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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. Although the appeals were repeatedly denied, a new batch of DNA testing done in 2007 reignited the investigation. In West Memphis, Hobbs worked as an ice cream delivery man and Hicks worked at a restaurant. 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. McCaughey says her sister is very upset. Terry Hobbs was born in 1958 and grew up in Northern Arkansas. Misskelley initially told police that the killings happened during the day; knowing that they actually occurred some time after dusk, the officers corrected him, helping him retrofit his story to the cases few known facts. Update: I was totally wrong. Except this was 1996, and home internet was still in its infancy. More than 2,500 people attended and the story dominated the local press for days. Griffis also knew how to spot a Satanist. In fact, for the better part of 1993, it was nearly impossible to find anyone who believed they were innocent. Sheriff's deputies in Calhoun County say Terry Hobbs was reported missing on Saturday, April 20, 2019. 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. Further down, it includes names such as Rick Dior, a sound mixer who worked on Apollo 13 and Dirty Dancing, and Bob Richman, a three-time Emmy-nominated cinematographer whose rsum also includes renowned docs like An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for Superman. Self. At the request of West Memphis authorities, the two were picked up and questioned by Oceanside police. Quickly, however, he realized Berlinger and Sinofsky were taking a different approach. 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 was 56. 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? I kind of enjoy it because now even after I die, people are going to remember me forever. In 2013, Jackson and Damien Echols produced a fourth documentary about the case. They procured the domain WM3.org and made a website, updating it with whatever information they could track down. 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. Also part of the plea was the provision that the three could not sue the state. He also lost the defamation case because of his violent past. People would drive by and yell at us, Theyre going to burn in hell, Sauls says. 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 . Baldwin is the co-founder of the legal advocacy organization Proclaim Justice. Misskelley, who had entered the West Memphis police station that morning with hopes of reward money he might use to purchase a new truck for his father found himself instead charged with murder and facing life plus 40 years in prison. Echols said in 2012, he will never give up his mission to exonerate himself. He began his career in the. Even today, years after his name was cleared and authorities ruled Lams death accidental, Morbid still receives threats. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. Making his way through the muck on his hands and knees, Ridge soon discovered clothing twisted around sticks and thrust into the ditch's bottom. Robin Lynn Jones. Over the years there has been lots of speculation and finger pointing as to who was responsible. With a large population of fundamentalist Christians, the American South was particularly subject to occult paranoia. Dec 13th, 2021. For Rollins, it was a moral imperative: Id find myself up at 3:30 a.m. thinking about Damien. 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. Well, perhaps not nobody. Unfortunately, for three teen outsiders, the West Memphis Police Department chose to focus on the cult angle to the detriment of their efforts to investigate the other two, more likely scenarios. 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. All of them were convicted after Misskelley confessed to helping Echols and Baldwin with the murders, which he later recanted. Spotting a small, black tennis shoe in the water, Jones radioed for help. . It allowed them to get out of prison after almost 20 years. In May of that year, police discovered the bodies of Michael Moore, Stevie Branch, and Christopher Byers in the Robin Hood Hills, a small wooded area near the I-40/I-55 exchange. Jason Baldwin had no idea what was happening when a fellow inmate at the supermax prison in Varner, Arkansas, woke him up early one morning in 1997. My first thought is, I hope this dude isnt trying to pull me into some type of escape, Baldwin says nearly a quarter-century later. 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. But then the verdicts arrived: Both Baldwin and Echols were found guilty on all counts, just like Misskelley had been six weeks before them. 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. 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 WMC-TV. 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. March 8, 2021, Terry Hobbs passed away on March 8, 2021 in Boise, Idaho. '", In 1999, a more mature Echols explained the comment. Under order of the Arkansas Supreme Court, there were to be new evidentiary hearings in the case. 2012 West of Memphis (Documentary) Self - Steven Branch's Stepfather. Boxful of Nightmares is the personal memoirs of Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of one of the children murdered. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie Hobbs .Terry graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. 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. 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. 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. During the final year of the two-year span, from July 2021 to July 2022, California lost about 211,000 people, according to data from the state Department of Finance. We were finally winning, he says. 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. What a story it is. The districts current prosecuting attorney, Keith Chrestman, did not respond to requests for comment for this article, but his predecessor Scott Ellington, whose office negotiated the deals, told The New York Times in 2011 that while new trials would have likely resulted in acquittals, We dont think that there is anybody else. The Moore family has been outspoken about the end result, vehemently protesting the 2012 Oscar nomination for the third Paradise Lost installment. Hes since parlayed the popularity of the show into a booming podcast network and documentary deal with Oxygen. Terry Hobbs USAF Ret. Inevitably, the West Memphis Three case always comes up. 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. Covered in wounds, all three showed signs of having been beaten. 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. He responded proudly, 11.. That November, he says, HBO agreed to give an honorariumroughly $5,000to the families on both sides. In her recantation, Hutcheson stated that when she asked Echols directly if he had killed "those three kids," he replied, "No. 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. 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. 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. A native of Winter Haven, born December 21, 1964, Terry has been a lifelong resident of Auburndale. February 27, 2023 (76 years old) View obituary. "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 WMC-TV in 2013. Since the West Memphis Three were released, no one else has been charged in the murders of Stevie, Christopher and Michael. He died on April 4, 2019 in Panama City Beach, Florida, USA. Baldwin remembers the dire circumstances laid out during the call. 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. Due to marital problems stemming from Stevies death, the couple divorced in 2004, reported CNN. He is from USA. Other possible suspects includedBrian Holland and Chris Morgan, two young men from Memphis, Tenn., with a history of drug offenses. By the time she got done watching it, her life was forever changed. Find the obituary of Terry Hobbs (1957 - 2021) from Caldwell, ID. Im not the judge. Id like to see this put to rest. Bakken immediately showed her friends Burk Sauls and Grove Pashley, who were both equally gripped by what they had just watched. They werent connected in any direct way, Bakken says. 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. I don't know if the other 2 did, but even if they did polygraphs aren't admissible in court. . 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. https://t.co/dXOtQkmjee. Investigators kept minimal notes and omitted pertinent details including criminal records. The killings came at the peak of the so-called Satanic Panic, a time of heightened worries about ritualistic abuse. eyewitness evidence surfaced 16 years later. 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. By 2005, Rollins himself had raised $100,000 for the cause. 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. That didn't make sense to me. Thursday, August 19th 2021. 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. At the time of the West Memphis Three trial, Griffis claimed to have given seminars to 38,000 police officers all over the globe. Paso Robles, California. It was so emotionally taxing to watch and go through it again, he says. Berlinger says that after months of filming, the parents of one of the victims raised the issue of payment. 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. 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? I wouldn't do something like that. Metallica had never licensed a song for a film before, but when they learned about the case, Berlinger says, they made an exception. That the slain boys were each 8 years-old was important because eight was a "witch's number." You need corroborating evidence.. 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.. He said Boxful of Nightmares is his memoirs unedited. Like Misskelley in the first trial, Baldwin received a life sentence. 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. That there were three victims was a link to the biblical number of the beast. Attorneys for Echols have submitted a formal request to inspect the records that are available, involving cataloguing of the evidence as well as information on the loss of the evidence. (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.). After ending his first marriage, he wed Pamela Hicks Branch in 1986, when her son Stevie was almost 2 years old.