Killer Cowboy: The Legend of Claude Dallas

From Airship, I'm Jeremy Schwartz, and this is American Criminal.
At the end of January 1998, Eric Rudolph fled into the Nantahala National Forest on the run from federal agents. Less than 48 hours earlier, he'd killed a second person in his mission to stop abortion in America. Having spent a lot of his life learning how to survive in the wilderness, Eric was able to evade capture for more than five years.
And during that time, some people came to view him as a kind of living legend. An icon stepped right out of America's past. He was taking on the law, thumbing his nose at an oppressive government, and making his would-be captors look downright foolish.
But you know that by now. Well, what if I told you that Eric's story wasn't the first time something like this had happened? See, Eric Rudolph was hardly an original thinker.

He might claim otherwise, but we've all heard about guys like him before, loner types who decide that they know what's best for society and are willing to kill to send that message. Today's story is like Eric's in a lot of ways. Like Eric, Claude Dallas was a loner who preferred living in the wilderness to community and companionship.

Like Eric, Claude displayed a tendency to fixate on topics from a young age, though he only ever seemed interested in one specific idea. And, like Eric, Claude Dallas killed two people and then went on the run with multiple agencies hot on his tail. He just did it about 15 years earlier.
But much of the difference in their two stories hinges on what motivated them. Neither man had a great love of government, but Eric wanted to take the fight to the feds. Claude would have been happy if they just left him alone.

So while the reasoning and scale behind their crimes differ, both men received curiously similar reactions from the general public. Sure, there were plenty of people who were disgusted by each of them. But when each man ran from the law, some were ready to stand up and cheer, to declare them heroes.
So what was it that Claude Dallas did on January 5th, 1981? And why? How was he able to stay ahead of investigators for so long?
And why were people willing to forgive his horrific crime? I'm glad you asked.

This is The Legend of Claude Dallas.

The story of Claude Dallas begins with his childhood, but not in the way you might expect. So often when we delve into a criminal's past, we take a look at the way their family life or upbringing shaped who they would become. Makes sense, right?
To look at all the choices and formative events that led to their eventual crime? And you'll sometimes find warning signs in a person's behavior. Or notice an influential figure who affected their world view.

But with Claude, his family is about as unremarkable as they come. Middle class, Catholic, plenty of kids, dad with a decent job. It's really not a lot to talk about there.
So what really contributes to the air of mystique around Claude Dallas is that despite his totally ordinary upbringing, he seemed destined to one day be a cowboy. And this is a kid who was born in Virginia in 1950. He isn't some rancher's son from the 1800s.

He's raised in Michigan and Ohio. And by his old man's account, he starts talking about the Old West around the same age that most young kids start fixating on the topic that will fascinate him for the next couple of years. For most, it's a dinosaur or a truck or outer space.
For six-year-old Claude, it's cowboys in the Old West. When the family moves to a dairy farm, his dad starts teaching Claude and his brothers about guns and hunting and trapping animals, all things the kid takes to with gusto. He shoots his very first deer at age nine.

And while other kids are playing sports or taking part in other school activities, Claude spends his free time trapping raccoons, foxes and the occasional mink. By the time he reaches high school, it's clear that Claude has no interest in going to college. His grades have never been great, and he's only ever had one future in mind.

So the summer after he graduates in 1967, he packs a bag and starts hitchhiking west. He eventually winds up in a California orange orchard, talking to the property's owner about his cowboy dreams. The man tells him about the Alford Ranch where he worked years ago in Oregon.
The way he describes it makes Claude's heart sing, and he sets off within the hour. It's around the start of 1968 that he lands a job as a buckaroo at the Alford Ranch. And although he lacks the skills a lot of the other ranch workers bring to the job, he more than makes up for it with enthusiasm and grit.

He wants this life. Part of that means looking the part. So, with his first paycheck, he sends away for a Winchester rifle.
It's known as the gun that won the West. So, of course, that's the one Claude wants. Over the first few months, he also spends big on everything else he needs to look and act the part of a cowboy.

