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 that i m out of money. josh mankiewicz: more than that, jean had, herself, gotten into some legal trouble after jim fled to mexico. in exchange for immunity from prosecution on some drug and check forgery charges, jean told authorities all she knew about the murder of russel douglas, and just where jim huden could be found. jean huden: they re not interested in me. they wanted jim. no, they said they would not prosecute me, and i certainly hope they stick to their word. josh mankiewicz: in june 2011, mexican authorities picked up the man variously known as buck naked, or maestro jim, in veracruz and quickly turned him over to waiting us marshals. when the plane carrying jim back to washington state landed in seattle, he was greeted by a familiar 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 escort you back to island county. i said you re under no obligation to talk to me. and he immediately said, i don t want to. something he should ve said years earlier. probably would have been a good idea. josh mankiewicz: for the foreseeable future, jim huden would be wearing exactly the ensemble he had for so long sought to avoid. immediately after huden s arrest, 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 had put the name off the hook on her boat due to the fact that she was single.
talk to most people too much? are you a person who likes to share? brenna douglas: i just chat. greg banks: brenna, do you know james huden? brenna douglas: i ve met him, yes. greg banks: and how is it that you met mr. huden? through peggy. josh mankiewicz: it was on that connection to huden and those woman-to-woman conversations between brenna and peggy that the prosecutor based his theory of the murder. brenna told peggy her husband was violent. peggy told jim and jim pulled the trigger. the prosecutor explained why. greg banks: mr. huden pulled the trigger on russel douglas as a way of exercising his own personal demons. josh mankiewicz: that point was underscored when huden s old bass player, bill hill, took the stand and told the court about the day jim huden shared his darkest secret. bill hill: he says, i need to tell you about something that s on my mind. josh mankiewicz: as jim huden clenched his teeth and stared daggers at his former close friend, bill hill continued.
was really wanting to hear. josh mankiewicz: in july 2011, when russel douglas family gathered in solidarity for jim huden s first court appearance, russel s widow was conspicuously absent. i asked her, i was like, are you going to go? she was like, why would i go? it doesn t concern me. it just didn t quite seem right. josh mankiewicz: it would take another year before jim huden and the wife of the man he was accused of killing sat in the same court room. and when they did, all eyes would be on her. coming up brenna douglas could she have anything to do with the plot to kill her husband? brenna douglas: he had a lot of issues throwing furniture around and different things. and how he treated the kids and i, it just wasn t ok. lawyer: when you and russ went through a separation, is that the sort of thing that you might have talked to peggy about? brenna douglas: yeah. i said, who all knows about this?
jean says that she was able to stay in contact with jim while he was in mexico, and that jim asked her to fly out to vegas to meet with peggy face-to-face and keep her in the loop. jean: we did have jim in common. i never told her where he was. i did tell her that i knew he was ok. it was just very weird. i mean, we went out and had drinks and saw a band, and i really found it hard to hate her as much as i wanted to. josh mankiewicz: as months passed and jim huden s trail grew colder, the lives of the women who had loved him took drastically divergent paths. while jean grew steadily poorer supporting jim, the ever-resourceful peggy, now a limo driver in vegas, hit the jackpot. in 2007, one of her fares turned out to be this man, mark allen, a new mexico horse breeder and heir to an oil fortune.