The increasingly terrific fourth season of Justified has focused mostly on the hunt for a fugitive from up north who had quietly been living in Kentucky’s Harlan County for years. This week, in real life, U.S. Marshals hunted down a fugitive from up north who had quietly been living in Kentucky’s Harlan County for years.
He spent fourteen years on the run, but now an Indiana fugitive is behind bars in Harlan County.
Ralph North, 49, was wanted for a 1998 parole violation on a child molestation conviction.
Well that’s not exactly “shooting out a Detroit mob boss’s eye, throwing a dude out of a helicopter to fake your death, starting a small Kentucky drug empire, and hiding in very plain sight for decades before going on the run with a hooker,” but hey, close enough. Go on.
The U.S. Marshals recently tracked him to a home on Beech Grove Lane in Harlan County. Harlan City Police found and arrested him late Saturday.
“This was brought to our attention. Everyone worked quickly and acted quickly and made the arrest, especially with the severity of the charges,” said Mike Thomas, Harlan Police Chief.
“I think it’s a bunch of hogwash, if you ask me,” said North.
I like to think that after North said that, the marshal who tracked him down adjusted his cowboy hat, put his hand on his pistol, and said “I think the question you should ask is whether I care if you ride out of here cuffed in the back of my car or get carried out of here in a coroner’s bag. The answer is: me and dead owls don’t give a hoot.”
(Via WKYT, thanks to @HLS_NDtex for the tip)
