Dog the Bounty Hunter[/size]

Exclusive Interview with Dog Part 1

Duane “Dog” Chapman just got booked and printed.

We’re referring to his autobiography, of course. You Can Run but You Can’t Hide: The Life and Times of Dog the Bounty Hunter, from Hyperion Books, hits bookstore shelves Tuesday, Aug. 7—mere days after he received news that his extradition battle with Mexico has ended.

Chapman—the renowned manhunter who achieved worldwide fame as star of Dog the Bounty Hunter, now in its fourth season on A&E—says it’s absolutely surreal to see his life story put into book form, especially with his byline on the cover. “It’s like a miracle,” he says. “I just can’t believe it’s real.”

Ah, but this is something Dog had dreamed of doing for decades. In recent years, others have often encouraged him to write a book, to share his many colorful anecdotes about bounty hunting. But Dog says he wasn’t interested in doing it just “to brag about how great I am—I hate those kinds of books.”

Meanwhile, in a postscript that doesn’t appear in the pages of his book, Chapman is relieved to learn that a Mexican judge has dismissed the criminal case against him. He was wanted on a Mexico warrant for capturing fugitive and convicted rapist Andrew Luster in Puerto Vallarta in 2003. Dog, Leland and Tim Chapman were taken into custody by U.S. Marshals in September 2006 on an extradition request. But the Mexican judge ruled that the statute of limitations has expired on the case. Although there will be an appeal, when Dog heard the news, he rejoiced with a spirited “Viva la Mexico!”

You Can Run but You Can’t Hide (co-authored with Laura Morton, who coincidentally worked with A&E’s Criss Angel on his book Mindfreak: Secret Revelations) is a story of an outlaw turned lawman. It’s a story of rehabilitation and redemption. It’s a story of finding meaning for one’s life. It’s Dog’s attempt to inspire others to reach for the stars, just like he did.

“To me, it’s a motivational book,” Dog says. “It’s about perseverance. You just got to keep going. That’s the message I want to share with everybody who reads it. I often have to remind myself this too: Dreams do come true if you stay persistent and if you’re doing the right thing. No matter what, you can overcome almost every single obstacle in life if you want to do something right.

“A lot of people may have handicaps or may have been convicted of crimes or they’re beating themselves up because they think they’ve done something really bad,” he continues. “People may think that their problems are too severe. But when they read this, when they see the things that I have been through, they’re going to say, ‘If Dog can do it, I can do it too.’ That’s what this book is.”

We caught up with Dog to talk about the book and a variety of other subjects.

When did it first dawn on you that your life story would make a good book?

“It was before I ever started with the bounty hunting. As everybody who’s seen the show knows, before I became a bounty hunter, I was on the wrong side of the law. I was in prison. Even though I didn’t commit the crime I was locked up for, every brick in the wall of my cell stood for something that I did do but didn’t get caught for. Well, I had been through 12 months of my 18-month stay, and the only place they had to put me was in an old death-row cell. And as I looked around the cell, the writing on the walls were things like, ‘Call my mother; here’s her number; tell her I love her.’ All the different guys who had died in this prison over the years had left messages. One of them said—and this is something I still quote a lot— ‘Send this man to heaven, because he’s done his time in hell.’ And in that second, I thought, ‘I’m going to write a book about this place and what has happened to me.’ ”

That would have been a compelling cautionary tale, a don’t-let-this-happen-to-you story. But by turning your life around, the story takes an uplifting turn. What motivated you to change your ways?

“I just saw the light while I was locked away in that cell. I realized that I deserved and needed to be locked up. I had done bad things. I had shamed my family. I said, ‘I can’t believe what I’ve done with my life and how I’ve wasted it up to this point.’ I swore that if I ever got out, I would turn my life around. And that’s what I did. All of that, of course, was before the bounty hunting. After the bounty hunting, there were even more stories to tell.”

Indeed. You’ve got more than 6,000 fugitive captures to your credit and, as viewers know, every one of them has a unique and interesting story attached.

