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. To learn more, watch The Forgotten West Memphis Three on Saturday, March 28 and Sunday, March 29at 8/7c on Oxygen. February 27, 2023 (76 years old) View obituary. 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. She says she is too because they believe they are hearing different stories. Terry Hobbs Net Worth. . 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. Misskelley's coerced confession, as contradictory as it seemed to the evidence, was consistent in implicating Echols and Jason Baldwin. Unaware of what was to come, Allen explained that he just wanted to ask him some questions. Titled West of Memphis, the film, directed by Amy J. Berg, presents an overview of the West Memphis Three's 18 years in prison, the revelation of new evidence, and explores the possibility of an alternate suspect. They saw this movie and they felt like, I have to do something.. There are no events scheduled. The judge ruled that Hobbs could not establish actual malice, and ordered Hobbs to pay Maines legal fees amounting to more than $17,000, according to the Associated Press. Even though they said they didnt murder the three boys, they are technically convicted killers. 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. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. Wherever it was screened, Berlinger says, it was followed by intense Q&As from audience members who couldnt believe what theyd just watched. Find the obituary of Terry Hobbs (1957 - 2021) from Caldwell, ID. 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 were released after prosecutors agreed to an Alford plea, in which the men maintained their innocence but pleaded guilty. Reaching its apex in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Satanic Panic was a wave of paranoia rooted in the belief that Satanic cults intent on corrupting the souls of the young had infiltrated American society. None of the early interviews with the parents were recorded. 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. 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. Its my perspective of what happened in 1993, 26 years ago in West Memphis, Arkansas, said Hobbs. All of them were convicted after Misskelley confessed to helping Echols and Baldwin with the murders, which he later recanted. 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. Since the West Memphis Three were released, no one else has been charged in the murders of Stevie, Christopher and Michael. 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. 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. Stating that she would ask around, Hutcheson agreed to "play detective.". Three teenage boys were arrested for the crimes Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. and prosecutors argued they killed the boys as part of a Satanic ritual. Armchair detectives of today, I think a lot of them dabble in conspiracy theory, Berlinger says. It allowed them to get out of prison after almost 20 years. Share Memories & Support the Family. I wouldn't do something like that. Thursday, August 19th 2021. the only grade you receive is from quizzes, exams, and the final. Bray asked her if she knew about rumored cult activity in the community. The three have always maintained their innocence. There also were issues with other details he provided, including how the victims were bound and whether the boys were raped. 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. Mojo had a different idea of what might get the man he affectionately called J.B. out of prison. Its affected a lot of lives, but for some reason it keeps being brought up, said Hobbs. He is from USA. Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers were best friends. It's affected a lot of lives, but for some reason it keeps being brought up," said Hobbs. On the evening of May 5, 1993, three 8-year-old boys disappeared from the streets of West Memphis, Ark. https://t.co/dXOtQkmjee. This case was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, Tennessee Western Bankruptcy. 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. In June 1996, Paradise Lost debuted on HBO, bringing the story of the West Memphis Three to TV sets and showing the power of the camera in the courtroom. 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. He also lost the defamation case because of his violent past. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! When it didnt, the praise heaped on Paradise Lost felt hollow. Its headlined by not only the films directors, but also Sheila Nevins, its executive producer and winner of 32 individual Emmy awards, more than any other person in history. In the joint trial of Baldwin and Echols, which took place separately from Misskelleys, Berlinger and Sinofsky filmed the surreal moments that juries were actually present for: a rundown of the books Echols checked out of the library, a parade of band T-shirts worn by the pair, a copy of a Blue Oyster Cult record found in Damiens girlfriends house that became evidence because of the word cult and song titles like Dont Fear the Reaper. What the cameras couldnt capture, however, was the introduction of physical evidencethe prosecution didnt offer much of that aside from a knife that was never directly linked to the crimes and fabric threads deemed microscopically similar to items found in Baldwins and Echolss homes, an assertion that has been questioned in the years since the trials. But it wasnt in the ways its directors had hoped. Although the Alford Plea set the West Memphis Three free, they are, at least in the eyes of the law, guilty, and therefore, the state of Arkansas is under no obligation to continue investigating the crimes at this time. I think we were the first internet sleuths, but we were not internet sleuths.. 