Look up bounty in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Bounty may refer to:

• Bounty (reward), an amount of money or other reward offered by an organization for the capture of a person or thing

In transportation:

• HMS Bounty, an 18th century British Royal Navy ship
• Bounty, the name for the 1960 built replica in the movie Mutiny on the Bounty with Marlon Brando
• Bounty, the name for the 1978 built replica in the movie The Bounty with Mel Gibson

In geography:

• Bounty, Saskatchewan, a ghost town located in Saskatchewan, Canada.
• Bounty Bay, an embayment of the Pacific Ocean into Pitcairn Island, named for the ship
• Bounty Islands, a small group of 13 islets and numerous rocks in the south Pacific Ocean which are territorially part of New Zealand

In film, television, and radio:

• The Bounty, a 1984 film with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins
• The Bounty Hunter, a 2010 film directed by Andy Tennant, starring Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston.
• Bounty, a 1993 documentary, the first Kinopanorama production shot in Australia.
• "Bounty" (Enterprise episode), a second season episode of Star Trek: Enterprise
• "Bounty" (Stargate SG-1), an episode of the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1
• "Bounty" (The A-Team), an episode from the TV series The A-Team
• Bounty (Doctor Who audio), a Doctor Who audio production based on the television series
• "Bounty", a first-series episode of Blake's 7.
• The iamamiwhoami's video series released all in 2010.

In other fields:

• Bounty (chocolate bar), a brand of coconut-filled chocolate bar
• Bounty (comics), a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe
• Bounty, an evil entity that possessed and took over the identity of the DC Comics character Dawnstar
• Bounty (brand), a brand of paper towel manufactured by Procter & Gamble.
• Bounty Day, the national holiday of Norfolk Island, celebrated on Pitcairn Island on a different day, commemorating the ship
• Bounty (parenting club), a UK parenting and pregnancy club.

See also[link]

• Bounty hunter (disambiguation)
• Mutiny on the Bounty (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2010)

Vice Admiral William Bligh FRS RN
1814 portrait
4th Governor of New South Wales
In office 13 August 1806 – 26 January 1808
Preceded by	Philip Gidley King
Succeeded by	Lachlan Macquarie
Personal details
Born	(1754-09-09)9 September 1754 St Tudy, Cornwall, Great Britain
Died	7 December 1817(1817-12-07) (aged 63) 25 Bond Street, London, England, Great Britain
Resting place	St Mary-at-Lambeth, Lambeth, London, England
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth (Betsy) Betham
Occupation	Vice Admiral

Vice Admiral William Bligh, FRS, RN (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was an officer of the British Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. A notorious mutiny occurred during his command of HMAV Bounty in 1789; Bligh and his loyal men made a remarkable voyage to Timor, after being set adrift in the Bounty's launch by the mutineers. Fifteen years after the Bounty mutiny, he was appointed Governor of New South Wales in Australia, with orders to clean up the corrupt rum trade of the New South Wales Corps, resulting in the so-called Rum Rebellion.

Early life[link]

The name Bligh comes from the Cornish language word Blyth meaning Wolf.^[1]

Bligh was born in St Tudy near Bodmin^[2] in Cornwall to Francis and Jane (Balsam) Bligh.^[3] He was signed for the Royal Navy at age seven, it being common to sign on a "young gentleman" simply to gain experience at sea required for promotion. In 1770, at age 16, he joined HMS Hunter as an able seaman, the term used because there was no vacancy for a midshipman. He became a midshipman early in the following year. In September 1771, Bligh was transferred to the Crescent and remained on the ship for three years.

In 1776, Bligh was selected by Captain James Cook for the position of sailing master on the Resolution and accompanied Cook in July 1776 on Cook's third and fatal voyage to the Pacific. Bligh returned to England at the end of 1780 and was able to give details of Cook's last voyage.

Bligh married Elizabeth Betham, daughter of a Customs Collector (stationed in Douglas, Isle of Man), on 4 February 1781. The wedding took place at nearby Onchan.^[4] A few days later, he was appointed to serve on HMS Belle Poule as its master. Soon after this, in August 1781, he fought in the Battle of Dogger Bank under Admiral Parker. For the next 18 months, he was a lieutenant on various ships. He also fought with Lord Howe at Gibraltar in 1782.

