Operating between 1890 and 1892, the Dalton Gang earned a name for itself among the outlaws of the American Old West. People also called them The Dalton Brothers, since three of the men riding together shared that surname. Robbing banks and trains was their particular trade. In 1892, while attempting to hit two banks at once in Coffeyville, Kansas, four members of the gang lost their lives, including two of the brothers, while Emmett Dalton lived through the ordeal. He was taken into custody and eventually entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder, though in later years he maintained that he had not fired a single shot during that robbery. Fourteen years into his prison term, he received parole.
Before turning to crime, Bob, "Grat", and Emmett had worn badges, first serving the federal court in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and afterward working for the Osage Nation. Wanting more money, they turned to horse theft, which forced them to flee the region. From there they organized themselves into a gang dedicated to robbing trains and banks. Their older brother, "Bill" Dalton, kept his distance from the actual robberies but proved useful as their informant and lookout.
Sensational coverage of the gang's activities meant that robberies committed across the entire country got pinned on them, even though their real territory centered on California, Kansas, Oklahoma Territory, and Indian Territory. Countless legends sprang up around their name. Once Bob and Grat met their end at Coffeyville, Bill Dalton went on to start a new gang alongside Bill Doolin, an outfit that became known as the Wild Bunch, or alternatively the Dalton-Doolin Gang.
Beginnings
All four of the Dalton brothers traced their lineage to James Lewis Dalton, a man with roots in Jackson County, Missouri, and in Kentucky. He ran a saloon in Kansas City, Missouri, at the time he wed Adeline Lee Younger. Adeline's connection to Cole and Jim Younger, the notorious figures of the James-Younger Gang, came through her half-brother, making her their aunt. Some have speculated that the Dalton boys drew inspiration from these well-known relatives, though the Youngers were considerably older and already behind bars during the years the Dalton Gang was active.
The children born to the Dalton family numbered twelve in all. Charles Benjamin, known as Ben, arrived in 1852 and lived until 1936. Henry Coleman, called Cole, was born in 1853 and died in 1920. Littleton Lee, or Lit, came next in 1857, surviving until 1942. Franklin, known simply as Frank, was born in 1859 and died in 1887. Gratton Hanley, called Grat, followed in 1861 and passed away in 1892. William Marion, known as Bill, was born in 1863 and died in 1894. Eva May entered the world in 1867 and lived to 1939. Robert Rennick, called Bob, was born in 1869 and died in 1892. Emmett came along in 1871 and lived until 1937. Leona Randolph was born in 1875 and died in 1964. Nancy May followed in 1876 and died in 1901. The last child, Simon Noel, known as Si, was born in 1878 and lived until 1928.
Among all these siblings, it was Bob, Grat, Emmett, and Bill who would go on to form the ranks of the Dalton Gang.
Lawmen
On November 27, 1887, Frank Dalton crossed the river from Fort Smith with fellow deputy marshal Jim Cole to arrest three men running whiskey. The moment they neared the camp, the bootleggers opened fire on them. Frank managed to shoot two of them dead before his weapon jammed, and the last bootlegger standing gunned him down. Cole, wounded in the exchange, fled the scene rather than stay by his side. Frank's remains rest in Coffeyville, Kansas.
Grat came back from California once his brother was gone and stepped into the deputy marshal position at Fort Smith. He brought Bob into the fold as well, giving him a spot as a posse member. By August of 1888 the pair had organized a posse targeting Charley Montgomery, a man accused of impersonating a deputy marshal. While Grat was off searching around Coffeyville, Bob tracked the suspect to Timber Hills and pushed ahead on his own, determined to make the arrest before Montgomery could slip out of the territory. The resulting stakeout left Montgomery dead.
By January 1889, both brothers held deputy positions, serving initially under Marshal Jones and afterward under Marshal R.L. Walker in Wichita. Hungry for additional income, Bob took on a second role with the Osage Nation police force alongside his marshal duties, since that position offered a monthly salary the marshals office did not provide. He went on to bring Emmett onto his team as well, assigning him to watch over prisoners.
