Idaho's most infamous folk-hero outlaw, Claude Dallas, released from prison after serving 22 years
Hoodoo
BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- Idaho's most infamous outlaw, Claude Dallas,
was released from prison Sunday morning after serving 22 years
for the execution-style slayings of two state officers in 1981.
Dallas, 54, gained notoriety as both a callous criminal and a
modern-day mountain man at odds with the government. He was
released Sunday after his 30-year term was cut by eight years for
good behavior.
Dallas wore a light blue shirt, prison-issue jeans and a denim
jacket as he walked out of the Idaho Correctional Institution in
Orofino at 4:55 a.m., said Teresa Jones, an Idaho Department of
Correction spokeswoman. He was picked up by a relative.
"He doesn't want to talk to the media or make a big deal out of
his release," said prison warden Kevin Kempf. "He just wants to
go live his life."
He was convicted of manslaughter in 1982 for the shooting deaths
of Conley Elms and Bill Pogue, officers for the Idaho Department
of Fish and Game who were investigating reports that Dallas was
poaching bobcats in remote southwestern Idaho.
Pogue, who had drawn his own weapon, was hit first with a shot
from Dallas' handgun. Dallas then shot Elms two times in the
chest before using a rifle to fire one round into each man's head.
The case made national headlines and turned Dallas into an
anti-government folk hero for some -- a reputation heightened by
a 1986 jailbreak. Dallas hid for nearly a year before he was
caught in Riverside, Calif. He was charged with escape, but was
acquitted by a jury after he testified he had to break out
because prison guards threatened his life.
Relatives including his brother, William Dallas, and his
85-year-old mother, Jennie Dallas, who live in Charlotte, N.C.,
didn't return phone calls seeking comment.
Dallas has been the subject of a song, a television movie and at
least two books.
Bill Mauk, one of Dallas' lawyers at the 1982 trial, said he's
exchanged letters once a year with his former client. He said
Dallas will likely try to live quietly outside the public spotlight.
"He doesn't see himself as a figure in that grander landscape in
which he's been painted," Mauk said last week. "He's been in a
very isolated venue for last 22 years. He doesn't read his press
clippings. He doesn't read the books."
State Fish and Game officers, some of whom worked with Pogue and
Elms, said they chose to observe Sunday as a date to remember the
slayings, which many in the department still believe should have
gotten Dallas a murder conviction.
"We clearly have strong feelings about Claude Dallas," said
former Fish and Game Director Jerry Conley.
Because of the lingering strong feelings about Dallas, prison
officials kept the time of day and location of his release secret.
robertc...@yahoo.com
Hoodoo wrote:
> Idaho folk-hero outlaw released from prison after serving 22 years
>
> http://www.nctimes.com/
>
> BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- Idaho's most infamous outlaw, Claude Dallas,
> was released from prison Sunday morning after serving 22 years
> for the execution-style slayings of two state officers in 1981.
>
>
> "He doesn't see himself as a figure in that grander landscape in
> which he's been painted," Mauk said last week. "He's been in a
> very isolated venue for last 22 years. He doesn't read his press
> clippings. He doesn't read the books."
>
I've also seen him profiled on one or other of the cable crime shows.
I'll bet someone sends him a tape.
Bob Champ
MWB
had time added to his 30 year term.
Mark
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, MWB <mark.b...@verizon.net> wrote:
> Good behavior.......he escaped. Am I missing something here? He
> should've had time added to his 30 year term.
He was acquitted of the escape because he claimed he did it to defend
himself from prison guards. I find this entirely plausible.
He shot the agents -- for whatever reason -- with a handgun, then went
and got a .22 rifle and finished them off with shots to the head. In
my book, that's murder, pure and simple, and it gets you a needle or a
noose or a few bullets of your own according to local custom. But the
jury foreman at his trial is on record saying that if he hadn't taken
that last step, the initial shootings would have been written off to
self-defense and Dallas would have walked away clean.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone disagrees with any statement I make, I
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it. -T. Lehrer
***~~~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Schenley
> > something here? He should've had time added to
> > his 30 year term.
