Self-Styled 'Bonnie and Clyde' Fugitives John McCluskey and Casslyn Welch Caught

Aug. 13, 2010 — -- Authorities captured an escaped Arizona inmate and his suspected female accomplice Thursday night, according to multiple reports.

John McCluskey and Casslyn Welch were taken into custody near the town of Springerville, Ariz., near the border with New Mexico border, ABC News Phoenix affiliate KNXV reported.

Officials received a tip from a forest ranger who saw an unattended campfire and a vehicle at a campground in the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest.

The ranger alerted local authorities and law enforcement officers approached the pair.

Officials told reporters at a news conference late Thursday local time, or early this morning ET that when authorities approached Welch, she attempted to reach for a firearm but she was disarmed immediately.

The fugitives were both taken into custody without further incident.

When McCluskey was arrested he told officials that he had a gun in a nearby tent and "should have killed the forest ranger when he had the opportunity."

David Gonzales, the U.S. Marshal for Arizona said at the news conference that the investigation is still ongoing but the "nightmare that started on July 30 is now over."

McCluskey and two other inmates, Daniel Renwick and Tracy Province, escaped from Arizona State Prison on July 30. Officials believe they had help from Welch, who is McCluskey's fiancee, in escaping from the medium security prison.

Province, a convicted murder, was arrested Aug. 9 outside a church in Meeteetse, Wyo., after being spotted with McCluskey and Welch the week before in the area around Yellowstone Park.

Convicted murderer Daniel Renwick, who also escaped with the two men, was arrested Aug. 1 in Rifle, Colo.

McCluskey was serving a 15-year sentence for attempted murder and other charges.

Welch and McCluskey were last seen in Montana near the Canadian border on Aug. 6.

The couple, believed to be white supremacists, were considered by law enforcment officials to be extremely dangerous.

They led authorities on a three-week cross-country manhunt, leaving in their wake a string of robberies and two suspected murders but few clues as to their current whereabouts.

Since they've been on the lam, the couple have become suspects in the murders of a New Mexico couple in their 60's.

Modern-Day Bonnie and Clyde?

Authorities said they saw themselves as a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, a moniker picked up by the media.

"I think they've taken the persona that this is some type of movie and this is some kind of a joke that they are living, but it is not," David Gonzalez, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals, last week. "This is a very, very serious business."

ABC News' Russell Goldman, Lee Ferran, Jessica Hopper and Emily Friedman, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.