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Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre for suggested phone numbers, for confidential support and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. At around 3:00am on Sunday, August 19, 1990, 35 year old Rudy Manuel was awoken by a strange sound. As the longtime caretaker of the Camp Nelson Lodge, a 42 acre bucolic retreat in central California's sprawling and isolated Sequoia and Redwood forests, Rudy was intuitively familiar with his surroundings. When horses in a nearby pasture began stirring restlessly in the middle of the night, Rudy sensed something, or someone was out there. Rudy opened the door of the rustic cabin where he had been sleeping and looked outside. If something was lurking, Rudy couldn't See it through the pitch black darkness. He closed the door and locked it, turned off the lights and crawled back into bed. Rudy wasn't alone. Lying next to him was 46 year old Bonnie Hood, the owner and manager of the Camp Nelson Lodge. Five minutes later, the bedroom light suddenly turned on. It took a moment for Rudy's eyes to adjust and for him to realise that an unfamiliar person was standing over him. The intruder was aiming a snub nosed.38 calibre revolver directly at Rudy's head. The man ordered Rudy to get off the bed and kneel on the floor. Rudy defiantly responded. If you want me on the floor, you're gonna have to put me down. Without hesitation, the gunman pulled the trigger, shooting Rudy in the forehead. As Rudy's body slumped to the ground, the gunman turned his attention to Bonnie Hood, demanding. Where's the money? Bonnie replied in a panic. It's in the lodge. Bonnie was then shot as she cowered in bed. Even though the bullet had pierced Rudy Manuel's skull and left fragments in his brain, he was still alive. Blood ran down his face, his ears rang painfully and the taste of gunpowder lingered in his mouth. Rudy pretended to be dead until the gunman left. He then slowly crawled across the floor into the living area where he reached for a telephone. Using what little strength Rudy had left, he dialled 911. The history of the Camp Nelson Township dates back to 1886, when its founder, John Nelson, built a homestead on the land. Before long, his ranch became a popular destination for hunters, fishermen and anyone else willing to make the journey into the mountains by horseback. By the early 20th century, Camp Nelson had grown into a thriving, albeit small, community with a hotel and a general store that drew an influx of new visitors to the area. Bonnie Hood first visited camp Nelson in 1952 when she was 8 years old. By then, the centrepiece of the town was a massive stone and timber lodge built by John Nelson's grandson. Featuring a grand dining hall and an impressive great room with two enormous fireplaces, the magnificent Camp Nelson Lodge served as the town's de facto community centre for almost every important event. Bonnie and her family visited Camp Nelson every summer and she carried on the tradition when she started a family of her own. However, as time went on, the lodge was plagued by financial woes, leading to its closure in January 1981. In the summer of 1987, Bonnie and her husband Jim noticed a for sale sign out in front of the lodge. While the couple initially joked with each other about buying the property, they ultimately decided to make a serious offer. Their offer of $780,000 was accepted and by June 1988, Bonnie and Jim Hood were the new owners of the Camp Nelson Lodge. Even though Bonnie had been visiting the area since she was a child, many of the town's 180 residents viewed the lodge's new owners with skepticism. To them, the Hoods were outsiders, wealthy metropolitan interlopers who threatened to change the fabric of their community. Others were excited by the prospect of the lodge being restored to its former glory. In order to revive and operate the lodge full time, Bonnie relocated to Camp Nelson and moved into one of the cabins. Her husband Jim and their two teenage children remained at their home in Newport beach, nearly four and a half hours drive away. The unconventional arrangement drew judgement among townsfolk, as did some of Bonnie's other decisions. While the locals were initially thrilled when the lodger's restaurant and bar reopened, they were dismayed when Bonnie raised the prices. Others boycotted the establishment altogether when Bonnie kicked them out for being too rowdy. When Bonnie built fences for her horses, some of her neighbours complained they blocked access to their properties. She also caused a stir for being an outspoken environmentalist, working to expose what she believed were illegal logging practices in the area. As one employee who worked for Bonnie told the Fresno Bee, Bonnie answered to no one and apologised to no one. But what upset locals most was Bonnie's plan to turn the lodge into a trendy venue for lavish destination weddings and a high end luxury retreat catering to wealthy clientele from Los Angeles. In their view, the whole point of going to Camp Nelson was to get away from the fast paced city lifestyle in the first place. While some felt Bonnie harboured a combative l a attitude that conflicted with Camp Nelson's breezy, carefree way of life, others