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 did. will jim crack or will detectives realize they ve got the wrong man?
i m doing everything i can to keep this gentleman on the phone because at that point he still hadn t given me his name. the caller was using an untraceable calling card and on the phone he seemed nervous. he said if i told you what i know the shooter s going to know that i told you. that first call lasted more than an hour, but the cops learned neither the name of the caller nor the killer. he was still afraid to give us any more information so i m doing everything i can to gain his trust, just to keep talking to him. the informant agreed to call again the next day and this time he was more forthcoming. he started telling me that i needed to look for a girlfriend of the shooter that was from las vegas. he kept saying the shooter s where i am. the caller told beach that he was a retired air force serviceman and played in a band with the shooter. the shooter, he said, was his best friend. i asked him again to call the next day and he said i have to work, but i can call
she helped him. josh mankiewicz: for five months, bill hill says he struggled under the weight of that confession. 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 sheriffs. i felt guilty i was giving up my friend. but i knew something had to be done. josh mankiewicz: within days of that call, detectives mark plumberg and mike beech were sitting face-to-face with both their tipster, bill hill, and their suspect, the artist formerly known as buck naked. [music playing] coming up, the interrogation gets tough. you know what you ve told bill. the guy is falling apart over the guilt he s carrying around because you told him what you did. josh mankiewicz: will jim crack? or will detectives realize they have the wrong man?
of the caller nor the killer. he was still afraid to give us any more information. so i m doing everything i can to gain his trust, just keep talking to him. josh mankiewicz: the informant agreed to call again the next day. and this time, he was more forthcoming. he started telling me that i needed to look for a girlfriend of the shooter that was from las vegas. he kept saying the shooter is where i am. josh mankiewicz: the caller told beech that he was a retired air force serviceman and played in a band with the shooter. thshooter, he said, was his best friend. i asked him, again, to call the next day. and he said, i have to work, but i can call on thursday. and i said, ok, well, i ll be here waiting. and he almost whispered, the shooter is jim huden. josh mankiewicz: jim huden, in the age of google, that was all the break mark plumberg needed. by the end of the day, the detectives knew that jim huden lived in south florida and played in a band.
to killing russel douglas. with jim gone and no evidence tying peggy to the murder, the detectives asked the public s help in documenting the couple s movements in december 2003, when russel douglas was murdered. mark plumberg: we put out descriptions of the vehicle that they were driving. just a few days after it hit the media, we got a phone call from the dona ana county sheriff s office in new mexico saying someone had turned in has a firearm that they believe might have been used in a homicide on whidbey island. talk about luck. it doesn t get any better than that.