In most states ... *escape* is, at most, five years ... *if* you are
convicted.
> He was acquitted of the escape because he claimed
> he did it to defend himself from prison guards. I find
> this entirely plausible.
> He shot the agents -- for whatever reason -- with a
> handgun, then went and got a .22 rifle and finished
> them off with shots to the head. In my book, that's
> murder, pure and simple, and it gets you a needle or
> a noose or a few bullets of your own according to
> local custom. But the jury foreman at his trial is on
> record saying that if he hadn't taken that last step,
> the initial shootings would have been written off to
> self-defense and Dallas would have walked away
> clean.
Here's the story from the Idaho Statesman ~
By Patrick Orr
http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050205/NEWS01/502050334
(w/photo)
Claude Dallas will walk out of prison Sunday into a different world.
The infamous trapper/poacher who killed two Idaho Fish and Game
officers in 1981 will find the American West is not such a hospitable
place for a man who wants to live off the land. Open spaces are less
open. Buckarooing and ranch jobs are scarce. Trapping isn't as
lucrative.
He'll likely have to find a different life, and he'll have different
rights - prohibited from carrying the weapons that were essential
tools of his trade.
Dallas is now 54, a middle-aged man who has spent 22 years in a
concrete and steel cell for killing officers Bill Pogue and Conley
Elms after they confronted him for poaching game in the remote Owyhee
canyonlands.
He'll be released in prison denims, carrying a check with his earnings
from working in a prison print shop. The state is keeping the exact
time and location of his release secret, but prison officials say he
has arranged for someone to pick him up.
So what's next?
The only person who really knows isn't talking. Dallas has never
granted a jailhouse interview and politely declined - in a handwritten
note - to talk to The Idaho Statesman about his release.
Friends of Dallas around the Paradise Valley/Paradise Hill area - a
remote northern Nevada ranching community and the closest thing he had
to a home base - are tightlipped. Most won't return phone calls or
hang up when reporters call. Those who will talk say they have no idea
what Dallas will do with his life.
"We are all interested in what he is going to do, but I haven't heard
a thing about it," said Liz Chabot, a longtime Paradise Valley justice
of the peace. "There are mixed emotions. There are some people here
who love him, and probably some who hold a grudge."
Hero or psychopath: a fierce division
Mention the name Claude Dallas, and opinions come fast and furious.
To many, Dallas is an unrepentant poacher and killer who couldn't live
by society's rules. He is especially reviled by game wardens and the
families of Pogue and Elms, who have declined to comment publicly
since Dallas' parole hearing in 2001 but earlier called him a "snake,"
"a murdering bastard" and a "psychopath" who should never again be
allowed to breathe free air.
To others, he was a hero who defended himself and a fading way of life
when he shot Elms and Pogue.
Fish and Game officials admit they're not happy about Dallas being
released, but said they don't care to speculate about his fate.
"We look at it like this. We are taking this opportunity to remember
Pogue and Elms," said Jon Heggen, chief of enforcement for Idaho Fish
and Game. "Dallas has no legacy. The legacy rests with the families of
Pogue and Elms, and the legacy rests with all Fish and Game employees,
and the legacy rests with the critters Pogue and Elms protected. That
is the real story here."
But while some attitudes may have not changed in the past 24 years,
modern living has.
Former Owyhee County Sheriff Tim Nettleton, who gained fame as the
lawman who led the massive, 15-month manhunt for Dallas, thinks Dallas
will have to change his buckaroo ways.
"He'll probably go back to Paradise Valley, where his friends are,"
Nettleton said. "That'll last about three weeks, and then he'll
realize he can't live that way anymore. That was 25 years ago. The
times have changed."
Bill Mauk, the Boise attorney who represented Dallas during his murder
trial, thinks Dallas will leave Idaho for good after his release.
"Those who are most impassioned by this case tend to be in Idaho,"
Mauk said. "For the most part, his network connections were not in
Idaho - they were in Nevada. I don't see any reason why he would stay
here."
