A Gathering Storm
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available in all states and situations. Love is a motive.

It's a ten of love turn, a lethal featured in a during wife, a pendent queen.

This was a whole lot of gorgeous woman.

and at center stage a charismatic guitar hero.

Just charme. No.

everybody loved. He was planned. And I suppose for quite some time.

two women, one man, a love triangle with sharp edges.

and at one point, and me, that he wanted to know what I D like to .

kid in twisted game of hearts, how many would have to pay the Price.

he called, know that russ was dead.

How far with things go?

I looked 71点。 He is a manhunt.

would strength from the northwest down to mexico, and runs smack in the mother nature.

Your suspect is quite literally in the wind.

He's gone. I'm lester halt, and this is deadline. Here's .

just makers.

Love, according to the song writers, is a many splendor thing. Financial empires have been built on our annual image to hearts and flowers. But this story is about people caught in the powerful grip of loves, darker, sad obsession. IT involves talented and beautiful people.

washington smart .

people whose obsessions made them do stupid things, passionate people caught in an emotional world land, the jury find the defender, and finally, innocent people who paid the Price when those passions ran a muck. IT all began, of course, on a dark and stormy night.

They now expect what they're calling worst to case scenario.

IT was August two thousand four, friday the thirteenth, hurricane charlie was hammering florida's gulf coast, particularly the coastal city of porto gorda.

A message to you now is urgency and safety.

Get into your safe room right now and hacker down. That night, gene hudden says her life was quite literally in shambles.

I staying around the hurricane by myself in the house, and much my house come part around my ears.

Sixty miles to the south. Jean's husband, jim, was hold up in a hotel hiding not from the storm, but from his past.

He was scared, so he figured he get well again was good.

As soon as the worst of the storm had blown over, jean says SHE joined her panic husband. They ordered pizza and turned on the TV.

The losses are substantial.

but gene couldn't concentrate on the hurricane news. The personal storm that was wrecking her marriage and ruining her life took president.

There was A A big tension fest. We talked, and I asked a lot questions, you know, why and what are you thinking? And what are you gonna?

now? IT was a messy situation. Betrayal, deception, desertion. The usual menu of this function that all too often falls under the category of another woman. But there was more due than that.

much more a homicide .

investigation was at stake, one that just days earlier had LED detective mark plumbers from width island, washington, all the way to punto, ga, florida. He was hot on the trail of a potential suspect. And then came the hurricane didn't .

think he was going to stick around for us to come back.

So the hurricane comes and goes. And your suspect is quite literally in the wind.

He's gone for detective plumber.

The twisted trail that had made him from wibbling land, washington to south florida began six months earlier. Just after Christmas two thousand three, a geo tracker, a small S, U, V, had been spotted in a secluded driveway in a remote section of webby island. Passenger door open, don't light on.

The first thought was possibly a suicide, but on initial investigation, they couldn't find a weapon.

Standing in the damp december cold, the detective took stock. The body inside appeared to have been dead for twenty four hours. I D found in the glove box indicated the dead man was named Russell Douglas. A ragged ID hole between his eyes had frozen his age at thirty two.

IT was a robbery. Whole lot of stuff left buying in the car that didn't make sense.

Just inside the driver side door, an empty three eighty calibre shall casing lay on the floor. The detective thought he was a curious place for homicide near .

the end of a dead and road parked in to bushes as though he meant to be there with his car and gear, his emergency break on and casually addressed in flip lops sounds .

like he was to meet someone.

That was the only thing that really made sense to us.

but who the detective hope Russell Douglas, widow bruna Douglas, might shed some light on that. But that night, when he told her the father of her two children had been murdered, the detective's says he got a strange feeling.

I never try to judge how people are going to react when I tell them things, but her response wasn't what I expected.

As not emotional. SHE wasn't shocked.

at least not visually shocked. IT was a bit matter of fact, and that did leave us at least wondering when we walked out of the house. yes.

And so banda Douglas, as the wives of murdered men often do, became a person of interest. The domestic situation seemed unsettled. They were separated.

Russell was living in an apartment in rent, according to brand a. They were trying to work IT out, talking about getting back together.

In fact, the new widow told the detective that her husband had spent the holidays with her and the kids.

SHE said. The last time he saw him was the morning of december twenty six. He left the house somewhere midmorning and that he thought he was going to run some errands.

Brand A D, S.

Have an alii. SHE didn't need an alibi. At the time we went to talk to IT was basically a death notification. SHE was able to answer our .

questions for us who didn't like rustle dals.

Nobody could think of someone who really, truly didn't like him.

As winter turned to spring, the detectives investigation seemed to be going nowhere. But a routine check of the numbers and rustle Douglas is cell phone, had yielded at a tiny clue.

There were a few phone calls to a number with a lost vegas area code, and we made a phone call to that number. There was no answer. I went to an answering machine.

That was the cell phone voice. Mae IT was a person's voice.

IT was a cell phone voice, male for a woman .

named Peggy. Peggy, that's a name. You'll here again. The detective made a middle note to have that number traced, but within minutes of hanging up his phone ring.

and there was a female who said he had just got ten a phone call from that number, and SHE identified herself as Peggy Thomas explain that he was a friend of brenner and Russell doulas.

Peggy Thomas told the detective she'd been visiting friends over the holidays and explained that he had simply contacted russia in order to pass along a present for bruna.

SHE answered all of my questions to my satisfaction. There was nothing about that phone call that made me included in the suspect list.

But then again, the detective suspect list was essentially a blank page. There were no names on IT from florida or nevada or new mexico or any of the other places. This investigation would eventually lead them, at least not yet.

Coming up the begins close to home with the dead man's on again, off again wife.

you don't want to believe the other grateful be a suspect.

but a wife as a potential person of interest is just the beginning in this cross country tale of love gone wrong.

Death never takes a holiday as a nurse. Gale neel knows that Better than most still, SHE was unprepared for the news that greeted her when he returned home from a late shift. Two days after Christmas, two thousand and three minute.

I open the door, I saw my husband on the phone, and IT was like, something hit me in the pit of the stomach just by his face. And then he said, russels guy.

gone, gone, where, as far as gale knew, her son's rocky marriage was on the mend. And i'm thinking.

so is this another drama filled call from bruna that they had another argument or something? And what bob done is distributed. The words that brenna had given him was that Russell had been killed. And then all I could do is just go sit down and just sit there for oil.

Russels sister holy got the same call from Russell s. Wife SHE instantly assumed russels personal troubles. We're to blame. My first thought .

was that he had probably committed suicide, so I was in shock and then realized I needed to get over the island for brand and the kids .

and alaskan bush pilot delivered the news in person to Russell father jim, who was in the wilderness hunting and unreliable by phone. He said, your sons did. And I had to say, of course, which one.

