How did Duane Chapman, AKA Dog the Bounty Hunter end up in a Mexican prison?
Where did he get his start in bounty hunting?
And how much is Dog really worth?
Dog the Bounty Hunter, aka Duane Chapman, has made a name for himself in the business
of bounty hunting, a career as precarious and dangerous as it sounds.
After deciding to become a bounty hunter, Chapman took this long tradition and made
it applicable to the 21st century, complete with reality TV and social media, which he
uses to get tips from fans.
Over the decades, he's built up a decent net worth for himself.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Chapman is worth $6 million.
While this is all well and good, Chapman has had a tough time keeping afloat financially
and has faced some major hurdles with money.
Bounty hunting, by all accounts, isn't as straightforward as reality TV can make it
look!
In his 2007 memoir, "You Can Run But You Can't Hide," Duane Chapman revealed that he grew
up in a middle class family.
However, his childhood was far from idyllic, as he wrote -
"As a young boy, I never knew that other kids didn't get hit by their dads.
I thought it was a rite of passage to have my father knock me around.
I simply didn't know anything different."
With such a tough family situation, Duane faced struggles as a teenager, too.
He dropped out of school when he was 13 years old, later running away from home, and at
16, he became a member of a motorcycle gang.
Interestingly, this newfound family gave him the name he still uses today, telling ABC
News -
"I always talked about God, like I wouldn't rob a church.
We had a guy named Preacher, a John the Baptist, and they named me Dog because it's God spelled
backwards."
Duane Chapman's early life meant that he was that much more likely to get in trouble with
the law.
The soon-to-be bounty hunter admitted this himself in his memoir, writing -
"I spent the first twenty-three years of my life on the wrong side of the law.
For most of my childhood, I ran with gangs and bikers.
The only thing I knew about the law was a thousand ways to break it.
I got pretty good at that."
Then something happened that irrevocably changed Chapman's life and ultimately led him to bounty
hunting.
According to The Sun, he was in Pampa, Texas, when a friend got into an altercation with
a reported drug dealer, The friend accidentally shot and killed the man, and per Texas law,
Chapman was charged with first-degree murder because of his indirect involvement in the
death.
In 1976, he received a five-year prison sentence.
While the situation was a dark one, it led Chapman to his career, and bounty hunting
became so much more to him than just a job, writing in his memoir -
"It took a murder-one conviction to make me decide to change my life from committing crime
to fighting it."
"'I am gonna change and be the best at whatever I do in the world.'
And I started looking at stuff what to do, and all of a sudden I saw - bounty hunter."
While having a felony led Duane Chapman to his ultimate career of being Dog the Bounty
Hunter, his criminal past has also significantly impacted his life as well as his finances.
In 2012, Chapman was slated to appear on "Celebrity Big Brother" in the United Kingdom.
However, as Huffpost reported, the bounty hunter was denied a visa because of his felony
record.
Chapman, who was living in Hawaii at the time, 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."
In 2018, The Sun reported that "Celebrity Big Brother" stars were making anywhere from
$53,000 to almost $1 million, so he missed out on a decent paycheck.
In addition to restricting Chapman's global mobility, the felony has also restricted what
he can do as a bounty hunter.
As The Sun points out, convicted felons are not permitted to carry firearms, so when Chapman
is on a job with his team, he'll carry a taser, while everyone else has a gun.
Obviously, he's protected in a group, but it would certainly mean higher vulnerability
in such a dangerous field.
While we know that the 'Dog' in his TV name, "Dog the Bounty Hunter," came from his early
years in a motorcycle gang, there's actually a great story about the first time he got
called a bounty hunter.
He told Fox News in 2007 -
"While I was in prison, I became the warden's barber, so that means all the guards were
my friends.
One guy went to break and run one day, an inmate, and I jumped him and [...] the guard
walked up when I was on top of the inmate apprehending him, and he threw down the handcuffs
and said, 'Hook him up, bounty hunter.'"
"They said the Dog's in town!"
So what kind of income was Duane looking at once he began bounty hunting for real?
According to BountyHunterEdu, if a bounty hunter is successful in 100-150 cases a year,
they're looking at an annual salary of $50,000-$80,000, with each payment coming from a bail bond
company.
Duane Chapman's first major win as a bounty hunter came in 2003 when he caught Andrew
Luster, heir to the cosmetic company Max Factor.
As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Luster fled to Mexico while he was on trial for drugging
and assaulting three women.
Chapman, along with his son Leland Chapman and bounty hunter Tim Chapman, stationed themselves
in Mexico, and successfully captured Luster in Puerto Vallarta.
The high-profile case gave Chapman and his team long-lasting credibility as bounty hunters.
Tragically, the capture was a financial loss for Chapman.
The issue was twofold.
Firstly, Mexican law requires bounty hunters to have a clean record, which Chapman doesn't;
Secondly, Mexican law insists that bounty hunters have an official contract with either
a bail bond company or a law enforcement agency, and Chapman and his team were representing
themselves.
According to CBS News, Superior Court Judge Edward Brodie said -
"He went to Mexico and failed to comply with the law.
