- In a rural north carolina county
Known for its holiday spirit,
A brutal triple homicide grips the town.
- Dispatcher put a call out.
There was multiple shootings at the hudler farm.
- Nothing like that's ever happened before.
- We were just thinking, who in the world did this?
- They didn't deserve it. It's hard.
I'm sorry.
- And a trail of clues and tips...
- This letter is a direct line to the evidence
That we've been looking for.
- Leads to a devil in disguise, driven by greed.
- You know the old saying "greed's the root of all evil"?
- But just when it seems like all his sins
Have been accounted for...
- He said, for money, I will tell you information
On a missing-persons case.
- He's the epitome of the calculating,
Cold-blooded killer.
["just another ghost"]
♪ ♪
- ♪ oh, child ♪
♪ come home to the gallows pole ♪
[birds chirping]
[church bells tolling]
- Nestled within the blue ridge mountains,
Just a stone's throw away from the virginia state line,
Ashe county, north carolina, is a scenic slice
Of southern tranquility.
It's certainly not the kind of place you'd expect evil
To be lurking about.
[suspenseful music]
- Ashe county, the high country.
It's god's country.
We're a christmas tree capital of the united states, I reckon.
Everybody wanted a north carolina fraser fir.
- We're a tight-knit community.
Everybody truly do love their neighbor.
And certainly nobody's out to get you.
[bird cawing]
- That is, until January of 2008,
When a 911 call came in from one of ashe county's
Most successful christmas tree farms.
[siren wailing]
[indistinct chatter over police radio]
- That day, dispatch had put a call out.
There was multiple shootings
On 16 north at hudler farms.
Well, I was in shock.
Everybody knew the hudlers-- well-respected people
In the county.
So I went straight to the scene.
[sirens wailing]
I got there.
There was a couple other officers there.
And there was a body laying in the driveway.
♪ ♪
It was dead silence
Except for a wind chime tinkling in the breeze.
[wind chime tinkling]
- Not far from this grisly site,
Sheriff williams notices two other deputies talking
With bill hudler,
The youngest son of family patriarch, ron hudler.
And bill's got blood all over him.
- His house was just down the road
A little ways from his dad's house.
He just drove up there.
And he's the one that happened upon the scene
And called it in.
- Bill identifies the deceased man
On the driveway as his brother,
44-year-old father of 2, fred hudler.
- It was a fatal shot that went into his head,
Leading down toward his back.
It also appeared that he may have gotten shot
Through the garage door...
Because there were some bullet holes in the garage door.
- Sheriff williams sends one of his deputies
To investigate the bullet holes in the garage.
But bullet holes aren't the only thing he finds.
- He found a 25-year-old young man
Been shot in the head, laying in there.
[indistinct chatter over police radio]
Bill told us it was john miller.
He was very upset.
- John worked for the hudlers.
He was definitely considered one of their right-hand man,
So to say.
- Like fred hudler, sheriff williams
Notices that john's blood is still fresh.
It appears he's only been dead for a couple of hours.
But before investigators can secure the two crime scenes,
They make another horrific discovery.
♪ ♪
- They found ron hudler near the kitchen area of the house
On his tree farm.
He lived by himself.
- Hudler was shot once in the back of the head.
- Bill told us that ron hudler was gone up north
To some christmas tree organizational meeting
And wasn't supposed to be back till the next day.
Bill was in shock.
It's mighty hard for him.
- Investigators ask bill to wait in the driveway
So they can ask him more questions later.
Meanwhile, they continue to examine the crime scene.
- You know, you got three people murdered.
And we're just thinking, who in the world did this?
We needed extra help.
So we went, called dispatch,
And we had backup coming from everywhere.
- And one of those dispatch calls
Makes it over the state line into virginia
To grayson county sheriff richard vaughan.
- I'd been sheriff literally for 24 days
When this triple homicide occurred.
And I thought, well, being in the new sheriff,
I'll ride over and see if we can assist.
- But he's met with a big surprise
Before he even arrives on the scene.
