Tim, who shares a last name with Dog and is called “Youngblood,” is not actually related. He is a third generation bondsman from California, son of the famous Colorado bondswoman, Diane Wimberly, whose slogan was, “Let A Blond Write Your Bond.” With a quiet intensity that only comes from having survived a hard life, Tim sports a long gray ponytail in a single braid with his head shaved on the sides, and a goatee. He is almost never without his hat and glasses; as if he’s hiding, observing the world from the outside. Stoic, stone-faced, quiet, this pragmatic posse member is also soft hearted. He believes in the power of turning your life around, in helping kids, and in overcoming odds. He rarely speaks, but when he does it is always meaningful, and often prophetic.
He grew up in Ventura California, right down the street from the notorious serial rapist and Max Factor heir, Andrew Luster, FBI’s Most Wanted, whom Tim helped capture in Mexico with Dog. “Given my life story, with Luster, it was personal.” His parents split up when he was 2 ? and Tim and his brother Russ went to live with their paternal grandparents for two years. (It later turned out that the grandmother they loved and thought was theirs, wasn’t. Their blood grandmother was a prostitute). When he was 5, his mother took him and his brother back in and they moved to Hawthorne, California. Mom’s new husband, Keith, a TV repairman, was the only father Tim ever liked. However, mom slipped up and they found her wandering the streets, in her nightgown, strung up on drugs. Tim went back to his grandparents’ house to live.
At 6 years old, Tim’s real father, Ronald, came to take custody. “It was like a twisted Brady Bunch story. There was me and my brother, our new step mom, Bev, the new baby they had, and two older stepsisters from Bev’s previous marriage. Everything seemed okay until I was about 7.” That’s when the violent beatings started and Tim learned that his father was repeatedly raping his sisters. Tim once walked in on his father raping his sister. He and Russ were severely beaten everyday. The school ignored the bruises, black eyes, food deprivation, and broken bones. Tim’s schoolwork deteriorated. His mother’s attempts to get him back were hidden from him. His runaway attempts were foiled by his father who beat him worse for trying.
They lived a life of fear. “I made a vow. I will never put my kids through any kind of pain and hurt. I will never raise a hand to my child.” After one particularly horrid beating of all the siblings where the girls and boys, now going through puberty, were forced to stand naked in a line and take repeated blows, Tim had his nose broken and pulverized by his father. This time he ran away for good and finally got a hold of his mother who took her sons in. “The hardest part was having to leave my sisters there. But it was a matter of survival at that point.” Tim was 13.
Tim and Russ spent the next few years living with their mother and her new husband. Tim also lived with his maternal grandparents in Denver who owned ABC Bail Bonds. He made his first arrest at age 14. His mother eventually left her husband and started “Let A Blond Write Your Bond” and Tim worked for her. At 17, he had heard about another Chapman who was a bounty hunter. “Dog and I decided to join forces looking for the same fugitive. Dog showed me that you don’t have to be forced to work with corrupt people. A guy I worked with was paying off insurance commissioners and it had always made me sick. You can be clean and straight and still be bad-assed. For a while Dog was the father figure I never had. Then he became a brother. Duane helped me in business and self-esteem. I helped him by helping Leland adjust and grow up.” Tim moved to Hawaii in 1992 to partner up with Dog.
Tim has three children, Timmy, 18, whom he has joint custody of, and Summer Rain and Autumn from his wife, Davina. Tim’s father is currently serving time in prison for Pedophilia. As for the stepsisters he was forced to leave behind: one is a crack addict and the other is currently a prostitute. Tim’s father repeatedly picked her up and had sex with her. “She’s since had two kids while hooking and he had been raping them too; until one of them turned him in. I am not ashamed of my childhood. I am proud of who I’ve become and I want to show others that you can come from the darkest depths and come out on top.” Tim worked diligently to get his father behind bars and finally succeeded with the help of one of the granddaughters and the stepmother who turned him in.
Tim prides himself on being a good father, and succeeding in the bails bond business for over 25 years. His future goals include starting a foundation that helps children at risk change their own lives. “I’m living proof that you can stop this. You can break the cycle. I live to help kids break the cycle of abuse.” He sees his role on the show as “backing up Duane, watching his back. I have the ability to get into the criminal mind. I love helping the community.”