were less critical of her. One local told the Fresno Bee that the majority view of Bonnie was that she was a cheerful, outgoing person who who spent an enormous amount of time, money and energy bringing Camp Nelson Lodge back to Life. On Saturday, August 18, 1990, a high society wedding and reception was held at the lodge. The bride was thrilled with the venue and wept tears of joy While complimenting Bonnie on how wonderful everything had been. It was welcomed reinforcement that Bonnie's vision for the lodge was coming to fruition. While the wedding was taking place at the lodge, its restaurant and bar remained open to the public, making it far busier than a regular Saturday night. When live music started during the wedding reception, some locals at the bar joined in the festivities. The reception concluded just before Midnight. But the bar stayed open, serving locals until 2am at the end of the evening, Bonnie pulled all the tips her waitstaff had collected during their shifts. Usually she split the tips evenly before sending her staff home. But because there was much more money than usual, approximately $500, she decided to take the money back to her cabin. She promised to count it and pay out her employees. The next morning. Just over an hour later, first responders arrived at Bonnie's cabin. After receiving the 911 call from Rudy Manuel, they trepidatiously entered and turned on the lights. They immediately saw Rudy's body on the floor of the living room, covered in carpet, burns and blood. He had been shot in the head. A trail of blood led from where Rudy lay and into the bedroom, ending by the bed. Laying on top half covered by a blanket and sheet, was Bonnie Hood. She had been fatally shot in the head. It appeared her body had been posed afterwards with her arms crossed over her chest as if she were laid in a casket. One of the screens on an exterior sliding door had been cut open. The same door featured pry marks indicating the killer had used a tool to force his way inside. In the dirt outside was a single shoe print left by the killer. Aside from this, the only other major clue was found inside the cabin. As Rudy Manuel had clung to life, he used his finger to scrawl two letters on a wall in his own blood. J and B. Police were well aware of a near two decade long feud between Rudy Manuel and a local cattle rancher named Jack Burgess. Rudy was a Native American who had grown up on a reservation a few miles south of Camp Nelson. From the time he was a teenager, Rudy had been a thorn in Jack Burgess side. His cattle ranch boarded the reservation and Jack had accused Rudy of vandalising his property many times over the years. He also once accused Rudy of shooting at him. Rudy had a checkered history with convictions for horse stealing, vandalism and assault. Struggling to find employment or a place to live, Rudy was given an opportunity to work for Bonnie Hood after she purchased the Camp Nelson Lodge in 1988. The following year Rudy was arrested after trying to sell five of Jack Burgess calves to another rancher. Facing a potential six month jail sentence, Rudy found a supporter in Bonny Hood. She paid for his defence attorney and the case against Rudy was ultimately dismissed. This angered Jack Burgess who expressed his opinion that the police and judge were corrupt. Things only escalated when Rudy smashed the windshield of Jack's truck with a baseball bat on Tuesday, June 19, 1990, exactly two months before the Shooting. Rudy suffered an appendicitis attack. Bonnie drove him to the hospital and as she pulled into the parking lot, she noticed that Jack Burgess happened to be there too. Not paying him any mind, she took Rudy into the emergency department. Upon returning to her car, Bonnie noticed a handwritten note attached to her windshield. It read, it is your head, not your windshield, that I will get. Payback's a bitch, like your sugar mama. Bonnie believed that Jack Burgess had left the note for Rudy. She suspected she was the sugar mama referenced in the note, as she had previously paid for Rudy's attorney during his successful legal stoush against Jack, Bonnie filed a police report accusing Jack of authoring the note, although Jack's fingerprints weren't found on it. Detectives wondered if the shooting at Bonnie's cabin was the payback the note had forewarned. Miraculously, when first responders arrived at Bonnie's cabin after the shooting, Rudy Manuel was still alive. He was rushed to undergo emergency surgery to remove the bullet fragments from his brain. Right before Rudy was taken into the operating theatre, a detective questioned him about the attack. Drifting in and out of consciousness as he spoke, Rudy admitted that he and Bonnie were having an affair. After closing down the bar the previous night, Rudi said that he and Bonnie had gone back to her cabin and fallen asleep before they were confronted by the gunmen. Rudy described the shooter as looking like a biker. He was a stocky white man in his mid-30s with long, curly blond hair and a thin mustache. Rudy recalled he was wearing a neckerchief with the branding of US motorcycle company Harley Davidson. Several witnesses who had been at the lodger's bar that night recalled seeing a man matching this description, but no