- The hudler tree farm
Was right on the ashe county, north carolina,
And grayson county, virginia, line.
- The hudler family, all from ashe county.
And most of the hudlers' tree farm is in ashe county.
So we assumed, naturally, at first, that this
Was going to be our case.
But then when we started checking tax records
To make sure.
And the crime scene area is 100 yards or so
Just inside virginia.
- We were about halfway there when the dispatcher hollered
On the radio and said,
This shooting is actually in grayson county.
I spoke with sheriff williams, who had already on scene.
And that's when it started sinking in.
- He fell right out of the frying pan and into the fire
Right quick on a triple homicide.
- Sheriff williams offers to help sheriff vaughan
In any way he can to bring this heinous crime to justice.
So the two sheriffs join forces
And start searching for answers.
- Your mind's racing.
What is the motive here?
♪ ♪
- As they begin processing the crime scene,
News of this shocking tragedy barrels through the community
Like a brush fire.
♪ ♪
- I was at my cabin.
And I remember hearing my phone,
And it was a buddy of mine.
And he said, have you heard the news
About the hudler farm?
Somebody killed them.
I said, what? No way.
It was like a kick in the teeth.
[inhales shakily, exhales deeply]
It's hard. I'm sorry.
I apologize. [sniffles]
I worked on the hudler tree farm
For probably 13 years.
Good guys, every one of them.
Ron hudler was awesome. Great guy, great heart.
Hell of a tree farmer.
- He was married several times.
He had three sons--
Fred, dale, and bill.
Fred and bill worked on the farm.
- Fred was like a father figure to me.
You know, I grew up with no father.
So fred was-- kind of took that role.
And he'd say these one-liners that would just
Make you bust out belly laughing.
It was john's first season working for the farm.
He was strong-- big old boy.
He could throw them trees up.
I liked him a lot, for sure.
I had a new little family.
- So one of the saddest things
Was that young man, john miller.
Hadn't been married too long.
Just trying to make an extra dollar with a new baby.
Never got to live any life yet.
[indistinct chatter over police radio]
- Back at the crime scene, sheriff williams
And sheriff vaughan discover several clues.
- They had found some round-shaped glass
Near ron hudler that appeared to be from a rifle scope
And some .22 casings.
But there was no weapon.
- We got into the garage and saw that the big safe
Had been moved around.
- The safe, it was ajar.
The door was open with the keys in it.
There was also some scratches and marking onto the safe
That indicated to us that whoever this suspect was,
Was there to try to steal that safe...
But were unsuccessful.
So we felt like that this was a robbery gone bad.
- Investigators made contact with ron hudler's secretary
To see if she can shed more light on the safe.
- We learned from ron's secretary
That he had a large amount of cash normally in that safe.
There was supposed to be around $10,000 in there.
But there was no cash.
♪ ♪
At this point, our best lead is the safe.
Whoever did this probably knew that ron
Kept a large amount of cash there in that safe.
So we're just trying to determine
Who would have known that.
- Ron's secretary says the only two people
Who have keys to the safe are her and ron.
Investigators inquire about ron's two surviving sons,
Bill and dale, checking for any signs of motive
Within the family.
And she makes one comment that catches their ears.
- We also learned from ron's secretary
That his son bill had financial problems.
- Investigators turn their attention to bill,
Who remains on the scene.
- As you can imagine, bill was panicked.
He found his brother dead.
His father is dead, and a worker, john, also dead.
That's the toughest thing
He's ever had to deal with in his life.
- His comment was that he had no idea
Who could have done this.
But there was blood on his clothing.
- And if there was anybody you could ever start looking at,
It would have been the one that discovered the scene,
You know, and called it in.
- And that was bill hudler.
- Coming up...
- We got three people murdered, and everybody was on edge.
- She says, I'm not saying that he did this crime.
But last year, he was questioned
In the disappearance of his nephew.
- ♪ come home to the gallows pole ♪
- ♪ judgment day shall come ♪
- ♪ save yourself ♪
♪ for the devil's on his way ♪ [siren wailing]
- This morning, fred hudler, his father, ron hudler,
And their employee john miller,
Were all found shot to death
At the beloved hudler carolina tree farm.
