capture what may have otherwise been lost to time or left out of transcripts. This family in-fighting led to him shooting his brother-in-law. It was a call about Damien Echolshe wasnt dead, but his wife, Lorri Davis, feared he might be soon. 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. 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. None of the early interviews with the parents were recorded. Almost 30 years ago, three eight-year-old West Memphis boys were found murdered and three teenagers were charged in the murders. 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. 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. To date, no DNA evidence from the crime scene can be linked to Damien Echols, Baldwin, or Jessie Misskelley. eyewitness evidence surfaced 16 years later. 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. Find the obituary of Terry Hobbs (1957 - 2021) from Caldwell, ID. It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Terry Lee Hobbs of Auburndale, Florida, born in Winter Haven, Florida, who passed away on August 16, 2021, at the age of 56, leaving to mourn family and friends. 2012 West of Memphis (Documentary) Self - Steven Branch's Stepfather. Their bikes were found by a pipe nearby. there are no assignments to cushion your grade, so either pass or fail. People would drive by and yell at us, Theyre going to burn in hell, Sauls says. After ending his first marriage, he wed Pamela Hicks Branch in 1986, when her son Stevie was almost 2 years old. I wouldn't do something like that. Yet, Judge David Burnett accepted Griffis as an expert. With the guards blessings, Mojo led Baldwin to Varners visitation room, where everything had been put away aside from two chairs set up in front of a cart holding a small TV and a VCR. Terry Hobbs was born on November 25, 1969 in Columbus, Georgia, USA. 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. Peter Jackson, who would produce a separate documentary about the case titled West of Memphis in 2012, and his partner, Fran Walsh, funded an extensive private investigation and helped hire forensic experts to comb through evidence. The idea of the average citizen becoming embroiled in a criminal investigation isn't far-fetched in 2021, . 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. 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. Hide Self (6 credits) 2012 48 Hours: Hard Evidence (TV Series) Self. It had been a long fight to clear their names, and the odds seemed better than ever. "Everyone has a story and this just happens to be mine," said Hobbs. Griffis also found the devil in nearly every number associated with the crime. The news was devastating beyond just word of his friends suffering. Case Number : 2:21-BK-21177. 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. 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. As detailed by The Hollywood Reporter in 2011, Jackson and Walsh helped fund key investigations for the West Memphis Three's defense during the last seven years of their incarceration. When it didnt, the praise heaped on Paradise Lost felt hollow. But it wasnt in the ways its directors had hoped. 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 says his students seem to have a better grasp on the idea of coerced confessions than any of his peers in 1994. But I had to. 2 So the minute youre done, you just want to know more. 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. 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. Hobbs said he wrote the book so people, especially other victims of crime, could understand the tragedy he has gone through and how it impacted his life. 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. 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? As recounted in Mara Leveritt's book, Devil's Knot, a thorough search of Robin Hood Hills directed by Chief Inspector Gary W. Gitchell of the West Memphis Police Department commenced early on the morning of May 6, 1993. To send flowers or plant a tree in memory of Terry Hobbs, visit the Tribute Store. "I'd like to see this put to rest. Terry Hobbs Memphis 32, 14-Jun, Superior Funeral Home-Hollywood. Griffis also knew how to spot a Satanist. 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. You still dont really know what happened to these kids. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of eight-year-old victim Stevie Branch, has been named in documents released in Marian, Arkansas by the attorneys for Pam Hobbs, Stevie's mother. Two questions plagued the conservative, middle-class community: Why would anyone commit such a heinous act, and, more importantly, who? Nevertheless, Echols made no incriminating statements. He said Boxful of Nightmares is his memoirs unedited. '", In 1999, a more mature Echols explained the comment. Local 24 News EXCLUSIVE: Terry Hobbs on his new memoir on the West Memphis 3. And then there was the public pressure: In August 2010, Vedder and Maines headlined yet another benefit concert, this one in Little Rock. Although Damein Echols had a teenager's typical disdain for authority, he nevertheless trusted that the system would work in his favor. We were finally winning, he says. 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. Im not the judge. He knew that if he ever got out, hed want to do that in a more organized way. 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. (Shortly after Villegass acquittal, Baldwin had something of a full-circle moment with his client: He took him to a Metallica show in El Paso, Texas, where they hung out backstage on the invitation of Lars Ulrich.). 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. He had been expecting a visitation, but was instead led to the prison chapel office, where inmates were typically brought only if someone close to them had died. 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, Ark. Cinemorgue Wiki. Misskelley, who reportedly had an IQ of 72, changed his story several times, and only a small part of his statements was recorded. Since the West Memphis Three were released, no one else has been charged in the murders of Stevie, Christopher and Michael. More than 2,500 people attended and the story dominated the local press for days. 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. In November, Judge David Burnett, who had presided over the trial, was elected to the state senate.