Between 1783 and 1787, Bligh was a captain in the merchant service. In 1787, Bligh was selected as commander of the Bounty. He would eventually rise to the rank of Vice Admiral in the Royal Navy.

Naval career[link]

William Bligh's naval career consisted of a variety of appointments and assignments. He first rose to prominence as Master of HMS Resolution, under the command of Captain Cook. Bligh received praise from Cook during what would be the latter's final voyage. A summary follows:

[edit] The voyage of the Bounty

The first breadfruit voyage[link]

In 1787, Bligh took command of the Bounty. In order to win a premium offered by the Royal Society of Arts, he first sailed to Tahiti to obtain breadfruit trees, then set course for the Caribbean, where breadfruit was wanted for experiments to see whether it would be a successful food crop for slaves there. The Bounty never reached the Caribbean, as mutiny broke out on board shortly after the ship left Tahiti.

The voyage to Tahiti was difficult. After trying unsuccessfully for a month to round Cape Horn, the Bounty was finally defeated by the notoriously stormy weather and forced to take the longer way around the Cape of Good Hope. That delay caused a further delay in Tahiti, as he had to wait five months for the breadfruit plants to mature sufficiently to be transported. The Bounty departed Tahiti in April 1789.

The mutiny[link]

Since it was rated only as a cutter, the Bounty had no officers other than Bligh himself (who was then only a lieutenant), a very small crew, and no Marines to provide protection from hostile natives during stops or enforce security on board ship. To allow longer uninterrupted sleep, Bligh divided his crew into three watches instead of two, placing his protégé Fletcher Christian — rated as a Master's Mate — in charge of one of the watches. The mutiny, which took place on 28 April 1789 during the return voyage, was led by Christian and supported by eighteen of the crew. They had seized firearms during Christian's night watch and surprised and bound Bligh in his cabin.

The mutineers turning Lt Bligh and some of the officers and crew adrift from His Majesty's Ship Bounty. By Robert Dodd

Despite being in the majority, none of the loyalists put up a significant struggle once they saw Bligh bound, and the ship was taken over without bloodshed. The mutineers provided Bligh and eighteen loyal crewmen with a 23 foot (7m) launch (so heavily loaded that the gunwales were only a few inches above the water). They were given four cutlasses, enough food and water to reach the most accessible ports, a quadrant and a compass, but no charts, sextant or Marine chronometer. The launch could not hold all the loyal crew members, so four were detained on the Bounty for their useful skills; they were later released at Tahiti.

Tahiti was upwind from Bligh's initial position, and was the obvious destination of the mutineers. Many of the loyalists claimed to have heard the mutineers cry "Huzzah for Otaheite!" as the Bounty pulled away. Timor was the nearest European outpost, so Bligh and his crew first made for Tofua, to obtain supplies. However, they were attacked by hostile natives and a crewman was killed. Fleeing from Tofua, Bligh did not dare to stop at the next islands (the Fiji islands), as he had no weapons for defence and expected hostile receptions.

Bligh had confidence in his navigational skills, which he had perfected under the instruction of Captain Cook. His first responsibility was to survive and get word of the mutiny as soon as possible to British vessels that could pursue the mutineers. Thus, he undertook the seemingly impossible 3,618 nautical mile (6,701 km) voyage to Timor. In this remarkable act of seamanship, Bligh succeeded in reaching Timor after a 47-day voyage, the only casualty being the crewman killed on Tofua. Several of the men who survived this ordeal with him soon died of sickness, possibly malaria, in the pestilential Dutch East Indies port of Batavia, as they waited for transport to Britain.^[5]

Original illustration by S. Drée from Jules Verne's story "The Mutineers of the Bounty" (Les Révoltés de la Bounty) (1879).

Why the mutiny[link]

To this day, the reasons behind the mutiny are a subject of debate. Some believe that Bligh was a cruel tyrant whose abuse of the crew led them to feel that they had no choice but to take over the ship. Others argue that the crew, inexperienced and unused to the rigours of the sea and, after having been exposed to freedom and sexual license on Tahiti, refused to return to the "Jack Tars" life of an ordinary seaman. They were led by a weak Fletcher Christian in order to be free from Bligh's acid tongue. This view holds that the crew took the ship so they could return to comfort and ease on Tahiti.

