Cont.-
During Dog's investigations he met a victim of Luster's, who'd been pregnant with twins when he had raped her, and subsequently miscarried one of them. Dog, too, had lost a child — his 13th — shortly after it had been born.
"I closed my eyes and I saw her baby and my baby together in heaven. And my baby was saying, 'Don't you worry son, my Daddy’s gonna catch that bastard'."
Tears start to flow freely down Dog's cheeks. He makes no move to wipe them away, but just sits there as they trickle onto his beard. "My Big Daddy's a very emotional man," Beth whispers. "He's got so much heart, so much passion. And so much commitment. Also he hears the Lord talking to him a lot. I do, too, although not quite as often."
Despite Dog's emotional commitment, the Luster trail had gone cold. He'd been sighted in Thailand, then vanished. The police had no idea where he had gone, and nor, it seemed, did any of Dog's bounty-hunting rivals.
By June, Dog decided the time had come for one last, desperate throw of the dice. He managed to get himself a slot on FOX News, where he created a carefully orchestrated stir by announcing that he would catch Luster "within seven days". He also took the opportunity to taunt his prey. "I said, 'Fe Fi Fo Fum, Look out Luster, here I come'."
He'd already got hold of Luster's mobile phone bills by rummaging through his rubbish. Next, Dog took to phoning Luster's mother every morning — "just, you know, taunting and probing". On the third day came his first significant break.
"I called up and got the maid. I pretended to be from the coroner's office and said we've found a body and we think it might be Andrew's. She said, oh no, it couldn't be him — they'd heard from him two days ago." (His mother also let slip that Luster spoke fluent Spanish, which first made Dog suspect that he might have gone to Mexico.)
His suspicions were confirmed the next day: a psychology student who had seen Dog on television reported meeting a man answering Luster's description in the Mexican resort of Puerta Vallerta.
With his cans of Mace and his crucifix, Dog headed straight for the airport. As back-up, he took his sidekick, Tim "Youngblood" Chapman — no relation — who "runs like a deer"; and Dog's second-oldest son, Leland. Beth, meanwhile, ever mindful of the publicity implications, had struck a deal with a television company. Completing the party were a producer, three cameramen and two soundmen.
Dog discovered that Luster was staying at a motel two hours's drive from Puerta Vallarta. That night, Luster went into town where Dog, Youngblood and Leland were waiting. "We followed him to a club, then to a bar down the street. An hour later he came out and went over to a taco stand."
Dog went into action. "First, I ran up to Luster and shouted right in his face."
What did you shout?
A look of unrestrained pride comes over Dog's face. "I shouted, 'Freeze Motherf——-!' And then I shouted, 'You're under arrest in the name of the United States of America'."
Luster turned to run. Youngblood came up from behind and put him in a choke hold. Leland, meanwhile, kicked his legs from beneath him. Then they got handcuffs on and bundled him into the car. There, Dog tells me, Luster spat at him and promised to dance on his grave. "I didn’t care, though. Hell no. I'd caught him; that was what mattered. OK, I'd taken nine days instead of seven, but so what? Right at that moment Dog was a very happy Dog."
Dog didn't stay a happy dog for long, however. On the outskirts of Puerta Vallarta they ran into a police roadblock. Luster was taken off at gunpoint to the police station — and so too were Dog, Youngblood, Leland and the television crew. Bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico and they all found themselves facing kidnapping charges and a possible 20-year sentence. Dog spent the next two weeks in jail.
"It was the darkest moment of all," he says. "I felt abandoned." (Once again tears well up in the corners of his eyes.)
"Abandoned by God?" I ask.
"No! Never by God! Just, you know, abandoned and alone. I said to the Lord, 'look man, I need some credit for all the good stuff I've done in my life. You've got to turn your head away from Iran and Iraq for a moment and look at me and my family'."
Dog's plea evidently did the trick because the kidnapping charges were dropped and he was let out on bail. However, there was an even more savage blow to come. On September 5, a Ventura County Superior Court judge ruled that Dog had no claim on the reward money — according to California law, if a fugitive is returned to custody within 180 days of flight, a judge is free to decide how to dispense the reward.
As he licked his wounds back in Honolulu, Dog was a very sombre Dog indeed. While he may have got his man — Luster is now serving 124 years in jail — all his effort and expenditure seemed to have come to nothing.
In theory, a bounty hunter gets to keep between 10 and 15 per cent of a felon's posted bail money. In practice, though, Dog says he's been paid only in about half his cases; sometimes the police claim all the credit, sometimes the courts refuse to pay up.
Along the way, he's been shot twice and beaten up more times than he can remember. Life, however, has calmed down a bit since he married Beth in 1995. The two met after Beth had been arrested for possession of a handgun and dum-dum bullets. Dog wasn't smitten at first, but Beth stalked him for the next eight years until he gave in.
"Like Duane, I always get my man," she says. Together they moved to Hawaii and set up a successful bail bonding business — they stand bail for prisoners, and then hunt them down if they fail to turn up to court.
Yet still one thing eluded Dog; something he became increasingly fixated on as the years went by — fame. Early on in Dog's bounty-hunting career, he had become friendly with the self-help guru Tony Robbins, who introduced him to several Hollywood stars. Dog found himself blossoming in their company. "I listened to how they became successful and tried to learn some lessons. For instance, Martin Sheen taught me how to walk. The secret is to keep your head up, not down."
"What qualities make a good bounty hunter?" I wonder.
"Well, you've got to have perseverance, as well as intuition. Being able to improvise helps, too. One guy I arrested by pointing all these torches at his house and then telling him he was surrounded. Worked like a dream. Also you need to give good stinkeye."
"What's that?"
"It's the ability to make someone piss their pants as soon as they see you."
Dog's efforts to catch Luster had left him more than $US300,000 in debt. But all was not lost. In the weeks that followed his return to Honolulu the phones started ringing off the hook: agents, television companies, magazines. Suddenly, everyone wanted a piece of him. At last Dog had become a very popular dog.
He may shortly become a rich one, too. Recently he signed a deal with a US cable network for a reality TV show provisionally called Dog the Bounty Hunter, which he will host and star in. Details have yet to be worked out, but Ozzy Osbourne — a friend and fan of Dog's — is apparently keen to sing the theme song.
As far as Dog is concerned, every felon captured is another lost soul waiting to to be saved. He refuses to carry a gun — "I don't approve of shooting anything" — and he won't go after black people because he reckons they get a raw deal from the justice system. "At least, I try not to go after black people. If they've got a really big price on their head then I might bend my rule a little. Heh, heh, heh. Do you hear what I'm saying, John?"
I certainly do. After three days in Dog's company I have become more partial to him than I would have thought possible. At first I reckoned he was just a rampaging egomaniac who had carefully set up his own myth and then fallen in love with it. But slowly I've come to see another Dog beneath the skin: a far more complex and vulnerable man; one hell-bent on self-promotion and yet brimming with genuine redemptive fervour.
In the car taking Malia to the police station, Dog is shaking his head at the mess she has made of her life. She's 19, has two children in care and is addicted to "ice" — like crack, but even more dangerous. "shyt girl, you'd better straighten yourself out. Do you know we bribed your uncle $1000 to tell us where you were? A thousand bucks, that's all he thought you were worth."
At this news, Malia starts sobbing more desperately than ever. "Look at you," says Dog. "Have you ever heard of Jesus, honey?" Between sobs, Malia admits that she never has. Dog is incredulous. "What? You never even heard of him? Born in a manger? Oh boy, you really have got a long way to go. Even so, it's never too late to start."
- Sunday Telegraph
That reporter is an idiot.