And investigators don't have to look far
To find a person of interest.
- Bill hudler had financial problems.
And there was blood on his clothing.
So he had to be considered a suspect.
He told us that morning,
When he got to his dad's property,
He saw a dump truck was still in the driveway running.
When he went over to check, he saw his brother fred
Dead in the driveway.
We actually checked bill's clothing
For some high-impact blood spatter
At the scene using a light
Because anybody who had been close enough
To fire those shots would have had
Some high-impact blood spatter on their clothing.
But the blood, it wasn't consistent
With high-impact blood spatter.
It was simply transfer of blood
From when he was trying to help his brother.
And in the end,
After interviewing him and people close to him,
We determined that he was not involved.
We also looked into ron's other son, dale hudler.
Dale was distraught when we talked to him.
But we wanted to know if he could have been involved.
But we confirmed he was approximately, you know,
30 minutes away at the time.
No other family members were suspects at that point.
- Before the victims' bodies
Are taken to the morgue for autopsy,
Sheriff vaughan and sheriff williams take stock.
- Normally, when you work a crime in this area,
It's domestic-related or drug-related.
You know who the suspects are early on.
- But at that point, we didn't have any clue.
Got three people murdered, and everybody was on edge.
[suspenseful music]
- So we started trying to narrow down our suspect pool.
♪ ♪
And we asked ourselves, who else knew about the safe?
And we started with employees.
- During harvest, the hudler farm
Bring in a lot of seasonal workers
From all over because that's when all the muscle's needed.
- So we talked to the workers.
But we didn't develop any leads from them.
♪ ♪
- Meanwhile, with a killer roaming free,
Fear hangs heavy in the air.
- The hudler family, they were concerned.
People in the community were concerned.
So we actually put out a tip line.
And we were getting quite a few calls.
♪ ♪
- And approximately 12 hours after the shootings,
A tip comes in and grabs sheriff vaughan by both ears.
- I was speaking with dale hudler's wife.
And she mentioned a guy-- freddie hammer.
She said freddie used to work up there on the hudler farm
And maybe he possibly saw something
Because he was always in the area.
- Till now, sheriff vaughan
Has never heard of freddie hammer.
Dale's wife tells him that he's known around town
For running a successful firewood business.
- Freddie p's firewood--
I mean, that's where everybody got their firewood.
- He delivered wood to a lot of people in ashe county.
He'll help you out around the house if you need stuff done.
That's just how he was.
- But dale's wife--well, she has a different story
To share with sheriff vaughan.
- She says to me, I'm not saying that he did this crime.
But last year, he was questioned
In the disappearance of jimmy blevins.
♪ ♪
Jimmy was freddie's nephew.
And jimmy had worked for freddie
At his firewood business until he went missing in 2007.
♪ ♪
- At the time, many folks believed
The devil in the bottle was behind jimmy's disappearance.
- A lot of people knew that jimmy had an alcohol problem.
Maybe he got lost out in the woods
And fell over or something.
I know we searched around the woods and stuff
And all around where he lived, but we never found anything.
♪ ♪
- When investigators got wind from a neighbor
That jimmy was last seen alive at his trailer
With his uncle freddie,
They brought freddie in for questioning.
- Freddie hammer said he dropped him off that night
And never heard from him again.
Some people were pretty hot under the collar
That we would even interview him about jimmy blevins.
He was pretty well-liked, married, with a stepson.
He taught Sunday school.
They just thought he was an upstanding, good christian man.
And in the end, we didn't have enough to charge him on jimmy.
Had nothing other than suspicion.
- So I called the ashe county sheriff's office
Before heading to freddie hammer's house,
And I spoke with an investigator there.
And he told me
That freddie hammer was a powder keg,
That he hated the police
For interviewing him about his nephew.
And he advised us not to go down to his farmhouse
That night.
♪ ♪
- But in a murder investigation,
Every second counts.
And with freddie being a former employee of the hudlers
And no stranger to law enforcement,
Sheriff vaughan decides to take his chances.