The Bounty's log shows that Bligh resorted to punishments relatively sparingly. He scolded when other captains would have whipped, and whipped when other captains would have hanged. He was an educated man, deeply interested in science, convinced that good diet and sanitation were necessary for the welfare of his crew. He took a great interest in his crew's exercise, was very careful about the quality of their food, and insisted upon the Bounty being kept very clean. He tried (unsuccessfully) to check the spread of venereal disease among them^{[citation needed]}. Prior to the mutiny only two members of the ship's crew had died, one seaman from infection and the ship's doctor from indolence^{[citation needed]}. J. C. Beaglehole has described the major flaw in this otherwise enlightened naval officer: "[Bligh made] dogmatic judgements which he felt himself entitled to make; he saw fools about him too easily ... thin-skinned vanity was his curse through life ... [Bligh] never learnt that you do not make friends of men by insulting them."

Beaglehole's judgment is supported by the small settlers in NSW (see Bligh's tenure as NSW Governor), who named sons after him. Bligh had the moral courage to take on what he saw was wrong, and he strongly supported those he thought were right.

Popular fiction often confuses Bligh with Edward Edwards of HMS Pandora, who was sent on the Royal Navy's expedition to the South Pacific to find the mutineers and bring them to trial. Edwards was every bit the cruel man that Bligh was accused of being; the 14 men that he captured were confined in a cramped 18' x 11' x 5' 8" wooden cell on the Pandora's quarterdeck. When the Pandora ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef, 4 of the prisoners and 31 of the crew were killed. The prisoners would have all perished, had not William Moulter, a bosun's mate, unlocked their cage before jumping off the sinking vessel.^[6]

Aftermath[link]

In October 1790, Bligh was honourably acquitted at the court-martial inquiring into the loss of the Bounty. Shortly thereafter, A Narrative of the Mutiny on board His Majesty's Ship "Bounty" was published. Of the 10 surviving prisoners, eventually brought home in spite of the Pandora's loss, four were acquitted, due to Bligh's testimony that they were non-mutineers that Bligh was obliged to leave on the Bounty due to lack of space in the launch. Two others were convicted because, while not participating in the mutiny, they were passive and did not resist. They subsequently received royal pardons. One was convicted but excused on a technicality. The remaining three were convicted and hanged.

Comparative travels of the Bounty and the small boat after mutiny:^[7]

Travel up to the mutiny (red) 1. Tasmania, Adventure Bay (21 August 1788) 2. first arrival at Tahiti (26 October 1788) 2. departure for the Caribbean (4 April 1789) 3. Palmerston 4. Tofua 5. 28 April 1789: mutiny

Travel of the mutineers (yellow) 6. Tubai (6 July 1789) 6. second arrival at Tahiti 7. Tubai (16 July 1789) 8. third arrival at Tahiti (22 September 1789) 8. departure from Tahiti (23 September 1789) 9. Tongatabu (15 November 1789) 10. 15 January 1790: Pitcairn, burning of the Bounty

Travel of Bligh's boat (green) 5. Bligh's party set adrift (29 April 1789) 16. Tonga 17. Timor (14 June 1789)

Bligh's letter to his wife, Betsy[link]

The following is a letter to Bligh's wife, written from Coupang, Dutch East Indies, (circa June 1791) in which the first reference to events on the Bounty is made.

William Bligh, pictured in his 1792 account of the Mutiny voyage, A Voyage to the South Sea.

