A suspect with face tattoos who was wanted in a random machete attack on a dog has been apprehended after a month on the run.
Thomas G. Vargus, 45, was arrested on Sunday in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, where he was in hiding with a former prison cellmate affiliated with the Pagan Outlaws biker gang, police said.
He had been on the Massachusetts Most Wanted List after a shocking September 18 attack in Taunton.
According to police, Vargus set upon a woman walking her dog with a machete, screaming: ‘I’m going to kill this (expletive) dog.’
Thomas G. Vargus, 45, was arrested on Sunday in Margus Hook, Pennsylvania, where he was in hiding with a former prison cellmate affiliated with the Pagan Outlaws biker gang, police said
‘During the attack on the dog the owner was injured as well. The female victim sustained many wounds from the attack,’ Taunton police said in a statement.
The dog suffered cuts to its neck and back, but both the dog and the woman survived. Cops described the attack as ‘random’.
Vargus is seen in a 1997 mugshot on a narcotics arrest, before he got tattoos
A manhunt for Vargus was aided by his distinctive tattoos, which cover much of his face and head.
Investigators tracked clues that indicated Vargus had fled to Pennsylvania, where he was laying low with 70-year-old Glen J. Turner, his former cellmate in federal prison.
Turner, a member of the Pagan Outlaws biker gang, served a 30-year stint for the 1982 shooting of a New Jersey State Trooper, whom he shot in the face and left partially blind.
He made headlines again in 1984, when his fellow Pagans staged a minor prison riot after Turner was thrown in the hole for complaining about the lunch trays in the prison cafeteria.
Vargus landed in federal prison on narcotics charges, where he apparently befriended Turner.
On Sunday, a Marcus Hook police officer saw the two men walking into Sweeny’s Pub
On Sunday, a Marcus Hook police officer saw the two men walking into Sweeny’s Pub, a local dive bar.
The cop called for backup and officers were lying in wait when the two men walked out some time later.
Vargus was arrested and charged as a fugitive from justice. Cops say he was growing his facial hair in an attempt to hide his tattoos.
He faces extradition back to Bristol County, Massachusetts to face charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and animal cruelty from the September 18 attack.