'His foremost desire is to do whatever he does quietly'
Mauk, who has recently exchanged letters with Dallas, said his former
client is excited to be getting out of prison but didn't disclose his
plans. Dallas' mother is still alive "back east," and he has a brother
he might try to meet with, Mauk said.
"His foremost desire is to do whatever he does quietly, and not be the
subject of public attention," he said. "He's like anyone coming out of
prison for a long time - the most immediate thing he will be
confronted with are basic issues like food, housing, transportation,
clothing, a stable income."
Mauk said it would be difficult for Dallas to go back to his "mountain
man" lifestyle, citing his age and health after two decades of
relative inactivity in prison.
"It would be be very difficult for anyone to live the lifestyle Claude
lived in this age," he said. "Maybe in some of the more rural parts of
Montana, Idaho, or Alaska ..."
Complicating matters will be his notoriety, which Dallas never wanted
in the first place, Mauk said.
Dallas had devoted friends who supported and helped him while he
evaded the law for 15 months after the killings. His story sparked a
TV movie, a song and at least two books. The cult of personality grew
during his 1982 murder trial, where national media shared the
courtroom with a group of women who dubbed themselves the "Dallas
Cheerleaders."
"What has happened over the course of time is Claude Dallas has been
unable to be the spokesperson for himself, so others have redefined
what the case is all about," Mauk said. "I think Claude Dallas has the
ability to build a life somewhere else, where people don't know who he
is."
Old friend Jim Stevens, who runs a greenhouse in Paul, was visiting
Dallas' camp the day Pogue and Elms dropped in. He was the only
witness to their deaths. Stevens said all he knows is that Dallas will
enjoy his freedom and may try to reconnect with family.
"I hope he has a good life ... I wish him all the luck in the world,"
said Stevens, who has exchanged birthday cards with Dallas for years
and would welcome a visit. "I assume he'll go back to California
(where he was arrested in 1987 after escaping from prison) or
something."
Old ways of earning cash now harder to come by
For several years before the shootings Dallas often lived by himself
in the the northern Nevada wilderness, trapping and shooting animals
for subsistence and income, without regard for game regulations.
Hanceford Clayton of Idaho Falls, vice president of the Idaho Trappers
Association said Dallas would have a hard time making a living the way
he used to, because the high price of gas and low prices for fur make
it difficult to get by.
"Very few people make their living at trapping now - it's like
hunting. It's a hobby," Clayton said. "I just about break even on gas
and the traps people steal."
But Diane Clark of Leadore, an Idaho representative to the National
Trappers Association, said she believes Dallas could sustain himself
by trapping, especially if he targets the bobcats near the
Idaho/Nevada border. She and her husband, who are retired, make about
$10,000 to $12,000 a year on trapping.
"For someone who didn't have lot of financial responsibilities, like
Dallas, it would be possible to make a living at it," she said.
Dallas spent some time in the 1970s as a cowboy/ranchhand, but
opportunities in that field have dwindled, too.
"Right now, there isn't many jobs for cowboys," said Tom Hall, a
longtime rancher from Bruneau. "When spring breaks there's a crew, but
the jobs are all pretty well taken up.
"Things are done more mechanically now. You gotta be a truck driver.
Straight-up cowboys just don't work much any more."
In the '70s, Dallas did a lot of odd jobs to make ends meet, including
driving trucks and other ranch work. When he wasn't in the wilderness,
he mostly lived in Paradise Hill, a small group of homes and trailers
about 20 miles from Paradise Valley, Nev.
He has worked in a variety of prison jobs, most recently in the print
shop of a Kansas prison. He worked on the loading dock and later
helped operate the printing press, according to Kansas Department of
Corrections reports.
Dallas spent most of his Idaho prison term in Nebraska, New Mexico and
most recently Kansas after he escaped from the prison outside Boise in
1986. Last month, he was transferred to Orofino in preparation for his
release.
Two juries believed he feared for his life
Dallas was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 1983 after a Canyon
County jury rejected first-degree murder charges, instead finding him
guilty of two counts of voluntary manslaughter and a gun charge.
Jurors later said they believed Dallas' claim that he feared for his
life that day at Bull Camp.
