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In 2021, Alex Ewing, aka the Hammer Killer, was found guilty of all charges involving the horrific 1984 killings of a couple from Aurora and their 7-year-old daughter. He was also tried for the murder of Patricia Smith, an interior designer who was sexually assaulted and hammered to death six days before the Bennett murders. Earlier this year, he was found guilty of first-degree murder of Patricia.
Alex Ewing is currently behind bars, serving four lifetimes in prison for crimes he committed nearly four decades ago. Now that the victims have received their fair share of justice, ID's People Magazine Investigates plans to retrace the steps back to 1984, when the Hammer Killer went on a 12-day-long murder spree.
Ahead of the People Magazine Investigates' episode titled The Colorado Hammer Killer, which is scheduled to arrive this Monday, July 11, here are five appalling facts about Alex Ewing.
5 facts about Alex Ewing dubbed the Hammer Killer
1) A 1984 arrest in Nevada ended the Hammer Killer's spree
Approximately seven months after the Aurora killings, a Nevada couple was beaten with an ax handle. Fortunately, they survived the attack. The assault occurred in Henderson, Nevada, after which Alex Ewing was arrested and remained incarcerated at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City, Nevada.
When Ewing was pinpointed as the perpetrator of the Bennett family and Smith attacks, he was already serving a 110-year sentence for the attempted murder of a Henderson-based couple.
2) DNA discovered at the crime scenes
Although Alex Ewing was not initially considered a suspect in the case, a DNA test in July 2018 connected him to semen discovered at the murder site. The accused was then charged with first-degree murder of the Bennetts - Bruce, Debra, and Melissa - and Patricia Smith in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
The discovery was made once Nevada prison authorities began collecting convicts' DNA (Ewing was already incarcerated at the time) and uploading it to the CODIS national database of the FBI. He was then linked to the Bennett killings and later to Smith's murder.
3) Ewing was initially eligible was parole
Reports state that according to the 1984 sentencing law, although Alex Ewing was serving up to 40 years in prison after his initial arrest in Nevada that year, he could have been eligible for parole after 20 years.
4) The Hammer Killer attacked people in three different states
Ewing carried out four violent attacks in Denver over the course of a 12-day period in January 1984, three of which occurred in Aurora - assaults on survivors Donna Holm, Jim and Kim Haubenschild, and the Bennetts. He had violently attacked, raped and killed Patricia Smith in Lakewood a few days before the Aurora attacks.
After a 11-day hiatus, he attacked Roy Williams at his home in Kingman, Arizona, using a rock. He was ultimately detained for attacking Nancy and Chris Barry in Henderson on August 9 of the same year in Nevada using an ax handle.
5) A failed trial in 2021
Jurors were prohibited from learning about Ewing's conviction for the Bennett family trial in Arapahoe County when a discussion attempted to draw parallels between the two murder cases.
The perpetrator's first trial for Smith's case took place in October 2021. Defense counsel sought and was granted a mental competence examination, which led to the first prosecution attempt ending in a mistrial. A second trial was attempted earlier this year which went on for five days and took the jury over five hours to come up with a verdict that found him guilty of first-degree murder.
People Magazine Investigates' upcoming episode will air on ID at 9.00 pm ET this Monday and will also be available to stream on Discovery+.
