Baldwin is the co-founder of the legal advocacy organization Proclaim Justice. [signed] Mike Allen, The West Memphis Three Trials: An Account, The West Memphis Three Trial: Selected Images, The Accusations of Aaron Hutcheson, Age 8. Its population was 40,508 at the 2020 census, [4] increasing from 34,122 in 2010. The kind of men who do these things are, uh. Prosecutors then offered the West Memphis Three a plea deal. JMB really did love them even though he had a temper and did admit to corporal punishment. None of the DNA matched the three teenagers found guilty of committing these murders. Griffis also knew how to spot a Satanist. Three teenagers were arrested and convicted for the crimes. They argue that Jesse Misskelley confessed no less than five times to the killings after his arrest and in the year following the trials. None of the early interviews with the parents were recorded. He is an evil man and true psychopath and the type of man to tie those boys the up the way they were found. On May 5, 1993, according to both Stewart and Guy, Terry Hobbs, David Jacoby, and two teenagers from a local trailer park, L. G. Hollingsworth and Buddy Lucas, showed up at his West Memphis home looking to buy some pot, which Stewart provided. And keeping the knife as a trophy? On Nov. 6 police in Memphis responded to a call that someone had been shot at 4460 Kerwin St., the home of Pamela and Terry Hobbs. You should see the other documentary WEST OF MEMPHIS There youll be more secure. 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. Stevens mother, Pamela Hobbs, worked a shift at the Catfish Island restaurant the day her son vanished. Terry Hobbs in Kentucky. (According to Stewart, Hobbs was a bisexual with a preference for sex with young boys. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Branded the, What has never been definitively answered, however, is who committed the 1993 murders, and , Due to marital problems stemming from Stevies death, the couple divorced in 2004, reported, The test results showed that no genetic material on the crime scene evidence was a match to Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley, reported the, The West Memphis Police Department interviewed Hobbs, who was dismissive of the findings, claiming the hair could have been picked up during a visit to his home since the victim "played with our little boy regularly," according to the, "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, A year after the DNA results were released, Hobbs sued Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines for defamation, claiming she implied he was a murderer on the bands website and at a 2007 rally, according to, In 2009, three witnesses filed affidavits claiming they saw Hobbs with the murdered boys the night they disappeared, contradicting Hobbs previous statements to police, according to. 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. The hearing was to allow the victim's. Crime and poverty rates are significantly higher than the national average and the Bible Belt city ranked as the most the most dangerous in the state in 2018, reported, On the afternoon of May 5, 1993, the three friends were enjoying a warm spring afternoon outdoors. Ifvery conservativelyone in every 10-20 people is gay or bi, and the police force is made up of 20 people (just a fun number) one of those cops is gonna like dick. Its a case built on a shoddy confession and community bias, and includes allegations of Satanism, sexual abuse and mutilation. I wouldn't do something like that. Terry was born in Northern Arkansas and grew up in the Ozark Mountain region of the state. He was found guilty of one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in February 1995, according to the Los Angeles Times. 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. Doubts about their guilt mounted in a trilogy of sympathetic documentaries called "Paradise Lost." The (False) Confession of Jesse Misskelley, Jr. Damien Echols: Statements and Polygraph Reports (May 9-10, 1993), West Memphis Three Trials: The Transcripts, Jury Decisions in the West Memphis Three Trials, The West Memphis Three Trials: Key Appellate Decisions, The West Memphis Three Trial: Questions for Discussion, Free at Last! Aleia Hobbs (fdt 24. februar 1996 i New Orleans) er en friidrettsutver fra USA. The only possible culprits were 18-year-old Damien Echols, a poor teen with an interest in the occult and a record of mental illness, his friend Jason Baldwin, a quiet kid whose talent for art tended toward dark subjects, and Jessie Misskelley, a 17-year-old misfit with an IQ of 73. hobbs is high on my list, but with what we know (or lack thereof,) there's simply no way to say anyone is "for sure" guilty in this case. Jessica drove. No knives and not weapons were used," says Jo Lynn McCaughey. For information on submitting an obituary, please contact The Los Angeles Times by phone at 800-234-4444; e-mail laobituaries@latimes.com. In 1994, Dr. Dale W. Griffis was a retired police officer who had embarked on a second career as a self-styled consultant on occult and cult-related crime. Currently, Hobbs has not been charged with anything related to the murders. Investigators kept minimal notes and omitted pertinent details including criminal records. In the Bible Belt, the Satanic Panic took hold with a vengeance. That didn't make sense to me. www .hobbsnm .org. The podcast Dark Dark World just released an episode (#23) with a narrative positing a theory about Terry Hobbs as the possible murderer. Crime and poverty rates are significantly higher than the national average and the Bible Belt city ranked as the most the most dangerous in the state in 2018, reported USA Today. The Forgotten West Memphis Three, premiering Saturday, March 28 at 8/7c on Oxygen, looks back on the case and explores its persisting theories. