I saw real side of Dog the Bounty Hunter who howled with grief over late daughter – why grandson's death will haunt him

The Sun

5 days ago

HOWLING towards the sky, Dog the Bounty Hunter's tough guy exterior melted away before my eyes as he recalled the tragic death of his late daughter, Barbara Katy.
The unimaginable agony was etched on his face. I was witnessing a rare glimpse of the soft and tender side to Dog that very few people will ever see.
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And my heart broke too as the father-of-12 choked back tears, reliving the terrible day Barbara was killed, and sharing the grief no parent should ever have to endure.
Despite his gruff appearance, what quickly became clear to me that day was that the iconic 72-year-old reality star is actually a tenderhearted family man - a secret he keeps well hidden beneath his hard-as-nails exterior.
I saw that nothing is more important to him than the people he loves.
That is why I know that Dog, whose real name is Duane Chapman, will be utterly devastated beyond words about the horrific death of his beloved step-grandson in a tragic gun accident last weekend.
His entire family was left reeling when Dog's stepson, Gregory Zecca, shot and killed his own son, Anthony, 13, in a tragic accident at their Florida apartment - near the home where I had visited Dog and his wife Francie, who is Gregory's mother, four years ago.
At that time America was gripped by the bizarre disappearance of Brian Laundrie, who had returned from a road trip without his girlfriend Gabby Petito in September 2021.
It was a chilling reminder for Dog how his daughter had died at the same age in a devastating car crash in Alaska in 2006 - the day before her dad's wedding to his fifth wife Beth Smith - when the stolen SUV she was travelling in rolled and smashed into a tree.
Dog quietly confided to me during our hours' long emotionally charged chat how Barbara's early death inspired him to join the nationwide manhunt for the missing murder suspect.
He has snared more than 6,000 criminals in his dangerous but lucrative job as a bondsman - tracking down wanted criminals for cash.
Dog is a familiar face on American TV, his public persona is hugely entertaining, and he knows how to put on a great show when the cameras are on him.
And yet behind the scenes, Dog wept as he told me how fans reached out to him four years ago, urging him to join the high profile search because Laundrie's girlfriend Gabby had been around the same age as Barbara.
"They are Dog buddies in the sky," the bounty hunter sobbed.
After Gabby's body was discovered in Wyoming, Laundrie went missing from his parents' Florida home - and a month later his body was found in a nearby nature reserve.
Coincidentally Dog and Francie also happened to be in Florida at the same time, as his new wife had told him she wanted to go back to her home state to "put her feet in the sand, and put her feet in the ocean".
Again I watched as Dog's hard man act melted further away as he told me fondly how Francie had reignited his passion for bringing wanted fugitives to justice following his late wife Beth's death.
He told me softly: "I had lost my bounty hunting enthusiasm after Beth, and then I looked at Francine and she said 'I'll love you forever,' and I said I'll love you too.
"I knew in my heart there was someone that was going to pray for me and say, 'Be good, Dog.'
"And all of a sudden, I felt like Dog again."
Close-knit family
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The enduring tenderness he has for his sixth wife Francie was clear to me that day, and the couple will be struggling to cope with the agonising tragedy that has now engulfed their close-knit family.
By the time I met them Dog had already grown very close to Francie's family in Florida, especially her son Greg and grandson Anthony.
Which is why today I can imagine him howling at the sky in sorrow once again.
Throughout his life Dog has been blighted by a series of cruel tragedies, including years of horrific abuse at the hands of his vile father, and the heartbreak of losing two children, his first wife, and now his young grandson.
As a child growing up in Denver, Colorado, Dog endured regular beatings with a wooden paddle from his dad - a deeply religious and battle-hardened US army officer.
If the idea was to toughen the boy up, it worked.
I had lost my bounty hunting enthusiasm after Beth, and then I looked at Francine and she said 'I'll love you forever,' and I said I'll love you too. I knew in my heart there was someone that was going to pray for me and say, 'Be good, Dog.' And all of a sudden, I felt like Dog again
Dog the Bounty Hunter
By the time he was 13, Dog had dropped out of school and joined a dangerous motorbike gang called the Disciples.
He spent years in and out of jail for a string of offences including armed robbery, and fathered a child with his girlfriend Debbie White while they were still in their teens.
But she hid her pregnancy from Dog and later took her own life.
Looking back years later he wrote: "Because of my religious upbringing, I thought my dad was punishing me for being a terrible sinner.
"Until very recently, I never understood that none of his abuse was my fault. Just thinking of the abuse I endured can make me cry.'
'I spent the first 23 years of my life on the wrong side of the law. The only thing I knew about the law was a thousand ways to break it,' he added in his 2007 book, You Can Run But You Can't Hide.
Murder charge
When he was 19, Dog married first wife LaFonda Honeycutt and the couple had two sons, Duane Lee and Leland.
But in 1976, Dog was convicted of first degree murder - he was in a car when his friend accidentally shot an alleged drug dealer in a fight over a cannabis deal.
His criminal record has caused ongoing problems for Dog.
LaFonda left and married his best friend, and as a result of his conviction, he cannot own a gun and uses a Taser for his bounty hunting instead. He was also barred from entering the UK to appear as a Celebrity Big Brother housemate in 2012.
Soon after he left jail and started his new career as a bounty hunter, Dog had a short-lived marriage to second wife Anne Tegnell.
They had three children - one died shortly after birth and the other two were raised by their mother.
In 1982, Dog wed wife number three, Lyssa Britain, and had three more children - Barbara, Tucker and Lyssa.
But he had an affair with Beth - a blonde bombshell with a 38F chest - after they met at a local police station, where she had been arrested for shoplifting.
Shock allegation
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His marriage to Beth was stormy from the start, and Lyssa - who was living with her dad - claims she hated their rows so much she made up a horrendous allegation.
'I [falsely] accused my father of raping me when I was 11,' Lyssa admitted later.
'It was a horrible life that I never wanted to go back to, living with him and Beth and the fighting and the drugs.
'When I got to my mother's, although she drank, it was much more peaceful. I was willing to do anything to not go back.'
Dog was devastated when Beth left and married his childhood best friend, Keith Barmore, in 1991, and had a daughter, Cecily.
"He was a thief with a heroin habit," Dog wrote later. "It just about broke my heart when I heard Beth was dating him.
'When I heard they got married, I got physically sick… Friends told me he was abusing her something awful."
Dog wed Tawny Marie in 1992 – but he and Beth continued seeing each other behind their new partners' backs.
Beth and Dog got back together in 1995 and she became the youngest licensed bondsman in Colorado at 29.
They couple had two more children, Bonnie and Garry, and Dog adopted Cecily.
In 2004 he landed his own TV show, Dog The Bounty Hunter, and they planned to remarry.
But the night before their dream Hawaiian wedding, Dog received the horrific news that Barbara had been killed.
Incredibly, he went ahead with the wedding as planned, breaking the terrible news to his friends and family at the reception.
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After Barbara's death, her son went to live with his biological father, Travis Mimms.
But in 2011, Dog and Beth took temporary custody after hearing a recording of Travis allegedly physically abusing the nine-year-old.
Perhaps remembering his own brutal childhood, Dog said: 'To hear the audiotape of my grandson being abused was torture.'
Beth lost her battle with throat cancer in 2019 and two years after she died he tied the knot for the sixth time with Francie.
An investigation into the horrific accident involving his step-grandson remains ongoing.
A spokesperson for Dog and Francie told TMZ: "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."