Posted on 02/05/2005 4:19:04 AM PST by foolscap
OWYHEE COUNTY, Idaho (AP) - Idaho's most infamous outlaw, Claude Dallas, killed two state officers in a remote desert 24 years ago in a crime that brought him notoriety as both a callous criminal and a modern-day mountain man at odds with the government. Now a bespectacled 54-year-old, Dallas is to be released from prison Sunday after serving nearly 22 years for the execution-style slayings of Conley Elms and Bill Pogue, officers for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
The case has been among the most polarizing in Idaho history, with some expressing disgust at how Dallas has gained a measure of folk-hero status among those who rally against the establishment.
Some compared him to Gordon Kahl, a tax-evader killed by U.S. marshals in North Dakota in 1983; to Randy Weaver, the protagonist in the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff; or even to Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber.
"Those cases always end up getting connected after the fact," said Jess Walter, the Spokane, Wash.-based author of a book about Weaver. "But at the time, they were just having trouble with law enforcement."
Dallas' 1986 jailbreak only heightened the legend perpetuated by his friends, that his rugged lifestyle got crossways with a heavy-handed U.S. government. Dallas hid for nearly a year before he was caught and sent back to prison.
"It's sure an emotional issue, and his release has heightened those emotions," said Jon Heggen, head of the Fish and Game Department's enforcement bureau. "There's been a lot of tears shed the last two weeks."
Dallas' 30-year sentence was cut by eight years for good behavior.
He was convicted of manslaughter in 1982 for shooting the officers, who had entered his winter camp on the South Fork of the Owyhee River, one of the West's least-populated regions, to investigate reports of illegal trapping.
Jim Stevens, a friend of Dallas who was visiting the camp, witnessed the killings.
According to evidence at the trial, 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 as the warden emerged from the trapper's tent, where he'd found poached bobcats.
Dallas then used a rifle to fire one round into each man's head.
The 28-day trial made national headlines, with Dallas claiming the game wardens were out to get him. A group of women - who became known as the "Dallas Cheerleaders" - gathered daily to support him.
A jury of 10 women and two men acquitted Dallas of murder, finding him guilty of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter instead.
"We remain horrified somebody could have gotten manslaughter for cruelly killing our people, and then following it up with shots from a .22 rifle," said former Fish and Game Director Jerry Conley, who testified at Dallas' sentencing.
But one of Dallas' lawyers, Bill Mauk, still sees Dallas as a victim: He fired on the officers after his privacy had been violated and after he was threatened by government agents enforcing game laws he didn't believe applied to him.
Jury foreman Milo M. Moore, a retired shopkeeper, said Dallas might have been freed outright if he hadn't used his .22 caliber rifle. Moore said testimony about Pogue's reputation as a tough-guy lawman influenced the verdict.
"We felt it was self-defense up to a certain point," Moore said in a recent interview. "Had he not shot them in the head, it would have been a different verdict."
Moore said Pogue had come "gunning" for the poacher, and said Pogue was on trial in some jurors' minds more than Dallas.
Dallas' story inspired a television movie, and writer Jack Olsen chronicled the crime in a book called "Give a Boy a Gun."
"Claude Dallas," a ballad written by singer-songwriters Ian Tyson and Tom Russell, and sung by Tyson, romanticizes Dallas' lifestyle and life on the lam, saying: "It took 18 men and 15 months to finally run Claude down. In the sage outside of paradise, they drove him to the ground."
Kevin Kempf, the warden at the Idaho Correctional Institution at Orofino, where Dallas has been since Jan. 15 when he was moved from a Kansas prison, won't say where Dallas will be released.
"He's prepared," Kempf said. "It doesn't appear he's going to be leaving our facility without any direction or without a plan."
Dallas did not respond to interview requests from The Associated Press.
Your version doesn't make sense logically. Especially in the light of two rounds to the head.
Well, no.
In other jurisdictions, he'd be sitting on death row.
I wasn't there, but it makes sense to me. The two rounds to the head were fired after the gunfight was finished. It is not hard for me to see that how Dallas saw it as the only way "cleaning up" the situation as reaction to what had happened set in.