I cannot condone vigilante justice."
Chapman and his team were arrested in Mexico and jailed for four nights.
In 2003, the Los Angeles Times reported that Chapman made every attempt to cash in at least
a portion of Luster's $1 million bail.
Chapman claimed that the hunt cost him $320,000 and that he at least wanted to recuperate
that money.
That didn't happen, but the case did put Chapman on the map in the world of bounty hunting.
Duane Chapman got his first TV deal in 2004, one year after capturing Andrew Luster.
A&E created the hit TV series "Dog the Bounty Hunter."
It made Chapman famous, along with the rest of the "Dog the Bounty Hunter" cast, which
included his sassy wife, Beth Chapman, and some of his children, including Leland, Duane
Jr., and Lyssa.
Chapman thrived on fame and audaciously told The New York Times in 2020 that "God promised
to make him famous."
He also admitted that fame filled a void for him, saying -
"I need the attention.
I wake up every day and say, 'Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the baddest bounty hunter
of them all?'
[...] I need love."
While A&E's "Dog the Bounty Hunter" was popular enough to last eight seasons, the show got
canceled in 2012.
Not only was it the end of a major income source for Duane Chapman and the rest of his
family and crew, but there was also major litigation that held up the last of his pay.
In 2013, The Hollywood Reporter stated that a producer on the series, Boris Krutonog,
got into a long-running feud with Chapman over money.
Their feud was six years running and continued as the series wrapped, with the two men arguing
over millions of dollars.
The outlet gave the impression that A&E expected a battle:
"The company deposited $4 million of money from 'Dog the Bounty Hunter' with the idea
that Chapman and Krutonog would tussle over the funds, and at the end of the battle, it
would transfer the money to whomever emerged victorious."
The two men did come to an agreement in 2013, but the way the funds were split was not disclosed.
On top of this, Chapman had old, unpaid legal fees from the 2003 ordeal in Mexico when he
captured Andrew Luster.
TMZ reported that a lawyer helped him, but the two later sued each other after arguing
over attorney's fees.
It wasn't just his felony that impacted Duane Chapman's finances later in life.
According to Honolulu Magazine, the bounty hunter went into the business in the first
place because he had child support payments waiting for him when he got out of prison.
A judge offered to cover a single payment if Chapman captured someone who jumped bail,
and his success led to "more assignments."
ET points out that Chapman has 12 children, and the strain of family life, including its
unexpected turns, has been a lot over the years.
His first wife, La Fonda Sue Honeycutt, actually filed for divorce while Chapman was serving
time for his felony in Texas.
He also had a child from a previous relationship with a woman named Debbie White, which was
news to Chapman.
"When I met Leland, he was really scared of me."
"Right I wouldn't even call him Dad, I would be, 'Hey You.'"
Over the years, according to PopCulture, Chapman has faced challenges in his relationships
with his children and has been estranged from many of them.
There was a serious fracture with his son, Tucker, when a phone conversation between
the father and son got leaked, and Chapman could be heard using racial slurs when referring
to Tucker's girlfriend.
PopCulture noted that there were rumors it was Tucker who leaked the conversation.
The phone call led to a temporary production shutdown of A&E's "Dog the Bounty Hunter,"
in 2007.
After A&E canceled "Dog the Bounty Hunter" in 2012, Duane Chapman went on to star in
several other spinoffs.
Chapman ended up working a lot with his late wife, Beth Chapman, whom he married in 2006.
The couple starred in "Dog and Beth: On the Hunt," which kicked off on CMT in 2013.
Chapman talked to the Futon Critic about the show, saying -
"Filming this show with CMT has given us a broader ability to reach our fans and serve
our professional industry in a way no other bail agent ever could,"
After the series ended in 2015, Beth told In Touch that the old system of cash bail
was changing in the United States, explaining -
"Our industry is under attack.
There are bail reform movements springing up across the country that would end the cash
bail systems.
This would be a disaster."
The outlet also mentioned that Chapman and his wife left CMT with "the rights to all
their shows."
The duo went on to star in "Dog and Beth: Fight of Their Lives," a two-hour A&E special
about Beth's cancer diagnosis.
Then came "Dog's Most Wanted" on WGN America.
The show concluded sadly with Beth's death in the season finale.
Beth Chapman died in June 2019, and the grief hit Duane Chapman so hard that at one point
The New York Times reported that he said -
"I don't want to live."
In addition to leaving Chapman in pieces, her death also left him in a financial crisis.
Beth died of cancer, and the Times noted that the Chapmans racked up extensive medical bills
during her years of treatment.
In addition to medical expenses, The Sun reported that Beth died with around $75,000 in unpaid
credit card bills, and both Hawaiian Airlines World Elite MasterCard and MasterCard sued
Beth's estate over her unpaid debt.
The outlet does note that while Chapman is not personally responsible for her debt, he
is the executor of her estate.
At the same time, the bounty hunter was also at risk of losing his house in Colorado.
As The Sun reported, he owed $5,800.48 in unpaid taxes from 2019, and he had a $5,809.44
lien on the home.