And Russell, and I mean, he didn't know a whole lot about anything other than he knew he was important to get me out there. Russell, brother matt was the last to know. He too had been out of cell phone range for several days of vacation. And in british columbia.

we drove across the border and our friend's vehicle and my phone had had a seizure. IT started buzz for every voice, male message in text message that had been sent in its matt, call me, matt call me, matt.

call me. Within days of his death, Russell Douglas is far flung family reunited on .

with islands around .

ba leonor .

and living ed in her bedroom.

A lot SHE definitely was like, sad, nothing that seemed to be getting done. And so I kind of ended up taking over the orange organization of the house. What do we do for meals?

Russell dougall had left behind a lot of unfinished business. The oldest of three children born to gym gale before they divorced. Russell had been a late bloomer, but adulthood intruded early. Shortly after he started dating bruna, SHE began pregnant marriage, and paranoid did little to help him mature.

I think he was morning in missing, being an eighteen year old who had a lot of dates and drank. And when I was the guys, yeah, he did a little of that in college.

but not a lot run, fought often over children, money and russels affairs with other women.

She'd called me after a really rough supposedly argument and acid ball, is he but he hurting you? Is he? Is he hitting you? And he said, now, really, he isn't physical. It's just emotional, verbal. But i've hit him a .

couple times earlier that year.

Russell had separated from branda. He taken an apartment near seattle and had a new girlfriend for his family. The ongoing drama of Russell of life was exhAusting.

He stopped talking to basically all of us. I think he was so angry with the whole situation. He just saying, I i'm cutting off everything.

But then just after thanksgiving, all that seem to change, Russell, that recently changed jobs and was close to complete an online masters degree program. And as Christmas approached, Russell reached out to family members and told his brother map that he wanted to reconcile with his wife.

He said, no, I think I need to start doing the right things. Brand na wants me back. I want her back. I want to be involved in the kid's life.

Then, for reasons they could not find them, their son, their big brother, was dead, and the family became defensive when detectives suggested that Russell's wife, brenner, may have had something to do with his murder.

You don't want to believe that anybody that you've known for that long, or is a mother with grandkids, whatever, be a suspect.

So gale offered to help her daughter in law hire a lawyer.

One of the detectives seemed a little strong, armed, and I said, you know, you also need to get an attorney for all of your business affairs. So let me see if I can find somebody for you.

The financial picture for brenna and the children was monkey Russell and brenna had filed for bankrupcy a few years earlier. And though bina owned her own here salon in this upscale shopping center, Russell had handled the business end of things. If there was a bright spot during those dismore days IT was that Russell ouglat did have some life insurance.

I think when IT comes down to that, he had a total of three life insurance policies, each one a couple hundred thousand dollars. I want to say.

in fact, the face value of those policies was more than half a million dollars. That money would come in handy, particularly since branda was under pressure to buy the house she'd been renting from a woman who used to work at her hair salon. The land lady's name was Peggy, Peggy Thomas. In those last dying days of two thousand and three russia duglas, his family had no idea how large that name would love for them in the months and years to come.

Coming up, detectives get a call from a mystery man who says he knows who the killer is, but getting him to talk won't be easy. That sounds like he's afraid for his own life.

he said. If I told you what I know, the shooters going to know that I told .

you when deadline continues.

By the spring of two thousand and four, detective mark plumber had been working the phones and knocking on doors for months, but getting nowhere.

I actually decided to just start over and do the entire investigation from step one, Oliver. Again.

he had a murder at a good address on his hands and many more questions than answers, who had brought rosell Douglas to this remote area of woodbee island on the day after Christmas, who put a bullet between his eyes, and why we ran out every .

lead I could run out and none of them connected to Russell.

Double money, love, pride, talk to homicide detectives. They say those teams come up all the time, all the time. And that seemed to fit.

We did find that Russell had several hundred thousand dollars in life insurance on, obviously, like you said, moneys a motive. Love is a motive. Pride is a motive .

for the detective. Those factors seem to point in the direction of Russell s. wife.

Not only had he been cheated on and publicly humiliated by Russell, but he was the name beneficiary of three life insurance policies he had taken out on himself. The problem was bran, as ali was salad. There were plenty of people who could confirm that they've been with her.

At the time Russell Douglas was killed, the detective knew he needed a break. And in july two thousand four, exactly seven months to the day after the murder of Russell Douglas, he got one. I was .

actually out canvassing and interviewing again, and I got a phone call that said we had had a tip on the Russell double homicide .

plumbers partner on the investigation, mike beach took the call.

I'm just calling to see if you have any unsolved homicides from december two thousand three and when as well is sir, we we actually have two in december of two thousand three. Which one are you're referring to? And he says the guy who got shut .

in the head beach says he didn't know if the color was the killer or someone related to the killer, but he knew he didn't want to lose.

I'm doing everything I can to keep this gentle man on the phone, because at that point he still hunt. Give me his name.

The caller was using an untractable calling card, and on the phone he seemed nervous.

He said, if I told you what I know, the shooters gona know that I told .

you that first call lasted more than an hour, but the copies learned neither the name of the color nor the killer .

he was still afraid to deal to give us any more information. So i'm doing everything I can to gain his trust just to keep talking to .

the informer agreed to call again the next day, and this time he was more forthcoming.

stated, I need to look for a girlfriend of the shooter that was from lost vegas. He kept saying the shooters .

where I am the color told beach that he was a retired air for service man and played in a band with the shooter. The shooter, he said, was his best friend.

I asked him again in to call the next day, and he said, I have to work, but I can call on thursday and I said, okay, well, i'll be here waiting and he almost swiss pred, the shooters, jim u.

Ton, jim hutton, in the age of google. That was all the brake mark plum berg needed. By the end of the day, the detect is knew that jim hudden lived in the florida and played in a band. And according to the band's website, one of its members was retired air force. And so the next time the collar phoned, detective beach was ready.

He was asking me, we're able doing things with what I gave a, and I still up, and I think i'm looking to picture you and the phone went quiet and he got, you guys are good or not good? IT IT was a simple google searching.

At last, the detectives had a solid lead, one that raised plenty of questions. Who was this jim hudden? And why was their tipster so willing to give him up? The cops knew the answers to those questions could not be found in a google search. They would have to fly a southwest florida at a time of year when violent storm clouds always seem to link just over the horizon.

Coming up was this a case of love turn lethal? Detectives learn about an affair between this beauty queen.

He was a and a man .

with a dark shine.

One point that he wanted to know what I felt like to kill somebody.

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Nearly five hundred years ago, a middle aged spanner came to this part of florida searching for the fountain of pants deli on never found IT.

But in one thousand .

nine hundred ninety two IT seems jim hudden did like daily on hudden was a middle aged launder. But unlike the kinks store, the local love, jim hudden James was always a happy go lucky. And he was .

a onderstand human being.

very woody guy, just charming.

Now everybody loved him.

a native of washington state humans. First fans in put to gorda, where customers, that is, computer store former mayor mara mi, one of those was brilliant with computers.

