Bellows Bees: “The Jesse James of the Bee Hive Industry”?

19 February 2015

'Time was, when beekeeping was a pretty tame way to make a living. Getting stung by your own bees was your biggest worry. After that, if your bee-yard (apiary) was in the northern or western U.S., honey bears could be a problem. But if you could deal with these dangers, beekeeping was, otherwise, smooth sailing.

After all, beekeeping always had its good and bad times, but there were no roaming outlaws to worry about. It wasn't like the old west. There were no criminals who prayed on beekeepers like Jesse James once prayed on railroads.

But, to hear some tell it, times may be "a-changin'."

David Allred became the first person to ever be convicted of bee theft in the state of California. The Los Angeles Times reported that, at his 1977 sentencing hearing. Allred said that he wanted to be remembered as the “Jesse James of the bee hive industry.”

By the way, Allred denies having ever said any such thing. But I’d deny it too, if I were being sued for damages resulting from another bee theft. How did Jesse’s . . . er . . . I mean . . . Allred’s sentencing hearing come out? Well, according to him, he was freed. According to the state of California, Allred was sentenced to three years in prison.

Whether or not Allred expressed a wish to be remembered as the Jesse James of beekeeping, he scored another first by being the first person ever sent to prison for “bee-rustling” in the state of California. But bee-rustling wasn’t the only crime with which Allred was charged.

Together with fellow beekeeper David Graves, Allred marched into the history books, again, as the greatest proven mass-murderer of bees in all of honeybee history. Using cyanide gas, Allred and Graves sent 15 million of a neighboring beekeeper’s bees “to the promised land.”

The court found that Graves was unhappy after the victim beekeeper married Graves’ ex-wife. So, with the assistance of Allred, Graves retaliated by killing the victim’s bees. There are no laws against killing bees -- and this must seem like a big legal loophole . . . especially if you're a honeybee! But there are laws against killing your beekeeping neighbor’s bees.

The charge was vandalism.

The court apparently didn’t believe Allred’s alibi. He testified that he couldn’t have committed the crime because, at the time, he was alone in an orchard with a 16-year-old girl playing strip poker. (I did stop to seriouly consider his“excuse” . . . because . . . well . . . if I were going to “make-up” an alibi, I could sure do better than that.) Allred says his conviction was overturned on appeal. But, again, the state of California disagrees reporting that Allred entered prison in 1977 and was only released in 1983.

Now, Allred has been accused of another bee theft. Is he modestly asserting his innocence? Has he mellowed with age -- chastened by his prison terms and contrite over his misspent youth as a notorious bee-napper and killer?

Not at all.

In fact, Allred says, in so many words, that he’s tired of being "persecuted.” In fact, he has announced, more or less, that he won’t be “Mr. Nice Guy” anymore! Allred says he “won't deal with the law again.” He claims a judge told him that “[w]hen the legal system fails you,” and your property is taken, “it's your right as an American citizen to take it back yourself.'"

Kind of makes you shudder . . . doesn't it?