The Dalton Gang was a group of outlaws in the American Old West during 1890–1892. It was also known as The Dalton Brothers because three of its members were brothers. The gang specialized in bank and train robberies. During an attempted double bank robbery in Coffeyville, Kansas, in 1892, two of the brothers and two other gang members were killed; Emmett Dalton survived, was captured, and later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, although he later asserted that he never fired a shot during the robbery. He was paroled after serving 14 years in prison.
Brothers Bob, "Grat", and Emmett had first worked as lawmen for the federal court at Fort Smith, Arkansas and then for the Osage Nation. They started stealing horses to make more money, and then fled the area. They decided to form a gang and started robbing trains and banks. While their older brother "Bill" Dalton never joined any heists, he served as their spy and informant.
Due to the sensationalism that surrounded the Dalton Gang's exploits, they were accused of robberies all over the country but operated chiefly in California, Kansas, Oklahoma Territory, and Indian Territory. Numerous myths were published about the gang. After Bob and Grat were killed at Coffeyville, Bill Dalton formed another gang with Bill Doolin, known as the Wild Bunch or the Dalton-Doolin Gang.
Beginnings James Lewis Dalton from Jackson County, Missouri, and Kentucky was the father of all four boys. He was a saloon keeper in Kansas City, Missouri, when he married Adeline Lee Younger. Through her half-brother, Adeline was an aunt of Cole and Jim Younger, of the James–Younger Gang. The Daltons may have been inspired by their famous cousins' exploits— the Youngers were much older and imprisoned at the time of the Dalton Gang's activities.
The Dalton children were: Charles Benjamin "Ben" Dalton (1852–1936) Henry Coleman "Cole" Dalton (1853–1920) Littleton "Lit" Lee Dalton (1857–1942) Franklin "Frank" Dalton (1859–1887) Gratton Hanley "Grat" Dalton (1861–1892) William Marion "Bill" Dalton (1863–1894) Eva May Dalton (1867–1939) Robert Rennick "Bob" Dalton (1869–1892) Emmett Dalton (1871–1937) Leona Randolph Dalton (1875–1964) Nancy May Dalton (1876–1901) Simon Noel "Si" Dalton (1878–1928)
The brothers who were members of the Dalton Gang were Bob, Grat, Emmett, and Bill.
Lawmen
On November 27, 1887, Frank Dalton and another deputy marshal, Jim Cole, went across the river from Fort Smith to arrest three whiskey bootleggers. As they approached the camp the bootleggers began to fire on them. Frank shot and killed two, but his gun jammed and he was killed by the remaining bootlegger. His deputy abandoned him after being wounded. Frank is buried in Coffeyville, Kansas.
After Frank's death, Grat moved back from California and took over his brother's job as deputy marshal at Fort Smith. He also brought Bob along as a posse member. In August 1888, the two formed a posse to arrest a man named Charley Montgomery. Montgomery was alleged to be posing as a deputy marshal. Bob discovered his location in Timber Hills while Grat was away searching in Coffeyville and went ahead to lead the posse in making the arrest himself before Montgomery could escape the territory. The stakeout ended in Montgomery’s death.
In January 1889, Grat and Bob both became deputies first under Marshal Jones and later under Marshal R.L. Walker in Wichita. Looking to earn more money, Bob also became part of the Osage Nation police force in addition to his job as a deputy. Unlike the marshals office, the Osage Police paid a monthly salary. Bob also hired Emmett under him to guard prisoners.
Outlaws
Alila Robbery On the night of February 6, 1891, two masked men carrying 44-calibre revolvers held up a Southern Pacific Railroad passenger train near the town of Alila (present day Earlimart, California). The outlaws had worn masks during the Alila robbery, concealing their identities. Some years later, Lit Dalton asserted that Bob and Emmett had told him many times that they had robbed the train.
Bob and Emmett were hiding out in a ranch barn a mile west of Malaga, and after arriving the brothers talked until morning. Lit noticed that Grat's horse was indeed limp and agreed to help Grat sell it. Since the horse was lame, they could only get $60 for it and Grat was unable to find another horse afterwards. Grat shipped his saddle and riding rig to Delano and took the train to Traver where he met Bob and Emmett. They played poker all night in Traver and then traveled to Tulare to do the same. They had been following the Southern Pacific pay car as it made its way down the valley from Oakland to Bakersfield to pay railroad employees. This train was always accompanied by a crowd of gamblers and prostitutes, and Grat and Bob had "followed the pay car" together several times before.
Pursuit across the Southwest In the two weeks following the robbery, Bob and Emmett hid out in the mountains near Bill's ranch. Bill left his brothers supplies and food and obtained horses to evade pursuit.
Despite these efforts, Bill was arrested in Paso Robles by Sheriff Kay and taken to Visalia. After a hearing, Bill was held for trial for the Alila robbery, but he secured bondsmen and was released.
Sheriff Kay decided to pursue Bob and Emmett with his deputy, Jim Ford.
Kay tracked the Daltons to their mother's home, and kept watch of the house for a few days before being forced to return to Kingfisher because of bad weather. When he returned the next day to watch the house, he discovered that Bob and Emmett had escaped. Kay talked to their mother for several hours and she even invited him in for breakfast. She denied any wrongdoing by her sons, stating that they were in fact lawmen, and told Kay they had gone to Guthrie if he wanted to talk with them.
