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Old West
Lawmen - Last Name Starts With "D"
More Lists: Explorers | Gunfighters | Lawmen | Native Americans |
Others | Outlaws | Outlaw Gangs | Scoundrels | Soldiers | Trail Blazers & Cowboys | Vigilantes | Women |
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Frank Dalton (1859-1887) - The older brother of the infamous
Daltons
who would later form the
Dalton Gang,
Frank was always an upstanding citizen. Born in
Missouri
on June 8, 1859, he was commissioned as a
U.S. Deputy Marshal at
Fort Smith,
Arkansas
in 1884. During his short tenure as a
Deputy Marshal, he was involved in a number of dangerous episodes
and was described as "one of the most brave and efficient officers on
the force."
Frank even enlisted his brother,
Bob Dalton, who would later become the leading member of the
Dalton Gang,
to work for him on several posses as he rounded up
outlaws. His career and his life would en on November 27, 1887
when he, along with Deputy J.R. Cole had gone to the
Cherokee
Nation to arrest a man named Dave Smith on charges of horse theft and
whiskey running. |

Historic
Fort Smith,
Arkansas
Courthouse and Jail. |
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Dalton made a fatal
mistake when he expected no trouble from Smith and approached the tent
where the
outlaw
was camped. Smith immediately shot
Dalton in the
chest as he approached, and Deputy Cole, reacting quickly returned fire,
killing Smith. One of Smith's cohorts then shot at Deputy Cole, who was
hit but able to escape. Believing that
Frank was dead, Deputy Cole made his way back to
Fort Smith
for assistance.
However,
Dalton was
still alive and after Cole left the area, Will Towerly a noted murderer
and horse thief, came out of the tent. Though
Frank was conscious, and begged Towerly not to shoot him as he was
already mortally wounded, Towerly blasted him in the head twice with his
Winchester.
By the time Deputy Cole
returned with a posse, Smith,
Dalton, and a
woman hit in the crossfire were already dead. Another
outlaw,
who was badly wounded was taken back to
Fort Smith,
where he died in jail. Will Towerly escaped unhurt. However, justice for
Towerly would prevail a month later when he was shot by a man named
William Moody, who was assisting another deputy marshal in his arrest.
Grattan
“Grat” Dalton
(1865-1892)
–
Grattan Dalton was born in
1865 near
Lawrence,
Kansas,
one of fifteen children. The family
moved to
Indian Territory in 1882. Grat took his brother,
Frank's job as a
U.S. Deputy Marshal after
Frank was killed on November
27,1887. Two years later, in 1889, he was working as a
Deputy Marshal for the
Muskogee court in
Indian Territory.
That same year he received a bullet in his arm while attempting to
arrest a suspect. Later, he and his
brothers would turn to a life of crime, robbing their
first train with
brother,
Bill Dalton, just outside of
Los Angeles,
California
in 1891.
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With
Bob as their
leader, they soon formed the
Dalton Gang
and for the next 18
months robbed
banks and trains throughout
Oklahoma.
The gang's demise came when they decided to rob two banks in Coffeyville,
Kansas
on October 5, 1892. This time, the townsfolk decided to fight back and
when it was over,
Bob Dalton, Grattan
Dalton,
Bill Power
and
Dick Broadwell lay
dead, along with four local men.
Emmett Dalton,
though wounded, survived and spent 14 years in prison. Grat Dalton is
buried at the Coffeyville,
Kansas
Cemetery under a marker for himself, his brother
Bob, and
Bill Power
.
Cornelius "Lame
Johnny" Donahue (1850-1878) - A
lawman
and an
outlaw,
Donahue attended college in Philadelphia but moved to Texas to become
a
cowboy.
However, because of a physical he didn't fair well and turned to horse thievery.
In the 1870s, Donahue left Texas and wound up in
Deadwood,
South Dakota,
where he was hired as a deputy sheriff. Some time later, he was
working in the mines and was recognized as the
Texas
horse thief that he was. He fled
Deadwood
and returned to his old lifestyle of stealing horses and added
stagecoach robbery to his "job" tasks. In one robbery he was said to
have taken about $3,500 in currency, $500 in diamonds, hundreds of dollars
worth of jewelry, and 700 pounds of gold dust, nuggets and bullion
from a special “treasure coach” called the "Monitor" belonging to the
Homestake Mine. With a take like that, the law was quickly on his tale
and he was soon tracked down by livestock detective,
Frank Smith, who arrested him. However, as Smith was returning Donahue
to
Deadwood,
the stagecoach was pulled over by a masked rider who took Johnny from
the coach. The officials first assumed that he had been "saved" by one
of his outlaw cohorts, but that was not the case. The next day, "Lame
Johnny" was found hanging from a tree. When he was buried, his
headstone, which is long since missing, read:
- Pilgrim Pause!
- You’re standing on
- The molding clay of Limping John.
- Tread lightly, stranger, on this sod.
- For if he moves, you’re robbed, by God
John Riley Duncan
(1850-1911) - Duncan served as a Dallas police officer, detective, and
Texas Ranger.
He's most noteworthy in the capture of
John Wesley Hardin. After tracking Hardin to Florida, Duncan,
along with
John Barclay Armstrong, and Florida sheriff William Henry Hutchinson
captured the
outlaw, who was soon tried and sent to prison for 18 years.
Continued
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From the Rocky Mountain General Store
Old
West Postcards - If you
love collecting postcards of the
Old West,
you're going to love these. Each one of these is unique and, in many
cases, we have only one available, so don't wait. To see them all,
click
HERE!
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