Billy Dean Anderson

Billy Dean Anderson (July 12, 1934 – July 7, 1979) was an American criminal. He was jailed and paroled three times, and his 20 year crime career included armed robbery and prison escapes. He was added to the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in 1975. 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 while evading arrest.

Early life Anderson was reportedly born in Pall Mall, a community in Fentress County, Tennessee, the same Wolf River valley from which World War I hero Alvin C. York hailed. Little is known about his early life. However the FBI disputes this birthplace and Anderson's actual hometown remains unconfirmed. He attended Rotten Fork Elementary School, where he preferred to fill his notebooks with sketches rather than homework. and volunteered as a preacher at Wolf River Methodist Church in Pall Mall at age eighteen. He used the aliases "Billie Dean Anderson", "James Forster", and "William David Upchurch". He had a stocky build and stood at 5'8" and weighed between 160 and 170 pounds with fair skin and bluish-green eyes. He worked as an artist, mechanic, unskilled laborer, tree surgeon and farmer. Anderson was severely marked with a scar across the bridge of his nose, the left side of his forehead, a surgical scar on the right side of his stomach and another surgical scar on his lower spine. He reportedly wore braces on both of his legs and suffered from atrophy of the legs.

Criminal career

In June 1959, Anderson and two friends committed armed robbery of a drive-in theater in Jamestown, Tennessee. When the theater usher revealed he possessed little money, Anderson intentionally missed while shooting near him. That December, he and a fellow inmate escaped from the Morgan County Jail.

Labelled "the mountain man" by federal agents, Anderson evaded police for more than four years, by hiding within the mountainous terrain of Pickett County, Tennessee. He was also assisted by local residents, some of whom were involved with moonshine trade and were sympathetic to him. Anderson became self-sufficient and lived in a cave near the Fentress-Pickett line. He accessed the cave through an opening, in diameter, located halfway up the side of a hill and hidden in a rock outcropping. Inside the cave there was a drop to where Anderson had fashioned his home. Brushes and paint were found in his cave hideout in Pickett County.