one knew who he was. They recalled that at one stage he requested a song from the musician at the wedding reception and that he was the last customer at the bar come closing time. Most interestingly, the stranger was within earshot of a heated conversation Bonnie Hood had with one of her employees about not splitting the tips until the following morning. This meant he was aware that Bonnie was in possession of a large amount of cash that she intended to take back to her cabin. Yet although Bonnie's cabin was found in a slight state of disarray, it didn't appear to have been ransacked. Several expensive items of jewellery were left in plain sight and $211 remained in her purse, which was visibly resting on a bar stool. Rudy Manuel claimed that the killer had demanded money, but nothing in Bonnie's cabin appeared to be missing. Prior to his surgery, Rudy expressed his Own theory. He suspected that the killer was a professional hitman who had most likely been hired by his longtime rival, Jack Burgess. When Jack heard about the shooting, he immediately went to speak with police as he knew he would be considered a suspect due to his volatile history with Rudy. Wanting to set the record straight as soon as possible, Jack denied any involvement in the crime and expressed his willingness to cooperate fully with the investigation. Although Jack provided a solid alibi for the night of the shooting, it was possible that he'd hired someone else to carry out the attack. As Rudi Manuel had theorised, Rudy's sister Christina worked part time at the lodge. She recalled seeing the mysterious stranger at the bar the night of the shooting. Curiously, she had seen him the weekend before as well. She believed he had arrived at Camp Nelson to carry out construction work, specifically to put a new roof on one of the homes in town. As there were few residences in Camp Nelson and only one had a brand new roof, investigators immediately knew where to start this new line of inquiry. The home belonged to a local attorney who told police that he had hired two brothers to do the job. Their names were Mark and Matthew Stewart and they were from the Californian city of Fresno. Police tracked the Stewart brothers down and were discouraged to find that neither of the men matched descriptions of Bonnie Hood's killer. As this lead seemingly reached a dead end, investigators were surprised when a man arrived at the Stewart brothers home. He was a near perfect match for the description of Bonnie Hood and Rudy Manuel's shooter. He introduced himself as Rick Lomere and asserted that he had never been to Camp Nelson. Meanwhile, Rudy Manuel had undergone life saving surgery and after three days recovering, he was able to hold a conversation again. However, his brain was swollen and he was delirious and heavily sedated. While Rudy couldn't offer investigators much at this time, he was shown a photo lineup that included an image of Rick Lomere. Rudy pointed to Rick's photo and identified him as the man who'd shot him and Bonnie. The problem was Rick provided an iron clad alibi for the night of the shooting, proving he was nowhere near Camp Nelson. Rudy Manuel had identified the wrong man. As Rudy recovered, he provided another account of the night of the shooting, this time to a psychiatrist. His version of events differed from what he'd originally told the police prior to his surgery. When the psychiatrist asked Rudy if he thought he was capable of identifying the shooter, Rudy shocked him by replying, you are the man that shot me. When the psychiatrist explained why this wasn't possible, Rudy said, well, you look a lot like him. It was clear to detectives that Rudy wasn't well enough to be fully relied upon, but they began considering the possibility that he wasn't the intended target at all. Given Bonnie Hood's reputation with various Camp Nelson locals, it was possible that someone with a chip on their shoulder had targeted her. After all, the shooting had taken place in her cabin, and very few people could have known that Rudy would be there. This also raised another possible scenario. Although several townsfolk had suspected the pair were having an affair, there was only one obvious person who might feel compelled to do something about it. 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Whether you prefer classic meal kits with pre portioned ingredients, speedy 30 minute recipes, oven ready options or quick microwave meals, Home Chef makes it effortless to enjoy delicious hassle free meals for the whole family. Home chef has over 30 options a week and serves a variety of dietary needs. They even have a delicious kid friendly family menu which is picky eater approved and takes the stress out of dinner time. Not only is Home Chef convenient, it's economical too. Their customers save an average of $86 per month on groceries. Olivia Lavoise, host of Casefile Presents series the Bakersfield 3, is loving home Chef for its convenience and the high quality of ingredients supplied. She says it's also introduced her to new recipes she wouldn't have otherwise made. For a limited time, Home Chef is offering my listeners 18 free meals plus free dessert for life and of course, free shipping. On your first box, go to homechef.com casefile that's