The Biggest Scandals To Ever Hit Dog The Bounty Hunter

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Shocking allegations, tax troubles, and even murder most foul — here are some of the worst scandals ever faced by America's most famous bounty hunter.
Transcript
00:00Shocking allegations, tax troubles, and even murder most foul, here are some of the worst
00:05scandals ever faced by America's most famous bounty hunter.
00:10Society generally has little time for convicted murderers, which makes the rise of Dog the
00:14Bounty Hunter all the more unlikely.
00:17In 1976, Dwayne Dog Chapman was in Texas, where he was found to have been involved in
00:22the murder of a drug dealer.
00:24Jerry Oliver was shot dead by one of Chapman's friends during a cannabis deal, with Dog waiting
00:30in a car outside.
00:31In a later interview, Dog said,
00:33"...I should not have been there.
00:35That's that."
00:36However, being in the car that day led to him being charged with murder and eventually
00:40sentenced to five years in prison.
00:42He served 18 months, a time he spent, in his words, growing a conscience.
00:47Prison life can be challenging, of course, and it was during this difficult time that
00:51Dog embraced religion, an experience that changed his entire worldview.
00:56He later admitted,
00:57"...God turned my life around in prison and I believe that no matter who you are or where
01:01you're at, God can change your life."
01:04Dog has done little to hide the fact that crime changed the course of his life.
01:08On his show, he makes special mention of the importance of redemption, often pointing out
01:13that his life was turned around by finding Christianity behind bars.
01:16"...If God can forgive everybody, so can we."
01:20He has also been open about the difficult experiences he went through after first being
01:24released from prison in Texas.
01:26In 2020, Dog told The New York Times,
01:29"...They said, you can't even get a driver's license, you'll have nothing.
01:33I looked in the mirror to shave and heard my dad saying, burn your birth certificate,
01:37I wish you were never born.
01:39I said, I'm going to change and be the best at whatever I do in the world."
01:44But Dog's murder conviction has made quite an impact on his career.
01:47Dog famously never carries a deadly weapon, which is framed on Dog the Bounty Hunter as
01:51a personal choice.
01:53In fact, he is banned from having guns due to his conviction.
01:57The same conviction also affected his ability to hold a bounty hunting license in certain
02:01states and prevented him from traveling to the U.K. for reality TV work.
02:06More recently, he has sought to have his murder conviction quashed, which would allow him
02:10to fulfill his dream of running for sheriff in Texas.
02:14It has been claimed that Dog saw a future for himself after tackling a fellow inmate
02:18who was attempting to flee the prison, after which he became a bail bondsman and bounty
02:22hunter.
02:23He went on to become incredibly successful and claims to have captured a record number
02:27of fugitives over the course of his long bounty hunting career.
02:30But Dog's bounty hunting hasn't always seen him on the right side of the law.
02:34He ran into trouble in the early 2000s while in pursuit of a high-profile fugitive named
02:39Andrew Luster, the heir to the Max Factor makeup brand.
02:43Luster was on the run after being charged with multiple sex offenses.
02:47Dog and two others pursued Luster to Mexico, where they beat the FBI in uncovering his
02:51location, and detained him so that he could be put on trial in the U.S.
02:55However, bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico, and so Dog and his team found themselves arrested
03:01for kidnapping.
03:02It was a devastating blow for him.
03:04He won't go to work."
03:06The charge hung over Dog for several years before it was finally dismissed in 2007.
03:11By then, however, the publicity arising from the Luster case had propelled Dog to reality
03:16TV stardom.
03:18Ever since Dog first found fame with Dog the Bounty Hunter on A&E, both his family and
03:23his love interests have shared the spotlight with him.
03:26The most famous of the Chapman family besides Dog is undoubtedly Beth Chapman, his wife
03:31who starred alongside Dog from the show's inception.
03:34Beth's bold personality and unrestrained potty mouth gave the show a great deal of character.
03:39Sadly, Beth died of complications from throat cancer in 2019.
03:44Having chosen to end treatment for the disease, she said,
03:47"...I want to die in my boots."
03:49Beth's illness and death was captured in another of Dog's shows, Dog's Most Wanted, with Beth
03:54reportedly insisting every aspect of her story be filmed.
03:58Dog had met Beth in 1986 when he posted her bond after she was found to have stolen a
04:03lemon from a store.
04:05They were married in 2006, but this was far from Dog's first legal union.
04:09He had been married four times previously, including one marriage that took place just
04:14days after their meeting.
04:16Months after Beth's death, Dog announced his engagement to Francie Frayne, a widow who
04:20went on to become his sixth wife in 2021.
04:24Dog's daughter, Bonnie Chapman, has remained highly critical of her famous father for several
04:29years.
04:30She routinely makes public statements that lift the lid on what appears to be a strained
04:33home life for the reality TV star.
04:36One of the biggest bombshells that Bonnie has dropped over the years has been the claim
04:39that Dog is a consistent adulterer.
04:42According to Bonnie, Dog's 13-year marriage to the beloved Beth Chapman was undermined
04:46by his frequent liaisons with other women.
04:49Bonnie claims that she was aware of her father's affairs throughout her childhood.
04:53Moreover, she accuses her father of continuing to have affairs even when Beth was in the
04:57hospital, and that he hooked up with one of Beth's friends while she was on her deathbed.
05:02Dog has denied the accusations, claiming that his daughters had been indoctrinated by former
05:06business partners looking to hurt his reputation.
05:09I'm a good man.
05:11I would have never done that."
05:13Bonnie Chapman says that one of the reasons she and Dog no longer see eye to eye is because
05:18he has become increasingly allied with evangelical Christianity, which has colored his worldview
05:23when it comes to homosexuality, and much more besides.
