Despite his tough-as-nails persona, there's at least one topic that makes Duane Chapman, better known as "Dog the Bounty Hunter," weep in public—even on national television: his faith.
During a segment Monday on the Fox News Channel, host Jesse Watters began by showing several video clips of violent migrants attacking authorities before saying, "If [Donald] Trump is elected, you're going to see a lot of deportation videos that may look a little like that, and the media is going to melt down."
He then introduced Chapman with: "Do you have any advice for Donald Trump if he assumes office again? Is he going to make you deportation czar?"
"I would like a job like that," he told Watters. "It doesn't matter who you are, what nationality, what tribe you belong to: If you're a lawbreaker and you're in this country illegal, and you are booted from another country because you're a felon and told to go to America, that's where we're going to start."
After discussing the latest in non-lethal weaponry—a PepperBall gun "that will drop a mule"—the conversation drifted to Chapman's new book, Nine Lives and Counting: A Bounty Hunter's Journey to Faith, Hope, and Redemption, and that's when the tears flowed.
"It talks about my life, my walk with Jesus Christ, and I'm gonna cry, I'm sorry," he told Watters.
Chapman, who wore dark sunglasses through most of the interview, said he has put more than 10,000 alleged criminals in jail. Now he and his wife, Francie Frane, speak at churches about their faith.
"You know the story about the two felons that were crucified with Jesus? One of them said, 'If you're God, you'd get off the cross,' and the other one said the two words: "Remember me,'" Chapman told Watters.
"Jesus said, 'Today you're gonna eat dinner with me and my daddy.' And so I'm supposed to follow the steps of Jesus as I be Christ-like, so I'm gonna take as many felons to Heaven as I can, and this book's gonna help me. It's like a calling card. 'Here, felon, read that.'"
Noticing that Chapman was attempting unsuccessfully to hold back tears, Watters said: "It's a good thing you're wearing sunglasses."
"I cry all the time, and so do you, and you know it," Chapman told Watters as he removed the glasses and wiped away the tears. "Don't out me," the host responded.
Chapman, 71, is a one-time felon himself, convicted in the 1970s of third-degree murder because he sat in the car outside of a home where a friend killed a man while buying marijuana. Sentenced to five years, he served 18 months in a Texas prison.
He rose to fame in 2003 when he captured Andrew Luster, an heir to the Max Factor cosmetics fortune. The high-profile event led to the reality TV show Dog the Bounty Hunter, which ran on A&E from 2004-2012, followed by several spinoffs.
Two years ago on The Prodigal Stories Podcast, he spoke about coming to Christ. His great-great-grandmother was a pastor, and when he returned home after his stint in prison, his mother would play Bible recordings as he slept, he said.
Two of his 11 biological children have predeceased him, and his fifth wife, Beth, died of cancer in 2019. He told the Christian Post he was praying for a Christian wife when he met Frane. The two married in 2021.
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