My Dear, Dear Betsy, I am now, for the most part, in a part of the world I never expected, it is however a place that has afforded me relief and saved my life, and I have the happiness to assure you that I am now in perfect health... Know then my own Dear Betsy, that I have lost the Bounty...on the 28 April at day light in the morning Christian having the morning watch. He with several others came into my Cabin while I was a Sleep, and seizing me, holding naked Bayonets at my Breast, tied my Hands behind my back, and threatened instant destruction if I uttered a word. I however call'd loudly for assistance, but the conspiracy was so well laid that the Officers Cabbin Doors were guarded by Centinels, so Nelson, Peckover, Samuels or the Master could not come to me. I was now dragged on Deck in my Shirt & closely guarded – I demanded of Christian the case of such a violent act, & severely degraded for his Villainy but he could only answer – "not a word sir or you are Dead." I dared him to the act & endeavoured to rally some one to a sense of their duty but to no effect... The Secrisy of this Mutiny is beyond all conception so that I can not discover that any who are with me had the least knowledge of it. It is unbeknown to me why I must beguile such force. Even Mr. Tom Ellison took such a liking to Otaheite [Tahiti] that he also turned Pirate, so that I have been run down by my own Dogs... My misfortune I trust will be properly considered by all the World – It was a circumstance I could not foresee – I had not sufficient Officers & had they granted me Marines most likely the affair would never have happened – I had not a Spirited & brave fellow about me & the Mutineers treated them as such. My conduct has been free of blame, & I showed everyone that, tied as I was, I defied every Villain to hurt me... I know how shocked you will be at this affair but I request of you My Dear Betsy to think nothing of it all is now past & we will again looked forward to future happyness. Nothing but true consciousness as an Officer that I have done well could support me....Give my blessings to my Dear Harriet, my Dear Mary, my Dear Betsy & to my Dear little stranger^[8] & tell them I shall soon be home...To You my Love I give all that an affectionate Husband can give – Love, Respect & all that is or ever will be in the power of your
ever affectionate Friend and Husband Wm Bligh.^[9]

The second breadfruit voyage[link]

After his exoneration by the Court Martial inquiry into the loss of the Bounty, Bligh remained in the Royal Navy. From 1791 to 1793, as master and commander of HMS Providence and in company with HMS Assistant under the command of Nathaniel Portlock, he undertook again to transport breadfruit from Tahiti to the West Indies.^[10] The operation was successful, and breadfruit is a popular food in the West Indies to this day.^[11] During this voyage Bligh also collected samples of the ackee fruit of Jamaica, introducing it to the Royal Society in Britain upon his return.^[11] The ackee's scientific name Blighia sapida in binomial nomenclature was given in honour of Bligh.

Subsequent career and the Rum Rebellion[link]

In 1797 Bligh was one of the captains whose crews mutinied over "issues of pay and involuntary service for common seamen" during the Spithead mutiny.^[12] Despite receiving some of their demands at Spithead, disputes over navy life continued among the common sailors. Bligh was again one of the captains affected during the mutiny at the Royal Navy anchorage of Nore. "Bligh became more directly involved in the Nore Mutiny", which "failed to achieve its goals of a fairer division of prize money and an end to brutality."^[12] It should be noted that these events were not triggered by any specific actions by Bligh as they "were widespread, [and] involved a fair number of English ships".^[12] It was at this time that he learned "that his common nickname among men in the fleet was 'that Bounty bastard'."^[12]

As captain of HMS Director, at the Battle of Camperdown on 11 October 1797, Bligh engaged three Dutch vessels: the Haarlem, the Alkmaar and the Vrijheid. While the Dutch suffered serious casualties, only 7 seamen were wounded in Director.

Bligh went on to serve under Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Copenhagen on 2 April 1801, in command of HMS Glatton, a 56-gun ship of the line, which was experimentally fitted exclusively with carronades. After the battle, Bligh was personally praised by Nelson for his contribution to the victory. He sailed Glatton safely between the banks while three other vessels ran aground. When Nelson pretended not to notice Admiral Parker's signal "43" (stop the battle) and kept the signal "16" hoisted to continue the engagement, Bligh was the only captain in the squadron who could see that the two signals were in conflict. By choosing to fly Nelson's signal, he ensured that all the vessels behind him kept fighting.

A propaganda cartoon of Bligh's arrest in Sydney in 1808, portraying Bligh as a coward

Bligh had gained the reputation of being a firm disciplinarian. Accordingly, he was offered the position of Governor of New South Wales by Sir Joseph Banks and appointed in March 1805, at £2,000 per annum, twice the pay of the retiring Governor Philip Gidley King. He arrived in Sydney on 6 August 1806,^[13] to become the fourth governor.^[14] During his time in Sydney, his confrontational administrative style provoked the wrath of a number of influential settlers and officials. They included the wealthy landowner and businessman John Macarthur and prominent Crown representatives such as the colony's Principal Surgeon, Thomas Jamison, and senior officers of the New South Wales Corps. Jamison and his military associates were defying government regulations by engaging in private trading ventures for profit: Bligh was determined to put a stop to this practice.