Expensive custom fit boots and a round brimmed hat that helps complete his outfit, which is quintessentially last century, just as he's always imagined it. But though he looks like a proper cowboy, Claude's somewhat atypical. Overall, his reputation on the ranch is as a quiet young man who's happy to keep to himself.
He's a hard worker, but he doesn't go in for drinking like a lot of the other buckaroos. He also has an unsettling attitude towards animals. He seems to consider horses nothing more than tools, and is borderline abusive to them.
He's got even less love for the other animals on the ranch, like dogs. And wild animals are nothing but trapping fodder for him. He's notorious for setting traps at all times of the year, no matter what season it is.

If anyone tries to tell him that he's breaking the law, he insists that hunting seasons don't apply to subsistence hunters. Not that he needs to kill any of these animals to survive. He just likes doing it.
On the whole, though, people like Claude. They think he's polite and friendly enough and he doesn't ruffle any feathers. But like all good old West Cowboys, he's restless.
So around the start of 1970, when he's about 20, he leaves Oregon and heads to Paradise Valley, Nevada. There, he starts working on another ranch, carrying on his reputation for working hard and really leaning into the cowboy way of life. He keeps himself busy doing everything he can to mold himself into a more authentic, capable buckaroo.

He customizes gun grips that better fit the shape of his hand, spends hours sharpening his spurs, and even melts down lead to craft his own bullets. Then he practices with his guns over and over again until he's as good a shot as any other man on the ranch. He boasts that he can take down any animal from a half-mile away.

And that's not a claim anyone takes lightly. Claude is still in the habit of trapping and killing animals wherever he is, no matter the season. He'll sometimes show up at the camp with a poached deer or antelope that no one asked for, and that they don't need.
But Claude's not interested in need. He's entitled to take what he wants from the land, just like the Cowboys of old. So, that's what he does.

In early 1971, Claude and some of the guys working on the ranch in Paradise Valley are photographed for a national geographic book all about the American Cowboy. And agreeing to do that turns out to be a mistake. See, all this is going on at the same time as the Vietnam War.

And as a young man not enrolled in college, Claude's eligible to be drafted. In fact, his number came up in 1970, and he was supposed to report for induction that September. Problem is that all of his letters from the government had been going to his last known address, which is in Ohio.
It's somewhere he hasn't lived for years. Instead, he's been working on these ranches, usually a long, long way from the nearest phone. So although Claude's aware that the draft is going on, he's not been paying attention to it.

It's none of his business. His business is being a cowboy. All that matters to him is wide open sky, living off the land and freedom to do as he pleases.
Well, in July 1973, a warrant's issued for Claude's arrest. And his appearance in that National Geographic Cowboy Book helps the feds track him down in Nevada. He's arrested and brought back to Ohio to face charges of draft evasion.

If convicted, he's facing a fine of up to 10 grand and five years behind bars. But at trial, the draft board can't prove that Claude knew anything about his induction letters. So the charges are eventually dropped, leaving the 23-year-old free to head back west.
By the time he gets back to Nevada, it's early 1974 and he's ready to return to his dream life. And whether it's a response to being arrested or just a natural progression of his character, he starts trapping and killing more and more wild animals. It gets to the point that this is one of his defining traits.

He was once the quiet cowboy who kept to himself, but now he's the guy who lays baited traps all over a mountain. He's not doing it just for food to live on, and there's no sport to what he's doing. He's just killing because he can, and because he wants to.
Public land, leased land, private ranches, he goes where he likes. As a bonus, it earns him some money too. Claude partners with his friend George Nielsen, who owns a bar in Paradise Hill.

With customers coming in every day, George has plenty of opportunities to sell off the pelts that Claude brings in. Bobcats and coyotes, mostly. But they're not the only things Claude's killing down in Paradise Valley.
He starts targeting wild mustangs too. He shoots them and removes some of the meat from the body and leaves the rest of the carcass out in the open. Then he lies in wait for predators to approach, and bam, more pelts for him to sell to George.

Of course, none of this is much of a secret. There aren't a lot of people who live in the area, but they all talk, so plenty of them know what's going on, including the authorities. In March 1976, Claude gets his first citation for illegally baiting traps.
He complains about it at George's bar later that day, telling anyone who listened that the only reason he didn't shoot the game warden was respect for the man who owned the land he was standing on. Didn't want someone else to deal with that mess. It's a claim that fits in with what people know about Claude.

