logo
Tragic life of Dog the Bounty Hunter - tortured childhood, wedding horror and shock deaths

Tragic life of Dog the Bounty Hunter - tortured childhood, wedding horror and shock deaths

Daily Mirror2 days ago
As Dog the Bounty Hunter's step-grandson dies in a 'tragic accident,' we take a look at the personal heartbreaks the US TV star has endured throughout his life
American TV personality Dog the Bounty Hunter is in mourning after his step-grandson Anthony Zecca was killed in an horrific accident at the weekend.

The shocking incident in which the 13 year old boy - the son of Dog's stepson Gregory - was shot and killed i s believed to have happened at around 8pm on Saturday July 20 in an apartment in Naples, Florida.

Dog and his wife Francie released a statement to TMZ through a representative. It read: "We are grieving as a family over this incomprehensible tragic accident and would ask for continued prayers as we grieve the loss of our beloved grandson, Anthony."

Gregory, who is Francie's child from a previous marriage, is part of Dog's bounty hunting crew. He became part of Dog's personal life when he married Francie in 2021. Gregory has previously shared his passions for guns in social media posts. In one he is seen showing Anthony how to use a rifle while at a shooting range.

This latest tragedy is not the first Dog, whose real name is Duane Chapman, has endured. Here we take a look at the heartbreak and drama that has filled the 72 year old's eventful life.
Childhood abuse
Duane was raised with his three siblings by their church minister mother and their father who was a US Army officer in Denver, Colorado. In his 2017 memoir, You Can Run But You Can't Hide, he claimed his dad abused him with beatings which he thought was to toughen him up and was a normal way to be treated.
"Because of my religious upbringing, I thought my dad was punishing me for being a terrible sinner," he wrote, according to The Express. "Until very recently, I never understood that none of his abuse was my fault. I just thought that was how all dads treated their sons."

He said he was expected to take the beatings like a man: "But I wasn't a man. I was a young boy looking for love and approval from my father. I was desperate for his affection, so I ignored the pain," he wrote.
Murder sentence
Back in 1976 a young Dog was convicted of first-degree murder relating to the death of Jerry Oliver in Pampa, Texas. He was waiting in a car when his friend shot and killed an alleged drug dealer while trying to buy cannabis.

Despite Duane not directly being involved in the murder, the law in Texas states that anyone indirectly involved can be charged. He was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to five years in prison but only served 18 months.
Commenting on the conviction he said: "It's something that follows you the rest of your life, no matter who you become or who you are. I'm not proud of it."

Afterwards he chose to pursue a career upholding the law through bounty hunting. He shot to fame starring in A&E show Dog The Bounty Hunter, which followed him as he tried to catch bail jumpers.
The show ran for eight seasons from 2004. However because of his conviction he is forbidden from using firearms, which is why he uses a taser instead of a gun in his work.
Daughter's tragic death

On the morning of his wedding to fifth wife Beth Smith, Dog was told his 23-year-old daughter, Barbara Katie Chapman, had died the day before in Alaska.
She was a passenger in a stolen SUV that crashed into a tree after leaving the road. The driver also died in the accident and authorities suspected drugs or alcohol may have been a factor.
The family decided to go ahead with the wedding to honour Barbara's memory. She left behind a nine year old son Travis Drake Lee.

Grandson's 'abuse'
Dog was temporarily given custody of Travis after a tape was handed to court which allegedly contained evidence Travis was being physically abused by his father, Travis Mimms.
The TV star previously said: "To hear the audiotape of my grandson being abused was torture."
Dog and wife Beth took care of the child but insisted they didn't want to take him away from his dad: "I want him [Mimms Sr.] to take parenting classes. We had to get Travis [Jr.] out of that situation," he said.

Long lost son
In 1994 Dog discovered he had a son he knew nothing about with ex-girlfriend Debbie White. Christopher Hecht was born in 1972, while Duane was in prison. After Debbie died by suicide in 1978, Christopher was adopted by Keith and Gloria Hecht.

She said she initially told Dog to keep away but that he contacted him anyway. "He then reached out to Christopher for the first time when he was 19," she told The Sun. "When he learned Duane was his father, he was ecstatic. They started a relationship."
Christopher has had his own share of struggles and scrapes with the law. In 2021 he was sentenced to three years in jail in Colorado for a menacing charge. Dog vowed to help his son when he was released from prison.
Death of beloved wife Beth Chapman
In 2017 Beth was diagnosed with stage two throat cancer. Her battle with the disease was documented in A&E special Dog & Beth: Fight of Their Lives. After initial treatment she was given the all-clear, but the cancer returned in 2018.

