Duane Lee Chapman aka Dog, the Bounty Hunter is a well known bail enforcement agent or bounty hunter and has a popular reality television show that shows him and his family in action as they try to bring fugitives to justice. However, Dog, the Bounty Hunter, was not always on the right side of the law.

Duane grew up in Denver, Colorado. His mother was half Chiricahua Apache and was a minister at a First Assembly of God church in Denver, Colorado. His father was a boxer and a welder in the Navy and allegedly regularly handed out beatings at home to Dog.
He dropped out of school in the seventh grade because he felt school authorities didn’t care about his troubles at school and at home. He eventually joined a motorcycle gang and was also a boxer in his teens and early twenties. As a boxer, he went by the name Dog Lee.

Dog was arrested several times for armed robbery and in 1977 he was arrested and convicted of murder. He was sentenced to five years of hard labor and served two years before being paroled in 1979. His bounty hunting career began when he divorced his first wife and the judge who was presiding over the child support case, asked Dog to apprehend a fugitive and offered him two hundred dollars for payment. It wasn’t until 2003 that Dog, the Bounty Hunter would start to become a household name.

It was then when he and his son Leland went into Mexico to go after Max Factor heir, Andrew Luster, to bring him to justice. Luster was convicted of several counts, eighty-six, of drugging and raping women. Luster fled to Mexico during his trial and was convicted in absentia. He fled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and Dog went after him.
Dog and his son, Leland captured Luster and brought him back to the United States. However, bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico so Mexican authorities branded Dog and his son as fugitives for kidnapping. By the time the US courts had finally allowed the extradition of Dog back to Mexico to face charges, the statute of limitations had run out so he was not extradited. It was this case that launched Dog into the limelight and got him his reality show. It wouldn’t be until November 2007 that all charges against Dog and his son would be completely dropped.

His troubles did not end there however. Also in 2007, Dog’s show was taken off of the air due to racial slurs he used during a phone conversation with his son, Tucker Chapman. Tucker recorded this conversation and sold the recording to the National Enquirer. The Enquirer posted the conversation on the internet and a group of civil rights leaders called for the television show to be cancelled. Advertisers also began pulling support from the show as well. Roy Innes, conservative civil rights leader, led the way to stop the show. However, he was also the first one to lead the way to get the show back on the air after Dog had made a public apology and after he met with Dog and his wife, Beth. He realized the remarks spiraled out of control after being taken out of context. The show began showing new episodes in the summer of 2009 and is still on the air.

The show can be seen on the A&E cable television network. Check your local listings for day and time.