Pubdate: Sat, 08 Sep 2001
Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News (CO)
Copyright: 2001 Denver Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.denver-rmn.com/
Author: Deborah Frazier
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/371
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

FUGITIVE CARVED NEW LIFE IN CRESTED BUTTE

Neil Murdoch, in jail Friday in New Mexico after 28 years on the lam, 
remains a folk hero in Crested Butte.

Murdoch, whose real name is Richard Bannister, jumped bail in Albuquerque 
on federal drug charges in 1973. He was accused of bringing 22 pounds of 
cocaine to Taos from Bolivia.

As Murdoch, he lived in Crested Butte until 1998 and was revered as a 
mountain bike visionary. Federal agents closed in April 30, when he 
vanished, taking only his bicycle.

On Wednesday, he was. arrested in the Taos town plaza by a U.S. marshal and 
taken to Albuquerque for a court date next week.

"He made a decision to flee and start life over and rehabilitate himself," 
said Don Cook, who built his first "clunker" from 1950s-era Schwinns and 
Roadmasters with Murdoch's help.

"He did such a good job that it surprised everyone when the feds came after 
him," said .Cook, who waited tables with Murdoch at Donita's, the local 
Mexican restaurant.

In the late 1970s, Crested Butte was a failing mountain town with dirt 
streets, old miners and hippies. There was a nude hot spring on main 
street, a fight to stop a molybdenum mine and a spirit of rebellion in the 
town.

Murdoch, then in his 30s, arrived with an old bicycle that he used to 
commute between his assorted part-time jobs, volunteer work at the Crested 
Butte Mountain Theater and the town's first day-care center, Stepping Stones.

"My kids went to the day-care center. They loved him," said Eric Roemer, 
owner of the Wooden Nickle bar. "He rode a bicycle everywhere.... You would 
never think he'd ever done anything wrong."

He owned the town's only bike shop and lived alone in a downstairs 
apartment, giving most of his money away.

Murdoch tinkered with bicycles, building some of the first sturdy, knobby 
tired mountain bikes. He put Crested Butte on the map with the Fat Tire 
Bike Classic, where cyclists on homemade hybrids bounced up mountains and 
over rocky passes.

He's honored at the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in Crested Butte, and there 
was talk Friday of raising money for his legal defense.

"He rehabilitated himself better than if he had spent time behind bars in a 
correctional institution," Cook said. "He gave more free time to good 
causes in a year than most people do in a lifetime."
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager