i m done. i m done. the rest of the proceeding for jim huden, at least, seemed to be a formality. we, the jury, find the defendant, james edward huden, guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree as charged. huden would later be sentenced to 80 years in prison, but he d scarcely been led from the courtroom before prosecutor greg banks turned his attention to a far more difficult case. the one against jim huden s alleged accomplice peggy thomas. charged with murder, there was only one piece of physical evidence tying peggy to the killing of russel douglas. it was that single fingerprint of hers on a page in the gun owner s manual. the case against jim was pretty strong. oh, yeah. but the case against peggy was pretty weak. it was much more circumstantial. it was jean huden, the wronged wife who stood to be the strongest witness against peggy
here s where our story takes another bizarre turn. while jean huden, the wife jim had cheated on for years was willing to stand by her man and help him escape to mexico, police learned that peggy thomas, jim huden s lover and alleged accomplice was now willing to give him up. i m not involved in this. in this interview with detectives, peggy thomas said that in a phone call shortly before he fled to mexico jim had confessed to killing russell douglas. he said i m sorry. i love you. i never meant for you to be involved in it and i did it when i went for cigarettes. he said it can t be, and i said you know what? just know that i love you. you ll never see me or hear from me again. with no evidence tying peggy to the murder, the detectives asked for the public s help in
detectives began trying to track down his former lover peggy thomas, a routine computer data search led police to this lake in new mexico where they discovered peggy thomas kept an 80-foot houseboat that she d gotten in her divorce from mark allen. they said she was a really nice person, that she was single and that she d put the name off the hook on the boat due to the fact she was single. captain burton of the san juan office, said she was lured to the marina with a bogus package. she didn t seem all that surprised when he placed her under arrest. she had an attorney and she d been waiting for this day and was kind of ready to get it over with. peggy thomas was all business, current says and wasted none of her legendary
where peggy worked? where peggy worked, yes. so peggy knew all about this? she helped him. for five months bill hill says he struggled under the weight of that confession and then in late july 2004 his conscience finally got the better of him. i decided to make my first call. your first call? to whidbey island. to the police. yes. to the island county sheriff s i felt guilty i was giving up my friend, but i knew something had to be done. within days of that call detectives mark plumberg and mike beach were sitting face-to-face with both their tipster bill hill and their suspect, the artist formerly known as buck naked. coming up, the interrogation gets tough. you know what you told bill. the guy is falling apart over the guilt he s carrying around because you told him what you
thomas were both behind bars facing charges connected to the killing. but did investigators have the whole story? for years, they had suspected russell s wife was involved in the crime. with the case heading to rt could, she would be forced to answer the questions. when she took the stand. once again, here s josh. once again, here s josh. jim huden and peggy thomas were charged with the murder of russel douglas in the summer of 2011. from that moment, whidbey island prosecutor greg banks had been hoping they would turn on each other and spill the details of what had happened on the day russel was killed. that was the plan. but that didn t happen. did not happen. because why? they re still in love? they wouldn t rat on each other? you know, if you got a chance to interview them you could ask them. because jean huden was still married to jim, the prosecutor