Posted on 01/24/2005 12:16:10 AM PST by nickcarraway
BOISE, Idaho - Claude Dallas, a self-styled mountain man who shot and killed two Idaho Fish and Game officers in 1981, will be released from prison next month, Idaho Department of Correction spokeswoman Tracy McBain said.
Dallas, 55, was moved from a Kansas prison to the Idaho Correctional Institution in Orofino on Jan. 15, McBain said.
He will complete his 30-year prison sentence, minus administrative reductions, on Feb. 6 for two counts of voluntary manslaughter and a weapons charge for the deaths of Bill Pogue and Conley Elms.
The two Fish and Game officers approached Dallas at his desert camp in Owyhee County accusing him of poaching game. They took a pistol he was wearing.
According to trial testimony, Dallas then pulled another pistol that was strapped to his leg, shot both officers and shot them again execution style in the head with a nearby rifle.
He was charged with first-degree murder but claimed he shot the officers in self-defense.
A jury acquitted Dallas of murder but found him guilty of two counts of voluntary manslaughter, concealing evidence and using a firearm in the commission of a crime.
After he served several years of his sentence, Dallas escaped from the Idaho State Penitentiary in March 1986 by cutting though two chain-link fences.
A massive manhunt ensued. Dallas was able to avoid capture for almost a year despite several sightings and an unsuccessful FBI raid on a suspected hiding place in Nevada.
He was caught in Riverside, Calif., on March 8, 1987.
Several months later, a jury acquitted Dallas for the escape after he testified he had to leave the Idaho prison because the guards threatened his life.
Since then, Dallas has been incarcerated on his original conviction in prisons in Nebraska, New Mexico and Kansas, where he had been since 1989.
He was denied in 2001 after telling Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole he would not follow requirements including drug testing and electronic monitoring.
Nice, really nice. Kills two men, escapes from jail, still makes parole.
Great country we're living in. Between this guy and the guy from Ohio I feel like I'd better decamp for 125th Street, just to be safe!
I recall Dallas as having many friends among the buckaroos of Elko and Winnemucka (sp?) county when I worked at Carlin Gold many years ago. As I recall, the one ranger he killed had a reputation as a bully and thug among the ranch community. He was famous among the survivalists as well.
Dallas could drink himself from Sweet Grass to Nogales and never spend a dime of his own money. I suspect he can find a quiet bunk anyplace where heat is measured in cords or air conditioning is a good tree. He became a symbol of the Sagebrush Rebellion and a folk hero all over the West. It took the Feds so long to find him because every homestead west of the Divide was a potential hideout.
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