homechef.com casefile for 18 free meals and free dessert for life. You heard that right. Homechef.com casefile must be an active subscriber to receive free dessert. Thank you for listening to this episode's ads. By supporting our sponsors, you support Casefile to continue to deliver quality content. Bonnie met her husband, Jim Hood when they attended university in the early 1960s. They married in 1970 and both took up work in real estate. Jim sold commercial property while Bonnie specialised in helping out of state companies relocate to California. The couple were incredibly successful, becoming multi millionaires with a beachside property, a boat and luxury cars. By 1987, Bonnie had reached a point in her life where she was ready to go in a new direction. For as long as she could remember, she'd imagined living full time in a small mountain town. When the Camp Nelson Lodge went up for sale, the Hoods saw it as a viable business opportunity. For Bonnie, it was also the fulfilment of her lifelong dream. The only downside was that Bonnie and Jim would have to live apart. Their children were enrolled in a good school and Jim had business ties in Southern California. Still, Bonnie remained in near constant contact with her husband and children. While living in Camp Nelson, she spoke with them on the phone upwards of three times a day and helped her children with their homework almost every night. Twice a month, Bonnie visited Newport beach to spend a couple of days with her family and once a month Jim and the kids spent a weekend at Camp Nelson. When investigators informed Jim Hood about his wife's murder, he appeared genuinely shocked, more so when he was told that Bonnie was having an affair with the Rudy Manuel. Jim insisted that his marriage was solid and that Bonnie would have never been unfaithful. He knew that Bonnie had a close friendship with Rudy, but refused to accept that the pair were in bed together the night of the shooting. Jim was certain the person responsible was a Camp Nelson local who held a grudge against his wife. He claimed that Bonnie had recently confided in him that she feared for her safety. In addition to investigating illegal logging in the area, she had allegedly stumbled upon a cannabis field while horse riding. Bonnie hadn't notified the police as she suspected several members of local law enforcement were involved in the drug operation. According to Jim, just two weeks before she was murdered, Bonnie said she'd uncovered information that could potentially impact the outcome of a major political election in Calif. Jim said that Bonnie had been keeping files on several members of the community who she suspected were involved in illegal activity. She had shown it to him during a recent visit, and he knew she kept it in a locked filing cabinet. Police permitted Jim to enter Bonnie's cabin to collect the dossier. He went to her filing cabinet only to find it was unlocked and the file was missing. As the weeks passed, Rudy Manuel continued to make a steady recovery. After being released from hospital, he straight up confronted Jim Hood, asking if he'd hired a hitman to kill him and Bonnie in jealous retaliation of their affair. Rudy claimed that Jim broke down in tears, asking how he could even think such a thing. Investigators remained open minded. They had collected all of the empty beer bottles from the lodge that had accumulated on the night of the killing and had them tested for fingerprints. If the elusive stranger seen drinking at the bar was indeed the killer, there was a strong possibility that he had a criminal record. The results revealed that several fingerprints belonged to a known felon named Bruce Beecham. His mugshot looked just like Rudy's description of the gunman. Rudy was shown another photo lineup, this time with an image of Bruce Beecham in the mix. Rudy confidently identified Bruce as the shooter. Employees at the lodge also unanimously agreed that Bruce was the stranger they'd seen drinking at the bar that night. 31 year old Bruce Beecham was a drifter with biker tires who moved across the American West. He had convictions pertaining to selling cannabis, brandishing a gun towards children, assaulting his ex wife and driving under the influence. He'd recently settled in a city an hour east of Los Angeles where he worked as a maintenance foreman for a shopping complex called Mission Plaza. When approached by police, Bruce admitted he'd recently been to Camp Nelson. He said he'd gone there on the weekend before the shooting, where he'd met a woman and the two had agreed to meet there again the following week. He returned on the weekend of Saturday, August 18, only to find that the woman had stood him up. Bruce said he spent the night hopping between the only two bars in town, on the lookout for her while under the influence of alcohol and methamphetamines. After Bruce was kicked out of one bar for making an insulting remark to a woman, he remained at the lodge until closing time. He claimed that upon leaving the bar, he drove 232 miles south to a friend's house in the city of Fontana, arriving there at around 6am Bruce's friend corroborated his story, stating that they spent the day visiting yard sales together. The timing was significant. The drive from Camp