The conflict between Bligh and the entrenched colonists culminated in another mutiny, the Rum Rebellion,^[15] when, on 26 January 1808, the New South Wales Corps under Major George Johnston marched on Government House in Sydney and arrested him. A rebel government was subsequently installed and Bligh, now deposed, made for Hobart in Tasmania aboard HMS Porpoise. Bligh failed to gain support from the authorities in Hobart to retake control of New South Wales, and remained effectively imprisoned on the Porpoise from 1808 until January 1810.

Of interest, however, was Bligh's concern for the more recently arrived settlers in the colony, who did not have the wealth and influence of Macarthur and Jamison. Looking at the tombstones in Ebenezer and Richmond cemeteries (areas being settled west of Sydney during Bligh's tenure as Governor), it is instructive to note the number of boys born around 1807 to 1811 who were named "William Bligh XXXXX" (family name).^{[citation needed]}

Bligh was eventually permitted to sail from Hobart. He arrived in Sydney on 17 January 1810 to collect evidence for the coming court martial in England of Major Johnston. He departed to attend the trial on 12 May 1810, arriving on 25 October 1810. The following year, the trial's presiding officers sentenced Johnston to be cashiered, a form of disgraceful dismissal that entailed surrendering his commission in the Royal Marines without compensation. (This was a comparatively mild punishment which enabled Johnston to return, a free man, to New South Wales, where he could continue to enjoy the benefits of his accumulated private wealth.) Bligh was court martialled twice again during his career.

Soon after Johnston's trial had concluded, Bligh received a backdated promotion to Rear Admiral. In 1814 he was promoted again, to Vice Admiral of the Blue. Significantly perhaps, he never again received an important command. He did, however, design the North Bull Wall at the mouth of the River Liffey in Dublin. Its purpose was to clear a sandbar by Venturi action. As a result of its building. North Bull Island was formed by the sand cleared by the river's now more narrowly focused force. Bligh also charted and mapped Dublin Bay.

Death[link]

Tomb surmounted by a breadfruit in a bowl. Moulded in Lithodipyra by Eleanor Coade's 'Artificial Stone Manufactory'.

The William Bligh House in London

Bligh died in Bond Street, London on 6 December 1817 and was buried in a family plot at St. Mary's, Lambeth (this church is now the Garden Museum). His tomb, notable for its use of Lithodipyra (Coade stone), is topped by a breadfruit.

A plaque marks Bligh's house, one block east of the Garden Museum at 100 Lambeth Road, near the Imperial War Museum.

His descendants include the former Premier of Queensland, Anna Bligh.^[16][17]

He was also related to Admiral Sir Richard Rodney Bligh and Captain George Miller Bligh.

See also[link]

Biography portal

• European and American voyages of scientific exploration

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

Mundle, Rob, Bligh: Master Mariner, Hachette Australia, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7336-2506-0

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: William Bligh

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Author:William Bligh

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Bligh, William.

• A. G. L. Shaw, 'Bligh, William (1754 –1817)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, MUP, 1966, pp. 118–122.
• Works by William Bligh at Project Gutenberg, including:
  • A Narrative Of The Mutiny, On Board His Majesty's Ship Bounty, 1790
  • A Voyage to the South Sea, 1792
• Portraits of Bligh in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
• Royal Naval Museum, The Mutiny on HMS Bounty .
• The Extraordinary Life, Times and Travels of Vice-Admiral William Bligh. Multimedia biography with music, sound effects, video, large images and graphics.
• William Bligh's official HMS Bounty logbook – State Library of NSW
• William Bligh's official Bounty logbook, transcribed from the original held at National Archives, UK
• William Bligh's letters to Joseph Banks concerning the first breadfruit expedition
• Bligh Notebook in which he kept notes during the voyage in the Bounty's launch
• Bligh's Resource Logbook. Bligh's personal logbook of the voyage of the schooner Resource, which carried the launch survivors from Coupang, Timor, to Batavia, Java.
• Bligh's Vlydt Journal. A log kept of his return to England from Batavia on the Dutch packet Vlydt.
• Bligh's Providence Logbook
• Rutter, Owen, Turbulent Journey: A Life of William Bligh, Vice-admiral of the Blue, I. Nicholson and Watson, 1936
• Mackaness, George, The Life of Vice-Admiral William Bligh, R.N., F.R.S. By Farrar & Rinehart, 1936
• George Tobin – Journal on HMS Providence, 1791–1793

v t e Governors of New South Wales Before Federation Phillip Hunter King Bligh Macquarie Brisbane Darling Bourke Gipps FitzRoy Denison Young Belmore Robinson Loftus Carrington Jersey Duff Hampden Beauchamp After Federation Rawson Chelmsford Strickland Davidson de Chair Game Hore-Ruthven Anderson Wakehurst Northcott Woodward Cutler Rowland Martin Sinclair Samuels Bashir

