Table of Contents
PRAISE FOR
FLY, COLTON, FLY
Fly, Colton, Fly reveals much about the Jesse James of the Facebook ageand our fascination with imaginative crooks eluding maladroit cops. Indispensable for anyone interested in the Barefoot Bandit.
Rinker Buck, Author of Flight of Passage
Every now and then, a criminal comes along who flouts the law with such daring and dash that he is elevated to the ranks of rebel folk hero. Colton Harris-Moore is the latest figure to enter the ranks of these legendary lawbreakers. In this fleet and propulsive account, Jackson Holtz tells the story of this latter-day Jesse James in a style best suited to its subjectwith enormous panache.
Harold Schechter, Author of Killer Colt: Murder, Disgrace, and
the Making of an American Legend
FOR JEREMY
By Judy Stanley, Herald Graphic Artist
By Judy Stanley, Herald Graphic Artist
By Judy Stanley, Herald Graphic Artist
COLTON HARRIS-MOORE TIMELINE
March 22, 1991Colton is born by cesarean section. His birth father leaves when hes a toddler and his stepdad dies when Colton is ten, about the same time his serious behavior problems are first documented. Hes arrested the same year for theft. By fifteen he has a long rap sheet and is well known by local police. Hes suspected of breaking into empty vacation homes and fleeing arrest by running into the woods.
February 2007After six months on the run from police, Colton is arrested in connection with several burglaries and thefts. Hes sentenced to three years in juvenile lockup.
April 22, 2008Colton escapes Griffin Home, a halfway house for troubled adolescents near Seattle.
July 18, 2008Colton crashes a stolen Mercedes into a propane tank behind the Elger Bay Grocery on Camano Island. Sheriffs deputies find a stash of stolen property in the car, including a camera with several self-portraits of Colton.
November 12, 2008A Cessna airplane is stolen from Orcas Island and crashes near Yakima. Police dont make the connection to Colton until a second plane is stolen nearly a year later.
September 8, 2009The Island Market on Orcas Island is burglarized and an ATM vandalized. DNA tests link Colton to the crime.
September 22, 2009A series of crimes, including a stolen plane from Friday Harbor, a missing boat from Orcas Island and a luxury car in Vancouver, lead police to suspect hes headed east through British Columbia.
September 29, 2009A plane is taken from Bonners Ferry, Idaho. On October 1, a logger discovers the wreckage near Granite Falls, Washington. A shot is fired at a deputy investigating a campsite near the plane crash. Barefoot prints are found.
October 9, 2009A Colton Harris-Moore Facebook fan page is launched. Soon thousands are following his exploits online.
December 11, 2009Federal prosecutors secretly charge Colton with the Idaho plane theft.
February 11, 2010Another stolen plane lands on Orcas Island. In the nearby town of Eastsound, a grocery store is burglarized and somebody draws thirty-nine barefoot prints on the floor.
May 15, 2010Colton is seen on video surveillance at a Lopez Island marina where a boat is later taken. A trail of stolen boats and cars leads officials to believe that Colton is headed south toward Oregon.
May 29, 2010An Everett bounty hunter joins the effort to catch Colton.
June 1, 2010Colton sails the Fat Cat, a fishing boat, across the Columbia River from Ilwaco, Washington, to Warrenton, Oregon. He sets off from there on a 2,000-mile joyride across eight states.
June 2010Colton is suspected of stealing cars and breaking into airports, homes and businesses in Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.
July 4, 2010A top-of-the-line single-engine Cessna is taken from an airport in Bloomington, Indiana, and found crashed off the coast of the Bahamas. Colton is the prime suspect.
July 6, 2010The FBI declares Colton an international fugitive and offers a $10,000 reward for his arrest. Wanted posters are distributed in the Bahamas.
July 11, 2010Colton is arrested before dawn off Harbour Island. He tries to flee in a stolen boat but runs aground on a sandbar. Police shoot out the boats twin outboards. Colton pleads guilty in a Bahamian court to entering the country illegally and is deported to Miami before being returned to Seattle.
November 10, 2010A federal grand jury hands down a five-count indictment linking Colton to a multi-state crime spree including two plane thefts, a boat theft and weapons charges.
November 18, 2010Colton enters a not guilty plea to all counts. His lawyer announces hopes of a plea arrangement. Colton still faces a dozen state charges in two Washington counties and in Nebraska.
AUTHORS NOTE
Colton Harris-Moore sat alone at the Federal Detention Center in Sea-Tac, Washington, awaiting trial as this book was being written. Like any other person whos been arrested, Colton is innocent until proven guilty. There are allegations that he committed more than eighty crimes, many of them felonies and some violations of federal law. There may never be a trial in this case; his lawyers may determine that the best course of action is to enter guilty pleas and hope the judge imposes a lenient sentence. The government likely has overwhelming evidence to convince a jury of Coltons alleged crimes.
Its worth noting that he was a convicted felon at fifteen and the crimes he committed until his April 2008 escape from a halfway house all have been adjudicated.
Much of the material in this book is based on allegations that had not been proven at the time the book went to print. At press time, Colton faced more than a dozen charges in state courts and a five-count federal indictment. The legal system was still gearing up for Coltons day in court. He had not been convicted of any crime in this country since 2007.
In several scenes in this book Coltons behavior is described as if it truly happened. Truth, in this case, is hard to find. As one cop told me, There are facts and provable facts. For Colton, there are many facts, and its hard to know how many can be proven. The only person who really knows what happened is Colton. Whether hell ever tell us a believable account is an open question.
INTRODUCTION
When Island County sheriff Mark Brown announced in January 2007 that his department was looking for a fifteen-year-old serial burglar, the news caught my attention. It was the first time Id heard of Colton Harris-Moore. I was the cops reporter at the