James Allen Red Dog (February 1, 1954 – March 3, 1993) was a mixed Sioux and Assiniboine serial killer from Fort Peck Indian Reservation who was executed at his own request for murdering Hugh Pennington and who had previously been convicted twice of armed robbery. As a result of his crimes, Senator Joe Biden introduced legislation that required states to be notified by federal officials when dangerous criminals were placed in their jurisdictions.
Early life
Red Dog's heritage was a mix of (Dakota) Sioux and Assiniboine. He was a member of the Dakota tribe, and grew up on Fort Peck Reservation in Poplar, in northeast Montana. He blamed poverty on his reservation for his crimes later in life; he said that there were no jobs and he could only make a living on crime. According to a family acquaintance, who asked not to be named, at age 8 or 10 Red Dog tried to emulate the lifestyle of an older half-brother whom he admired, who as of 1993 was in a federal prison. The acquaintance also said that life had "very little" to offer Red Dog.
Delaware deputy attorneys Steven P. Wood and Peggy J. Hageman, who prosecuted Red Dog, tried and failed to find a motive. According to Wood, attributing Red Dog's behavior to his upbringing is too easy: "There is no denying the privation Native Americans are subjected to on reservations, but the simple fact is there are hundreds of thousands of Native Americans raised in those conditions, and precious few become multiple murders", he said, as well as that his killings were "essentially motiveless".
Six of his eight sisters, however, said that he was not a "multiple and motiveless killer". They also said that "[the] people of Delaware should be thankful that our brother [...] is willing to give his life, like a man, instead of spending thousands and thousands of the taxpayers' money on appeals".
Later life
Red Dog once told a television interviewer that since his first serious crime, an armed robbery in 1973, he had been "prepared to die". Along with another man, he robbed a liquor and pizza store on the reservation in 1973. The owner was killed and Red Dog was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
In 1977, while on furlough from jail to attend a Native American ceremony, he escaped and fled with a companion to Los Angeles, where they met two Native American men in a bar who offered to lodge them for the night; they stabbed the men to death in their sleep. Red Dog pleaded guilty to two counts of second degree murder, but was given a sentence concurrent with armed robbery; Wood said it was "mind-boggling" that he served no extra time for the murder. In 1983, while in an Illinois prison, he provided heroin to kill Joe Ortega, a prison gang member who had offended other inmates.
In exchange for testifying against the other inmates and being a witness in an investigation about prison gangs and the militant American Indian Movement, Red Dog was placed in the Federal Witness Protection Program, and released on parole on June 27, 1990. After his release, he was relocated to Delaware, where he would murder Hugh Pennington. less than eight months later. Before the murder, Red Dog taught Sioux traditions to Delaware's Nanticoke Indians.
At the time he killed Hugh Pennington, a 30-year-old motel night auditor and friend of Red Dog's wife Bonnie Red Dog, he was living outside Wilmington with Bonnie who worked as a secretary; Pennington and his mother lived nearby. Pennington also worked at the Tally Ho Motor Lodge with Bonnie.
In February 1991, Red Dog drove north to Pennington's suburban Wilmington home in New Castle County. He appeared in Pennington's kitchen on February 9, 1991, after a day spent drinking. He woke Pennington, still in pajamas, and forced him into a basement workshop. According to Wood, Pennington said or did "something very minor" that in Red Dog's homicidal state was enough to enrage him. Red Dog tied his wrists and ankles with duct tape and electrical cord, and forced him to lie on his back on the floor, then cut his throat. According to prosecutors he took off his boots so they wouldn't be stained with blood. He nearly decapitated Pennington with his knife; the wound was 6 inches deep.
During the next 12 hours, he kidnapped a 52-year-old female witness, raped her in her home, then forced her to drive him to southern Delaware where he raped her again, a total of four times. She escaped and called police.
He had earlier told companions that he was a "terminator". He also said "I hurt people", according to court records.