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. Case Number : 2:21-BK-21177. 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. Its like ripping a Band-Aid off a wound. When they searched online, they found little to no information about the case. This is the true story of the West Memphis Three murders. 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. They had a daughter together, Amanda Hobbs, who was 4 years old at the time of her brothers death. 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. I deeply admire that and I thought it was worthy of putting on film.. Main Page; 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. As for Paradise Lost, it was the inciting incident in the two-decade chain of events that led to the release of the West Memphis Three. They werent connected in any direct way, Bakken says. Minutes later, Sgt. But for every Your Own Backyard or Ill Be Gone in the Dark that has applied journalistic rigor to their research in the past two decades, theres an Up and Vanished, which has been at the center of ethical debates since the podcast debuted in 2016. 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. Boxful of Nightmares is the personal memoirs of Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of one of the children murdered. 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. Mike Allen arrived on the scene. ", According to Devil's Knot, a week after the discovery of the bodies, Detective Don Bray interviewed Vicki Hutcheson, a truckstop employee. of Auburndale, FL passed away Monday, August 16, 2021. The idea of the average citizen becoming embroiled in a criminal investigation isn't far-fetched in 2021, . And yet Hobbs was not interviewed at all in the months after the crimes. I had a big box. Bakken immediately showed her friends Burk Sauls and Grove Pashley, who were both equally gripped by what they had just watched. Paradise Lost also led to a famous citizen-activist campaign championing the release of the three teens that caught on at the dawn of the Internet Age and would eventually pull in Eddie Vedder, Henry Rollins, and a whos who of the rich and famous. 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. The knife was thrown into the lake by Baldwin's mother a year before the murders. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. Terry Hobbs says he is a church member, a father, and working man and in no way a killer. A statement he made to the producers of Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills did little to help his public image. Baldwin remembers the dire circumstances laid out during the call. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. McCaughey says her sister is very upset. They began attending appeal hearings and visiting Baldwin, Echols, and Misskelley in prison. Berlinger also concedes Revelations had some ethical problems, chiefly because it raised the possibility that Mark Byers committed the killings. The first being that boys were killed by someone they knew. 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. But they were saying that he was about to die.. Im not the jury. And they used that visibility to help raise funds for the defense. When we were driving in the car a lot, wed play a lot of the Metallica album Master of Puppets, says Alex Sinofsky, who became a doctor instead of getting behind the camera himself. 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. He was an actor, known for Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988), Fast Food (1989) and In the Heat of the Night (1988). TERRY HOBBS OBITUARY Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. Last year, I noticed that Terry went missing. Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life without parole while Echols received the death penalty. We have estimated Terry Hobbs's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets. 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. 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. To date, no DNA evidence from the crime scene can be linked to Damien Echols, Baldwin, or Jessie Misskelley. People would drive by and yell at us, Theyre going to burn in hell, Sauls says. None of the initial trio behind WM3.orgnor their friend Lisa Fancher, who later became a key part of the efforthad ever considered themselves an activist to that point. He began his career in the plumbing business at a very young age, workingfor his . He died on April 4, 2019 in Panama City Beach, Florida, USA. 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. 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. Case Details Parties . 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. Updated: 9:42 AM CDT June 11, 2019. And that makes him hopeful that exoneration is on the horizon. (Maines briefly became a part of the story when Terry Hobbs, stepfather of another . 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. Well, perhaps not nobody. 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. June 29 Terry Hobbs, 34, 1718 Spyglass Lane, Mishawaka, booked on a warrant from Elkhart County. 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. Here's when clocks will 'spring forward' in 2023. Timeline Of The West Memphis Three Victims, Motivations For Investigating The West Memphis Case. As the West Memphis Three languished behind bars for 18 years, thousands of supporters called out for their freedom while others vehemently declared their guilt. Few celebrities at the time did as much as Henry Rollins, however. We didnt see them grow up.. 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. 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.