James William Hutchins (March 26, 1929 – March 16, 1984) was an American murderer who killed four people in two different states. He was charged with murdering a man in New Mexico in 1954, but was convicted of voluntary manslaughter after claiming self-defense. Hutchins was later convicted of the murders of three law enforcement officers in North Carolina in 1979. He was sentenced to death and executed on March 16, 1984, by the state of North Carolina at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina by lethal injection. Hutchins became the first person to be executed in North Carolina since 1977 when capital punishment was reinstated. The murders inspired a motion picture and prompted statewide changes in law enforcement protocol for the interagency reporting of officer murders and radio cross-communication between local agencies and the North Carolina State Highway Patrol. Early life and initial crimes Hutchins was born on March 26, 1929, in Rutherford County, North Carolina. His father was an alcoholic who physically abused his mother and chased her with a gun. James's brother, Billy Hutchins, said he was always high-tempered. Hutchins was widely feared, known in Rutherford County as a violent and dangerous man with a short fuse, who would attack others for a minor or no reason. At the time of his arrest in 1979, Hutchins was married and had three children. He was unemployed at the time of the murders, but had previously worked at various occupations, including as a textile worker and a carpenter. Hutchins served in the US Air Force during the Korean War and was trained as a rifleman. In April 1954, Hutchins was arrested after fatally shooting Bruce Weibel, a 32-year-old truck driver from Texas. Hutchins, who had been hitchhiking while he was AWOL, killed Weibel after the driver picked him up in New Mexico. He then wrapped the body in a blanket and hid it under a bridge, then drove the truck before being arrested in Oklahoma. During the investigation, Hutchins was questioned in the death of an unidentified woman in Colorado. He admitted to killing Weibel, claiming self-defense, but denied killing the woman. In 2009, the woman was identified as 18-year-old Dorothy Gay Howard. Serial killer Harvey Glatman is now the prime suspect in her murder. Hutchins was initially charged with murder for killing Weibel. However, he was convicted of voluntary manslaughter after claiming that Weibel tried to strangle him and