♪ ♪
[indistinct chatter over police radio]
- When we got there, it was pitch-black.
♪ ♪
We knock on the door.
[footsteps approaching]
And freddie hammer comes barreling down the hallway
Wearing a tank top and his boxer shorts.
And he says, you can just get the hell out of here.
♪ ♪
And I said, now, wait a minute, freddie.
I'm the new sheriff over in grayson county.
I said, I'm just here trying to figure out
Who killed your friend.
So he gave me that sort of sideways look,
And he's like, well, I'll talk to you.
But I'm not talking to these ashe county sobs over here.
♪ ♪
Freddie tells us his wife had told him
About the triple homicide.
Freddie goes down the hallway,
And he's like, I want to show you something.
And he grabs this big bolt. And he says, see this bolt?
Fred hudler sandblasted and painted this bolt for me.
You know, he's my friend.
And then I asked freddie, did you go anywhere
Near grayson county today?
And he said, no, I did not.
I went to todd, north carolina,
And I was working on a house for my friend marlon.
- Sheriff vaughan leaves and makes a note
To confirm hammer's alibi.
And even though it's winter,
This rookie sheriff is feeling the heat.
- There was fear and anxiety just in the community.
Nothing like this has ever happened before.
You do have a lot of pressure from your citizens,
You know, calling--hey, are you going to get this guy?
Do you have any leads?
♪ ♪
- But the next day, sheriff vaughan
Gets another clue, courtesy of the preliminary ballistics
And autopsy reports.
At the crime scenes,
The amount of bullet casings collected
Outnumbered the total number of gunshot wounds
Sustained by the victims.
In the murderous melee, could one of the victims
Have gotten a hold of the killer's gun and fired back?
♪ ♪
- We called the local hospitals
To see if someone came in with a gunshot wound
Or some type of wound that would have been consistent
To being in a struggle with any of the victims at the scene.
And we did receive one call
From a north wilkesboro hospital
That a man had came in with a gunshot wound to the hand
Shortly after the crimes had occurred.
We thought, could he be connected to our crime?
♪ ♪
- ♪ come home to the gallows pole ♪
- ♪ judgment day shall come ♪
- Based on the preliminary ballistics
And autopsy reports,
Investigators learn there's a possibility
That the hudler carolina tree farm killer
Might have taken a bullet
Before he fled the crime scene.
[dramatic music]
- And they found a man at a local hospital
With a bullet wound to his hand.
And they thought that he might be the guy.
- We had to send investigators down there to the hospital
To look into that.
- But when investigators get to the hospital
And get eyes on him, they're met with a surprise.
- The hospital workers confirmed
That it was a self-inflicted wound to the hand.
- Indeed, according to his family members,
This shooting was a result of reckless gunplay.
- He was not connected to our crime at all.
- But a few hours later,
Sheriff williams receives a visit
From the local fire department chief.
And he puts investigators right back on the heels
Of ashe county's own friendly firewood merchant.
♪ ♪
- He says, you know, I saw that fred hammer
Coming down 16 that morning at about 9:00,
Just before the murders happened.
- Freddie hammer's truck had a magnet on the side of it
That said "freddie p's firewood."
So you could spot this truck from a mile away.
- So that puts freddie hammer's vehicle,
You know, within two or three miles
Of this road that leads to the hudlers
On the morning of the murders.
♪ ♪
- But freddie swore to sheriff vaughan
That on the morning of the murders,
He was over 30 miles away from the hudlers' farm,
Working on his friend marlon's home.
Could the fire chief have remembered wrong?
Or is old freddie lying through his teeth?
- I was in a rush to get back to my vehicle
To make that phone call to marlon,
Just to see if his story checked out.
And he told me that he did see freddie hammer that day...
But he didn't see him that morning.
We're all excited at this point.
We've put freddie hammer
In the proximity of the crime scene,
In the time frame that it occurred,
And contradicted his statement to us
About not being anywhere near grayson county that day.
We didn't have physical evidence.
