James Allen Red Dog

Serial Killer

James Allen Red Dog: A Multistate Killer

Early Life and Background

James Allen Red Dog was born on February 1, 1954, in Poplar, Montana, on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. He was of Sioux and Assiniboine ancestry and grew up in an economically deprived environment. As an adult, Red Dog attributed some of his criminal behavior to the poverty, isolation and lack of employment opportunities he experienced while growing up. However, prosecutors who later examined his history argued that his background did not adequately explain the repeated and often apparently motiveless violence that marked his life. Red Dog began accumulating a serious criminal record while still a teenager. Over the next eighteen years, he became connected to five killings in Montana, California, Illinois and Delaware. His victims included business owners, men who had offered him shelter, a prison inmate and an acquaintance of his wife. Some of the killings occurred during robberies or escapes, while others appeared to result from personal disputes or sudden eruptions of violence.

The 1973 Montana Robbery and Killing

Red Dog's first known homicide occurred on October 4, 1973, when he was nineteen years old. Red Dog, Steven Wayne Lilley and Ralph James Clancy participated in the robbery of a combined liquor and pizza business near Wolf Point on the Fort Peck Reservation. The store was operated by 39-year-old William Clark Veseth. During the robbery, Veseth was shot and killed. Although Red Dog initially denied responsibility, he later admitted that he had fired the fatal shot. All three defendants originally faced serious charges, but the cases produced different outcomes. Clancy pleaded guilty to robbery, while Lilley was convicted of murder before later obtaining a retrial. Red Dog was found guilty of robbery and involuntary manslaughter. Because of complications involving federal law and the verdict returned by the jury, the manslaughter conviction was dismissed. The judge nevertheless imposed the maximum available sentence of fifteen years for robbery. Red Dog could not later be retried for Veseth's murder because constitutional protections against double jeopardy prevented a second prosecution for the same killing. ...

Confirmed Victims: (5)

William Veseth Age: (39), Date of Death: 1973-10-04

James Allen Red Dog - Wikipedia