Histories of Anchorage: ‘The pay is good, but the retirement plan stinks’: The story of Anchorage’s most flamboyant criminal bail bondsman
An advertisement in the Anchorage Daily Times for a lunch special that included a free bail bond credit card courtesy Duke Knuth's AAA Bonding Co.on local history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story.
By definition, bail bonding practice involves dealing with many criminals. In addition, many bail bondsmen develop working relationships with police, courts and attorneys. And so, it is not too surprising that some bail bondsmen across American history have weaponized their position within the criminal justice system to became criminals themselves.
Until his death, he was Alaska’s foremost bail bondsman. His AAA Bail Bonding company had offices in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kenai and Juneau, with agents as far afield as Seattle and Tokyo. He once tracked a bail jumper all the way to Puerto Rico. At least, he enjoyed telling people that story as either self-promotion or a warning. As his ads and business cards said, “Better to know Duke and not need Duke than to need Duke and not know Duke.
Behind that thin legal façade, Knuth was actually the effective center of crime, organized and not, in Alaska. The allegations against Knuth cover the breadth of possibilities, including drug dealing, prostitution, political bribes, police bribes and blackmail. With few competitors in the bonding field, Knuth controlled whether a criminal stayed in jail. Knuth could revoke a bond, returning the individual to jail.
Knuth’s end, as could be expected, came violently. On the night of Dec. 26-27, 1968, unknown assailants shot him three times in the head at the bondsman’s Fairview ranch home. Unlike Waters, he was still clothed, including his cowboy boots but without the trademark hat. A waitress, presumably one of his many mistresses, discovered the body after a late-night shift. As with Waters, the murder was never solved, but many locals claimed unhappy former clients killed both bondsmen.
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