A bounty hunter captures fugitives for a monetary reward (bounty). Other names, mainly used in the United States, include bail enforcement agent and fugitive recovery agent.

Laws in the U.S.[link]

In the United States legal system, the 1873 U.S. Supreme Court case Taylor v. Taintor, 16 Wall (83 U.S. 366, 21 L.Ed. 287), is cited as having established that the person into whose custody an accused is remanded as part of the accuser's bail has sweeping rights to that person (although this may have been accurate at the time the decision was reached, the portion cited was obiter dictum and has no binding precedential value). Most bounty hunters are employed by bail bondsmen: the bounty hunter is paid about 10% of the bail the fugitive initially paid. If the fugitive eludes bail, the bondsman, not the bounty hunter, is responsible for the remainder of the fugitive's bail. This is a way of ensuring his clients arrive at trial. In the United States, bounty hunters claim to catch 31,500 bail jumpers per year, about 90% of people who jump bail.^[1]

Bounty hunters are sometimes called "skiptracers", but this usage can be misleading. While bounty hunters are often skiptracers as well, skiptracing generally refers to the process of searching for an individual through less direct methods than active pursuit and apprehension, such as spies or debt collectors. It is a civil matter and does not always imply criminal conduct on the part of the individual being traced.

In the United States of America, bounty hunters have varying levels of authority in their duties with regard to their targets depending on which states they operate in. As opined in Taylor v. Taintor, and barring restrictions applicable state by state, a bounty hunter can enter the fugitive's private property without a warrant in order to execute a re-arrest. They cannot, however, enter the property of anyone other than the fugitive without a warrant or the owner's permission.

In some states, bounty hunters do not undergo any formal training, and are generally unlicensed, only requiring sanction from a bail bondsman to operate. In other states, however, they are held to varying standards of training and license. State legal requirements are often imposed on out-of-state bounty hunters, meaning a suspect could temporarily escape rearrest by entering a state in which the bail agent has limited or no jurisdiction.

Connecticut[link]

The State of Connecticut has a detailed licensing process which requires any person who wants to engage in the business as a bail enforcement agent (bounty hunter) must first obtain a professional license from the Commissioner of Public Safety; specifically detailing that "No person shall, as surety on a bond in a criminal proceeding or as an agent of such surety, engage in the business of taking or attempting to take into custody the principal on the bond who has failed to appear in court and for whom a re-arrest warrant or capias has been issued unless such person is licensed as a bail enforcement agent". Connecticut has strict standards which require Bail Enforcement Agents to pass an extensive background check and, while engaging in fugitive recovery operations, be uniformed, notify the local police barrack, wear a badge, and only carry licensed and approved firearms, including handguns and long guns which are permitted. Recently Connecticut State Police converted their Bail Enforcement Agent licensing unit to reflect the important role Bail Enforcement Agents play in the Connecticut criminal justice system; placing them in the newly defined Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection.^[2]

Several schools in Connecticut have obtained certification by the Connecticut State Police to pre-license Bail Enforcement Agents in a minimum of 20 hours of Criminal Justice training and a minimum of eight hours of firearms training. Some of the more advanced schools offer specialized training in the area of tactical firearms to prepare BEA's for conducting dangerous recovery operations.^[3]

Kentucky[link]

Kentucky prohibits bounty hunting in any form. Only a peace officer may make an arrest on a warrant that is issued in NCIC.^[4] This is because the state does not have a system of bail bondsmen.

Louisiana[link]

Louisiana requires bounty hunters to wear clothing identifying them as such.^[4]

Texas[link]

A Texas bounty hunter is required to be a peace officer, Level III (armed) security officer, or a private investigator.^{[citation needed]}

Florida[link]

In Florida you must obtain a "limited surety agent" license from the Florida Department of Financial Services, Bureau of Agent and Agency Licensing, in order to legally apprehend bail fugitives.