But we had enough circumstantial evidence
To convince a magistrate to issue a search warrant
For freddie hammer's residence.
- With search warrants in hand,
Ashe county and grayson county law enforcement
Team up to scour through several
Of freddie's properties.
♪ ♪
- His stepfather had a house at mountain air golf course.
And there we found freddie's truck.
But there was nothing in the truck.
- And there's no sign of freddie either.
Investigators impound the truck
So the forensics team can take a look for any hidden clues.
Meanwhile, sheriff vaughan's team
Searches freddie's camper.
♪ ♪
- Freddie hammer's not there either.
But one of the investigators walking around the camper,
He smells the strong odor of kerosene.
And he goes over to a little fire pit
That's got a ring around it,
And he starts digging through this fire pit.
And he finds the little eyelets for some work boots.
♪ ♪
And he finds some pieces of clothing.
And we're thinking, he had actually disposed
And burned of his clothing over there.
- Armed with this new evidence,
Sheriff vaughan hightails it over to freddie's house.
But there, he's met with even more shocking news.
- We found out from his stepson
That he had actually took off to florida.
- That was very suspicious.
You can look at flight as evidence of guilt.
- We felt like freddie was hiding out.
We're thinking, now that he's in a different state,
Are we going to be able to get him back to virginia
To question him about these crimes?
♪ ♪
- Coming up...
- There was a .22 rifle with a scope
That was missing from freddie's house.
- Everybody was just in shock.
I don't know what to take of it.
- So that's another indication
Of what a despicable individual he is.
♪ ♪
- ♪ come home to the gallows pole ♪
- ♪ judgment day shall come ♪
- Investigators have just learned
That their prime suspect
In the hudler carolina tree farm triple homicide,
Freddie hammer, has flown the coop.
- At that point, we were getting
Really close to obtaining
A warrant on him for capital murder.
But we learned from freddie hammer's stepson
That freddie and his wife
Had actually gone to punta gorda, florida.
So we called the u.S. Marshals
To locate freddie hammer.
Then our team executed the search of his home
In north carolina.
[indistinct chatter over police radio]
We found paperwork to where he was in financial problems.
I think he even had a bankruptcy payment
That was due soon.
And there was around $10,000 missing
From the hudler safe.
So this gave him the motive to commit this crime.
[dramatic music]
- And freddie's stepson was very helpful,
Because near ron hudler's body,
They had found some glass
That appeared to be from a scope
And casings from a .22 rifle.
And the stepson indicated
That there was a .22 rifle with a scope
That was missing from freddie's house.
- The evidence was mounting against him at that point.
And we finally obtained the capital-murder warrants.
- So time was of the essence for the marshals to find him
Because we had all sorts of speculation
That, oh, he's going to drop a murder weapon in some swamp
Or off a bridge somewhere between here and florida.
U.S. Marshals act very quickly.
And they were able to ping his cell phone
And track him pretty much between here and florida
To where his father-in-law lives.
♪ ♪
- The u.S. Marshals go out to the house.
♪ ♪
They do surveillance.
♪ ♪
Couple hours later, freddie hammer
Returned from dinner.
♪ ♪
And they were able to take freddie into custody
Without any problems.
- Freddie is hauled off
To the local county jail for questioning,
But he denies everything.
Meanwhile, investigators search his in-laws' home.
- They search around,
But they didn't find the murder weapon.
So we have to keep looking.
Meanwhile, we extradite freddie hammer
Back to virginia.
♪ ♪
- Back on virginia soil,
Freddie hammer's facing a slew of charges,
Including multiple counts of capital murder and robbery.
While he maintains his innocence behind bars,
Ron hudler, fred hudler, and john miller
Are laid to rest.
[distant bell tolling]
- The funeral--
I remember there was just a lot of people there.
It was a moving, beautiful service.
Sad, like you'd expect.
- They were some kick-ass dudes.
I miss them all.
- And as the community comes together
To mourn these fine men,
Folks grapple with the news
That the Sunday-school-teaching,
God-fearing freddie hammer they thought they knew
Is the same man who now stands accused of these murders.
