RIVERSIDE, Calif.--Self-styled mountain man Claude Dallas, who escaped from the Idaho State Pententiary after being convicted of killing two state Fish and Game wardens, was captured yesterday in California, the FBI said.
Dallas, using the alias Al Schrenk, was peacefully arrested at a convenience market in this ranching-area community 50 miles east of Los Angeles, said FBI spokesman Fred Regan.
Dallas apparently had friends in the area, authorities said.
"It's been a good day, a great day," said Owyhee County, Idaho, Sheriff Tim Nettleton after hearing about the capture. Nettleton headed the initial investigation that led to the 1982 capture of Dallas in Paradise Hill, Nevada.
"Claude Dallas, in the exception of being a game hog and game officer killer, was a nice guy. A lot of people share his sentiments but they don't kill people."
Dallas, 37, became a folk hero to some after cutting his way through two prison fences on March 30, Easter Sunday, and fleeing into the high desert of southern Idaho and northern Nevada. He was serving a 30-year sentence for manslaughter.
Many admirers saw Dallas as a modern-day version of the rugged individual of the Old West. He was the subject of a CBS-TV movie last year, "Manhunt: Search for Claude Dallas," which many critics said romanticized the killer.
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