On June 26 2019, Beth was put into a medically induced coma and died aged 51 at The Queen's Medical Centre in Honolulu. Dog announced her death on Twitter. He wrote: "It's 5:32 in Hawaii, this is the time she would wake up to go hike Koko Head mountain. Only today, she hiked the stairway to heaven. We all love you, Beth. See you on the other side."

Although he vowed to never marry again, less than a year after she passed, Dog had proposed to his new girlfriend, Francie Frane. The couple connected through their shared grief - Francie's husband Bob had died not long before Beth.
"We understood the pain that the other one was feeling and [in] those tough days and moments, we helped each other stand up," Francie told Entertainment Tonight.
"We could cry with each other and talk about what we were feeling. We were able to walk alongside each other through the pain and heartbreak and it brought us together in this amazing way." They married in 2021.
Death of colleague
David Robinson was a member of Dog's crew. He died suddenly aged 50 in 2022 while on a Zoom call. His ex wife later confirmed the cause of death was critical coronary artery disease. Dog said he was "shocked and saddened" by his co-star and "right-hand man's" passing.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Games Inbox: Why has the Nintendo Switch 2 been so successful?
Games Inbox: Why has the Nintendo Switch 2 been so successful?

Metro

timean hour ago

  • Metro

Games Inbox: Why has the Nintendo Switch 2 been so successful?

The Thursday letters page tries to predict what might be in the next Nintendo Direct, as one reader thinks EA should've made a new franchise instead of Battlefield 6. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@ Beyond the games Really is incredible how well the Switch 2 has done, smashing all records for sales in the US and Japan. And all with what I would call quite a weak line-up of games. Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza have reviewed well but they've not blown the doors off, and I doubt either are going to be getting any serious game of the year nominations. That's fine, some consoles don't get games of that quality in their whole lifetime, but that means there's got to be other reasons for it selling so well, beyond the games. I think it's a mixture of the idea of the Switch – the hybrid console – being just such a great concept, as proven by the Switch 1, and that Nintendo has earned such trust from the last console and its games. I do feel their lack of announcements so far is already playing a bit loose with that trust but so far there doesn't seem to be any sign of them being punished for it. People are buying the Switch 2 not just for what it can do now but for what they believe it'll do in the future, based on the Switch 1. And I think as long as Nintendo don't start resting on their laurels that's fine. Looking forward to the next Nintendo Direct. Onibee Home made Thanks very much for the Amiga top 20. I can think of a few games I would've added but not many I would've taken out, which is probably a good sign. Although I admit I've never heard of or played Warhead, Exile, or Starglider 2 before. The thing that stuck out to me was how almost all of the games were British, which I didn't really think of at the time. But now I realise that most of the games I was playing in my youth were either British or British companies porting over Japanese-made arcade games. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. I actually must've played relatively few American games in those days, which is wild when you think of the industry today, where almost everything is American and there are basically no British games at all. We can't turn the clocks back but clearly something has been lost and I agree that it's a nice treat nowadays to play something that hasn't been made in either the US or Japan. I don't know if we're going to get a flood of French games now, because of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, but I'd much prefer that than another game where I have to save New York City. Columbo The penultimate ninja I recently invested into System 3's Last Ninja collection Kickstarter. I have hoped for an updated/new Last Ninja game for decades. While this collection is a way to keep the purchaser as a custodian of the game of sorts, I do think the inclusion of The Last Ninja 4 demo is proof that the game could be given a new lease of life. As Mark Cale has said, it takes a lot of time, effort, and not least money to make a game these days, so perhaps some rich individual/company might give the game a chance to be played by today's younger gamers and see what a fantastic experience it is. GHH69 GC: Oh, they've also got IK+ in there too. Email your comments to: gamecentral@ Slowly does it I have a feeling we're all going to be disappointed by the next Nintendo Direct. They have got far too much stuff that nobody cares about to talk about at the moment, that I don't think they're going to have time for anything else. We might get some new Mario Kart World content, but we know nothing about Hyrule Warriors and Kirby Air Rider at the moment, or Metroid Prime 4. Even if they split that off and give it its own Direct, I think next year's games are just not what they're bothered about at the moment. Maybe we'll get a mic drop teaser at the end, maybe, but I think that's much more likely in the autumn or at The Game Awards. From Nintendo's perspective everything has worked out perfectly with the Switch 2, I don't think they're in any hurry to move things forward. Grant Boomer extrusion I've got to say, that Fallout 1 remake you mentioned looks really amazing. I'm not familiar with the Doom engine it's made with, but it seems to have the perfect balance between old school and modern, and I'm very keen to see more games made with it. So-called boomer shooters have become quite popular in recent years, but they always seem kind of forced to me. But I really like this approach, of remaking an isometric game in the style of an old school first person game. It makes me want to see other games like Planescape: Torment and maybe even the original Diablo games? It would be cool, I think. Beniz Rainbow 12 I've bought and been playing recently Ready or Not, a cracking game that's just come out on PlayStation 5 and Xbox. It's a mission-based game where you have to storm a building/office/home and take out the bad guys. It can get played single-player with bots or online with friends or randoms. I guess it's a mixture of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six games and Rainbow Six Siege. It's a very tense game, knowing one wrong move can lead to death and a mission restart. The AI is impressive, especially the enemies who move around the maps very effectively and cause some unpleasant surprises. At £45 I thought this was money well spent – replay is high, as each time the enemies start in different places. All in all, highly recommend. Keep up the good work. Manic miner 100 (gamertag) GC: Thanks. Secret ending Surely there's going to be a Metroid Prime 4 Nintendo Switch 2 hardware bundle by Christmas as well? Which is going to make at least four different official ones. I would warn everyone though that the cheap Mario Kart World one is not going to be around forever. Nintendo hasn't said when it will stop but they have said it won't last past this year. I pointed this out to a friend who was weighing up whether to get one or not and I said to him it's not a good idea to wait until autumn because that deal could just disappear overnight. Lumpy Giving up If Battlefield 6 is as big a hit as EA wants I will be shocked. They've got four separate developers making this?! For a franchise that's always been an also-ran and where the last one sunk without trace within a matter of days? Are we sure this isn't a tax write-off or something? The big problem with the lack of new IP today is that companies would much rather flog a dead horse than just come up with something relatively similar, that has more freedom to try new things. We all know what a Battlefield game is and I'm sure that after the failure of the last one they'll try and paint the new one as being back to its roots or some such tagline. But why not just make something new that doesn't have all that baggage? What are the main elements of Battlefield? 64+ player battles, lots of vehicles, and destruction. There's really nothing beyond that, with no consistent setting, no unique game modes, and definitely no ongoing storyline. Surely it'd be far better to make something new in the same area then spend half your time defending yourself from rabid fans and the other half telling non-Battlefield fans that they shouldn't be scared because it's called Battlefield 6 and yet is actually the 13th sequel. Maybe I'm being naïve, but I think there comes a time where a name becomes more of a hinderance than a help, especially with a franchise that never quite made it to the big time. Lostem Inbox also-ransWhat I don't get with these next gen portable rumours is how much is it all going to cost? If you've got a PlayStation 6 home console and the portable, isn't that going to be the best part of £1,000. And then they turn round in a couple of years and try and push the PS6 Pro? No thank. Grondite I loved the Amiga. I would say Superfrog was my favourite game but then I played it again recently and it was awful. Nostalgia can be a hell of a kick to the head sometimes. The Bishop More Trending Email your comments to: gamecentral@ The small print New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers' letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content. You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader's Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot. You can also leave your comments below and don't forget to follow us on Twitter. MORE: Games Inbox: Will there ever be a new Mass Effect game? MORE: Games Inbox: Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Commodore Amiga MORE: Games Inbox: What is the next big game for Nintendo Switch 2?