Chapman summed it up the Times, saying -
"I'm broke."
So what was his plan?
Chapman was on the hunt for Kameron Lawhead, a drug dealer who had skipped town.
Beth was the one who wrote the bond, Chapman told Fox News in February 2020.
The bail was originally set at $1.5 million but later increased, and since Beth wrote
the bond, Chapman dedicated the hunt to her.
"Dog the Bounty Hunter" and "Dog and Beth: On the Hunt" showed Duane and Beth Chapman
doing their potentially dangerous job, while "Dog's Most Wanted" focused primarily on Beth's
fight with cancer and her death.
WGN ended up canceling "Dog's Most Wanted," with The Sun reporting that there were rumors
that it had something to do with a family feud.
Seven months after Beth died, Chapman proposed to her long-time friend, Moon Angell, on "The
Dr. Oz Show."
Some of the bounty hunter's children were angry about what they perceived to be an excessively
quick rebound, while fans and family alike were concerned about Chapman's health — he
looked frail and exhausted on air.
Not only did Chapman need the money from a new show, but his children also felt that
a fresh series would put a much-needed pep in his step.
An insider told The Sun that his children, quote, "are concerned how he'll manage with
no show."
Things seemed to take a turn for the better when Deadline reported in September 2020 that
the streaming service Unleashed!
had announced that a new series, "Dog Unleashed," was on its way.
However, in April 2021, Taste of Country reported that the series had been canceled over a breach
of contract on Chapman's part.
Duane Chapman wasn't done with financial hurdles.
Prior to Beth Chapman's death, the couple faced changes in their business.
According to Hawaii News Now, they used to operate Da Kine Bail Bonds in Honolulu, Hawaii.
However, in January 2019, they had to close the location, which included a souvenir shop,
because the site had been sold and the new owner had plans to demolish the building.
While the Chapmans had considered relocating, the store closing happened concurrently with
Beth's cancer battle, with Beth telling the Pacific Business News in a statement at the
time -
"I think we need to focus on my health and getting better, fighting this cancer, and
keeping those I love close to me, instead of running a business and retail operation,"
Her husband echoed this when he said -
"Moving is tough, but we've got a bigger battle on our hands right now and need to take care
of Beth."
While he lost one money stream, Chapman had another source of income popular among reality
stars and those who've achieved some degree of notoriety: a Cameo account where fans could
purchase a personalized video from the bounty hunter.
The only issue was that he chose some steep rates.
To film a video for "personal use," Chapman charges $300, and if it's for business, either
for a company or for customers, he charges $750.
While they aren't the most expensive rates to interact with a celebrity we've ever seen,
they're certainly pricy.
Duane and his late wife Beth bought a $2,240,000 home in Oahu, Hawaii in 2015, but faced some
major financial hurdles with the house.
As The Sun reports, the Chapmans defaulted on payments and were sued in late 2018, with
court documents claiming -
"As of November 27, 2018, there was an outstanding balance due of $109,328.69 for unpaid monthly
payments, and reimbursement for utilities, real property taxes and insurance premiums."
It appeared that the Chapmans were paying the previous owners, Karen and Craig Mills,
directly instead of using a mortgage.
The Mills asked that the Chapmans vacate, but they refused to do so.
Then, when Beth died in June 2019, they filed papers in court.
The house in Hawaii came up a few months later in September when Chapman spoke to ET, saying
-
"I have to stay in Hawaii.
I have too many brothers and sisters there."
He added that he was selling the house, though his reasons for the sale were more sentimental
than financial, saying -
"It's not morbid.
[Beth] didn't pass there.
But that's her house.
My house was the Denver place."
Chapman revealed that all of Beth's things were still in the house, even her toothbrush,
so clearly it was an emotionally intense situation.
As of 2021, TMZ reported that Chapman was residing at his home in Colorado.
One major reason for Duane Chapman's resurgence in the media in 2021 was his involvement in
the search for Brian Laundrie, a person of interest in the death of Gabby Petito.
Since there was a highly publicized manhunt for Laundrie, it seemed logical for Chapman
to get involved.
Newsweek reported that the reward for Laundrie was $170,000, a sum largely made up of donations
from friends and individuals offering support.
Chapman added $10,000 of his own money to the reward.
He also got involved in the Florida-based search in late September.
In fact, Chapman was in Florida on his honeymoon with his sixth wife, Francie Frane.
The National Enquirer reported that since they were so close, they saw no reason not
to help.
Utilizing his own expertise in such matters, Chapman set up two centers to receive tips
from the public: one in Hawaii and one in Sarasota, Florida.
Chapman's spokesperson told Newsweek -
"Whenever there is a case like this, people naturally send him messages and info because
of his past track record as a bounty hunter."
The source added -
"He and his wife, Francie, have been working tirelessly on all the leads pouring in and
are glad to be able to help in some small way in the hopes that Brian Laundrie can be
located."
Chapman had to halt his physical search early because of an ankle injury, but it shows that
manhunts are in his genes, and he's willing to help out when he can.
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