O.K! I KNOW HE LOOKS LIKE SANTA CLAUS BUT HE'S THE KENTUCKY KING OF POT!

With every "Run Johnny Run!" posted on his Facebook fan page, John Robert Boone, a marijuana-growing outlaw, is becoming more and more of a folk hero.
Boone, a Kentucky fugitive who resembles Santa Claus, vanished like a puff of smoke two years ago as authorities closed in on his farm to seize 2,400 pot plants.

Dubbed the "King of Pot" and the "Godfather of Grass," Boone, 67, has been on the run ever since.

The Facebook page set up for him has more than 1,700 fans.

"He was just a good ol' country boy - a farmer," Joe Pendleton, whose Kentucky shop sells "Run, Johnny, Run" T-shirts, told the Associated Press. "He's not robbing banks or nothing."

But Boone is facing a life sentence in prison if caught and convicted of growing pot for a third time.

Boone was convicted in the 1980s of taking part in what prosecutors called the "largest domestic marijuana syndicate in American history."

The group was accused of growing 182 tons of marijuana and labeled the "Cornbread Mafia." Boone, described as the group's leader, served more than a decade in prison.

Federal authorities aren't calling him violent, but his record dates back to the 1960s and includes charges of wanton endangerment and illegal firearms possession.

"He was the player. There might have been one or two close to him," said Jack Smith, a former federal prosecutor who represented Boone in the 1980s case. "I never heard of anybody who was bigger."

Boone himself is a bit of a contradiction.

His grandfatherly white beard and hair belie the large tattoo across his back saying "Omerta," the Sicilian word describes the Mafia's code of silence.

Boone talked about his pot-growing at the 1988 court hearing during which he was sentenced to 20 years.

"With the poverty at home, marijuana is sometimes one of the things that puts bread on the table," Boone said. "We were working with our hands on earth God gave us."

Authorities have been canvassing tightlipped residents among the small towns in a rural area of Kentucky where many farmers down on their luck have planted marijuana.

People around his farm acknowledged knowing of Boone, but either said they didn't know him well or wouldn't talk about him.

"Even if I knew where he was, I wouldn't tell you," said James "Jim Bean" Cecil, a 64-year-old who spent time in prison with Boone.

Boone's latest trouble came in 2008 when Kentucky State Police spotted marijuana plants on his farm during aerial surveillance.

When they raided the farm, they found more than 2,400 plants but no Boone.

"As soon as he found out they were there, he split," said Jim Higdon, a writer based in Lebanon, Ky., who interviewed Boone for a book project. "It was a death sentence. He became a fugitive."

Boone's friends want him to remain free, and some complain that his crimes aren't worthy of a life sentence.

"That's all he's ever done, raising pot," said longtime friend Larry Hawkins, who owns the bar Hawk's Place. "He never hurt nobody."