Nelson to Fontana took at least four hours. Bonnie Hood and Rudy Manuel were shot a little after 3am Investigators replicated Bruce's journey to see if they could reach Fontana in under three hours. They drove as fast as they could and yet only managed to get there in 3 hours and 45 minutes. Either Bruce's alibi was wrong or he was not the killer. There was something else. When speaking with investigators, Bruce Beauchamp divulged a significant piece of information. He was surprised it had taken them so long to come and speak with him in relation to the crime. After all, it was his employer who had given him the idea to go to Camp Nelson in the first place. Jim Hood. Jim Hood Co owned the Mission Plaza shopping complex where Bruce Beecham worked. Bruce claimed that Jim always talked to his employees about Camp Nelson, encouraging them to go up there and have a good time at the lodge. With this revelation forming an unexpected connection between their prime suspect and Bonnie Hood's husband, police searched Bruce's home. They uncovered a pair of tennis shoes that were the same brand and size as the shoe prints found outside Bonnie's cabin. On the night of the shooting, Bruce Beecham was arrested and charged with murder, attempted murder, attempted robbery, burglary and assault with a deadly weapon. Investigators sensed they had only uncovered part of a larger narrative with a prosecutor announcing at a pre trial hearing, there is a very, very good possibility there is a criminal conspiracy. There may be other suspects. The other suspect's point pertained to an individual already known to investigators. When Jim Hood was informed of Bruce Beecham's arrest, he appeared shocked. He claimed that he didn't think Bruce had ever met Bonnie or was the type of person to do such a thing. Despite this, it remained possible that Jim Hood had hired Bruce Beecham to murder his wife. Despite Jim denying Any knowledge of his wife's affair with the Rudy Manuel. The situation was a timeless motive for murder. Evidence failed to clarify the matter. While Bonnie had a $750,000 life insurance policy, ballistics on guns Jim Hood owned confirmed none of them had been used in the crime. There were no paper trails indicating that Bruce Beecham had recently received any large sums of money either. If the truth was held by either man, they weren't talking. Despite facing a potential death sentence, Bruce Beecham refused to implicate Jim Hood and continued to deny having anything to do with the crime. Investigators harboured their own doubts. After all, if Bruce had been hired to kill Bonnie, why would he visit Camp Nelson over two consecutive weekends, attend the local bars and interact with various witnesses? Without any evidence emerging to the contrary, Jim Hood was officially ruled out as a suspect. Bruce Beecham went to trial in February 1991, six months after Bonnie Hood was killed. By this point, investigators had settled on the theory that the crime was financially motivated after Bruce had overheard Bonnie talk about the large amount of tips collected from the bar. Given that Bruce knew Bonnie was married to Jim, he most likely assumed she would be alone in her cabin that night, thus an easy target to rob. Heavily intoxicated, Bruce headed to Bonnie's cabin, only to discover another man was present. Bruce's plan quickly unravelled from there. He shot Bonnie and Rudy Manuel before fleeing the scene in a panic. The prosecution expressed doubts about the 6am alibi Bruce had given police, saying that it was unreliable. His friend that had vouched for him was either lying or mistaken. In the prosecution's words, it was a simple case of robbery that led to murder and attempted murder. The prosecution's star witness was Rudy Manuel. When asked on the stand about who shot him, Rudy pointed to Bruce Beecham and announced, there's no doubt he's the one. But as soon as Rudy started giving his testimony, his story contained a number of markedly different details from the story he'd originally given police. Under oath, Rudy denied ever having an affair with Bonnie Hood. He claimed he had visited her cabin that night just to talk and had been sitting on the edge of her bed chatting with the lights on, when Bruce Beecham suddenly burst through the door. Rudy recalled, he told me I was a dead motherfucker and he was very rude about it. He said, get on your knees and face the floor. I didn't want to do it because I knew he would shoot me. Rudy claimed he tried to kick the gun out of Bruce's hand, and that's when he was shot in the head, he explained. Then there was a struggle and two more shots. I think Bonnie stood up on the bed and at this time, the defendant fought with her. This man right here jumped on the bed. I believe she was fighting for her life. And there were two more shots. This was the first time Rudi had ever mentioned a struggle taking place. Prosecutors attributed Rudy's differing recollections to his severe head trauma. The defence, however, contended that he was making up new details to fit the physical evidence. During the trial, it had been revealed that Bonnie's fingernails indicated she had struggled with her attacker. The defence believed that Rudy was falsifying his story to suit this finding, as well as other