In fact, you could go in there and they would build a computer for you.

But IT was humans banned, bucked naked. And the exhibition, onions, bnx for short, that made him one of the most popular people input to gorda. Tim goodman played keyboards in the band.

We had two names to decide on IT was bucked naked in the exhibition is or less more in the contradictions. So we picked book naked and but he came up with both names. I mean, that's the way as brainwork, he's brilliant. y.

Bill hill, the man's base player, says hudden was also a guy who never liked to let wives or girlfriends get in the way of a good time.

I had a lot of fun.

safe to say that you were kind of his wingman. He covered for you.

You covered for now. Yes, indeed.

Golden oldies like Wilson pick at six, three, four, five, seven, eight, nine were the bands bread, butter.

Leads in your al hand used to perform with the platters. He said that whenever buck naked played, people would dance. We would back the place every single friday and the day night, and I would just be one very big part of the band was so hot, in fact, that jim hutton eventually turned over the computer store to his top assistant, gene spender, so he could concentrate on music.

I kind of pushed him towards to doing that because I knew that was his love, and that's where he was most happy. Where you love with them very much. So I love that man very much.

So much so that in december two thousand, one, after six years of liming together, jim and jim got married in los vegas.

And I was task by gene if I would walk her down. Was he .

happy? No.

all smiles. Both them were all smiles.

but the smiles did not last all. In june two thousand and two, jim hudden returned here to washington state for the funeral of an old friend. And IT was here.

That fate intervene. A tall red hair beauty caught my eye. IT was the beginning of a love triangle, one that would read the lives of all the people who were involved and some who were not. The woman in question was Peggy, thus a widdy island hairstylist who also doubled in beauty pageants. In fact, in two thousand one, Thomas represented the state of washington in the last vegas's paged.

winning the evening competition.

Leslie burke lin got to know Peggy tomas a few years earlier when he was just breaking IT to the beauty pages. Circuit berkman, who was once on the reality T V show big, rich texas.

I still consider myself.

says Peggy Thomas was working as an auto mechanic at the time.

You couldn't not notice Peggy because he was a whole lot of gorgeous woman.

Would you say she's a typical pageant contestant? Not nineteen ninety eight. Here's this beautiful lumpsum red had gorgeous woman and he was a mechanic. SHE had this guy kind of job. I just sort of added to her sexy peal. Though jean says he knew nothing of her husband's budding affair at the time, he did notice that he had returned from his friend's funeral a change man, secretive solon and withdrawn.

I think James, sister, not. And men should. Peggy, to me and I didn't quite put two and two together. You made some comment about them being there at funeral, and I just click, didn't get.

Jean says SHE later found emails and letters from this Peggy and that the woman even called her home looking for jam. But jean says that jim told her Peggy was simply a music contact who could get him gigs in losses. Gas, tourism, to be sure. But jean says IT was her husband's heavy drinking that really had her concerned.

He started drinking constantly at home and, you know, drinking to web literate himself, basically to himself. And then he started making trips out west.

Did you at the time think that there was another woman?

No, no, no idea.

There is, of course, no cure for willful blindness. But bill hill, human's faithful wingman, knew the truth about those out of town trips, because sometimes he'd been along for the ride.

We came out to last vegas. The reason that he asked me to go was a cover form.

He was saying, Peggy, yes, tell you about jim's relationship .

with begging. Is our .

loving kisses really more so than with gene, who was waiting for back home? yes. Before long, other band members say that they too began seeing the same changes in gym, that trouble gene, heavy drinking and erratic behavior.

We go through a fifty crown oil in the night, and one night i'm call in court changes to the base player. And he howlers at me, me in the middle of a song. Quit criticising the base player or something like that.

And I back at as IT once, just keep her mothy. I'm doing my job over here. And he shot his guitar off and walked off stage, which is about the most unprofessional thing you can do.

After that, the bands days were numbered, and seemingly so were the days of gene humans marriage. But jean says the drinking and philandering were not the worst of IT.

Jim, at one point, had told me that he had wanted to know what like .

to kill somebody. He had had one that, yes.

is deep, dark secrets.

And you say, what? sure. A great idea, honey.

I didn't know what to say.

Who would jim could only guess that what was behind this sudden change?

He lost his dad when he was, I believe, ten, seven years old. And his mom dated a series of men throughout that were abusive, we know, drunk. And he saw his mom get beat up many, many times. He wasn't able to do anything, and he or he saw he would get this guy. But the man who mostly beat her has since passed away.

Gene didn't know if something back in washington had triggered her husband's black moods, but he says he remained determined to pull him through.

I love that man more than life itself. At the time I was so in love with him, I thought he was .

the one even though he was in the process of treating like, right.

I was opening.

could be stablish then came the day in june two thousand and three when the cold, hard facts of her husband's affair could no longer be denied. Jim moved out, telling gene that he needed a change of scenery for his music. Jee.

new Better. It's like you're going back to see pegging. I like go get out.

Don't ever come back again. And he didn't want to hear that. He still wanted me to be hanging on while he had Peggy as well.

That moment of clarity, IT turns out, was shortly lived all that summer while jim hudden set up housekeeping with pegging in her two daughters out in los vegas. Jean says her husband kept red dangling with promises that his daddies with Peggy Thomas was over heat soon be home, he told her. And for gene, that was a reason to believe.

I thought, everyone hope I didn't want let go.

And for a brief moment in september of two thousand and three, jean says that looked as if her perseverance would pay off. Jim invited her out the loss vegas for her forty of birthday for several days. He wind and died her, but her dreams of a happy ending, SHE says, vanished when her husband turned to her in bed one night and told her he intended to make his darkest dreams come true. There was a man out in washington he told her who needed to die.

Coming up, not the kind of thing a wife wants to hear, but jee has an even bigger shock.

Coming is like and kicked in the stomach life and IT was over .

in that point when deadline continues.

They say that what happens .

in vegas .

stays in vegas. No one wanted that slogan to be true more than gene hudden did. Especially since vegas was where her husband had told her he intended to kill a complete stranger. He wanted to know what I would .

feel like to kill someone .

if nobody y's ever said that to .

me before you mme either.

But this was not to be a thrill killing, according to gene. Her husband believed murdering the victim he had in mind would be a kind of public service.

He just said he beat his children and beat his wife and didn't take care of his family. And just an abusive made .

him so exactly like the guy that german growing us. Exactly what did jim said he was going to do?

Well, he said pegg's friend brenna that approached him and that he would share the insurance money with a murder for heart.

Do you try to talking out of this?

I did. I thought he was just talking. I was just hoping he would get over .

IT IT had been a tough year for mr. And mrs. huddle. The death of a childhood friend had sent jim huddle spinning off into a hall of fame worthy middle crisis that ran the gamer from alcoholism and a dottery to veg notions of murder just didn't .

think he would follow her with IT, and he didn't even know how to .

shoot a gun by Christmas. Two thousand and three things seem to a hit rock bottom. Instead of returning home with gene after their romantic reunion in los vegas, jim had stayed out west. Did you think he was was thing .

