[Vision2020] Fwd: Claude Dalllas to be released tomorrow

[Scott Dredge]

Idaho Killer Claude Dallas to Be Released

Sat Feb 5,10:28 AM ET

By JOHN MILLER, Associated Press Writer

OWYHEE COUNTY, Idaho - 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 (news - web
sites), 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. He was charged in the escape, but
acquitted by a jury after he testified he had to break
out because the prison guards threatened his life.

"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.