- Everybody was just in shock.
I don't know what to take of it.
I really don't,
Because to me, freddie wasn't a bad guy.
- The hudler family-- they were very upset
And surprised.
- To nail hammer for all his sins
And guarantee a guilty conviction,
Prosecutors are going to need harder evidence.
- We visited two different convenience stores
Along the route to hudler farm.
And we were able to locate surveillance video footage
Of freddie hammer's truck
And freddie hammer in that truck
Shortly after the crimes had occurred.
Now we can show that he had gave us
An inconsistent statement about his whereabouts
The morning of the murders.
And one of our investigators went back to the garage
Where freddie hammer's vehicle was impounded
To look and see if there was anything that we had overlooked
In the beginning.
And he noticed on the frame of the flatbed,
There was actually some paint transfer.
And the transfer indentations from the back of the truck bed
Matched up perfectly with the markings on the safe
At the hudler residence.
♪ ♪
- That puts freddie hammer's vehicle at the crime scene.
But we need the murder weapon.
- With the trial date marching closer,
Investigators spend months searching high and low
For the murder weapon, with no luck.
All the while, freddie awaits his day in court from jail.
But then one man's trash
Becomes an investigative treasure.
- Freddie hammer had befriended an inmate
That was getting ready to be released.
- The guards are cleaning up this inmate's cell,
And a paper falls out of some other papers
That are there.
And it's this letter to this inmate's girlfriend.
And I remember the feeling when we got that call.
This letter is a direct line to the evidence
That we've been looking for.
- ♪ come home to the gallows pole ♪
- ♪ judgment day shall come ♪
- A guard at the local county jail
Has just found a discarded letter
To an inmate's girlfriend in his trash can.
And the letter reveals a key piece of the puzzle
That investigators desperately need.
- In this letter, this inmate says,
I've gotten to meet this guy here, freddie hammer.
All I've got to do is to go get rid of a couple of guns,
And he's going to give me some money for doing that.
- Freddie drew him a map of where the murder weapon was at
And approximately $10,000.
And he told him that he could keep $2,000 of that for himself
If he would bring the rest of it to the jail
And put it on the books for his use.
And, remember, there was around $10,000
Missing from ron's safe.
[dramatic music]
- Faster than a hot knife through butter,
Investigators get their hands on freddie's map.
And it leads them straight to freddie's camper
In cripple creek.
- So we all rush down to cripple creek.
We go exactly where the map had described.
♪ ♪
And we dig down.
[shovels scraping]
We find a cigar box.
And there's approximately $10,000 in cash
In the cigar box,
Just like freddie hammer had described.
- And then they strike gold.
[indistinct chatter over police radio]
- We were able to locate the .22 magnum rifle
That was used in the murders.
♪ ♪
- And that was nails in his coffin.
- After we had the murder weapon,
We met with his defense team.
And once we laid out all this new evidence to them,
They were ready to enter a plea.
♪ ♪
- Freddie says he needed a lot of money
To pay himself out of debt.
Freddie had seen lots of money in ron's safe
When he worked with him.
So he thought, this was the best way
That I can get out of the debt.
- He learned from the hudler farm secretary
That ron had been out of town that week
And wasn't supposed to be back until the next day.
So he came up with the idea
Of breaking into and stealing the cash from the safe.
[wind chimes tinkling]
- He thinks that nobody is there.
♪ ♪
He backs his truck into the garage.
He started tilting the safe up
And gotten it against his truck,
Scratching it.
- But then fred hudler and john miller--
They pulled up in the driveway.
♪ ♪
- Freddie is kind of cornered at that point.
He retrieves his firearm.
And as miller walks in the garage,
He shoots him with the rifle through the temple.
♪ ♪
[gunshot]
- Fred hears the shots, and he comes running.
And then hammer starts shooting at him.
[gunshot]
- Gets a shot through the garage door,
Falls down into the driveway.
- And unbeknownst to freddie,
Ron hudler had actually returned home
The night before.
- He hears all the commotion,
And he comes running out of his house.
And he sees his son fred laying here, dying.