BTW, if he had not fired those shots, it is likely he would have been acquitted. They were a big mistake. He should have just submitted to the officers and paid his fine, instead of worrying about his livestock.
You seldom have upstanding members of the community involved in cases such as this, which is what ties Gordon Kahl, Claude Dallas, and Randy Weaver all together. They were all well thought of in their communities, which is why the cases became controversial.
I am not celebrating anything..I posted what I did so all of my fellow freepers could see what has been written about this individual before.
I rather doubt this is a self-defense matter. Police routinely draw their weapons especially when it was obvious that the suspect was wearing a pistol while being guilty of a crime.
Except for that teeny little detail of the finishing-off shot.
Correct. See post 23.
"Will those servants treat the value of your life so vainly on the day that you really need them".
Not to sound vain but..my life is not protected by game wardens on a day to day basis....or any other day for that matter...are you talking about the LE community as a whole?
I made the mistake of posting a response before reading all the way down. Mea culpa. :)
Self-defense depends in large part on what the perceptions of the people involved were, and whether a jury finds those perceptions and the consequent actions to be reasonable.
It was not obvious that Dallas had the pistol; they had been talking for several minutes at Dallas' camp before the shooting occurred. Pogue had made several references saying that Dallas could come in "easy" or "hard".
From comments that the jury made after the trial, it was clear to me that if Dallas had not finished off the wardens with shots to the head, they would probably have acquitted him.
The crime that you are talking about is hardly robbery or murder, and tended to be viewed by the law and the community as an offense punishable by fine, similar to a traffic ticket.
While it is true that officers often draw their weapons, it is not common for them to draw them quickly after they have been talking to a suspect for some time.
Dallas did not have a reputation as a hot head or someone who was violent. That is much of what makes this case so unusual.
It is my opinion that this is one of the rare cases where people of generally good will became involved in a series of unusual events that lead to tragic results, and I believe that is the conclusion that the jury came to.
Anyway, the guy that had him sent to an out of state prison is a little worried, since Dallas threatened revenge for that. Dallas is no hero, just another psycho.
Because most of the time these days they are not "serving the public." They are unionized gun grabbing, child grabbing, property grabbing thugs. Frankly, the more of them go home in bags the better.
That's a hard line, but look at the state of police corruption these days. 88% of CHP are retireing on disability. One year of that fraud is probably worth more than all the property crime CHP has ever solved in it entire history. Frauds, liars, thieves, and murderers.
And that's only on the margins because the odds af getting caught are so low. Being able to take some meat is part of the natural order of the universe and laws apply to those who are guided by rules and regulations for everything that they do. If you are outside of that mainstream, you do things outside of that mainstream. If you get caught, you pay. It's a cost of dong business.
Dallas became a folk hero to every manjack who could see himself, through an unfortunate series of happenstance, in the same position. Relations with the government are tenuous at best in the backcountry. Throw in an overbearing Warden and it's explosive.
If I was faced with two opponents who almost certianly are carrying hidden weapons, two in the hat, from a distance, with a rifle, seems prudent.
The two rounds to the head lead me to believe he wanted to keep the lawmen from testifying as to what happened. How any jury could label two rounds to the head as manslaughter is beyond rational thought.
Anyway, the guy that had him sent to an out of state prison is a little worried, since Dallas threatened revenge for that. Dallas is no hero, just another psycho.
He shot them with a .357 magnum, then delivered coup de gras with a .22 rifle.
The community did not think he was a psycho, and he had ample opportunities to kill peace officers when he was captured, but he chose not to.
As I have repeatedly written, what it unusual about this case is the high regard that the community had for Claude Dallas.
And the dead are still dead. I will never understand how a murderer can ever go free. Actually how they are allowed to live.
He didn't receive any time for his prison break. That came about when,at a jury trial I believe,it was determined he escaped to avoid being murdered by prison guards.
<< "Dallas has chosen to decide for himself what laws to obey and what laws not to obey. "
Hey, San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom does the same thing only he imposes his decisions on the populace. >>
As, to the supreme court, does the occupant of every state and feral-court bench.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.