The letter started out with his usual format, "Please be kind enough to accept this letter as my entry form for the Lake Tahoe Marathon," wrote inmate Jim Deupree 089956 of Walton Correctional Institution in DeFuniak Springs Fla.

Deupree is a 67-year-old inmate serving a 30 years sentence for bank robbery.

His crime, however, is not the reason Deupree has gained so much attention. From inside the walls of prison, Deupree states that he has run 64 road races in the past 2 years by "proxy running." The track in his prison yard is 2.5 miles.

"I am running against cancer in memory of my running friend, Dr. George Sheehan, former medical editor from Runner's World magazine," Deupree stated in his letter to Les Wright, the director of the Lake Tahoe Marathon.

Deupree added, "Unfortunately, I have no money and cannot afford your entry fee, and I'm not permitted to receive any race T-shirts. However, if you could send me a race number, I would be proud to wear it here during my proxy running of the Lake Tahoe Marathon."

He concluded the letter with his normal quote; "Have a great race! And please let me run with you - in spirit if not in body. P.S. Next year I'll run this 26.2 mile with you in person."

When searching on-line for Jim Deupree's mug shoot, a search engine turned up story after story about his efforts to raise money to battle cancer from behind prison walls. One article stated Deupree started his own project entitled Making Strides Against Cancer.

Each story was remarkably the same. They all included the same quotes used above about raising money by "proxy running" marathons while in jail and asking the race organizers for race numbers. The letters he sent to every race organizer ended with promise of running the race in person the following year. But Deupree is not expected to be released until 2019.

But upon reading an article entitled "The runaround," published on Sept. 22, 2002 about Deupree in the St. Petersburg Times brought many things about his list of accomplishments into question.

The author of the story, Lane Degregory, found that no one from the American Cancer Society had every received a donation from Jim Deupree or a donation in the name of his friend Dr. George Sheehan.

"I had someone from the American Cancer Society looking through records for two days," Degregory told the Sierra Sun in a phone interview. "As far as I can tell he's never raised any of the money by running marathons that he claims he has."

While Degregory researched her story, no one in the Florida Correction could deny or prove Deupree had run the distance of a marathon he said he had.

"I asked them to keep track of how often they saw him running," Degregory said. "The guards were more than happy to help out." This was on Memorial Day in 2001, a date when Deupree was scheduled to run a marathon.

"No one had seen him running during the time he was supposed to be running in the marathon," Degregory added.

Any attempt to dig up Deurpee's finishing times was unsuccessful. The races he claimed to run had no one with his name finishing in his age group (he claims he sends in a finishing time).

Deupree's letter to Les Wright contained a contact number. The letter encouraged local media to make arrangements with the Florida Dept. of Corrections in order to talk with him any time after July 15. But a phone call to the press office of the dept. of corrections revealed that phone interviews are not allowed, but Deupree already knew this.

The reason Deupree was not available for comment until after July 15, is because for 90 days he was in solitary confinement for attempting to conspire. Deupree sent a letter to a the Florida Attorney General asking a lawyer to make 100 copies of an article written about him, and send them back to him. The legal number of pages an inmate is allowed to receive is five. Deupree also asked the lawyer for money and help in his case. The attempt to conspire charge came from the fact that Deupree labeled the mail legal. Legal mail cannot be read by prison officials; but his request was not of a legal matter, in fact it was illegal.

When Degregory did finally go visit Deupree in jail, she became understood a few things. Deupree showed off his stack of race numbers and the sores on his feet from running in army boots.

"I don't doubt he runs, but I don't think he's ever run any of the races he says he has," Degregory said. "He gets the race information from old running magazines. It's his identity, his life line."

The articles that stated Deupree was featured in Runner's World and the "CBS Evening News" never bothered to check these facts. The facts themselves were pulled from hand written letters sent to the papers by Deupree himself. An article was written on him in Runner's World for a run he did home from jail; but by the time the article reached stands, Deupree was already behind bars again. Deupree has been in and out of jail since 1983.

Deupree asked for a copy of Degregory's story that exposed his sherade, she sent him one. She still recieves letters about marathons he is racing in a year after her article was published. He still claims to be raising money to battle cancer, and still asks her if she'd like to do a story on him.

"He does it for attention. He's just a lonely old man in jail," Degregory said. "It's just one big 'PR' campaign for himself."