key evidence, including the fact that semen had been found inside Bonnie that couldn't be linked to anyone in particular. From the defence's perspective, the semen indicated that Rudy wasn't being entirely truthful about what he and Bonnie did that night. Testimony provided by the county coroner rebuffed Rudy's story. Further, the coroner held the opinion that Bonnie was killed elsewhere and then moved to the bed. He highlighted the blood spatter from the crime scene, specifically the neat trickle of blood that ran from Bonnie's ear, down her chin and across her neck. The coroner claimed this didn't coincide with someone being shot while lying in bed, explaining, when a person gets shot, blood splatters all about. This is the tidiest homicide scene I've seen in 12 years as a coroner. This is too tidy, not what we see in violent death. It's not consistent with the struggle Rudy Manuel said occurred. The defence told the jury, the only conclusion you can draw is that Rudy Manuel is a liar. Something happened in that cabin that night he's not telling us about. After deliberations, the jury produced the first ever acquittal in a murder trial in the county's history. One of the jurors later told a reporter, we never, ever any of us thought Bruce Beecham was guilty. There was not enough evidence to convict him. As for Rudy Manuel's testimony, Jura's opinions were overwhelmingly negative. While some considered his memory unreliable, others believed he was deliberately lying. Upon hearing the verdict, Bruce Beauchamp turned to his lawyer and said, thank God. Thank God they believed us. Jim Hood remained staunch, telling reporters he would never give up looking for his wife's murderer. I will be pursuing it, he remarked, before adding, somewhat ominously, but I don't want to say how. Upon his release from custody, Bruce Beecham started putting his life back together. He quickly married a woman named Sharon Spray, a convicted criminal whom Bruce became pen pals with while in jail. In an interview with the Porterville Recorder in the months after his acquittal, Bruce claimed he had cleaned up his life and was completely sober. In reality, he and his wife had become frequent heroin users. The now unemployed Bruce admitted that he'd considered asking Jim Hood for his old job back, but didn't think that would go down well. Even though Bruce wasn't working, his friends and family noticed that he was rarely short on cash and was often seen counting out stacks of $100 bills. Even his wife had noticed this inexplicable flow of money. One day when they were low on funds, Bruce told Sharon that he was going to pay someone a visit. 45 minutes later, he returned with an envelope containing $5,000 cash. In January 1992, a year and a half after Bonnie Hood's murder, Bruce Beecham recruited his brother in law, Gary Spray, to carry out a break in. He told Gary his intended target was Jim Hood. Gary was apprehensive, but Bruce assured him they had nothing to fear. He said that even if they did get caught, Jim Hood would never prosecute them. According to Bruce, he had something over Jim that ensured his cooperation. The two men broke into Jim's office at the Mission Plaza shopping centre and stole $18,000 worth of construction equipment, which they then hid inside a storage facility. When the items were discovered to be missing, an advertisement was placed in the local newspaper offering $3,000 for the safe return of the stolen goods. Gary Spray called the number on the advertisement and spoke with Jim Hood's business partner Pat, offering to return the stolen equipment for $6,000. Pat agreed and it was decided that the exchange would take place at the storage locker where the items were being kept. When Gary arrived at the locker, police were already waiting. As he was placed under arrest, he yelled at Pat, you messed up. Some things from the past will come out after this. Jim Hood began receiving phone calls from Bruce Beecham demanding that the charges against his brother in law be dropped. On one occasion, Bruce left a message on Jim's answering machine that said, if you don't start dealing with me properly, I'm going to sink you. Despite these efforts, the charges against the Gary Spray remained. He pleaded guilty and was sent to jail for two months. But the saga wasn't over. Bruce Beecham continued his threatening calls against Jim Hood, leading to Jim becoming so paranoid that he began carrying a loaded handgun with him at all times. He slept with it next to his bed while also keeping a loaded 9mm Glock pistol in the drawer of his office desk. Monday, March 2, 1992 marked almost a year since Bruce Beecham's acquittal for the murder of Bonnie Hood. Bruce asked a friend to drive him to Jim Hood's office at Mission Plaza. The two men had spoken on the phone earlier that morning, and Jim had invited Bruce to his office so they could sort things out once and for all. When Bruce entered the building, he moved past a Jim secretary and into the private office space where Jim was waiting. The door was closed behind them. Seconds later, two gunshots rang out from the office in quick succession, followed by a brief pause, then five more shots. Casefile will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting us by listening.