Admitted murderer Frederick Hammer told authorities that he killed his nephew, Jimmy Blevins, over a monetary dispute.

Hammer has admitted to the murders of Ronald and Frederick Hudler and John Miller in January of 2008, and Jimmy Blevins. He has taken credit for murdering a total of 17 people, including Ashe resident Tim Shatley in November of 2005, Ashe Sheriff James Williams said. He allegedly boasted about his kill tally to a fellow inmate.

Hammer allegedly owed Blevins $1,605 for work his nephew had completed through Hammer’s firewood business.

“Hammer said that he had been good to Jimmy for years,” Williams said. “He always said he bought him things and brought him free firewood during the winter…Freddie thought that he treated Jimmy like a son.”

Hammer also told authorities that he “snapped” when Blevins began pressuring him over the wages he was owed. After Hammer shot Blevins with an unspecified firearm, he placed his nephew’s body in a shallow hole in an isolated stretch of wood line in the Clifton community and covered Blevins with boards and debris.

Hammer had intended to return to the murder scene a “few days later” to finish covering the body. When he did return, he discovered that the hole had already been covered.

A real estate agent, Williams explained, had instructed the owner of the property to cover the hole where Blevins remains had been placed to increase the value of the property. Williams explained that the property owner and real estate agent were totally unaware that Blevins’ body was present.

Although authorities have not ascertained the exact number of Hammer’s victims, they do not doubt his manipulative and criminal nature.

“He’s smart and he likes to play mind games,” Williams said. “An attorney in Virginia representing Hammer said he is one of the smartest criminal minds he has ever read.”

As part of a prearranged agreement for the disclosure of Blevins’ body, Hammer will be relocated to Wallens Ridge Correction Center in Big Stone Gap, Va. He requested a move so that we would be closer to his wife, Brenda Hammer.

North Carolina authorities are currently in the process of determining how to charge Hammer with the most recent offenses.