Volume 17 , Issue 19

Oklahoma Outlaws of 19th Century

Bob Dalton was the wild one of the Dalton brothers, and the ringleaders of the outlaw brothers. Bob Dalton included the likes of Bill Doolin, Dick Broadwell and Blackface Charley Bryant. Charley got his unusual nickname because he had a black powder gun blow up in his face.

It was in the early 1890's when the Daltons rode out of Kingfisher, Oklahoma Territory to spread their rein of terror, as their ill-fated, ill-conceived trip to Coffeyville, Kansas, their hometown. Things didn't work out so well for the Daltons, though. There was a shootout in Coffeyville, Kansas when the Daltons attempted to rob two banks. Bob and Grat were killed in the armed melee with Emmett seriously wounded. Emmett served a stretch in the Lansing pen for robbery before he was pardoned by the Kansas governor. Emmett went to California and became a technical advisor in the making of western movies.

Bill Dalton was notified to come take care of his brother's final affairs. There were those who said that Bill lived in California at the time of the bank robberies at Coffeyville, but when Bill was killed, Marshals found letters addressed to his wife in California and mailed from Oklahoma Territory months before the Coffeyville Raid. Bill's real name was Mason Frakes Dalton, although he always went by the name Bill.

The Dalton brothers mother was Adeline Younger, the aunt of Cole, Bob and Jim Younger and a cousin of Frank and Jesse James. The Daltons moved to Coffeyville from Missouri at the beginning of the Civil War to escape the ravages that were known to be coming.

It was the opening of the Oklahoma Territory (O.T.) in 1889 that Lewis and Adeline Dalton made the run like so many others into the new land settling near Kingfisher, O.T. Charles, Littleton and Henry Dalton made claims near Kingfisher to be near their father. There were 15 children in the Dalton family and only Bob, Bill, Grat and Emmett turned to a life of crime. Their siblings were solid, productive citizens in Oklahoma Territory.

It was after the Coffeyville raid, that Bill Dalton reorganized the remaining gang with Bill Doolin, Roy Daugherty (aka Arkansas Tom Jones), George Newton, and Tulsa Jack Blake, William F. Raidler (aka Little Bill) and Richard West (aka Little Dick). It was later that Three-fingered Dynamite Dick hung out with the gang. The headquarters for the gang was in the town of Ingalls in the Cherokee Strip.

The last raid committed by the last Dalton outlaw occurred on 23 May 1894. The gang consisted of Jim Wallace, Big Asa Knight, Jim Knight and George Bennett. It was 3p.m. when two roughly dressed men appeared at the desk of the president of the First National Bank of Longview, Texas. One of the men handed President Clemmons a note that read: "This will introduce you to Charles Spreckelmeyer, who wants some money and he is going to have it. B. and F."

Some say the "B&F" stood for "Bill and friends." There was a family named Spreckelmeyer living in Ardmore at that this time. Looking down of a winchester, the 1st National Bank was robbed of $2,000 in ten dollar bank notes and nine twenty dollar bills. This was before the Federal Reserve System issued their own currency as well as the National Currency.

The City Marshal, learning of the robbery in progress, assembled the citizens of Longview and the gun battle between the bad men and the good town folks ensued. The bandits let the bank president and tellers out of the bank, holding them as shields. It was while the posse was busy shooting at the bank president and tellers, that the bandits mounted up and rode away unscathed.
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