Michael Mullen, Sex Offender Vigilante

Duncan's advocates finally persuaded parole officials, and he won release in December 1994 and moved into a halfway house in Seattle. Duncan worked selling magazine subscriptions over the phone and later for a computer software firm.

But his lifestyle choices as he enjoyed his first freedom as an adult caused concern among his parole supervisors.

Duncan engaged in promiscuous homosexual sex and had a relationship with a married woman, who encouraged the convicted sex offender to explore his feminine traits by cross-dressing.

His supervisor, Sandra Silver, was flummoxed, according to documents obtained by the Spokesman-Review.

She wrote to his therapist, "Would you please explain how permitting Mr. Duncan to sustain an adulterous relationship with a married woman is beneficial to his sexual deviancy issues?"

Duncan tested positive for marijuana in urine tests administered in 1996 and again in '97. As authorities began the parole revocation process, he vanished, fleeing Seattle and Washington state in his girlfriend's car.

He was on the lam for a number of months, apparently visiting San Francisco and the Los Angeles area. He was arrested by the FBI at his half-sister's home in Kansas City, and he was returned to prison in Washington.

But by 2000 Duncan had served his full sentence, and the state had no choice but to release him on July 14 that year.