International laws and legal protection[link]

Bounty hunters will run into serious legal problems if they try to get fugitives from other countries. Laws in nearly all countries outside the U.S. will judge the re-arrest of any fugitive by private persons as kidnapping, or the bail agent may incur the punishments of some other serious crime if local and international laws are broken by them.^{[clarification needed]} While the United States government generally allows the activities of bounty hunters in the United States, the government in other sovereign nations is not as tolerant of these activities when they are legally a felony.^[5]

Noted bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman (star of the TV series Dog the Bounty Hunter) was arrested in Mexico after he apprehended the multi-millionaire rapist and fugitive Andrew Luster. Chapman was subsequently released and returned to the U.S.^[1] Chapman himself was later declared a fugitive by a Mexican prosecutor and was subsequently arrested in the United States to be extradited back to Mexico. Chapman maintains that under Mexico's citizen arrest law, he and his crew acted under proper policy.

Daniel Kear of Fairfax, Virginia pursued and apprehended Sidney Jaffe at a residence in Canada and returned him to Florida to face trial. Kear was extradited to Canada in 1983, and convicted of kidnapping.^[5]

Several bounty hunters have also been arrested for killing the fugitive or apprehending the wrong individuals, mistaking innocent people for fugitives.^[6]

Unlike police officers, they have no legal protections against injuries to non-fugitives and few legal protections against injuries to their targets.

In a Texas case, bounty hunters Richard James and his partner DG Pearson were arrested in 2001 for felony charges during an arrest. The charges were levied by the fugitive and his family, but were later dismissed against the hunters after the fugitive's wife shot a deputy sheriff in another arrest attempt of the fugitive by the county sheriff's department. The hunters sued the fugitive and family, winning the civil suit for malicious prosecution with a judgment amount of $1.5 million.^{[citation needed]}

Bounty hunting in Rhodesia[link]

During the Rhodesian Bush War, cattle rustling reached epidemic proportions in the late 1970s. This was part of a twofold strategy of the guerrillas against the white minority government in Salisbury. First, it led to starvation in the Tribal Trust Lands; second, it negatively affected the economy of Rhodesia. Since the Army and the British South Africa Police were overstretched on three fronts, soon mercenaries were hired to confront the rustlers. They were called Range Detectives, and most of them were Vietnam veterans, some of them members of The Crippled Eagles. Payment was roughly 7 Rhodesian dollars a day, and a 750 Rhodesian dollar bonus for each rustler caught.^[7]

In fiction[link]

Bounty hunting has been adopted by several action-oriented vehicles, including Westerns, science fiction, fantasy and stories set in modern times. Typically, hunters are depicted as assisting law enforcement agencies in the apprehension of wanted criminals, but also as mercenaries who give their services to powerful criminal figures rather than the proper authorities. Such characters have appeared in books, TV series, movies, comics and games from around the world. These include characters like Rick Deckard from Blade Runner; Boba Fett from the "Star Wars" movies; Reno Raines in the TV series Renegade; Rally Vincent of the manga Gunsmith Cats; Jubal Early from the Firefly franchise; Samus Aran from the Metroid video game series; and several characters in Cowboy Bebop.

• In Westerns, bounty hunters are commonly depicted as loners, cynical yet romantic. The first depiction of the occupation in film was André de Toth's The Bounty Hunter^{[citation needed]} in 1954 starring Randolph Scott.

• Steve McQueen played bounty hunter Josh Randall in the television series Wanted: Dead or Alive for three seasons, making him a star.^[8] The series was followed many years later by a film sequel — Wanted: Dead or Alive (1987) — in which Rutger Hauer played Nick Randall, Josh Randall's grandson. McQueen's final film was The Hunter, a biography of modern day bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorsen.

• The Sergio Leone film For a Few Dollars More starred Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef as bounty hunters chasing the same criminal, but with different motivations for pursuing their target.

• In the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), the character Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter who is tasked with "retiring" escaped androids. In the film adaptation, which was retitled Blade Runner (1982), the bounty hunters are called blade runners.