I at that point I thought, so yeah, I mean, I knew what was going on and I knew I was over. And I just, there was no point in confronting M. C. I would lie about IT anyway.

abandoned and alone, jeans spent the holidays waiting forward from jim. Then in early january, jean says her phone ring, her husband was on a line. But jim hudden wasn't calling to wish his wife a happy new year. According to jan, he was calling to tell her that dreams do come true. He had killed a man in cold blood.

He just said he was done and he was coming back the murder. Yes, would you say? I think I was speechless at the time.

I, I just, I think I asked if he was okay. And does anyone know where they after year? I just basically ask you was okay.

Your husband had just confused that he had committed .

a murder and hire I was just, there was like kicked in the stomach. I just, I mean, I knew, was I new life, because I know that was over that point.

Jean says her husband drove through the night, pulling into their garage and print a gorda after dark. The next day.

he basically told me how they had lowered rustle to a certain spot on the island and how he came out of some bushes and walked up to him and just shot him in the head. Then he made IT sound like, you know, was kind of gentle and peaceful, and then know his heads tilted over.

And he he had this dark secret that he wanted to know what I would be like to kill someone. Did he live up to his expectation?

At first he said for a few days he felt like a big man, and he was exhilarating. And he thought he accomplish something, rid the world of someone who didn't need to be there anymore. But then he started to close in on him, and then he wasn't such a big man. And no, he knew he had made a terrible mistake.

Based on what jim told you, the brand buglers offer any shred of proof that her husband was abusive, or the gym just kind of commit that murder pretty much unfaith.

pretty much unfaith as far as I knew, because I have come to find out later, there are no records of him, and there are no reports of domestic abuse as far as I understand.

After laying low for a while, jean says, jim gradually started picking up the pieces of his old life in from to gorda. As the week's past, jean says SHE even allowed herself to think that perhaps the ugly ness of the past two years was in the best, that is, until the April day, when a tall, red headed stranger appeared on her doorstep.

Jim was doing a local radio show here in the morning, and I was at home, and there's a knocked on the door. I open the door. And Peggy Thomas, standing on my door.

said in that ic instant, jim hud's complicated double life collapse, as the women dog jean says, IT became clear that both had been lied to. Both believe jim was done with the other and committed to them.

He was playing a supose for quite some time, trying to keep us both apart from each other.

So there you are with Peggy and jim. Not there for how long?

Not long. Because I called the radio station and suggested he get home real fast. He stopped the show and game home and begin. I are sitting there. How do you look in that good?

So what am are that meeting?

There is a lot .

of yelling to yelling.

I mean, I was yelling at her. He knew he was .

married and saying, I was like.

there's nothing was a fe IT was. And at that point he needed to make a choice. And he said he was gone to stay with me.

although gene says pee agreed to leave them in peace and return the laws. Vegas a few weeks later, he was back, this time showing up unannounced and a reunion gig for jims old band but make IT in the exhibitionist bill hill says the moment he saw her face in the audience, he knew he was trouble. Trouble because shortly after returning to put the garta, jim hudnut told him that Peggy had helped jim murder a man who remind the gym of someone he known as a child, a man who'd allegedly beaten and abused James mother.

I would have done him in if he was still alive. And he says, I found a person that met his description as far as abusiveness, mrs. Wang, this is what I hadn't, children. No chance that .

he was kidding or not telling .

the truth. I was peggie found a person that supposedly what was abusive, and that happened to be the husband of a woman that owned the herself and would be island, I believe.

worked.

We're pegging work.

yes. So picking you all about this, he helped them for five months. Bill hill says he struggled under the weight of that confession. Then in late july two thousand four, his conscience finally get the Better of him.

I decided to make my first call. Your first call to would be island to the police. Yes, to the island county sheriff felt guilty. I was given up my friend, but I knew something had .

to be done within .

days of that call. Detectives mark plumber and mike beach. We're sitting face to face with both their tipster, bill hill, and their suspect. The artist formerly know as bucket naked .

coming up, the interrogation gets tough. You know what .

you ve told bill guys follow apart over the guilty Carry around because you told what .

you will jim crack, or will detectives realize they've got the wrong man?

For seven months after rustle, Douglas was shot between the eyes, police said little more to go on than a corpse and an empty jell, gazing with their case at a dead end would would be island detectives desperately wanted to believe that bill, the tipster who had LED them to florida, was something other than a crackpot with an external.

When we first landed in florida, we met with bill hill, confirmed the story. We wanted to meet him face to face. Obviously, what was his mood? He was a bit nerve. I think he was still in that mode where he knew he turning in his best friend.

Once again, bill hill told the detectives what he knew, that his best friend, jim hutton had told him he'd killed a man. And we d be island. And that human's girlfriend, peggie Thomas, and helps set up the whole thing with the knowledge of the victim's wife, IT, was a compelling story, but was no murder weapon or any other physical evidence connecting jim ude to the murder of russia. Douglas, the detectives were no closer to being able to make an arrest.

The next day, we decide we have no cards other than to just go talk to jim hudden and see what he'll say to us.

After arranging to have a second team of detectives visit Peggy tha simultaneously in lazlo gas, the detectives drove over to gym hud's house. Jane answered the door.

I showed her my badge, my I, D, and said, I was from island county, washington. Jim was there? Yes, he was sitting .

on the couch and he says, what? What's island county, washington doing?

All here are. Oddly enough, he didn't say anything like that.

The detective didn't beat around the bush.

and I looked in right in the face and I said, mister hudden, I know you're the man who pulled the trigger and killed Russell. That and his only response was to say, I don't know why someone would say that. I was sure at that moment I was in the room with the right .

man because an innocent man would say, well, you're crazy. I killed him or anybody else. I know what you're talking about.

He never once made a denial of my accusation.

Hudden admitted to being on with bi island with Peggy tomas over the Christmas holidays, but denied ever owning a gun. He admitted to having briefly met rustle Douglas, but said IT was only to drop off a present at his apartment near seattle for bra from Peggy.

I asked if he'd be willing to come down to the police station with us. I said we'd like to get your story on tape.

He agreed. He doesn't .

have to go anywhere with.

Coffee every.

Once again, with tape oil, jim hudden freely admitted to being in washington at the time of the crime, to meeting rustle Douglas that, and to being a loud two timing husband. But that's where jim human drew the line.

For nearly hour, the interview covered old ground with occasional interruptions from detectives in las vegas who were at that very moment, grilling human's girlfriend.

Peggy donas. I my, I know there. I'd be surprised if is anything than more.

And he was right, like jim, Peggy wasn't giving the police anything in her interview. So detective mike beach decided to shake things up. But would this tactic get jim to talk .

coming up? It's Peggy stern to be interrogated. Will SHE give up.

