'Mountain man' who kidnapped female athlete, 22, to keep as a wife for his son and killed her would-be rescuer bids for parole
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A notorious 'mountain man,' who abducted a world-class athlete in 1984 to keep as a wife for his son, once wrote that blame for the 'incident' lies with her and a would-be rescuer whom he shot and killed.
Don Nichols will undoubtedly need to be more contrite later this month in front of the historically stern Montana Parole Board.
He is serving an 85-year sentence for kidnapping Kari Swenson, then a 22-year-old world-class biathlete, and killing Swenson's would-be rescuer, Alan Goldstein.
Notorious: In 1984 Don Nichols kidnapped 22-year-old athlete Kari Swenson while she was on a run in the mountains in Yellowstone National Park - he kept her tied to a tree and killed her would-be rescuer
Mountain men: Don Nichols, right, stands with his son, Dan Nichols, left, as they pleaded not guilty in court in Virginia City, Montana in 1984. Standing with them is attorney, Steve Ungar
Nichols, now a frail 81-year-old, gained international notoriety for the bizarre crime and prolonged manhunt in the wilderness northwest of Yellowstone National Park.
In July of 1984 Don Nichols and his son, Dan, ambushed Swenson with guns while she was on a training run in the mountains above the resort town of Big Sky.
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ShareThe men, who were known to spend long stretches in the mountains living off the land, forced her into the woods and kept her chained her to a tree.
When would-be rescuers stumbled upon the camp a fight broke out and Dan Nichols accidentally shot Swenson. An armed standoff ensued, and the elder Swenson gunned down Alan Goldstein.
Captured: This 1984 photo shows 'mountain man' Don Nichols, right, being taken into custody near Bozeman, Montana - at trial he and his son, Dan, pleaded not guilty
The Nichols left Swenson severely wounded and escaped into the woods where they evaded capture for five months living in the Madison Range, until a daring Madison County sheriff and former bronco buster named Johnny France followed a tip and gave chase alone before storming the Nichols camp and forcing their surrender.
Sentenced to 85 years in prison the elder Nichols comes up for parole on April 27. He has a good track record in prison, where he has worked on the yard crew, and over the years has reportedly become a bit more apologetic for taking Kari Swenson.
But for years after the crime, he wasn't.
'We more or less only intimidated Kari into coming with us. We were only going to keep her with us for a few days if it didn't work out,' Nichols wrote in a collection of letters, journals and lengthy manuscript dating from the late 1980s and early 1990s now housed at the University of Montana library.
'Also, we treated her very humanely all the time, in fact cordially, except for the unusual circumstances. I did not hit Kari. The chain involved was a real lightweight chain. One end was fastened comfortably around her waist and other end around a tree.'
85-year sentence: Don Nichols, now 81, will be up for parole again in another five years
Nichols sent the manuscript, which had previously been released in hopes of publishing a book, along with his personal collection of letters and notes to the library, intending for them to be preserved.
He even argued his victims were to blame for the events, which he believed were being twisted by a 'corrupt' media.
'Regardless of what the other facts are, if Kari had not been up at Ullery's Lake in the manner she was, Goldstein wouldn't have been killed by me,' the elder Nichols once wrote.
'That's a fact and her subconscious mind will always tell her that. So what does she think of herself now that her 'hero' is dead?'
Experienced woodsmen: Don Nichols and his son were proud to be known as 'mountain men' and managed to evade capture in Yellowstone National Park for five months in 1984
Don Nichols' crime still looms large for his victims and many in the Bozeman-area community who want to make sure he doesn't get out of prison.
Nichols' new parole hearing comes five years after another request for parole was met with close to 200 letters in opposition from people who strongly remembered the kidnapping and five-month long manhunt that remains one of the state's most notorious crimes.
After Swenson's kidnap, despite diminished lung capacity from the gunshot wound, she went on to win a bronze medal in the world biathlon championships.
During their trial the Nichols faced a prosecutor, Marc Racicot, who would later become governor and a jury who didn't buy their argument that modern society misunderstood their mountain man ways.
The sensational tale made the cover of national newsmagazines, spawned two books and a TV movie 'The Abduction of Kari Swenson.'
Nichols had a far different take on the series of events, believing he was being unfairly judged by people who didn't understand nature or the mountains.
His 'manuscript', written in tight cursive and finished in 1992, trashed modern society's pursuit of material goods, quoted famed environmentalist John Muir as he extols life in the woods and Friedrich Nietzsche's view of human nature.
Fugitive: Police have an arrest warrant for the younger Nichols, Dan, who failed to show up for a pre-trial hearing in a drug case
The writing is filled with a yearning for pioneer days that Nichols believed more natural, castigates businessmen and politicians as the real thieves and killers, and claims 'civilization is the insane byproduct' of rules and laws. All conspire to trample freedom, he argued, like the 'virtual Nazis' running the country.
His recollection of the abduction, in writing that stretches from the time of the trial to after he spent several years in prison, appears to show no remorse whatsoever.
Even after the shootings, he and his son continued to live in the woods seemingly with little care, or knowledge, that a manhunt was under way.
'In the summer of 1984, after the incident with Kari Swenson, Danny and I felt safe in our mountains, as usual, and spent most of our time wishing for pretty sunsets, planning the next day's activities, or talking over the continuous adventure of hunting, camping, and other things that is our life in the mountains,' he wrote.
'Maybe we should have thought about the flatland people more. Maybe we should have realized the truth wouldn't be told.'
After a few years in prison, Swenson wrote about missing life in the mountains. 'I think of a thousand beautiful sunsets and sleep so sweet we could taste it,' he wrote in 1987. 'There must always be mountain men.'
The parole hearings comes as Dan Nichols — paroled in 1991 from his kidnapping and assault sentence received for his role in the infamous crime — is in trouble with the law again.
Jefferson County officials issued an arrest warrant last month for the younger Nichols after he failed to show up for a pretrial hearing in a drug case.
The younger Nichols faces many more years in prison after getting caught last summer at a rock concert with possession of marijuana with the intent to sell it, and allegedly resisting arrest.
Jefferson County attorney Mathew Johnson did not want to speculate that Dan Nichols has escaped into the mountains again.
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