He can be exceedingly polite when he wants to be, and gets along with just about anyone. But he's not a man you cross. Even his friends will tell you that.
Don't do anything to make Claude angry. He's dangerous. After that citation, whenever a warden catches Claude hunting out of season, or where he's not supposed to, they usually confiscate whatever guns he's carrying at the time.

Then he has to pay a small fee for their return. It's not a hardship for him, but it's a humiliating and annoying experience for a man who believes that he should be able to do whatever he likes out there. This is America, land of the free.
Restrictions on hunting and trapping are downright wrong. And before long, Claude Dallas will be pushed to his breaking point.

It's the morning of January 5th, 1981. In Paradise Valley, Nevada, 37-year-old Jim Stevens is on his way to meet his friend Claude Dallas. A few months back, Claude set up a winter camp down along the south fork of the Owehue River, just over the Idaho border.
He's been living alone there ever since. He's a capable guy, but he relies on the generosity of friends and former ranching colleagues to help him get by. That's what Jim's doing today.
Claude has helped out on Jim's potato farm in the past, so Jim's gonna stay with Claude a few days to help him get some chores done at the campsite. Jim's farm is in Winnemucca, which is about a hundred miles from where Claude is near Bull Camp Reservoir. On the way, he stops in Paradise Hill to pick up mail and supplies from Claude's other friend, George Nielsen, then gets back out on the road.

A couple of hours later, Jim arrives at the ridge overlooking Claude's camp and fires a gun into the air twice to signal that he's here. Then he grabs an armful of stuff from his car and starts down the trail towards the river. About halfway down, he runs into 30-year-old Claude, who directs him to the campsite, then heads to the car to grab more stuff.
Jim presses on alone. Claude's campsite is about 50 yards back from the river and basically consists of a 10 by 12 white walled tent. Scattered around the clearing are Bobcat and Mountain Lion pelts.

Jim drops off his armload of supplies and heads closer to the river to take in the view. He's been down there a little while when he hears raised voices back at the camp. Curious, he turns around to head back and see what's up.

Now, while Jim was on his way to Bull Camp this morning, two other people were on their way too. Bill Pogue and Conley Elms are Idaho Conservation Rangers who've received a tip that there are poachers in the area. Bull Camp sits on a parcel of land known as the 45 Ranch, which a family leases from the Bureau of Land Management.
And plenty of ranching families supplement their income by hunting and trapping wild animals once hunting season rolls around each year. Only that's made more difficult when people like Claude Dallas have already killed all of the wildlife. A few days ago, one of the ranchers paid Claude a visit to see just how much he was poaching.

He didn't stay long, though. Claude gave him the creeps and seemed likely to shoot him if he stayed around asking too many questions. Before he left, the rancher promised he wasn't going to turn Claude in but warned him that game wardens regularly patrol the area.
Claude's last words to the rancher were, I'll be ready for them. I bet you can see where this is going, right? Anyway, this rancher kept his word.

When he spoke to the wardens about poachers on his land, he specifically didn't mention Claude because he thought he was a dangerous guy. He didn't want to send anyone into a confrontation with him. But when the wardens stopped by the 45 Ranch this morning to get details on the other poaching going on, the man's wife mentioned that guy down at Bull Camp.

So by the time Jim gets back to the tent, Bill and Conley are there talking to Claude. Bill's a 50-year-old guy with a wife and four kids. He's got a reputation for being a stern warden with a steely gaze to go with the thin line of his mouth.

In contrast, 34-year-old Conley's kind of a teddy bear with a neat beard and broad chest and big glasses that highlight the kind gleam in his eyes. As Jim walks closer to the big white tent, the air is crackling with tension. He listens as Bill explains that they've already found dozens of illegal traps in the area, not to mention all of the bobcat pelts and venison they can see around the campsite.

He watches as Conley steps forward to ask Claude to surrender his firearm, pointing at the handgun in his hip holster. Claude cooperates, allowing Conley to take his gun. What happens next is a point of contention in the case, so take all of this with a grain of salt.

According to Jim's account, Conley ducks inside Claude's tent to look around for more evidence of poaching. Meanwhile, Bill stays outside, his eyes fixed on Claude. When Conley emerges with more pelts in his hands, Bill tells Claude that he's under arrest.
At this point, Claude's hand moves quick as a whip. He reaches inside his long coat and grabs the revolver concealed there. He shoots Bill twice, then pivots and fires two more bullets into Conley.
Both men are down before Jim can even move. He stands there absolutely stunned, as Claude calmly holsters his revolver and strides inside the tent. He reappears in seconds, toting a.22 rifle.
He stands over Conley and fires a single shot into the side of his head, then does the same to Bill. They're calm, cold kill shots. Like Claude might use on animals, he's trapped.

Only these are men who were just doing their jobs. Once he's sure his victims are dead, Claude turns to Jim. The first words out of his mouth are an apology for getting Jim wrapped up in all of this, waving his arms in the direction of the two bodies.
But he says, now he's going to have to insist on Jim's help cleaning up the mess. Then he takes Jim's gun from him, just in case he gets any ideas. So Jim's backed into a corner and does as Claude says, he helps him load Bill's body onto a pack mule, which they then lead out of the valley to Jim's four wheel drive.

The warden's truck is parked nearby. Neither man comments on it. They just load the body into the back of Jim's car and start back down to get Conley.
That's when the plan hits a snag. Conley's a much bigger man than Bill and weighs almost as much as Claude's mule. Halfway up the trail, the animal refuses to go any further.

So Claude's forced to help the mule drag Conley's body back down to the river, where he pushes it into the water. After that's done, Claude and Jim pour kerosene on the spots of blood around the campsite and set the patches of ground on fire to destroy the evidence. Then they return to Jim's car and Claude directs him to drive to George Nielsen's bar in Paradise Hill.

All the while, Jim can't stop thinking about the dead body that's in his trunk. It's a long drive, which gives them plenty of time to talk about what happened. Or more accurately, to come up with a story that gives Jim an alibi for the whole situation.
They've got that down by the time they make it to the Paradise bar around midnight. There, Claude fills George in on what happened while Jim heads inside to shower. After that, George burns Jim's clothes and lends him some clean ones so he can go home.

With Jim on his way back to his farm, Claude asks to borrow George's truck. He loads Bill's body into the back, then drives off into the night. He comes back a while later and has George drop him off in the desert.

The last time George sees Claude, he's got a hundred dollars in cash, an olive green duffle, a backpack, a rifle, and at least one handgun strapped to his hip. It'll be the last time anyone sees Claude Dallas for a while. Or at least, it'll be the last time anyone will admit to seeing him.
About 20 miles down the road and when a mucka, Jim Stevens gets home to his farm. It's the middle of the night and he's supposed to be camping by the river with Claude, so his wife knows something's up right away. Jim tries feeding her the story they came up with to explain why he's home so soon, but she's not buying it.

It doesn't take long for him to spill the real story and agree to go to the police. The next morning, Jim drives back to Paradise Hill to speak with George, who's already had a sleepless night and is eager to tell the authorities what happened. Together, they sit down with an attorney and a county prosecutor and lay the whole thing out.
It quickly becomes clear to investigators that both Jim and George were acting under duress, so they're not going to be charged with any crimes. There's only one person to blame for these deaths, and he's already had almost a full day's head start. But by the time the meeting's over, it's late in the afternoon and it's January.
The sun will be setting soon and it's going to get cold, so there's not much point in starting the search for Claude Dallas right now. But come morning, the hunt for the killer cowboy begins.

The search for Claude Dallas begins at first light on January 7th, 1981, two days after he shot and killed Bill Pogue and Conley Elms. There are several agencies involved in the search, including the FBI, who are called in because Claude crossed state lines from Idaho into Nevada when he moved Bill's body. Searchers find Conley's remains in the river, about a quarter mile downstream from Claude's abandoned camp.

But they have less luck when it comes to tracking down Claude himself. They find the spot in the desert where he got out of George Nielsen's truck and follow his tracks in the dirt to the edge of the road, but that's where the trail vanishes. It doesn't help that it's chucker season, so there have been other hunters in the area lately, leaving plenty of footprints to confuse the search.
As for where Claude buried Bill, that's a mystery all its own. Looking at the odometer in George's car, the cops figure Claude drove about 60 miles on his solo trip to get rid of the evidence that night. That gives them a 25 to 30 mile radius in which the body could be stashed.