Her lover said.

what just know that I love if you're never gna .

seen here here for me again. And Peggy herself.

she's onto the next man 而 me 7 is evil。

And the whole case goes self with a manhunt. T in mexico, when deadline continues.

Florida musician James hudden was in the middle, an intensive interrogation with detectives from wid by island, washington regarding the murder of Russell Douglas. Then came a question investigators thought would certainly get James attention. Who's bill .

hill and is a friend? Life lives your base player. Is that surprising that I know of bending? Yes, one.

Because you're from we be on what is surprised that i've been talked to all almost daily for the last week have. I was a great I just wanted to see a reaction up at that point. He was planned at pretty.

pretty cool.

And I think I got the reaction I was hoping for. IT kind of deflated him a bit. So we're truth of their time, jim. You know, when you've told bill use your best for in the whole world, the guys found a part over this, literally falling apart over the guilty Carrying around because you told what you get. I don't buy that.

If revealing bill hill as their source was intended to shock jim hudden in the confessing IT failed with no murder weather, no warrant and no authority to make an arrest in the state of florida, the detectives had to let their primary suspect go free. Were you worried all about bill hill? Now you've disclosed that he's the source of all this.

We make sure before we went back to washington that bill understood that we had to give his name. But my hope was that jim hudden would be far too worried about his own skin. Uh, then they have to worry about taking retribution on bill hill.

Easy for him to say bill hill remembers being terrified when he heard that his former friend now knew that he'd been the one who'd called the police.

哦， yeah.

scared to death watching your back.

Or yeah.

that terror was amplified a few days later when hurricane charley, which had been turning up the golf, suddenly made an unexpected turn and slammed into porto gorda, packing hundred fifty miles an hour winds, charly level parts of down, taking out electricity and giving plenty of covered to someone like jim hutton who might want revenge.

I slept on the couch in a room, room with the meter fifty seven under the under bill, literally.

because you thought .

jim was coming.

Yes.

how to sleep? Not very good.

As IT turns out, though, the detective was right, jim hudden had plenty on his plate and no intention of sticking around. In the days after two wide bi island detectives knocked on his door and accused him of murder, the man who had once performed under the name black naked suddenly felt very exposed. Jee huddle says her husband was sure of only two things the cops would be back, and he had no intention of ever wearing prison orange.

He told me he will never see me in a jumpsuit, meaning jail or prison cloth, like now he every intention of of killing himself before he came. That which .

brings us back to that hurricane, hurricane lie. Jean says that after the storm past jim, after heard to drive him to miami, he told her he wanted to spend one last night alone, drinking and gambling in a casino there. Before he committed suoi de.

and i'd left him with about four, five thousand dollars in appearance, and he was gonna go off and take himself out somewhere. You were cry. I was.

yesterday. Was he cry? Yes, he was. was. And so I drove away thinking, that was last time I have been see. And then I would be getting a knock on the door was asked him to be asking me to identify .

as for weeks, jean said he waited amid the ruins of her storm ravage home for word of jim's fate. SHE assumed he was dead and that's what he told the with the island caps, when they call to follow up.

there are several messages on the machine, you know, from them. And I called them back and I told them what they would that happen. It's like, well, now you've got your man. He's that there you go. Case assault .

but shortly after telling the police that jim had probably killed himself, the phone rang again. IT was greyhound bus lines in houston, texas.

They found the bag. They was left on the bus with jims name on IT with bodrum royal is closed. And the gun in IT. I got a phone call from my attack y saying that they had heard from jam and jam at a motel down in time.

The lawyer put gene in touch with jm and filled her in on his latest plan, a plan that could only succeed if gene greed to send jim money.

His plane was to get across the border and then go from there. And so i'd thank him yet more money and allowed him did no get out of the country.

which wasn't, at that point, my crime, since there were no charges inst at this point?

no.

And here's where our story takes, another bizarre turn. While gene hudden wife, jim, had cheated on for years, was willing to stand by her man and help him escape, the mexico police learned that Peggy Thomas, jim, humans lover and alleged a complex, was now willing .

to give him up and invoice.

In this interview with detectives, omas said that in a phone call shortly before he fled the mexico, jim had confessed to killing Russell Douglas.

He said, i'm sorry, I love you .

and never .

make you really involved in.

But I did. I did IT .

when I went for cigarets, so those they can be and they said, you know what, just know that I love you. You're never gonna see me here, here for me again.

With jim gone and no evidence tying Peggy to the murder, the detectives asked the public le's held in documenting the couple's movements. In december two thousand three, when russia Douglas was murdered.

we put out descriptions of the vehicle that they were driving. Just a few days after he hit the media, we got a phone call from the Donna hana counting share of office in to mexico, saying someone had turned in as a firearm that they believed might have been used in a homicide on widdy island.

Talk about luck .

doesn't get any Better than that.

The gun came from a former los vegas sherif deputy who had recently retired to new mexico. The deputy had known jim hudden and Peggy Thomas in los vegas, and in october two thousand three, the deputy said hutton had come to his house and asked to be shown how to shoot the gun. According to the deputy, the next time he saw either hudden or the gun was in january two thousand four, when jim hudden handed IT to win in a paper bag and asked him to hold IT for safekeeping.

We took the weapon for testing, and IT was matched to the showcasing from the tracker and also matched to the slug that was pulled from russ's brain urd web. That's the murder weapon.

And you have a guy telling you that, jm, he didn't .

gave IT to him, right? Not just the jim he didn't gave IT to him, but that he taught jim hudden to fire the weapon, and that jim hudden gave IT back to him just a few days after the murder of respond.

If you did that information before with the Flora, you could about jim him back and cuff you then instead, now you've ve got the proof. And jim, who does know where to be found.

right? We have all we need now. We just need gym.

Coming up with jim out of the picture, his lover, Peggy Thomas, a new man, a million air cowboy, was about to be taken for a wild ride.

I looked at as night. Me too, is you.

For nine months, the mystery of who killed rustle Douglas and why weight on his family then, as IT often does in this story, a ringing phone brought momentous news.

I got the call from the prosecutor who said, i'm telling you first that they thought they knew who I was.

Jim hud's name meant nothing to Russell family, but the name of human's girlfriend, Peggy Thomas did.

Peggy Thomas is the owner of the home that Russell and brand a rented that they had, had a verbal agreement that they were gonna buy if they could just come up with the capital.

Given that banna was the named beneficiary on russels life insurance policies, russels family wondered if his death was in some way part of a real estate deal.

I guess some of our family members kept thinking, did that? Did peggie maybe do this or set this all up because he thought that if berna got insurance money, SHE would buy the house and Peggy with the hands that instead cash.

