1 of ‘Bondurant boys’ released from prison

Published 6:30 am Friday, January 6, 2017

One of the Bondurant twins convicted in the 1986 murder of an Ardmore mother has been released from prison after serving only 26 years, despite being convicted of two murders and a dismemberment.

Pete Bondurant, 61, was released from the Tennessee Department of Corrections the day after Christmas 2016, DOC records show.

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Pete and his twin brother in crime, Pat Bondurant, widely known as the “Bondurant boys,” were convicted in in the 1986 murder of Gwen Dugger, a 24-year-old single mother who had gone to Pat’s rented farmhouse near the Shady Lawn Truck Stop in Elkton, Tennessee, a home that received many visitors.

Testimony at the brothers’ trial revealed they had a “Manson-like” following of people who came to the farmhouse to obtain drugs.

Pat’s wife, Denise, testified she witnessed the two rape, torture and shoot Dugger before burning her body in a 55-gallon drum and then dumping her ashes in a nearby creek.

They received 25-year sentences for murder because Dugger’s body was never found.

Pete was also convicted in the 1986 murder of Terry Lynn Clark, for which he was sentenced to 15 years.

The twins were also tried separately in the 1986 fatal beating of Pat’s coworker, Ronnie Gaines. His burned bones were found buried in the yard of the Giles County home of the twin’s parents.

Pat was convicted of murder and Pete of helping his brother dismember the body.

The DOC will not provide an address where Pete is now living. Bradley Cooper, district attorney general for the 22nd judicial district, had not returned a request for information at press time Thursday.

Pat remains in the Northeast Correctional Complex in Mountain City, Tennessee, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections.

He is not set for release for 53 years, in June 2069. However, he is eligible for parole before that. His first parole hearing is set for December 2019.

The brothers and their crimes were featured in 2014 on an episode titled “Evil Twins” on the Investigation Discovery network.