Only, there are so many abandoned mines and shafts in the area that it's a needle-in-haystack situation. And that's when they're searching for a fixed target. Claude?
He's an experienced outdoorsman who's capable of covering 20 to 40 miles in a day. He could be headed north to Canada, south to Mexico or even out to California. The search stretches into a second day and then a week and then months.

Eventually, a $20,000 reward is posted for information leading to Claude's arrest, but nothing comes of it. Tips trickle in each day to no avail. It's like Claude Dallas just vanished.
Then again, this might not be your standard disappearing act. See, a lot of people in the area are kind of on Claude's side. Sure, locals think he crossed the line by killing those two game wardens, but plenty of them also think those guys probably had it coming.

Claude was just minding his own business when agents of an overreaching government came stomping in to curb his rights as an American. There are stories that some locals leave their pickups unlocked with the keys in them every night, coolers of sandwiches on the front seat, just in case Claude is passing through. Some of them even wear shirts saying, Go Claude, go.
Of course, there's no guarantee that Claude's even anywhere near all of this. Come the new year, it's been 12 months since the shooting at Bull Camp, 12 months of Claude being on the lam. He could have gone anywhere in that time.

Then again, maybe he didn't go very far at all. It's mid-April 1982 when the FBI gets a tip that 32-year-old Claude Dallas is living in a trailer just east of Paradise Hill, Nevada. It's less than 50 miles from where he shot and killed Bill and Conley.

Just before 6 p.m. on Sunday the 18th, a group of law enforcement officers from various agencies descend on the trailer and flush Claude out of his hiding spot. But in the mayhem of the raid, Claude makes it into a pickup and drives off into the desert once more. He can't get away this time, though.

The cops give chase, there's a brief shootout, and by 6.15, they have Claude in cuffs. And would you believe me if I said the story wasn't even close to done yet? Claude's capture makes the front page of newspapers around the country, but it's especially noteworthy in Idaho and Nevada, where the search was focused for 15 months, and like I said, plenty of people in the area are on Claude's side, even after he's charged with two counts of murder.

He's a hero to these people who admire him for standing up for his right to live off the land. But, to be clear, not everyone in the region thinks that way. But enough do, that people start a fund for Claude's defense.

And they also raise $100,000 to pay his bonds so he doesn't have to sit in jail while he waits for trial. For context, that 100 grand today would be closer to 350k with inflation. And for a little more context, a judge eventually decides to move Claude's trial from Oahe County to Canyon County to the north.

There are a few reasons for this, including just how much pretrial publicity will have affected the jury pool in Oahe County. That publicity includes stuff in the media as well as gossip in the streets. Another reason for the change of venue is that it's gonna be a major trial.

And Murphy, where the Oahe County Courthouse is, just isn't equipped with enough accommodation and amenities to host jurors, witnesses and visiting media. That's how sparsely populated this corner of America is. So when the trial begins in September, it takes place in the city of Caldwell.

And the narrative takes shape right away. Claude freely admits to killing those men. He even reveals the location of the coyote den where he hid Bill's body.
But Claude's attorney tells the jury that his client acted purely out of self-defense. His were the actions of a calm, rational man responding to being confronted with people who wanted to hurt him. According to Claude's version of events, Bill Pogue was nervous and belligerent.

He had his hand on the butt of his gun during the entire exchange, making Claude fear for his life. But Jim Stephens takes the stand and testifies that neither of the wardens made threatening movements before Claude shot them. And George Nielsen claims that when he was talking with Claude in the truck that night, Claude told him that Bill and Conley, quote, had it coming.
Additionally, the prosecution points to the kill shots to each man's head as evidence that this wasn't a case of self-defense. It was an execution. In the end, though, the jurors are swayed by Claude's narrative.

To an extent. In October, they find him guilty, not of murder, but of voluntary manslaughter. The judge isn't so easily convinced, and he says as much during the sentencing, telling Claude that he straight up doesn't believe his story.
As such, he sentences him to the harshest punishment he can, given the conviction, 30 years behind bars. But despite that sentence, Claude gets his freedom back much, much sooner. On March 30th, 1986, Claude Dallas has a visitor at the Idaho State Prison in Kuna.