• Chasseur de primes (French for "bounty hunter") is a Belgian comics adventure in the popular Lucky Luke series which is set in the Old West. It was published in book form in 1972. In this story, bounty hunters are presented as being shunned and despised by society since their motivation to capture outlaws is based more on greed than an actual love for justice. An example is when a bounty hunter orders a drink at the saloon and the barman contemptuously pours it out on the bar rather than in a glass. The book has been published in English.

• Bounty hunting is depicted as a common trade in the Star Wars franchise, with such characters as Jango and Boba Fett, Greedo, IG-88, Zam Wesell and Cad Bane. Another is Valance the Hunter, a cyborg, who played an important role in the early Marvel Comics adaptations of the series in the late 1970s, confronting, and almost defeating, both Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. "Bounty Hunter" is also one of four playable classes for the Imperials's faction in BioWare's MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

• Strontium Dog is a British science fiction comic series set in the future in which physically deformed mutated humans work as bounty hunters for the Search/Destroy Agency, which answers to the galactic police force.

• In the television series The Fall Guy, Lee Majors played a Hollywood stunt man who takes bounty hunting assignments on the side (which is the focus of each episode).

• The television show MacGyver features a family of bounty hunters (brothers Jesse, Frank and Billy) as recurring characters.

• In the 1988 film Midnight Run, Robert De Niro plays a modern day bounty hunter, who is trying to bring in a mob accountant played by Charles Grodin.

• In the 1993 film Bounty Tracker, Lorenzo Lamas is a bounty hunter trying to avenge his brother's murder by catching the hitman.

• In the 1994 anime OVA Iria: Zeiram the Animation, the protagonist Iria is an apprentice bounty hunter, as are her brother Glen, their partner Bob, and Iria's rival Fujikuro.

• In the Stephanie Plum novels, written by Janet Evanovich, the main character is a bounty hunter described as "incredibly average and yet heroic if necessary" by the author. There are 15 full length novels and 4 holiday edition novellas. Each book revolves around Stephanie trying to catch her main bounty while destroying cars, getting help from love interests, and dealing with her abnormal family.

• In the Japanese manga One Piece, the character Roronoa Zoro is a bounty hunter who later became a pirate.

• In the Japanese manga Black Cat, the story revolves around assassins and bounty hunters (called sweepers). The main character Train Heartnet, is an assassin with the Chrono Numbers. He is later convinced by woman who guides him to leave them to be a sweeper (bounty hunter) with Sven Vollfied and then later a 11 year old girl cloned weapon named Eve, and other sweepers.

• In the thriller Scarecrow, written by Matthew Reilly, the main character, Schofield, is pursued by bounty hunters and is fiercely protected by Aloysius Knight, the "Black Knight", who is himself a bounty hunter.

• In Ben 10, the main antagonist called Vilgax, send some bounty hunters to take an powerful technology device called "The Omnitrix"; they are Sixsix, Kraab, and Tetrax. However, Tetrax decided to protect the device.

• In 2005, the real-life bounty hunter Domino Harvey was portrayed by Keira Knightley in the film Domino. Although the film was only loosely based on the life of Harvey, making it partially fictitious, it helped to illustrate the rising popularity of bounty hunters in modern U.S. culture.^{[citation needed]}

• In the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, June is a bounty hunter hired by Zuko (during the first season) to hunt down Avatar Aang.

• In the video game Need for Speed: Carbon, former Sgt. Cross (from Need for Speed: Most Wanted) returns as a bounty hunter to arrest the player.

• In the Simpsons episode Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes Homer Simpson and Ned Flanders work as bounty hunters.

• In the 2008 Transformers Animated series, the former Autobot Lockdown quit the Elite Guard and became a bounty hunter for both factions.

• In the 2010 movie The Bounty Hunter the main character Milo must chase down his ex-wife Nicole after she assaults a police officer.

See also[link]

• Skiptrace
• Thief-taker
• False arrest
• United States Marshals Service#Fugitive programs

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• National Association of Fugitive Recovery Agents (NAFRA™)
• National Association of Bail Bond Investigators (NABBI™)
• Bounty Hunters Bounty Huners - TSI Swiss National TV Documentary on Bail Agent/Bounty Hunters
• Epstein, Edward "House OKs ban on licenses for illegal immigrants; Bill also encourages bounty hunters to track down those ordered deported" San Francisco Chronicle February 11, 2005
• Bounty Hunting at HowStuffWorks