His sentence was automatically reduced by a now-defunct Idaho
Department of Correction provision called "good time" that allowed
prisoners to get out early.
He lost a year of "good time" for escaping from prison, but got no
additional penalty because a jury in his escape trial believed his
claim that his life was in danger from vengeful prison guards.
Donna Diehl, a juror in his murder trial, said she thinks it's time
for Dallas to be freed.
"A lot of people get out of prison who shouldn't, like sex offenders,"
Diehl said. "I think (Dallas) will be changed by prison, that he will
be on the right track.
"He has so many friends in Nevada, and in the wilderness," she said.
About to become a free man, Dallas must shape a new life, Mauk said,
noting that the man's fans and enemies see him based on their wants,
not his.
"To an extent, it's a mystery," he said. "Maybe he doesn't know who he
is now - human beings cannot define themselves in isolation.
"The Claude Dallas of today is yet to be defined. That can only be
defined over the course of time."
---
"Claude Dallas"
By Ian Tyson
In a land the Spanish once had called the Northern Mystery,
Where rivers run and disappear the mustang still is free.
By the Devil's wash and coyote hole in the wild Owyhee Range
Somewhere in the sage tonight the wind calls out his name.
Aye,aye,aye.
Come gather 'round me buckaroos and a story I will tell
Of the fugitive Claude Dallas who just broke out of jail.
You might think this tale is history from before the West was won,
But the events that I'll describe took place in nineteen eighty-one.
He was born out in Virginia,left home when school was through;
In the deserts of Nevada he became a buckaroo,
And he learned the ways of cattle,and he learned to sit a horse,
And he always packed a pistol,and he practiced deadly force.
Then Claude he became a trapper,and he dreamed of the bygone days,
And he studied bobcat logic and their wild and silent ways
In the bloody runs near Paradise, in monitors down south
Trapping cats and coyotes,living hand to mouth.
Aye,aye,aye.
Then Claude took to livin' all alone out many miles from town,
A friend--Jim Stevens--brought supplies and he stayed to hang around.
That day two wardens--Pogue and Elms--rode into check Claude out,
They were seeking violations and to see what Claude's about.
Now Claude had hung some venison,he had a bobcat pelt or two;
Pogue claimed they were out of season,he said "Dallas,you're all
thru."
But Dallas would not leave his camp.He refused to go to town.
As the wind howled throught the bull-camp they stared each other down.
Its hard to say what happend next,perhaps we'll never know,
They were gonna take Claude in to jail,and he vowed he'd never go.
Jim Stevens heard the gunfire,and when he turned around
Bill Pogue was falling backwards,Conley Elms he fell face down.
Aye,aye,aye.
Jim stevens walked on over;there was a gun near Bill Pogue's hand.
It was hard to say who drawn his first,but Claude had made his stand.
Claude said "I am justified Jim,they were gonna cut me down,
And a man's got a right to hang some meat
When he's livin' this far from town."
It took eighteen men and fifteen months to finally run Claude down.
In the sage outside of Paradise they drove him to the ground.
Convicted up in Idaho--manslaughter by decree--
Thirty years at maximum,but soon Claude would break free.
There's two sides two this story,there may be no right or wrong,
The lawman and the renegade have graced a thousand songs.
The story is an old one.Conclusion's hard to draw,
But Claude's out in the sage tonight he may be the last outlaw.
Aye,aye,aye.
In a land the Spanish once had called the Northern Mystery,
Where rivers run and disappear the mustang still is free.
By the Devil's wash and the coyote hole in the wild Owyhee Range
Somewhere in the sage tonight the wind calls out his name.
Aye,aye,aye
JaneLFreund
controversial in our state's history. Most folks see Dallas as either an outlaw
or a hero.
From my perspective when you shoot a wounded person in the head, you're not
much of a "hero". Furthermore if being afraid of the guards was a reason for
escaping from prison, we wouldn't have very many inmates left.
Bill Schenley
> reason for escaping from prison, we wouldn't
> have very many inmates left.
There is a difference between being afraid of the guards ... and being
afraid for your life. According to Dallas ... he was afraid for his
life.