Peggy thus appeared to be the only link between jim hudden and rustle. Douglas and IT wasn't just a circumstantial connection either. On page fourteen of the murder weapons owner's manual, investigators had found a fingerprint belonging to Peggy Thomas troubling. But what concerned Russell Douglas, his brother and sister, most was the fact that brand tt didn't appear to be the least bit upset about the prospect of her friend Peggy being involved in her husband's murder.

You worked with her and .

you're not saying a peep. You know, if IT was your friend something either disbelief or A I can't believe my friend did this. I want to make sure that they, you know.

let's go after, let's get in .

and I said, you know, when when you were really mad at risk that did you ever say the Peggy, while you guys were working together, that rush had some insurance money and that he'd Better to you dead than life and he said, well, I might have at at that point, I just kind of looked there and I thought, man, that does not give somebody a motive somewhere along the line.

Was this the case of angry words having unintended consequences? Or as some suspected, had ba actively recruit russels killers? The family couldn't know for sure. But that question now complicated their relationships with brenna and the grandchildren.

and we've tried to be as supportive as we could, especially for the kids. But I know he listens in another conversation, so it's a it's a very .

controlled .

conversation. But when IT comes .

to awkward telephone conversations, none could have been more strained than the ones that took place between jim humans lover and .

jim human's wife after he fled to mexico. You know her first, if I had heard from jam or anything like that.

and you were told her.

I told her, we, I want, the cops said, I said, I didn't tell her anything about why.

just not think of the phone.

I don't know. I don't know this.

James. This is James. mr. But that's not all. Jean says that he was able to stay in contact with gym while he was in mexico, and the gym asked her to fly out to vas to meet with Peggy, face to face and keeper in the loop.

We did have jim common. I never told her where he was. I did tell her that I knew, you know, he was okay.

That was just very weird. I mean, we went out and had to ranks and saw band. And I really found IT hard hater as much as I want to .

to as months passed and jim human's trail grew older, the lives of the women who had loved him took drastically divergent, while gene grew steadily. Poor supporting jail. The ever resourceful Peggy, now a limo driver in veg, hit the jackpot in two thousand and seven. One of her fares turned out to be this man, mark Allen, a new mexico horse breeder, and air to an oil fortune.

The limo people ask me up, do you want know some guy? The x miss washington, I take x missive. I didn't.

Five months after meeting Peggy Thomas, Allen says he asked her to marry him.

Deep, biggest mistake made my life.

Within months of moving to his new mexico range, Allen says Peggy was nosing her way into his horse business, pressing into fire lang time employees and higher friends of hers.

You know, he wanted heard people to do the accounting instead .

of when he refused, Allen says the man magnet turned into a man .

either SHE don't mean, is like a day is like a man. Good, pretty good. Says one. I looked in her eyes and I, I mean, she's evil. He is evil.

But if Peggy time has married well, SHE divorced even Better. Alan says he gave her money and an eighty foot sebold just to go away.

The divorce took late, way longer than the americans did.

Looking back, mark Allen says he should have known Better. He says a few days before they're wedding, Peggy let him in on a little secret.

SHE said that SHE was accused of being involved in a murder and at her ex boyfriend, a killed guy, he said, but I didn't have not the death and said, or did you take light detector? SHE said, no, my loye told me not to. If you're innocent, why would you take a lighting teacher? And he never give me good either.

IT should be noted that although mark Allen says his brief marriage to pig Thomas cost him dearly, SHE did give him at least one .

chuckle in two thousand nine.

after one of his horses won the conductive, darby Allen says he saw peggie quoted in the press was he .

said he was down near training horses in brain horses. Peggy can't even step by bone hours .

coming up. Whatever happened to jim, the fugitive from justice, and his .

wife jean be able to come back to.

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By the spring of two thousand and eleven, Russell Douglas had been dead for more than seven years. His suspected killer was still on the loose because the only person on earth who knew his true wearables wasn't talking to detectives. I mean.

you've been watching me for years.

I ve had my phones. Police were pretty .

sure that you are sure they had a good idea, right? Course they.

the man no longer known as buck naked, had been able to build a new life for himself in mexico. And even played the occasional gig.

I isn't very cruel. Mexico actually went down a few times the same and course to bring in more money. He was teaching music to kids. And in the music school down there. I fly up to dollar airport and then up to campas, and then the mexico city and change planes and SHE know so they couldn't track how I was going and how was getting to him or we'd meet in other cities. I never flew directly to him, so, you know, so they couldn't trace me, you know, to get to him.

But that kind of devotion doesn't come cheap. Jim's life on the lamp has taken a toll on gene's health, and it's devour the inheritance he received when her mother died.

Then the man cost me everything I had. I spent every die I had. I lost my house. I lost my livelihood.

sorry. And yet, after her father died in two thousand and seven, gene says SHE seriously considered joining her husband in mexico, where he was known as mystery jim, and sharing his life as a fugitive.

I knew what board at crossing I was taken. I had a new ID. I was getting ready to leave and not be able to come back to this country.

Rest of my life maybe could die.

The shoot out. Yeah, exactly. You know, I probably what what to happened because, you know, is he probably would have taken me out next.

That did not happen for one reason. Just days before he planned to join jam, gene met this man, bill bruner and fell in love.

And he finally made me see what fool's sh thing that would be to do. And for some reason I I listened to bill, and now he's he saved my life, basically.

So love going to rect your life, and love also saved your life.

Yeah, I didn't guess he did. He did.

Because of bill, jean gave up her dream of rejoining jim hudden, but IT wasn't until the spring of two thousand eleven. The bill bruner convinced her to give up the addiction. That was jim.

I just finally, I had enough. You know, I know, I know jim doesn't love me. He didn't care about me when he did what he did, and he still doesn't care about me, and probably even less so. Now the amount of .

money more than that, gene had herself gotten as a legal trouble after jim fled to mexico in exchange for immunity from prosecution on some drug and check forgery charges, gee told authorities all SHE knew about the murder of rusal Douglas and just where jim hudden could be found.

They're not interested me. Then they wanted jim that they said they would not prosecute me, and I certainly hope they stick to their words.

In june two thousand eleven, mexican authorities picked up the man variously known as buck naked or myo jam in very cruise and quickly turned him over to waiting U. S. Marshals. When the plane Carrying jim back to washington stayed landed in seattle, he was greeted by athlete million face. And you said, what, jim, nice to see you again.

I said, jim, i'm not sure if you remember me, but i'm here to score you back to island counting and I said, you're under no obligation to talk to me and he immediately said, I don't want to you should say.

years earlier.

probably what would have been .

a good idea for the foreseeable future jim hudden would be wearing exactly the ensemble he had for so long sought to avoid. Immediately after hud's arrest, detectives began trying to track down his former lover, peg Thomas, a routine computer data search LED police to this leg in new mexico, where they discovered Peggy time has kept an eighty four house boat that SHE gotten in her divorce from mark Allen. They said he was a really nice person, that he was single and that he had put the name off the hook on her boat due to the fact that he was single. Rice current.

