On 5 Jan 1981 Idaho Dept of Game and Fish Game Wardens Bill Pogue and Conley Elms were murdered in the Bull Basin area of Owyhee Co.

Late in the evening if 4 Jan, Warden Bill Pogue had received a complaint of a poacher camping in the remote and rugged Bull Basin area. Although it was no longer his primary patrol area Bill had a soft spot for the area and decided to investigate. As policy prevented Wardens from going into the back country alone he contacted several other Wardens in an attempt to find a partner. One of those Wardens Mike Elms who was the Owyhee Warden was unable to go suggested that Bill call his younger brother Conley, was also a Warden. (Let that sink in)

The two wardens left almost immediately and drove through the night. They arrived early in the morning of the 5th, through out their bedrolls and caught a few hours sleep. Upon awaking they made contact and had breakfast with the complaintant before heading out to the Bull Basin.

Once there they encountered Claude Dallas, a draft dodger who had drifted out west to avoid service in Vietnam. He had iimmersed himself in cowboy culture and the old west. Many of his ranch coworkers felt he was playing cowboyand noted that he had no respect for any game laws. He had more recently fancied himself a mountain man and had moved into the Bull Basin area to trap through the winter. With him in camp was Jim Stevens a former school teacher and friend of Dallas who had brought him supply’s.

Stevens testified that Pogue and Dallas were in a heated argument about multiple game violations that were observed. During the argument Dallas drew a second pistol he had concealed in his person and shot Pogue twice in the chest. Pogue well to the ground his side arm still bolstered. Dallas then shot Elms, who was exiting a tent with pelts in his arms twice. Elms fell with his sidearm still in it’s shoulder holster under his jacket. Dallas then retrieved a .22cal rifle from his tent and shot both Wardens once behind the ear.

Stevens fearing for his on life then helped Dallas load the bodies of Bill and Conley onto mules to carry them out of the Basin and hide them else where. Elms who was a very large man caused the mule to buckle and strain. Dallas rolled his body into the Owyhee River that ran through the Basin. Bill Pogues body was loaded into Stevens Blazer and was taken back to Dallas’s home region Paradise Nevada where he hid it in the desert.

The following day Stevens and another friend of Dallas who was aware of the murders went to Nevada authorities and told them of the incident. The resulting man hunt for Dallas lasted over a year until he was finally arrested in Paradise Nv.

The resulting goat fuck, shit show, of a courtroom circus found Bill Pogue, his reputation and good name, on trial more so than Dallas. Dallas and his prosecution successfully convinced a very sympathetic jury that Bill Pogue, who Idaho Game and Fish had never received a complaint against, who had such a reputation for honesty and integrity that he was personally recruited by the town of Winnemucca Nv to right it’s troubled police dept, was suddenly a heavy handed bully who came to Bull Basin to kill Dallas. Even with his own friend, Jim Stevens, testifying to the contrary Dallas argued self defense and was found guilty of 2 counts of Manslaughter and sentenced to 30yrs in prison. Multiple people took the stand and discribed confrontational run ins with Bill Pogue, almost all of which were proven to be false or involving other wardens. Only during the trail and front of the jury did Dallas finally tell the location of Bill Pogues body after constantly denying remembering where he had hid it.

Dallas would later escape from prison. He was recaptured but again incredibly argued that he escaped because he feared for his safety from the corrections officers and suffered no additional punishment.

He was released in 2008 and is a free man today. He still refuses to tell the Pogue family the location of Bill’s personal items (wedding ring, belt buckle & watch)