Claude Dallas

Claude Dallas

Claude Lafayette Dallas, Jr. (born March 11, 1950) was a self-styled mountain man. The son of a dairy farmer, he spent his early years in Luce County, Michigan, later moving to rural Morrow County, Ohio where he liked to trap and hunt game. Dallas graduated from Mount Gilead High School in 1967. During the Vietnam War, he dodged the draft and fled west, earning a living as a ranch hand and trapper. Dallas was eventually charged with killing two game wardens in remote Owyhee County, Idaho, in January 1981. He eluded capture for over 15 months, until found in nearby northern Nevada in April 1982, north of Winnemucca. Convicted that October, Dallas escaped from prison in 1986 on Easter Sunday (March 30) and eluded law enforcement officials for nearly a year; he was apprehended outside a convenience store in suburban southern California in March 1987.

Dallas attracted national media attention after both incidents, becoming a particularly controversial figure in Idaho. Some Idahoans saw him as a folk hero, defying the government by defending his right to live off the land; many others, however, were shocked and disgusted. After manslaughter convictions in 1982, his prison escape trial ended in acquittal in 1987. Dallas served 22 years of a 30-year sentence and was released in February 2005.