Then I captain with the same one county shares office, says Peggy Thomas was Moored back to the mariner with a bogus promise that there was a package waiting for her current says he didn't seem all that surprised when he placed her under arrest SHE had an attorney and that sh'd been waiting for this day and um was confronted to get IT over with maggy Thomas was all business currently and wasted none of her legendary charm on him. Now just enough time for her to make fun of me, make fun of my braces and how Young I looked. SHE thought it's beamy older, SHE said after waiting seven long years, Russell Douglas, his family was in late, that his suspected killers were in jail. But russels wife, not so much.

And I called brenner and IT was kind of a stn silence for a little bit. And then IT was like, og, but good. But IT was not the esthetic. Thank god, something that I was really wanting to hear in july .

two thousand and eleven, when rustle Douglas family gathered in solidarity for jim human's first court appearance, Russell swither was conspicuous absent. I asked her .

was like you and go? She's like, why what I go? IT doesn't doesn't concern me. I just didn't quite seem right.

IT would take another year before jim hudden and the wife of the man, he was accused of killing SAT in the same courtroom. And when they did, all eyes would be on her .

coming up bona Douglas. Could he have anything to do with the plot to kill her husband said.

well knows .

about this.

Jim hudden and Peggy Thomas were charged with the murder of rustle Douglas in the summer of two thousand and eleven. From that moment with the island prosecute, greg banks had been hoping they would turn on each other and spill the details of what had happened on the day russia was killed. That was the plan, but that didn't happen, did not happen. Why they're still in love. They wouldn't n .

on each other. You know, if you get a chance to interview them.

you can ask them. Because gene hudden was still married to jim, the prosecutor decided to split the case and try gym Peggy separately.

We needed gene to testify against Peggy, but washington as a rule that says, you can't call the spouse against a defendant.

So we've tried human bag is separately. Jean can testify IT against beg.

right? And we didn't need to against june.

And so in july two thousand and twelve, more than a year after his wife had given him up, jim hudden went on trial for the murder of Russell Douglas. The opening statement of the island county prosecutors set the town.

ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this case is about the assassination of rustle Douglas on the day after Christmas two thousand. Three banks promised .

the jury that the evidence would show that jim hudden and an accomplice, lord Russell Douglas, to his death with the promise of a Christmas gift for his wife, bra.

James hudden did not even know rust Douglas, but his accomplish.

jim hudden, he declared, was the trigger man.

Ter human walked up to that car. He opened the door, he looked, came right in the face, and at a distance of less than four ages, used the three eighty semi automatic handgun to put a bullet between his eyes.

The prosecutor began by calling the one person that police still believed knew more about this case. And SHE .

was saying.

las, the dead man's widow on the stand brand, not identified a picture of peggie Thomas and said, they used to cut here together in two thousand three, he said he ran at the house from begging.

Did you two become close?

Yeah, we talk.

IT was just talk stuff. Did you talk .

about personal things with her?

yeah. According to brand, her rocky marriage to russia doubles was among the things he talked to Peggy tomas about. He had a lot of issues, throwing furniture around in different things, and how we treated the kids. And I IT just wasn't okay when you .

and rest went through a separation. Is that the sort of thing you might talk to peggie about?

Yeah, that I talk to most people about probably too much.

And why do you say that that you talk to most people too much? Are you a person who likes to share? I chat. Do you know James?

And and how .

is that that you met mr. don.

Peggy IT was on that connection to hudden and those women to women conversations between berna and Peggy that the prosecutor based his theory of the murder. Brenna told Peggy her husband was violent. Peggy told jim, and jim put the trigger. The prosecutor explained why mister .

hudden pulled the trigger and Russell Douglas as a way of exercising his own personal demons.

That point was underscored when humans, old based player bill hill, took the stand and told the court about the day jim human share .

his darkest secret need. Tell you about the something that my mind, as jim hudden twente, ed.

his teeth and stared daggers at his former close friend bill hill, continued and .

proceeded to tell me that my step father that used to beat me and beat my mother always have hated that man wanted to find somebody else fit their M. O. And then he said they did find a person that fit said .

in holding language. Hill told the same story. He told police eight years earlier, the Peggy ton has aided in the execution of Russell Douglas and that Russell widow .

bra had known about IT well knows about this .

did tell you yes.

he said the only people that knew was him pegging his wife gene and the woman at the r hair shop that SHE didn't play much of a part. But you know, what was gonna happen?

No evidence was offered to butterless that charge, no incriminating emails, no cell phone records, no suspicious money transfers. The question of brand a Douglas is possible. Involvement in our husbands' murder was simply left hanging in the air for everyone to ponder .

states next to witness is key augment.

Next, the prosecutor presented the story of a gun keh augment a retired losses ga is laman told the court that jim hudden came to his home in late october two thousand three, just two months before Russell Douglas was killed to talk about a gun. Jim had just purchased each of me that he registered from somebody in the newspaper .

in los vegas.

Did you ever see IT? Yes, sir, when jim, he didn't brought IT over to my house to show, show him how to use IT. This raised red hand, a ballistic expert testified that bullet taken from rosell Douglas's head came from jim hud's gun.

This bullet was fired from this person. 3d auto。

Given those facts.

IT seemed odd that the murder weapon wasn't simply dropped into the puget sound, but keh augen told the court that in early january, just days after the murder, jim hudden had asked him to keep the gun in a safe place. Please take the stand. The last witness for the prosecution was detective mark lombok. He told the court that while he was questioning hudden net his home back in two thousand four, hudden asked a rather hard question of him.

He said, is Peggy angry enough at me that he would implicate me in this?

Had you told mr. Hudden that Peggy Thomas had implicated him.

I did not. I had not implicated Peggy Thomas, and I had not suggested that he had any knowledge or part in the crime .

enclosing the prosecution played the video take statements human later made to island county detectives down at the putative ard to a police station.

That would be the only time this jury heard the sound of jim hud's voice during this trial. Please give your attention to the .

opening statement of a turn.

Monitor began his defensive of jim hut with a quote from the musical man of law.

ladies gentlemen.

Picture the enemy of truth you heard.

right? He told the jury in a first degree murder case that facts are the enemy of truth. Perhaps it's fitting that monta, who had just recently appeared in a local production of man of lama, quoted 短期 后 的 who famously imagined windmills to be giants， he is defensive. Jm would also require a fair amount of imagination not telling .

you that his side is wronger. My side is right. I want you to address the facts .

critically, because the facts will show you more than one outcome. Among the possible conclusions that monta suggested might be drawn from the known fact in the case was that russia Douglas had shot himself. Did anyone request that you test or preserve his hands for possible gn shut resides?

No, we do preserve things for trace evidence, but that's why the sheet was used inside of the body bag.

So no one tested his hands for a gunshot resident.

not to my knowledge katcha perhaps, but no gun was found in the car, and the fatal bullet had been traced to a gun known to have belonged to jim hudden.