Who that visitor is, I'm not sure. But it's important to mention them because later that same day, Claude uses wire cutters to cut large, triangular holes in two chain-link fences and escape the prison. He's picked up by a vehicle soon after and vanishes…
again. Cops later find Claude's hat in a field behind the prison and his glasses in their case in the parking lot. Bloodhounds are brought in and they trace the scent from the hat to a stool in a nearby bar and then to an unmade bed in an empty trailer.

But they lose the scent at the edge of Highway 95. As investigators move through the area, hunting for Claude Dallas for the second time in five years, they don't get a lot of help from the locals. It seems that no one's seen him, at least not that they'll admit to.

Some people openly tell reporters that even if they did know where Claude was going or where he'd been, they wouldn't snitch. It seems the sentiment that he's fundamentally a good guy wronged by the law hasn't lessened since his trial. To some of the locals, the spirit of the Old West runs through Claude Dallas, reminding people of when America was truly free.
But the feds don't care what century Claude's spirit is in. He committed crimes in the here and now. So after a few weeks of searching, the FBI added him to their top 10 most wanted list, which keeps the story on front pages a little longer.

People start calling in to report sightings of Claude all over the country, and even from as far away as Australia. Then investigators get a call from someone in Riverside, California, which is about 50 miles east of Los Angeles. Around lunchtime on March 8, 1987, Claude checks into a motel using an alias.

He drops his stuff off inside the room, takes a shower, then heads across the street to a convenience store. He's surrounded by cops as soon as he steps outside. He tries telling them they've got the wrong guy, but his fingerprints say otherwise.
And after almost 12 months on the run, 37-year-old Claude Dallas is in handcuffs once more. After being dragged back to his cell, he's charged with prison escape and faces an extra five-year sentence if he's convicted. That September, Claude tells the court that he had to escape because like the Game Wardens in 1981, the prison guards wanted to kill him.
He had no other choice but to escape. Once again, people side with Claude. This time, he's given a full acquittal and allowed to finish out his original sentence.

But the story still isn't over. Okay. See, in 2001, an investigation is launched by Idaho authorities to determine whether Claude's 1986 escape actually happened the way everyone was told.
Rumors had swirled from the start that Claude simply walked out of the front gates of the prison with a group of visitors. The story went that the embarrassed prison officials cut their own fences to make the event look more like a cunning prison break than it actually was. The case is eventually closed in 2003 with no conclusion either way.
Though investigators involved tell the press that they're pretty sure that Claude never used those bolt cutters. They just can't prove it. Of course, none of this affects Claude himself, who remains quietly behind bars until he's 54 years old.
By this stage, his good behavior on the inside has earned him an 8 year discount on his sentence. He's released in February of 2005, walking out those gates for the final time and basically disappearing into the wilderness once more. In the decades since, he's been reported as living in Washington state, Utah and even the Alaskan wilderness.

His determination to remain as unknowable as possible has only served to heighten the mystique around him. But I don't know, if you ask me, there's nothing all that mysterious about Claude Dallas. He's just a kid who never grew out of his cowboy phase.
He yearned for an existence from a past century, a time when rules were looser, violence was more common, and people easily got away with murder. And he got it. He ignored the fact that society had evolved and decided that laws didn't apply to him.
He killed two men for doing their job. Then like a kid caught writing on a wall, he ran from his punishment. So no, I don't think Claude Dallas is mysterious, and I don't think he's a cowboy.
He's just a coward.
Hey, before you go, don't forget to rate American Criminal on your favorite podcast app. Leave us a review while you're there. Both those things help other people find the show, which helps us out a lot.

We use many different sources while preparing this episode. A couple we can recommend are Outlaw, The True Story of Claude Dallas by Jeff Long, The Outdoor Life article, Last Day of the Wardens by Jim Zumbo, and Reporting in the Idaho Statesman. This episode may contain reenactments or dramatized details.
And while in some cases, we can't know exactly what happened, all our dramatizations are based on historical research. American Criminal is a co-production of Airship and Evergreen Podcasts. It's hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Jeremy Schwartz.
Audio editing and sound design by Sean Ruhl Hoffman. Music by Thrum. This episode is written and researched by Joel Callen, managing producer Emily Burke.
Executive producers are Joel Callen and Lindsey Graham.