Pity the censor: Moderation, by Elaine Castillo, reviewed
Pity the censor: Moderation, by Elaine Castillo, reviewed

Spectator

time2 hours ago

  • Spectator

Pity the censor: Moderation, by Elaine Castillo, reviewed

After her America is Not the Heart was published in 2018, Elaine Castillo was named by the Financial Times one of 'the planet's 30 most exciting young people', alongside Billie Eilish and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. That debut novel told the story of three generations of women torn between the Philippines and the United States. In Moderation, thirtysomething Filipina-American Girlie Delmundo (not her real name) works as a content moderator, removing the most hideous material to be found on the internet. The author doesn't pull her punches. In an early scene, Girlie has to moderate a video of child sexual abuse as part of her final assessment to get the job. (Another candidate passes his assessment, even though he throws up during it because, crucially, he doesn't pause the video.) She is asked to explain how she knows it is a young girl in the footage and not a consenting adult. The details are hard to stomach. Castillo has said that her two main characters (one of whom is Girlie) don't realise they are in a 'Jane Austen-style Regency romance'. In fairness, I'm not sure I clocked this either, at least in the first half, when a love story is barely mentioned and the pages are so muddy it is genuinely hard to persevere. In the second half, however, when Girlie starts to fall for an English co-worker, a sort of fluency develops. Good at her job, Girlie is offered a large pay raise by her company to moderate virtual reality theme parks. The frequency of rape in these environments becomes horribly numbing, at least for the reader. We are led to understand that Girlie has long been desensitised. The reasons for this are hinted at when we learn that she 'had known since she was seven what it looked like when she turned a man on'. Castillo has important things to say about the internet, trauma and true connection, but it's a shame that this novel wasn't polished to make it clearer or more enjoyable to read.

