Dead Members of the Dalton Gang

Citizen Justice in the Old West

Photograph

By: Anonymous

Date: October 5, 1892

Source: Corbis.

About the Photographer: The photographer is unknown.

INTRODUCTION

The Dalton Gang attempted to rob two banks simultaneously in Coffeyville, Kansas, on October 5, 1892. The townspeople, warned in advance, armed themselves and shot four of the five bank robbers to death in one of the most celebrated episodes of violence in the Old West.

Sons of poor sharecroppers, the Dalton brothers were born around the time of the Civil War to Lewis Dalton and Adeline Lee Younger. The Younger brothers of the James-Younger gang notoriety and the Dalton boys shared the same grandfather, Charles Lee Younger. The family lived in western Missouri, an area plagued before, during, and after the Civil War by border conflicts and rampant outlawry. About 1882 the family moved to Coffeyville and shortly thereafter into Indian Territory near present-day Vinita, Oklahoma.

The Daltons were initially law-abiding. Robert (Bob) and Gratton (Grat) Dalton served as deputy U.S. marshals in Indian Territory in the late 1880s. The first recorded incidence of lawbreaking by any of the Dalton boys occurred on Christmas Day 1889, when Bob and youngest brother, Emmett, sold whiskey to Indians. In August 1890, Bob, Emmett, and Grat were charged with the capital offense of horse stealing. Grat was jailed for a time, but eventually the charges were dropped. In 1891, while visiting brother Bill in California, all four Dalton brothers were charged with robbing a Southern Pacific train and attempting to murder the conductor. Bob and Emmett fled back to Indian Territory, while Bill was acquitted and Grat was convicted. He soon escaped from jail and joined his brothers.

The Dalton gang, led by Bob and often including such outlaws as George "Bitter Creek" Newcomb, Charlie "Black Face" Bryant, and Bill Doolin, robbed several express trains in Oklahoma and California. Eager to top the exploits of the James-Younger gang, Bob planned a double bank robbery that would make the Daltons famous.

On October 5, 1892, Bob, Grat, Emmett, Bill Powers, and Dick Broadwell attacked the Condon and First National Banks in Coffeyville. The town, a trading center for a wide section of Kansas, was known to be wealthy. Unfortunately for the Daltons, the town's citizens had been alerted and they confronted the gang as the robbers emerged from the banks. A fierce gunfight erupted that led to the deaths of four citizens, including the town marshal, and all the gang's members except Emmett. Badly wounded when he attempted to pull Bob into a saddle and escape, Emmett received a life sentence for murder in March 1893.

PRIMARY SOURCE

DEAD MEMBERS OF THE DALTON GANG

See primary source image.

SIGNIFICANCE

Bob Dalton succeeded in making the Dalton gang famous. The double bank robbery attempt at Coffeyville ensured them a place in the national memory as one of the most daring outlaw gangs of the West. They are now mentioned in the same breath with Jesse and Frank James.

Emmett Dalton took advantage of his fame. Pardoned by the governor of Kansas in 1907, he left Kansas State Penitentiary for a life in California as a respected Los Angeles businessman. Emmett wrote two books recounting the experiences of the Daltons. In his books and in speeches, he pointed out that every famous outlaw wound up in an early grave and that every outlaw could count on such a fate. Emmett died in 1937.

In 1907, Oklahoma entered the Union as the forty-sixth state, an event that the Daltons had done their best to delay. The Dalton record cost the Oklahoma Territory many votes in Washington during the years while the bill for its admission went to Congressional committees. Oklahoma attained statehood only after Oklahoma's nonvoting delegate, Bird Segle McGuire, convinced members of Congress that outlaws like the Dalton gang had disappeared.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Barndollar, Lue Diver. What Really Happened on October 5, 1892: An Attempt at an Accurate Account of the Dalton Gang and Coffeyville. Coffeyville, Kansas: Coffeyville Historical Society, 2001.

Preece, Harold. The Dalton Gang: End of an Outlaw Era. New York: Hastings House, 1963.