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Bill Dalton - Riding With the Doolin Gang

William “Bill” Dalton (1866-1894) - Bill, who was once a member of the California legislature, became fed up with politics and robbed a train with his brothers just outside of Los Angeles, California in 1891. After the death of his brothers at the Coffeyville, Kansas raid in 1892, he joined Bill Doolin's gang and soon became one of the leaders of the Doolin-Dalton Gang. Obsessed with the idea of making his own name more prominent than that of his brothers, he and Doolin vowed to take East Texas by storm. For three years, the gang specialized in robbing banks, stagecoaches and trains in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas becoming the terror of the Wild West. But it was not to last.

On June 8, 1894, a posse of lawmen approached Bill's home near Ardmore, Oklahoma. Bill, with a pistol in hand, jumped out of a window and ran toward the posse, ignoring orders to halt. He was killed immediately. His wife identified the body and shipped him to California for burial.

Bill Dalton did not take part in the Coffeyville raid.

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The Only Survivor

Emmett Dalton (1871-1937) -- Born in Missouri in 1871, Emmett Dalton was the youngest of 15 children. Though he never served as a U.S. Deputy Marshal, like his brothers, Frank, Bob, and Grat, he was known to assist on several of their posses.

It was Emmett, who was working as a cowboy on the Bar X Bar Ranch in Oklahoma, that met most of the other men who would become part of the Dalton Gang, including Bill Doolin, Bill Power, Charley Pierce, George "Bitter Creek" Newcomb, Bill EcElhanie, Charlie Bryant, and Richard (Dick) Broadwell. Emmett participated in the Coffeyville, Kansas raid that killed his brothers, Bob and Grat, as well as Bill Power and Dick Broadwell. Though Emmett was wounded, he survived to stand trial in Independence, Kansas five months after the robbery.

He plead guilty to murdering a Coffeyville citizen and was sentenced to life in prison at the Kansas State Penitentiary at Lansing. After fourteen and one-half years in prison, Emmett Dalton was pardoned by E. W. Hoch, governor of Kansas, in 1907. On September 1, 1908 Emmett married Julia Johnson Gilstrap Lewis in Bartlesville, Oklahoma before settling in Tulsa. Emmett worked as a police officer in Tulsa for a couple of years before the pair moved to California. In California, Emmett worked as a building contractor and later would write a book about the exploits of the Dalton Gang entitled "When The Daltons Rode." Written in collaboration with Jack Jungmeyer, a Los Angeles Newspaperman, the book was published in 1931. Emmett died quietly at his home in Long Beach, California on July 13, 1937. Emmett was cremated and his ashes were returned to Kingfisher, Oklahoma for burial.

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In the end, the Dalton Brothers did make a name for themselves, though, no doubt, their family would have preferred they had done it more honestly. Then, as today, they are some of the most recognized names of the Old West.

Also See:

The Deadly Dalton Gang