Claude Dallas - Give a Boy a Gun: The True Story of Law and Disorder in the American West by Jack Olsen

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Jack Olsen

Claude Dallas, Jr.

Claude Dallas - Give a Boy a Gun: The True Story of Law and Disorder in the American West

Jack Olsen (1925-2002)

Give a Boy a Gun: The True Story of Law and Disorder in the American West is a true crime story about Claude Lafayette Dallas, Jr., whose father's philosophy was "give a boy a gun and you're makin' a man." After high school, Claude, Jr., went to the rugged border area of Idaho, Oregon and Nevada and worked as a cow-puncher and handyman on several ranches. But his dream was evidently to become a 19th Century mountain man and so he turned to poaching, often killing animals even though he had no need for the meat. In 1981, he killed two game wardens in front of a witness. After being on the run for fifteen months, he was captured in a shootout and found guilty of manslaughter. Was this a case of self-defense or outright murder?

Claude was born in 1950 and the son of a dairy farmer. He grew up in rural Ohio where he liked to trap and hunt game. He graduated from high school in 1967. During the Vietnam War, he dodged the draft and fled west.

In 1981, while camping in southern Idaho, he was approached by two officers, Conley Elms and Bill Pogue of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. They accused him of poaching. According the Claude, Elms went inside his tent where he had some bobcats and while Elms was inside the tent, Pogue drew his weapon. Claude reacted by shooting Pogue with his own handgun, which he habitually wore concealed. When Elms exited the tent, Claude shot him too. Claude fled the scene of the killings and was finally found after an eleven month manhunt.

Claude was charged with two counts of first degree murder. At least one juror cited concern that Claude was acting in self-defense when he shot Pogue due to the aggressiveness of the officer. This issue did sway the jury to convict Claude of lesser charges of involuntary manslaughter and using a firearm in the commission of a crime. He was sentenced to thirty years in the Idaho State Penitentiary.

In 1986, Claude escaped from the prison and was on the run for almost a year. He was captured outside a 7-11 store in Riverside, California, in March 1987. He was then placed in a high security federal prison in Kansas. He served twenty-two of the thirty year sentence due to a reduction of eight years for good behavior. He was released in February 2005.

Other best selling books by Jack Olsen:

The Man with the Candy: The Story of the Houston Mass Murders (1974) - A brilliant, investigative, journalist's story of the mass murder of almost 30 young boys in Houston by Dean Corll, a homosexual owner of a candy factory, and his two teen-aged accomplices, Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr., and David Brooks.
SON: A Psychopath and His Victims (1983) is the story of Kevin Coe, Spokane's South Hill rapist whose rich and influential mother was sent to prison after trying to hire a hit man to kill the judge and prosecutor who convicted her son.
Cold Kill: The True Story of a Murderous Love (1987) - A double murder of Texas lawyer James Campbell and his wife Virginia by their daughter Cindy and her lover, David West.
Doc: The Rape of the Town of Lovell (1989) is an incredible account of a rural Wyoming doctor who relied on his patients' naiveté and Mormon female submissiveness to rape generations of women on his examining table.
Predator: Rape, Madness, and Injustice in Seattle (1991) - This book focuses on three men: McDonald ("Mac") Smith, a serial rapist who preyed on women; Steve Titus, a carefree partygoer who was wrongly convicted of the predator's crimes; and Paul Henderson, a reporter for the Seattle Times who won a Pulitzer Prize for tracking down the truth.
The Misbegotten Son: A Serial Killer and His Victims (1993)- An account of the life and crimes of convicted killer Arthur Shawcross describes how Shawcross, after being found guilty of the murders of two children, was released only to murder eleven prostitutes.
Charmer: A Ladies' Man and his Victims (1994) - A true crime story of George Russell, Jr., a charismatic young African American from an affluent Seattle suburb who targeted and killed three beautiful women and whose charming outward appearance kept him from suspicion.
Salt of the Earth: A Mother, A Daughter, A Murder (1996) - Joe Gere said he died on the afternoon his twelve-year-old daughter Brenda disappeared. It was left to Brenda's mother Elaine to sustain her stricken family, search for her missing child, and pressure the authorities for justice. From the first minutes of the investigation, suspicion fell on Michael Kay Green, a steroid-abusing "Mr. Universe" hopeful, but there was no proof of a crime, leaving police and prosecutors stymied.
Hastened to the Grave: The Gypsy Murder Investigation (1998) - This true crime features a delightful hero: a female private investigator who calls herself "Rat Dog Dick." Rat Dog relies on an ancient Everex 286 computer (Evil Evie), a Toyota Tercel (The Frog Prince) that is so outrageously green it's useless for surveillance, and a big, funny-looking dog (Beans). Once she gets her teeth into the "Foxglove" case in which several old people have dwindled and died quickly after being "befriended" by a local Gypsy family, Rat Dog is outraged that the police are ignoring clear evidence of elder abuse.
Last Man Standing: The Tragedy and Triumph of Geronimo Pratt (2000) - This is a story of true crime American injustice. Pratt, a war hero and leader of the Black Panther Party, was convicted of murder based on the perjured testimony of a paid FBI informant. After spending twenty-seven years in prison, he was finally declared innocent and released.
I: The Creation of a Serial Killer (2002) - In February 1990, Oregon State Police arrested John Sosnovke and Laverne Pavlinac for the vicious rape and murder of 23-year-old Taunja Bennet. Pavlinac had come forth and confessed, implicating her boyfriend and producing physical evidence that linked them to the crime. Authorities closed the case. There was just one problem. They had the wrong people...

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