05:26In a 2021 Facebook post, she wrote,
05:29"...if my dad and his new wife want to travel to right-wing churches attacking gay people
05:34and advancing QAnon theories, he can certainly do that, but I'm going to stand by the memory
05:39and legacy of my mom, Beth Chapman.
05:42Her memory, and the values she stood for, are worth fighting to advance."
05:47Beth also claimed that he has been known to use homophobic slurs.
05:50Dog has denied the claims, pointing out that he has a gay daughter and gay men on staff.
05:55Most of these accusations came on the eve of Dog's 2021 wedding.
06:00Since then, however, there have been more revelations, including that of a supposed
06:04rant in 2023 in which he attacked transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
06:09Dog reportedly said,
06:11"...rebuke Satan out of him and just give him a couple black eyes.
06:14I mean that.
06:15If I ever see him, I'm dropping him."
06:17Dog has also allegedly suggested that LGBTQ plus people are estranged from God.
06:24Perhaps the most damaging scandal in Dog's career came in 2007, when his fame was at
06:29its zenith thanks to the success of Dog the Bounty Hunter.
06:32That year, Dog's son, Tucker, leaked an audio recording of a conversation between him and
06:37his father to the National Enquirer.
06:39On the tape, Dog can be heard making multiple racial slurs about Tucker's black girlfriend.
06:44News of the recording sparked widespread outrage, leading A&E to indefinitely shelve the upcoming
06:50season of Dog the Bounty Hunter.
06:52More recently, Dog's 2021 show, Dog Unleashed, was canceled before making it to air due to
06:58what executives described as a breach of contract.
07:01However, Bonnie Chapman has waded into the controversy.
07:04At the time, she worked for Unleashed Entertainment, the production company behind the show.
07:08Bonnie claims that Dog had again been fired for using racial and homophobic slurs.
07:13Hoping to put the rumors to bed, Dog sat down for an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
07:17I have never been a racist.
07:20I'm 33 and a half percent Apache."
07:23Dog also insisted that he'd believed he'd earned a pass from black people to use racial
07:27slurs while in prison.
07:29My pass expired for using it, but no one told me that.
07:32To say a racist name doesn't qualify to make you a racist.
07:37Dog described his previous use of racial slurs as an Achilles' heel.
07:42Would I die for a gay man or a black man, I'd lay down my life.
07:47Dog's long career as a bounty hunter and TV star seems, from the outside, to have been
07:52highly lucrative.
07:54As fans of the show know, hunting fugitives can lead to huge financial rewards.
07:58While starring in a series of hit shows has undoubtedly earned the Chapman family millions
08:02of dollars over the years, but the true state of Dog's finances isn't quite so rosy.
08:07In fact, one of his biggest financial stresses has its roots in his 2003 arrest in Mexico.
08:13During this incident, the future star apparently amassed a great deal of legal fees that he
08:18was still required to pay nearly two decades later.
08:21According to a report published by gossip website TMZ, the A&E star had gotten into
08:26a dispute with his former legal team that led to multiple cases between the parties.
08:31This ultimately led to Dog having to swallow a judgment in 2013 that stipulated he owed
08:36his former lawyer more than $880,000, plus interest.
08:40As of 2021, the total stood at just under $1 million and remains unpaid.
08:46Dog's financial situation has become even more precarious as a result of tax liens against
08:50him totaling around $1.6 million.
08:53With his original reality TV show off the air and new spinoffs failing to find an audience
08:58like they once did, this likely means trouble for the man whose net worth is said to be
09:03around $6 million in total.
09:06In 2023, Dog's vast family tree grew even bigger with the shock revelation that Dog
09:11had a son that his fans, and seemingly Dog himself, had not previously known about.
09:17Writing on Instagram on the anniversary of Beth Chapman's death, Dog said,
09:21"'For the last four years, this day was a terrible reminder of one of the greatest losses
09:26of my life.
09:27But God redeemed this day when I discovered my son John, who I just met recently, was
09:32born on this day.
09:33So now instead of sorrow, this day has a new meaning.
09:36This is my son John and his wife Jodi.'"
09:39The news was a big surprise and therefore widely reported across the internet.
09:43However, Dog remained tight-lipped on the details of his and John's relationship, or
09:48how they had finally come to reconnect.
09:51Dog did, however, suggest that their story would be told in his then-upcoming book Nine
09:55Lives and Counting, simply adding,
09:57"'For anyone who has suffered a terrible loss, please know God restores and redeems.
10:02Happy birthday, son.
10:03Love you both.'"
10:04"'Get a box of Kleenexes, brother.'"
10:07You might be forgiven for thinking that the discovery of his long-lost son John was timed
10:11very carefully by the reality star, especially considering the controversies he has faced
10:15in recent years.
10:17In particular, Dog was widely criticized due to one high-profile incident back in 2021.
10:23That was the case of Brian Laundrie, the American man who disappeared on a road trip after the
10:27death of his fiancée, Gabby Petito.
10:30Laundrie's disappearance sparked a huge manhunt, and so Dog decided to stage a search of his
10:35own.
10:36He drafted a team to help find the missing man, whom Dog assured the public was likely
10:40still alive and in hiding.
10:42Dog's attempt to center himself in one of the biggest news stories of the year was met
10:46with skepticism, with many outlets reporting that Dog had no license to detain criminals
10:51as a result of his murder conviction, a point his team disputed.
10:55More tellingly, however, was the fact that his stepdaughter, Cecily Chapman, went public
10:59with her criticism of her father, claiming that Dog's hunt for Laundrie was nothing more
11:04than a publicity stunt.
11:06Indeed, reports claimed that Dog had even pitched a show about the hunt for Laundrie
11:09to A&E, the network that first made him famous.
11:12Apparently, that pitch was rejected.