Kay and Ford traveled the fifty miles to Guthrie, but soon came into problems when dealing with different tribal jurisdictions. At Guthrie, Kay and Ford noticed that there had been some sort of celebration the night before as they were greeted by three white men hanging from a large tree at the entrance to town and noticed the streets were lined with several groups of black men playing Craps on the sidewalks. Kay found out that, before they had arrived, Bob and Emmett had got into a fight at one of the saloons there and badly beat up two cowboys before leaving for Topeka.
Sheriff Kay was forced to give up the chase in order to return to California for Grat's trial. The Daltons had plenty of friends in the area willing to hide them and easily lost Kay once they were in familiar territory. After they realized they were no longer being pursued, Bob and Emmett began to form what would be known as the Dalton Gang.
Grat's trial For the four months that Bob and Emmett spent trying to lose Sheriff Kay in the desert, Grat sat in the Tulare County jail in Visalia awaiting his trial. After securing bondsmen, Bill immediately went to Merced and hired John W. Beckenridge, the best attorney in the San Joaquin Valley, to defend Grat. What Bill did not know is that Beckenridge was also a consulting attorney for the Southern Pacific railroad. To help pay him the two thousand dollars he asked for, Bill sold almost all of his horses and mules. Their mother also came to California from Kingfisher to pay Beckenridge after she mortgaged her home and borrowed money from neighbors. She then traveled to Visalia with her two daughters, as well as her sons Ben, Cole, Lit and Bill, for Grat's trial.
Grat's trial did not start until that June and it lasted three weeks. Though much of the evidence showed that Grat was in Fresno the night of the Alila robbery, including the testimony of several witnesses, the influence of the powerful Southern Pacific Railroad caused him to receive an unfair trial. Beckenridge showed up to the trial late and drunk, and neither the defense, nor the prosecution mentioned that the fireman had been accidentally killed by the expressman. This was unknown to Grat, since the Dalton brothers had all assumed that Emmett had killed the fireman. Almost all of Beckenridge's witnesses were bar keepers, gamblers, saloon hangers-on, or pimps. Sheriff Kay even pointed out during the trial that Beckenridge had overlooked Grat's rights. Southern Pacific detective Will Smith visited Grat's cell almost every day during the trial trying to get a confession out of him and Grat began to despise Smith.
Kay knew that, besides Beckenridge's sabotage of the case, Grat would probably be found innocent and their case against Bob and Emmett would fall through. Towards the end of the trial, Sheriff Kay, Detective Smith, and District Attorney Power talked to Grat while taking him back to his cell from the court room when Beckenridge was not present. Kay told Grat that he knew neither Bob or Emmett killed the fireman. He offered to admit this in court if Grat and Bill told the true story of the robbery. Detective Smith decided to chime in, but Grat said he would not say a word while Smith was present. Smith was told to leave and both Bill and Grat agreed to tell their story, but only if they showed that there was no first degree murder in the robbery. The Daltons told their stories, but neither Kay or Beckenridge ever cleared up the murder point and ruined Grat's case.
Ceres robbery Grat was taken back to jail to await his sentence. While in jail, a train robbery occurred near Ceres, on September 3, 1891, but was unsuccessful with no money being taken. The only evidence found at the robbery was a coat made from a tailor from Visalia. Kay suspected that this was probably the work of some suspects he had from Visalia, but the railroad detectives demanded the arrest of the remaining Dalton brothers. Kay telegraphed his deputy George Witty and told him to check on Bill Dalton and to immediately notify him when he was found. Kay checked on his Visalia suspects, who at the time were running a livery stable in Modesto, and was convinced they were not involved with the Ceres robbery. He then went to Fresno to check on Lit and Cole Dalton, and was convinced of the same.
When Kay returned to Visalia, he immediately went with detective Smith to the tailor of the coat found at the Ceres robbery. The tailor remembered the coat, but he could not remember who had bought it, only that some girl had picked it up once it was clean. After Kay finished talking to the cleaner, Deputy George Witty reported to him that telegrams from the coast said Bill was not in Paso Robles or Estrella. Neither was he in Merced or Livingston. Witty did have a clue from another deputy that two strange men had been seen hanging around after dark on the open plain near Traver and at the abandoned Overland Stage station at Cross Creek. Kay suspected that Bob and Emmett might be back in California to free Grat from jail, and took Deputy Witty with him to the Cross Creek station in his buggy.
Late in the afternoon, Kay and Witty were about four hundred yards from the station when they saw two men crouching as they crossed the road from the old stage barn to the station. Kay's buggy was directly facing the setting sun, so they could not tell who the men were. The road curved behind some willow trees, and Kay told Witty to drive past the house, passing close to the door, and then to drive back. With his revolver in hand, Kay dropped to the ground as they passed the door and slowly entered the station. Maggie Rucker, the woman who once ran the Cross Creek Overland station, was sitting with another girl alone in the front room, silently making dresses. Kay asked Rucker if there was anyone else around and she replied that there was not. Right as she said this, Kay heard someone rush across the floor of an adjoining room and through the crack in the door he could see a man taking position at the window.