Billy Dean Anderson

Billy Dean Anderson (July 12, 1934 – July 7, 1979) gained infamous notoriety in 1975 when he was added to the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list after a long list of crimes — for which he was jailed and paroled three times — including armed robbery and prison escapes, over the course of 20 years. Despite his unlawful behavior, Anderson became somewhat of a folk hero among those in his native Tennessee, even more so after he was shot and killed by FBI officers as he was leaving his mother's home one night after eluding federal authorities for four-and-a-half years.

Early life

Anderson was born in Fentress County, Tennessee, and grew up — and died — in the community of Pall Mall, Tennessee, the same Wolf River valley from which World War I hero Alvin Cullum York hailed. Little is known about Anderson's early life, but according to an account in the book "Killings: Folk Justice in the Upper South" — written by William Lynwood Montell based on a number of interviews with people close to the subject — he was not a troublesome youth; he instead seemed to be on a much different path, possibly having done some preaching around the age of 18.

Lawlessness

Anderson first crossed paths with the law in June 1959, when he and two others were jailed for shooting into a Methodist church in Pall Mall. They were also charged with beating up and shooting at a drive-in theater operator that same night.

Thus began a string of crimes by Anderson, and over the next two years he was wanted on armed robbery charges Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, as well as California. Legend had it that he had perpetrated numerous jail escapes during this time.

In October 1962, back home in Jamestown — the county seat of Fentress County — Anderson pulled a gun on a group of local and state authorities, shooting and injuring a Tennessee state trooper. However, Anderson got the worse end of it, as a bullet grazed his head and two more hit him in the stomach, leaving him partially paralyzed for the remainder of his life.

Sentenced to two five-year terms in prison, Anderson was paroled in 1966 and moved to Muncie, Indiana, but he had more run-ins with the law there and received a suspended sentence on the condition that he leave Indiana and never return.Back in Tennessee, he was involved in a shoot-out with the sheriff and a deputy sheriff of Fentress County, resulting in two consecutive seven-year terms in prison.

Again Anderson was paroled early — with instructions to leave the state -- and again it didn't take long for him to find trouble. That trouble started with his decision to return to Muncie, Indiana, in 1970 despite being forbidden to do so. While working at a gas station, Anderson pulled a gun on a customer, leading to his arrest and sentencing to a 10- to 25-year sentence in state prison.

Yet again, Anderson was paroled early, and in December 1973 was arrested for allegedly shooting a deputy sheriff in Tennessee. Shortly after, he and another inmate escaped prison, and this led to Anderson's being placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list on January 21, 1975.

The Fugitive Mountain Man

Supposedly dubbed "the mountain man" by federal agents, Anderson eluded the authorities for more than four years by hiding out in the rugged terrain of Fentress and Pickett Counties. He also had help from the natives, who themselves weren't too far removed from the moonshine trade and empathized with someone avoiding the federal authorities.

Anderson set himself up in a cave near the Fentress-Pickett line, with an opening halfway up the side of a hill hidden in an outcropping of rock. The opening was only three feet in diameter, and inside there was a 20-foot drop to where Anderson had fashioned a living area, complete with a system for channeling fresh water into the cave.

Wanted Dead

According to an FBI release, Anderson's whereabouts was tipped to them by an informant they called "Mountain Man." This so-called Mountain Man led to the killing of the other "mountain man" as he was leaving the home of his 75-year-old mother just after midnight. The authorities ambushed Anderson and, when he didn't heed a call to surrender, two shots were fired, killing him.

Legacy

Legends abound in Fentress County regarding the man known as Billy D. Anderson, as his story takes on much the same interest locally as that of Jesse James. There are many legends about his death, including some that tell that the authorities only managed to get him because he got tangled in a barbed-wire fence or that he stopped because they tricked his mother into calling his name.

At any rate, Anderson was a sympathetic figure to many in the area, which had a long history of violence around moonshine stills and logging camps. There were many people alive during Anderson's time who remembered a day when a killing in their remote area was something that was dealt with locally — which meant, generally, it wasn't dealt with at all.

Of the five other fugitives placed on the FBI's Most Wanted List in 1975, Anderson remained free by far the longest. His nearly four-and-a-half years on the list were longer than all but nine of the more than 60 placed on the list during the 1970s.

What is not legend is that Anderson was a gifted painter; brushes and paint were found in his cave hideout, and several of his oil paintings depicting religious topics exist to this day.

Sources

Montell, William Lynwood: "Killings: Folk Justice in the Upper South". Published 1986 by the University of Kentucky Press.