In August 2011, Jason Baldwin was pulled from his prison cell under confusing circumstances once again. 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. Defense attorneys also pointed out that Griffis' doctorate was obtained through a notorious diploma mill and had been awarded with Griffis having never attended a single class. All of those factors combined to create a tipping point, says Leveritt. What has never been definitively answered, however, is who committed the 1993 murders, and The Forgotten West Memphis Three, premiering Saturday, March 28 at 8/7c on Oxygen, reexamines the case and key theories. 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. The Messed Up Truth About The West Memphis Three Murders, citing the discovery of her son's favorite pocket knife, One of the prosecution's key pieces of evidence linking Jason Baldwin, With their 2007 request for a new trial rejected, Baldwin is the co-founder of the legal advocacy organization Proclaim Justice. 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. The second postulated that they had been slain by one or more strangers. Terry Hobbs - IMDb At the suggestion of the police, Hutcheson hid microphones in her home and borrowed occult books from the library to inspire Echols' interest. 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. Timeline Of The West Memphis Three Victims, Motivations For Investigating The West Memphis Case. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. 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. In 1996, HBO released the documentary film Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. How do you measure the legacy of Paradise Lost, which is one of the best reviewed documentaries of all time and considered among the most influential, but whose mission is only partly complete? One of the keys to understanding the West Memphis Three murders is the phenomenon known as the Satanic Panic. Make a life-giving gesture Misskelley and Echols were 36; Baldwin was 34. By 2005, Rollins himself had raised $100,000 for the cause. Hobbs was Branch's stepfather. 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. 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. No explanation has yet been given as to why such a seemingly important lead was dropped. Echols is correct. They were found nude and hogtied in a creek in a wooded area in West Memphis. In the Bible Belt, the Satanic Panic took hold with a vengeance. We made a promise early on that we would never pretend to be law enforcement or detectives, Sauls 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. Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie Hobbs .Terry graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. 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. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Branch who was under suspicion but never charged, said he welcomes new DNA testing. So, how much is Terry Hobbs worth at the age of 50 years old? That came partially through the exposure they got through this film., But perhaps the best measure of Paradise Losts impact is the work being done by Baldwin today. The boys were so mutilated, investigators thought the murders were part of some kind of Satanic ritual. 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. None of the early interviews with the parents were recorded. On August 19, 2011, all three accepted the deal and were immediately released from prison. With the area secured, Detective Bryn Ridge volunteered to search the ditch. 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. 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. 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. March 8, 2021, Terry Hobbs passed away on March 8, 2021 in Boise, Idaho. He began his career in the plumbing business at a very young age, workingfor his . The pair abruptly fled to Oceanside, Calif., four days after the murders. And yet Hobbs was not interviewed at all in the months after the crimes. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! He says his students seem to have a better grasp on the idea of coerced confessions than any of his peers in 1994. 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. The Paradise Lost cameras captured not only the defenses discussions, but the full testimony, in Misskelleys trial, of an expert on coerced confessions. $10,000 reward for new information leading to a missing man - WJHG Terry Hobbs, Todd Moore, and Dana Moore still maintain that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley murdered their sons. As the first in a trilogy of Paradise Lost films about the case, the 1996 movie was a stunning example of cinma vrit, as directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky embedded themselves with the prosecution, the defense, and the families of both the slain and the accused to put human faces on a heart-wrenching tragedy, as well as highlight the overblown worries of satanic rituals and murderous cults that proliferated throughout the 1980s and 90s. Self. The news was devastating beyond just word of his friends suffering. Some believe the West Memphis Three are guilty to this day, and others, including some victims family members, point to their innocence and maintain the real perpetrator is still at large. 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. During Misskelley's trial, Hutcheson testified that she had attended an "an occult Satanic meeting" she referred to as an "esbat." "People probably think I'm in Satanism because what they don't understand they try to destroy or ridicule. One of the prosecution's key pieces of evidence linking Jason Baldwin to the crime a survival knife with a serrated edge recovered from a lake behind his home has also come under scrutiny. I just checked again and HE IS STILL MISSING. Few celebrities at the time did as much as Henry Rollins, however. 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. He was 56. Case Details. All three had been submerged face down in the mud, stripped naked, and bound with their shoelaces. 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? West Memphis is pretty much like a second Salem," Echols stated in the 1996 documentary Paradise Lost: The Murders at Robin Hood Hills. There also were issues with other details he provided, including how the victims were bound and whether the boys were raped. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. This is a story of justice delayed and justice denied. They formed the organization Proclaim Justice, a nonprofit that reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people. Misskelley, who reportedly had an IQ of 72, changed his story several times, and only a small part of his statements was recorded. On the surface, 18-year-old Damien Echols, an intelligent, but psychologically troubled teen with interests in Wicca and extreme music, fit the profile. They even hired experts to examine the case, including a forensic criminal profiler who discovered what appeared to be bite marks on one of the victims that didnt match any of the convicted. He died on April 4, 2019 in Panama City Beach, Florida, USA. The great irony of the 18-year quest to free the West Memphis Three is that it didnt begin as a crusade. (WMC) - Not a single piece of evidence ever connected the West Memphis Three, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, to the 1993 murders of Steve Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore. Mojo was right. Its evidence that Damien Echols attorneys wanted to do new DNA testing on. October 14, 2017: #26 on the JazzWeek chart! Evidence in West Memphis Three case missing or destroyed - Action News 5 By staying on this subject for the next couple of decades, they gave these men a chance and really decades of freedom afterward. However, under pressure, leading questions, and scare tactics, Misskelley wove a contradictory story that first placed him at the crime scene as an eyewitness to the murders and then as an active participant. William Holford Griffiths. Funeral Home Services for Terry are being provi. In her recantation, Hutcheson stated that when she asked Echols directly if he had killed "those three kids," he replied, "No. 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. Terry. "Everyone has a story and this just happens to be mine," said Hobbs. TsGt. Terry Hobbs USAF Ret. Obituary - The Ledger Griffis also knew how to spot a Satanist. Bakken immediately showed her friends Burk Sauls and Grove Pashley, who were both equally gripped by what they had just watched. Except this was 1996, and home internet was still in its infancy. 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. But then the verdicts arrived: Both Baldwin and Echols were found guilty on all counts, just like Misskelley had been six weeks before them. Other possible suspects includedBrian Holland and Chris Morgan, two young men from Memphis, Tenn., with a history of drug offenses. Luminol tests, which reveal the hidden presence of blood, were not performed at the scene until six days later. 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. Im seeing the things I experienced, but not through my own point of view. Share Memories & Support the Family. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Terry Hobbs Obituary (1988 - 2021) - Memphis, TN - Legacy.com Terry Hobbs Obituary (1959 - 2021) | Sweetwater, Texas - Echovita 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.