Was mr. Douglas body still in the vehicle at that time?

I was OK toi suggested russ ll. Doubles was killed somewhere else, perhaps by someone other than jim hudden. And they are placed in the car at the crime scene.

I'm not finding any blood of any sort.

a blood spatter expert, doctor john, nor be, was called to testify in support of that theory. According to doctor nordby, the cars interior should have been covered in blood if that was where Russell Douglas had been shot. The shooting seemed to me like I did not occur in this vehicle, because there are empty spots where you would expect blood to be permission .

to approach the witnesses.

Runner, yes, of course, examination prosecutor banks chAllenge the defense is only expert witness pointing out that in his written report on the case, doctor nord be had cited the movie pulp fiction as a good example of the kind of blood spatter he'd expected to sea in rustle Douglas, his car. The two characters in the film were facing in front, and they actually got bx Better. The bullet went, told the back seat, but the went toward the front. So that's the illustration I was meaning to convey.

okay. So you chose to rely on an illustration from a fictional movie produced in hollywood to help describe this scenario. correct?

I guess trying. The final defense theory was that jim hudden had an alii. Ron yang, a childhood friend of hudson, took the stand and told the court that hudden was at his home near seattle at the time. It's believed rusal Douglas was murdered. I did see him december twenty six when he was stopping by on his way out of town.

You recall what time that was .

sometime probably between none. And one was he by himself? No, who was with him, Peggy Thomas. With that, the defense rested and the prosecutor offered no cross examination. A month shy of his fifty ninth birthday, jim hudden was facing a minimum twenty five years sentence if found guilty. But just before the jury began deliberations, jim hud's attorney reminded them, one more time of those immortal words from the man of la mancha .

is in gentle. We started this trial.

I told you, facts are the enemy of truth. And I hope you wondered what that met you. Her facts upon facts upon facts. I'm telling you, there are other conclusions that can be made from the evidence.

I think soon enough jim hutton, his attorney, would find out if anyone on that jury had reached one of those alternate conclusions, and thus saving in having to spend the rest of his life is in prison orange, coming up with the jury.

the verdict. And then the other moment everyone's been waiting for, will jim testify against pegging when date line continues?

After deliberating for approximately three and a half hours, the jury and jim human's murder trial reached a verdict. From the moment the jurors began filing in, jim hudden seem to know the news would not be good in a whisper, he murmured. I'm done.

The rest of the proceeding, for jim human at least, seem to be a formality with the jury find the definite James Edward hudden guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree as charged hudden would later be sentenced to eighty years in prison. But he'd scarce sly been LED from the courtroom before prosecutor greg banks turned his attention to a far more difficult case. The one against jim hud's alleged a couples, Peggy Thomas, charged with murder.

There was only one piece of physical evidence tying Peggy to the killing of Russell Douglas IT was that single fingerprint of hurts on a page in the gun owners manual. The case against jim was pretty strong. Ong o, but the case against piggy .

was pretty weak. IT was much .

more circumstantial. IT was gene hudden, the wrong wife who stood to be the strongest witness against Peggy omas. According to gene, Peggy had told her everything that time gene visited her out in vegas.

The plan was peg hid, talked to Russell about to. He had presence for brenna and the kids and SHE had grumble into going out to the island to meet with them, dig passes.

presents on. Not only that, but jean says Peggy told her that after dropping off jim at the ambush location, he he drove off to create an alii. They made a .

point of the driving games, severing the red car to ba pack cigarettes and make sure and get her seat with the date and time on IT. So IT would prove that SHE wasn't there at the time. Then he came back, picked him up, ve got rid of his close and dumpster somewhere. And they to cover their tracks. The best that .

a powerful story, but the prosecutor knew that putting gene hudden on the stand was risky. In the years after jim fled the mexico, gene hudden got into trouble with the law over drugs and check forgery.

I've talked to gene a lot, and I do believer, but I also know what happens in a courtroom, and unfortunately, he is not as pure as the driven snow when I what the defense chinese going to be able to do with her.

Peggy was clearly on the fence, is the whether not to accept a deal or go to trial what he thought, if I just keep my mouth shut, it's worked all this way, i'm going to skate.

That would be .

assessment. January eleven, two thousand and thirteen, Peggy Thomas, who'd been under house arrest, entered an island county courtroom for another round of pretrial motions and encountered a familiar face, this time her former lover jim hudden, to understand, to answer the one burning question, there was no doubt keeping both the prosecutor and the defense council from sleeping at night.

r. Hudden, if you were the pinet.

would jim hudden agree to testify at peg trial? I know I said my first right, though the two former lovers never seem to make direct eye contact, that day, jim hudden made IT clear that he at least was willing to Carry their shared secrets to the grave. Okay, do the fifth amendment thing here.

Perhaps jim hud's god appearance frighten Peggy. Maybe the prospect of having her wardrobe as well reduce to a basic orange at a sobering effect. But two weeks later, just days before her trial was to begin, thank you. Thomas was back in court, caused number eleven dash, one dash, one or nine dash. This time IT was to plead guilty to a reduce charge.

I were here for a change of plea to an amended charge, rendering criminal assistance in the first degree with a special allegation that the defendant was armed with a firearm.

including guilty to criminal assistance. Peggy Thomas was basically admitting to being an accessory after the fact. Thomas, do you make this plea freely in volunteering? If you'd going to try against pay you down, you think .

you're a one.

Because if you say yes, my next question is then why?

My take on IT was we had maybe a fifty, fifty chance of guilty versus not guilty. And so IT was a role of the dice.

Nothing less than the maximum penalty should be imposed in this case. A few weeks later, with the family of Russell Douglas present, Peggy Thomas was sentenced to four years in prism conspicious sly. Absent, however, was rustles wia urea.

I would still love to see her come forward and say, look, I really did make a mistake. I've got to own up to this that I really did set a emotion, but I didn't mean to, I don't know. That's gonna happen.

though neither bridoul las nor her attorney have responded to data andes request for a statement in a lawsuit filed against an insurance company to collect on one of her late husband's life insurance policies, brenna said. I categorically state that I was not involved in the death of my husband in any way. Peg time has served her time and was released from jail in August of two thousand and sixteen. Jim hut has chosen to keep his secrets to himself while he remains incarcerated. And as for gene, the woman whose love took her down that dangerous path, SHE died in August two thousand to anyone back when we interview her, jee ponder, what compelled jim to remain silent for .

someone who manage to get himself eighty years because he refused to testify against Peggy or brand or anyone? I mean, he was just, I can't believe that he may have seen the light of day. He he think he was doing her a favorite one last time.

I just don't get IT. I really don't get IT. He must have really love term more than then. I have an imagine he still trying to prove what a man he was there thinks he is.

That's all for now. I'm less to hold. Thanks for joining us.

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