Calif. Inmate Gets OK to Publish How-to Book on Breeding Aggressive Dogs
A California state prison inmate has received permission to publish and distribute a book about the breeding and training of aggressive dogs.
Dale Bretches, a convicted murderer serving a lengthy prison sentence at the Pelican Bay State Prison, bred the two dogs that fatally mauled a woman in the corridor of her San Francisco apartment building in 2001, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Under an agreement with state prison officials that was announced Tuesday, Bretches will be allowed to publish the book once the two sides find a charity willing to receive any profits from the publication because state prison rules prohibit inmates from running businesses from behind bars.
The book, Dog O’ War, describes Bretches’ lifelong involvement with the animals he describes as war dogs, including the two Presa Canarios he placed with a pair of San Francisco lawyers that killed Diane Whipple, a 33-year-old college women’s lacrosse coach.
After Whipple was killed, police discovered that Bretches and his cellmate, Paul “Cornfed” Schneider, both members of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang, had been running an illegal dog-breeding business with the help of outsiders from their cell.
Bretches’ lawyer, Herman Franck, said the book will tell the inmate’s side of the Whipple story. He also said it will dispel the “tale of lies” told by prison officials, including their claim that the dogs that killed Whipple had been trained as vicious fighters.
The settlement, arranged with the help of a federal magistrate, includes a $40,000 payment by the state for Bretches’ legal fees.