And here comes freddie p.
Puts the gun on him, marches him back in the house,
Makes him give him the keys to the safe.
Ron said, I don't care what you do to me,
Just let me call 911 for my son.
And freddie pointed the gun at his head, pulled the trigger.
It dropped him right there.
[gunshot]
- Hammer then goes back out to the driveway
And fires one final shot at fred.
[gunshot]
- Goes back in the garage, gets the money...
♪ ♪
And took off to hide and burn his stuff.
- He did say he was sorry. He didn't want to kill them.
- He didn't have to do it.
It pisses me off that he was a coward like that.
- As punishment for his heinous crimes
At the hudler farm,
Freddie hammer is handed seven life sentences.
- The hudler family-- they were sobbing
When he was being sentenced.
They were glad to be rid of this, though.
- It's very gratifying
When you finally get a case like this finished.
You've done the job and put a killer away
For the rest of his life.
♪ ♪
- But just when sheriff vaughan
And sheriff williams think it's finally over,
Freddie's greed triggers a shocking new revelation
About an old sin.
- Freddie says, for money,
I'll tell you information of a missing-person case
In ashe county.
- And that open case--it was his nephew jimmy blevins.
♪ ♪
- ♪ come home to the gallows pole ♪
- ♪ judgment day shall come ♪
[nik ammar's "guilty man"]
- ♪ there's a devil in my soul ♪
♪ and this is my confession ♪
- After being sentenced to life in prison
For the greed-fueled triple murders
Of ron hudler, fred hudler, and john miller,
Freddie hammer offers up another confession,
If he can get a payout.
And it concerns the disappearance
Of his beloved nephew jimmy blevins,
Who hasn't been seen in over two years.
[dramatic music]
- In the past, he denied everything, everywhere.
But after the hudler thing come to light,
Going to be in prison all his life anyway.
So then he wanted to start making a deal.
Jimmy blevins' family
Offered $15,000 reward in that case.
And freddie wanted that money.
He's holding the family hostage,
Their son's body hostage, for the reward money.
So that's another indication
Of what a despicable individual he is.
- To get justice for jimmy's family,
Authorities decide to play along
With freddie's greedy, no-good scheme.
- The money was put into his account.
And freddie described to sheriff williams
Where jimmy blevins's body was at.
♪ ♪
- He drew us a map to it.
And he walked us to about the spot where it was.
And we found jimmie blevins.
- And much like
The hudler farms triple murder,
The motive was all about money.
♪ ♪
- He said he owed jimmy about $1,500
For some work that he had did for him.
And jimmy had mentioned to freddie
That, if you don't pay me,
I'm going to take you to court to get my money.
And that made him mad.
Freddie said there was an old landfill,
And he had jimmy to go over to the edge and look in.
♪ ♪
[gunshot]
And he just shot him in the back of the head,
Pushed him into the hole,
And covered him up with some building materials.
- He's the epitome of a calculating,
Cold-blooded killer.
- On December 7, 2010,
Freddie hammer is handed down another life sentence
For the murder of jimmy blevins.
And then the police serve him another slice
Of sweet justice.
- Freddie liked to jerk law enforcement around,
But we're not going to play his game anymore.
Hammer didn't realize that he couldn't profit from his crime.
Which infuriated mr. Hammer.
♪ ♪
- Now the man who killed for money
Ain't got a dime to his name.
- You know the old saying that "money's the root of all evil"?
Well, that's hammer-- pure greed.
- It was like his soul was black.
He was a evil, evil person.
♪ ♪
- And in spite of so much tragedy,
The hudler carolina tree farm carries on.
- Dale and bill took over the hudler tree farm.
It still has a great reputation.
- But fred and ron and john--
That's...
That hole can never be filled.
There's no filling it.
They didn't deserve to be killed, not at all.
Fred hammer-- he hurt a lot of hearts.
He ripped--
I hate to look like a damn crybaby in a cowboy hat.
[sighs, sniffling]
I pray for all the families that this has took a toll on
And shattered and ripped apart.
♪ ♪