Base instincts: unease on the garrisons housing Afghan refugees
Base instincts: unease on the garrisons housing Afghan refugees

Spectator

time2 hours ago

  • Spectator

Base instincts: unease on the garrisons housing Afghan refugees

Helping Afghan refugees escape Taliban retribution has not proved easy; ensuring their integration into their host countries more challenging still. In September 2021, a month after the United States completed its mass evacuation of refugees from Afghanistan, a serving female soldier was reportedly assaulted by a group of Afghan men at Fort Bliss in New Mexico. The incident caused a brief scandal but that was swiftly contained. Within six months, 76,000 Afghan evacuees had been processed and resettled into American communities. The UK has taken a different approach. As part of the Afghan resettlement programme, around 39,000 refugees have been brought here since the fall of Kabul. Some 2,300 Afghans, many of them young men, are housed not in civilian accommodation, but on active Ministry of Defence property, including housing estates reserved outside military bases. This means they live alongside serving military personnel and their spouses and children. In some garrison towns, significant blocks of military housing have been effectively turned over to this purpose. Soldiers and local government officials say that it is not always a harmonious arrangement. One soldier told me that groups of Afghan men stand outside family homes at all hours. Unregistered vehicles, he claimed, appear in the middle of the night, revving their engines. Women on the bases, the soldier added, have altered their dog-walking routes to avoid these groups, as some of the men react aggressively to dogs, even in some cases kicking them. On Facebook groups for military personnel in the areas surrounding these barracks, similar complaints are made. One post from Alanbrooke barracks in North Yorkshire recently claimed Afghan teenagers were ganging up to fight local teenagers. Another post on a page about Durrington barracks in Wiltshire alleges an Afghan teenager stole flowers from a memorial on a bench outside a local Tesco. These are two isolated incidences, of course, but they illustrate unease among communities about the handling of Afghan resettlement. Several soldiers I spoke to said that when concerns are raised and sent up the chain of command, they go unanswered. The assumption among personnel, whether or not it is correct, is that this intransigence is political, because senior members of the military establishment are unwilling to confront integration issues. Simon Diggins, a former colonel who served as defence attaché in Kabul between 2008 and 2010, told me that while successive governments worked hard 'to get people into the country', they did 'not put time and money into integration'. The country's largest military base is Catterick in North Yorkshire. With a population of more than 14,000 and covering over 2,400 acres, since last September it has been home to around 64 settled Afghan families, housed mostly in MoD properties that were intended as service family accommodation. Catterick is a town entirely shaped by the military and its history, and the names of the streets where many Afghan families find themselves reflect this. Amiens Crescent is named after the first world war battle where there were 22,000 British casualties; Aisne Road takes its name from the three battles where hundreds of thousands of Allied troops were killed or wounded. There were cans and crisp packets strewn outside the homes. Nearby Allenby Road – Viscount Allenby led the Egyptian Expeditionary Force against the Ottoman Empire – had become a fly-tipping site, with stained mattresses dumped on its grass verges. The litter and tipping were unpleasant, but it was unclear who was responsible for the mess. While locals asserted that littering had increased recently, I could see no sign of groups of Afghan men standing around on the streets being intimidating, as some locals claimed. One ex-serviceman in Catterick offered a more nuanced perspective on the Afghan resettlement. He told me the problem was not those who had served alongside the armed forces, but those who 'bring their friends and family over', as 'this is how it starts'. He was not the only soldier I spoke to who equivocated. Some military personnel felt the need to caveat their complaints about their new neighbours with assurances that they were not racist and that they valued their allies. Some spoke at length about their admiration for the Gurkhas and had positive things to say about other Commonwealth units and their families in the area ('Commonwealth soldiers bring their families as well and nobody has an issue with that,' one told me). The concerns expressed about recent Afghan arrivals is to do with the speed and scale of the change which military communities have faced. Many soldiers have chosen to vote against these rapid changes with their feet. Serving and former personnel told me of colleagues who have quit the army in response to the Afghan resettlement – specifically for the safety of their families. And now many of them are also planning to vote against what's going on at the ballot box. One captain explained that when he was leading a training exercise during the 2024 election, almost every soldier under his command said they were planning to vote Reform. That was not just confined to the lower ranks. A local in Catterick said that of the five senior officers he knew, four intended to vote Reform at the next election. Centrist politicians have long claimed that a vote for Reform is just a passing protest. But if those who have served in uniform see both main parties housing thousands of Afghans in homes which were designed for hard-pressed military families, this reaction is unsurprising. The armed forces are the spine of the state – called upon when the NHS, the police, border force and prison services are stretched beyond capacity. If they feel their fears are going unaddressed, then their quiet quitting should concern us all.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store