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. He noted that his son spent a lot of time in the home of Terry Hobbs and could easily have picked up the hair (with DNA matching that of Terry Hobbs) found in his shoelaces on one of those occasions. 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. Court of California, County of Alameda; Hon. LINK TO SITE OUTLINING ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE OF HOBBS'S GUILT, Todd Moore, father of victim Michael Moore, prosecutor John Fogleman, most detectives involved in the case, and many others continue to contend that the murders were committed by Jesse Misskelley, Jason Baldwin, and Damien Echols. At the time of the murders, Terry and Pam had a 4-year-old daughter. " Every crime, no matter what it is, gets blamed on Satanism.". Among them was a disoriented, muddy, and bleeding African-American man who stumbled into a West Memphis Bojangles restaurant men's room less than a mile from the crime scene. Produced and directed by filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, the film and its two sequels, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations and Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, gave audiences a unique and detailed look into the case, the accused, and the families of victims. As reported by the Arkansas Times, examination of the shoe laces used to bind Michael Moore contained hair "not inconsistent" with that of Stevie Branch's stepfather, Terry Hobbs. High Magick: A Guide to the Spiritual Practices That Saved My Life on Death Row. Sound like way to describe some ritual, smoke signal, face paint stuff. They also question the alibi given by Hobbs, that he spent the evening of the murders with his friend, David Jacoby. Terry Hobbs in California 29 people named Terry Hobbs found in Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County, Sacramento-Yolo and 10 other cities. It's affected a lot of lives, but for some reason it keeps being brought up," said Hobbs. The third put forth the unusual theory that the killings were committed as a cult ritual. To this mix of circumstantial evidence, the filmmakers add the fact that another of Stevie's aunts, Jo Lynn McAughey, alleges she saw Terry Hobbs doing laundry the night of the murders, presumably to clean the mud off of his clothes after killing the boys in the woods, and the fact that a prized pocket knife owned by Stevie, one he almost always carried with him, was later found among Terry Hobbs's possessions. He also alleges that another of the suspects confessed when the two met in county jail. Hobbs was sentenced to six months in prison for aggravated assault. John Mark Byers, Christophers stepfather, reported the boys missing to the West Memphis Police Department at approximately 8 p.m., reported local newspaper the Memphis Flyer. evil" when he loses his temper and "he doesn't get mad, he gets 'even'". This case is so terrifying. 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 WATN in June 2019. It also suggested that The West Memphis Three were victims of lingering Satanic Panic, a widespread fear in the 1980s that Satanism would infect society. Misskelly, who has a low IQ, reportedly gave detectives a false confession which helped a jury convict the three of murder. Supporters contended that the confession of Misskelley was coerced and that the young men were unfairly targeted because they stood out as misfits, who wore black and listened to heavy metal. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. Terry did not tell me who he was calling until hed completed the phone call and came out to the car. Not only ONE victim but THREE. 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. At 8:40 P.M. on May 5, 1993 the West Memphis Police Department received a call that a bleeding black man had entered the Bojangles restaurant (located near where the three bodies were eventually discovered) about thirty minutes earlier and gone into the women's rest room. According to Devil's Knot author Mara Leveritt, the investigation of the murders was divided along three lines. Despite this evidence, no charges have ever been brought against Hobbs, who still firmly believes that Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley are guilty of the . Guy stated that he sent a detailed letter to Prosecutor Scott Ellington in February 2012 describing the details of the two confessions, but that Ellington never responded. Little kids will be looking under their bed 'Damien might be under there! I learned about this case 3 years ago. 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. Classmates at Weaver Elementary School, the three were active in their Cub Scout troop and responsible enough to be trusted to roam their neighborhood without supervision. 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. Terry Hobbs was a violent man, this is proven and well documented, and the way Douglass pictures it, he likely wanted to punish or humiliate one or all of the boys and it went too far, leading him to murder them so they wouldn't be able to tell anyone. No doubt. He moved away to live with his daughter and son-in-law, Jessica and David Combs, in Macclenny when Hurricane Michael hit last October. Colin T. Bowen I've no doubt he killed Stevie to "get even" with Pam. Critics of the "Bojangles theory" also point out that the bleeding man reportedly wore a cast on one arm, a fact they say would have made it very difficult to tie up and murder the three boys. Finally, and perhaps most damningly, the filmmakers produced three young men who now claim to have been told by a nephew of Terry Hobbs that the fact that Terry killed the three boys was a closely guarded "family secret." Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers were best friends. "The reason I made the West Memphis boogeyman comment during the first film was because I was making light of the situation," Echols says in Paradise Lost 2: Revelations. Baldwin was given life without parole, while Echols was sentenced to death by lethal injection. I've gone down this rabbit hole time and time again. Their bodies were discovered that afternoon in a drainage ditch. Pam Hobbs divorced Terry Hobbs in 2004 and has reversed her position on the West Memphis Three's guilt. Guy stated in his affidavit that L. G. Hollingsworth also confessed to participating in the murders while both were incarcerated in the Crittenden County Jail in 1995. Terry Hobbs then announced the other two boys had to be killed because of what they had seen, and Hobbs and Jacoby proceeded to do just that. Sandra K. Bean: Hon. Documents from attorneys for Pam Hicks contend that her son and two friends were rounded up and stabbed to death with a pocket knife by her ex-husband Terry Hobbs and his companions, who saw the children spying on them as they drank and smoked marijuana, WKEG reported. Terry told me at that time (sometime after 9:00 p.m.), that he had called the police to report that Stevie was missing. Griffis also found the devil in nearly every number associated with the crime. In 1993, he was married to Pamela Hobbs and was the step father of Stevie Branch. Terry Hobbs, one of the men named in the documents. What they discovered was a very organized, catalogued and intact body of evidence, a group working on the case previously wrote. : West Memphis Three Released, The West Memphis Three Trials: Links and Bibliography (2013). [5], In 2003, Hobbs was arrested for possession of marijuana and found guilty.[6]. [1]. Hobbs leverte tidlig gode resultater i sprint, og lp bl.a. The murders still haunt me and I will ALWAYS want justice for Stevie, Michael & Christopher. While Jacoby beat one of the kids, Hobbs ordered Buddy and L. G. to pull off his pants. In West Memphis, Hobbs worked as an ice cream delivery man and Hicks worked at a restaurant. A documentary film about the 1993 killings, West of Memphis (a film paid for and produced by well-known director Peter Jackson), suggests (without making a direct accusation) that Terry Hobbs, stepfather of victim Stevie Branch, participated in the murders of the three boys. It remains unsolved in the minds of those who feel the West Memphis Three defendants are innocent. "I'd like to see this put to rest. After ending his first marriage, he wed Pamela Hicks Branch in 1986, when her son Stevie was almost 2 years old. At that point, according to Lucas's account, Terry Hobbs asked the two teenagers to get out and "wrestle" while he and Jacoby watched. Peter E. Borkon: Hon. Terry Hobbs, however, was not without his defenders. She said some very odd things about TH: "he gets a look that's plum(sp?) The mother of a boy killed in the well-known "West Memphis Three" case alleges that her ex-husband and his drinking buddies are the culprits who mutilated three cub scouts. 55-year-old Terry Hobbs is from Kinard. 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. The new documents. Also, the sister who caught Hobbs washing laundry in the middle of the fucking night! Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Branch who was under suspicion but never charged, said he welcomes new DNA testing. "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. He was home during the evenings when his wife worked a four-hour shift at Catfish Island. I didn't even comprehend that the situation could get this serious that it can go this far. Todd Moore, father of victim Michael Moore, found the evidence against Hobbs unpersuasive. I want to live and to continue to fight for our innocence. As rumors of a Satanic sacrifice swept the community, the minds of many in West Memphis were already made up. And the reason he was never questioned was because being a dude who was into dick in Arkansas in the 90s wasn't okayespecially among cops. 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. Hobbs is a city in Lea County, New Mexico, United States. (Amanda, incidentally, says she cannot recall any sexual abuse by her stepfather.) "I knew from when I was real small that people were going to know who I was," Echols said in 1994. King reported that the man (with muddy feet, wearing a white cap, black pants, and a blue shirt) had blood on his face and arm and appeared "mentally disoriented," but had left the restaurant a few minutes before the officer arrived. To this day, it is still unclear who is responsible for the killings. You can get your copy Here. Shockingly, according to Stewart, when he tried to call West Memphis Police investigator Bill Sanders to tell him the story he had heard from Buddy Lucas, Sanders never even bothered to return his phone calls. Terry Hobbs absolutely killed the boys and the neighbor girl said he had seen them right before the boys died. 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. On top of Terry possibly molesting Stevie and being very jealous of him, I've no doubt Pam kissing another man and then the subsequent murders is just glaring motive. The tale of three metal-loving misfits who may have been scapegoated for being different resonated with many, including several prominent musicians, celebrities and activists. The suit names all three members of . I'm digging into this right now. Terry Hobbs absolutely killed the boys and the neighbor girl said he had seen them right before the boys died. He had a penchant for wearing all black, and he liked heavy metal music, horror and science fiction. Sometimes justice is neither pretty, nor is it perfect, but it was important to take this opportunity to be free.. The darkest shit about all of this, is that they sensationalized this case as some bullshit Satanic fantasy. and all of it just covers up the sobering truth: this kind of child murder happens every day. Misskelley and Baldwin got life sentences while Echols received the death penalty. Although blood scrapings were taken, the West Memphis police lost the evidence. 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