“Exactly. And when I would tell stories to people about the crazy things that happen to me as a bounty hunter, they’d all say, ‘You should write a book.’ The other reason to write a book is the questions people always ask me: ‘Why are you a bounty hunter?’ ‘How did you become one?’ ‘Why don’t you carry a gun?’ ‘Why do you let your family work with you? Isn’t that dangerous?’ ‘Why do you try so hard to help fix the lives of the people you arrest?’ Well, it can take so long to explain who I am and what I’m about. So I thought, if I put this all down, I’ll be able to say, ‘Here’s my book, the story of Dog. Read this and you’ll understand.’ ”

So you wrote the book because you’re tired of all the questions?

“No, it’s not that. I like to make friends. I like how people walk up to me and say, ‘I know that you don’t know me, but I know you because I watch the show.’ I like the instant friendship-brotherhood thing. I’m very proud of it. I would never want to discourage anybody from coming up and talking to me and asking questions. It’s just that I like to find out about other people too. I’m the kind of guy who, although it’s always been kind of a no-no to talk about religion and politics, the first thing I do instinctively when I meet people is talk about God and ‘Who are you voting for?’ I like to get it out in the open. I like to really get to know people. So it’s good to have a book that says, ‘Here’s me,’ because then I can move on to figuring out who they are. Maybe it will save some time when I’m making new friends.”

You said after you made your acting debut a couple of years ago that it gave you a deeper appreciation for what actors do. Now that you’ve written a book, has it given you a similar appreciation for what writers do?

“Oh my God, yes, it has. It’s incredible what writers do. Every word is under scrutiny. Every subject, every story, every sentence has to be proven. You’d better be able to prove what you say in a book. You can’t just tell a story and get it sort of the way it happened. And you’ve got to keep it interesting. The rewrites and the editing and the fine-tuning that goes into it, it’s a lot of work. I never realized how hard writing is. And I couldn’t have done it without Laura Morton. She was the best. She helped me write this book and she was right there the whole time. There were times when I’d say, ‘I’m not putting this in the book. That’s too personal.’ And she’d say, ‘Oh, yes, you are putting it in.’ ‘No, I’m not.’ ‘Yes, you are.’ I don’t think the book would be nearly as good if she weren’t there pushing me at times.”

What do you think of the idea that every person should write his life story, that it will help people have a better understand of who they really are?

“I think you may be on to something. When you write everything down and you go back and look at it, it’s like a map of your life. A lot of people don’t do that with their lives, unless they write a book or at least a diary of some kind. I never did that until now, but I think it’s a useful exercise. And here’s another thing that works: My Tony Robbins training from the ’80s was ‘What do you want to be?’ I said, ‘I want to be the greatest bounty hunter in the world.’ ‘Well, write that everywhere you go.’ So I had little sticky notes all through my car: ‘The greatest bounty hunter who ever lived.’ Everywhere, there were sticky notes. On the mirror where I shaved. ‘I will succeed.’ It’s the power of positive thinking. Good things will come when you do that.”

By David Martindale

Check back for part 2 of this exclusive interview with Dog next week!

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Dog Exclusive Interview Part 2[/size]


Regarding the extradition fight with Mexico, do you think the U.S. Marshals overreacted when they raided your home to arrest you?

"Here’s the truth: The arrest warrant said kidnapping and conspiracy. OK? That’s 25 years in a federal prison in America. But when the warrant came to America for deprivation of liberty, someone interpreted that warrant to mean kidnapping. Somebody blew it way out of proportion—more than 20 years out of proportion. So when the feds came in on me, in their minds, they were coming after a bad man. They came after me like they were coming after a big fish. ‘This is kidnapping and conspiracy, Dog. Sorry.’ Now if the Americans had read the Mexican warrant correctly, they would have known ‘This is a felony in Mexico. This is deprivation of liberty. There’s no charge; that was dropped,’ it would have been handled differently. My bond in Mexico was $1,500. My bond in America was $300,000! And of course, who here in America will take the rap for making the mistake? Nobody.”