Outlaws
On February 6, 1891, after dark, two men wearing masks and armed with 44-calibre revolvers stopped a Southern Pacific passenger train close to Alila, California, a town now called Earlimart. Their faces stayed hidden throughout the holdup. Years afterward, Lit Dalton claimed his brothers Bob and Emmett had confessed to him on multiple occasions that they were the ones responsible for robbing that train.
The pair had gone into hiding at a barn on a ranch a mile west of Malaga, where the brothers stayed up talking until dawn once they arrived. Lit confirmed for himself that Grat's horse really did have a limp, and he offered to help find a buyer for it. Because the animal was lame, it fetched only sixty dollars, and Grat could not locate a replacement horse afterward. He sent his saddle and gear ahead to Delano by rail and boarded a train bound for Traver, where Bob and Emmett were waiting. The three gambled through the night there before moving on to Tulare to do the same thing again. All along, they had been tracking the Southern Pacific's pay car on its route down the valley from Oakland toward Bakersfield, where it stopped to pay railroad workers. Gamblers and prostitutes always trailed this particular train, and Grat and Bob had trailed the pay car together on several earlier occasions.
For two weeks after the holdup, Bob and Emmett lay low in the mountains near Bill's property. Bill kept them supplied with food and provisions and arranged horses so they could stay ahead of anyone chasing them. Even so, Sheriff Kay caught up with Bill in Paso Robles and brought him to Visalia under arrest. A hearing followed, and Bill was ordered held for trial in connection with the Alila affair, though he managed to arrange bail and walk free.
Kay, together with his deputy Jim Ford, set out after Bob and Emmett. The trail led to their mother's house, which Kay watched for several days until poor weather sent him back to Kingfisher. When he returned the following day to resume his surveillance, the brothers had already slipped away. Kay spent hours in conversation with their mother, who went so far as to invite him in for breakfast. She insisted her sons had done nothing wrong, describing them instead as lawmen, and mentioned that they had headed to Guthrie if Kay wished to find them.
Kay and Ford covered the fifty miles to Guthrie, running into complications almost immediately due to overlapping tribal jurisdictions. Signs of a celebration from the previous night greeted them at the town's edge, where three white men hung lifeless from a large tree, and along the sidewalks groups of black men were shooting dice. Kay learned that before he and Ford had gotten there, Bob and Emmett had brawled with two cowboys in a saloon, leaving them badly beaten, then left town for Topeka.
Kay had no choice but to abandon the chase and head back to California for Grat's upcoming trial. The Daltons found no shortage of allies in that region who were happy to shelter them, and once back on familiar ground, they shook Kay easily. Confident they were no longer being followed, Bob and Emmett set about building what would come to be called the Dalton Gang.
While Bob and Emmett spent four months eluding Kay out in the desert, Grat remained locked up in the Tulare County jail at Visalia, waiting for his day in court. Once he had arranged bond, Bill traveled straight to Merced to hire John W. Beckenridge, considered the finest lawyer in the San Joaquin Valley, to represent Grat. Bill had no idea that Beckenridge also did consulting work for the Southern Pacific railroad. To cover the attorney's two-thousand-dollar fee, Bill parted with nearly all his horses and mules. Their mother traveled from Kingfisher to California as well, mortgaging her house and borrowing from ne
Written by Aubrey Research from Dalton Gang on Wikipedia, cited as a reference and not reproduced.
Where these engagements were fought
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Documented engagements
| Engagement | State | Year | Outcome | Forces or losses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capture of the Dalton Gang | NM | 1892 | Posse victory | two of the gang killed, five captured, three still at large |
Engagements and locations are compiled from published sources: Chronicling America, Library of Congress (contemporary newspaper reporting, public domain; passages cited, not reproduced).