On a lighter note, how’s life as a married man treating you?

“I’ll tell you the truth, because it will make you laugh: I was on My Name Is Earl and I did a scene with Jaime Pressly. She’s beautiful, right? Now I’m married and that’s forever. But this is Jaime Pressly! She’s so pretty. But her eyes! And those cute little pigtails! Still, the whole time, I was aware of this big Beth eyeball staring at me. I knew that over by the monitor, there she was: Big Mama watching with her little grin, but thinking, ‘Just do one thing and you’re dead. If I see a sparkle in just one eye, I’m killing you.’ I’ve been with her 18 years. But it’s funny how, once you marry them, something happens to them.”

Speaking of My Name Is Earl, are you still nervous when you’re acting?

“Yeah, but there was a reason for it this time. I was all ready for this. They told me the script. ‘You’ll walk in and arrest her.’ But they said I could ad-lib how I do it. And I’m thinking, ‘Yeah, I’m going to freak them out when I throw her on the ground and put her in a headlock.’ Because I know how to put someone down without hurting them. I’ve done it a thousand times. So I worked it out in my mind: I’ll grab her, tackle her, put her in a headlock, everyone’s going to laugh, great season finale. Then Jaime comes in and she’s six months pregnant. And all of a sudden, I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got to stick with the script.’ I mean, I could hardly touch her because I didn’t want to hurt her. We did six takes and I’m sure everyone was thinking, ‘I thought this guy knew what he was doing.’ Finally I got it. But it was a nerve-racking experience.”

What did you think of the Dog the Bounty Hunter parody that South Park did last year?

“I thought the South Park episode was very funny. I loved it. It wasn’t nasty, so kids could watch it. Sometimes South Park is a little crazy. And I loved the little cartoon Beth and the way she could barely see over her ... blessings. I thought it was very, very funny. I was very proud of that.”

Does the success of your TV show make it easier or harder to work as a bounty hunter?

“It makes it easier. The reputation of a bounty hunter is everything—your reputation with law enforcement, with the snitches, with the defendants. Law enforcement knows this Dog can hunt. They know that when they get a call from me, it’s the guy and I’ve got him. It’s not going to be a case of wasted $200,000 taxpayer-helicopter money and the guy getting away. When they get a call from me, he’s pinned down and Dog’s under fire. They know. And the reputation from the show helps. Now the snitches: The snitches know from seeing the show that I’m never going to give them up. We keep it really cool. So the guy who tells is safe. ‘Dog ain’t gonna tell on you.’ So people talk to me. And now the fugitives: They know that I’ve been in their shoes. ‘Dog understands; Dog’s been in jail.’ And that makes my job easier too. In fact, everybody I put in jail, right before I leave them, there are always these words that we say to each other. Sometimes the camera catches them and sometimes it doesn’t. And now I’m hearing things like, ‘Good luck in Mexico.’ The way I see it, the show has made it easier for me to make friends.”

Does it boggle the mind when you think about how successful the show is?
“Oh, absolutely. Listen, every time I hear the theme song, I cry so hard. I mean it. I literally cry. I’m like, ‘Wait a minute. That’s me. Dang, how did all this happen?’ Because I realize how blessed I’ve been. It’s the same thing with the book now. Brother, it’s been a wild ride.”

Any regrets that go along with all this success?

“Well, I’m very family-oriented, and my mom was a big part of my life. The other day I read her chapter again. And I kept thinking, ‘Why isn’t she here to see this?’ When I was a little boy, my mom and my grandma and my grandpa all told me, ‘You’re going to make it. You’re the one in this family who’s going to be a big success.’ Now I look at the book and think, ‘If they could only see this!’ But you know what? That same day when I was reading the chapter about my mom, I felt something say to me, ‘Don’t worry, Dog. She knows. They all know.’ ”

By David Martindale

A special thank you to Dog for agreeing and participating in this interview.

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