Volume 16 , Issue 36

How Oklahoma Outlaw, Bill Doolin, Died (1896)

According to the Arizona Republican, dated Wednesday, 2 September 1896, page one, we find the article entitled, "How Bill Doolin Died." The noted outlaw, Doolin, gone at last was the subhead of the newspaper that day in 1896. The identification was beyond doubt, the reward paid, and his reformation postponed.

As transcribed from the Arizona Republican, the story goes as follows:

Kansas City Star: After paying $500 reward to Deputy United States Marshal Heck Thomas for the death of Bill Doolin, the last member of the famous Dalton gang, Capt. F. J. Dodge, special officer of the Wells, Fargo & Co.'s express, returned to Kansas City this morning from Guthrie, Oklahoma. He had seen and identified the dead body of the noted outlaw, and the testimony of many who had known Doolin satisfied the officers as to his identity.

In 1896, Doolin was shot last Monday and his body was held at Guthrie until Captain Dodge could identify it. There would be a funeral that morning and the remains of Bill Doolin would be buried at the Guthrie cemetery.

The story of the end of the outlaw, as told to Captain Dodge by Marshal Thomas, was as follows:

Of late Doolin had been spending his nights at the home of his wife in Lawson, a village of 150 inhabitants, about sixty-five miles from Guthrie. Mrs. Doolin was postmistress of the town and lived with a 2 year old daughter in a little cottage int he outskirts. It was customary for her outlaw husband to go to his home after dark at night and leave again before daylight. The villagers knew of his presence, but they were afraid to report it to the authorities.

When Marshal Thomas learned of Doolin's whereabouts he detailed two men to watch the premises. Mrs. Doolin suspected that her home was under surveillance and advised Bill to leave. He declared, however, that he would never go away until he had killed four of the posse which afterward captured him. Captain Dodge said that, after all, it was only by chance that Doolin was caught. When he left his house at 2 o'clock in the morning, armed with a Winchester and a 45 caliber Colt's revolver, the marshal and his posse were moving to the house preparatory to making the capture. It so happened that Doolin walked in the direction from which the posse was approaching and before he was aware of their presence, the outlaw heard the command "Halt!" Then someone cried, "Hold up your hands!" Doily brought his Winchester to his shoulder and fired two valleys almost as soon as the words were spoken. At almost the same instant members of the posse fired a volley from their shotguns and Marshal Thomas discharged his rifle. Doily stumbled, and as he fell forward fired off his revolver. His body with twenty-one buckshot wounds and a rifle bullet that had torn its way through his breast was taken to Guthrie.

For some time the health of the noted desperado had been falling. In the fight which followed the robbery of the Southwest City, Missouri, bank by the Dalton gang, Bill was hit by a bullet which lodged in his skull and was not extracted until after the desperado's death. After the Dalton gang had robbed the bank of Cimarron, Oklahoma, June 10, 1893, they were pursued by Sheriff Frank Healy of Beaver county and in a battle between the officers and the outlaws Doolin was shot in the right heel, the ball ranging upward into the ankle. From this wound he never recovered and these, together with rheumatism, from which he had suffered, broke down his constitution.

Bill Doolin was credited with six train robberies and three bank robberies and was implicated in many murders. The revolver, the firing of which was the criminal's last act, was given to Captain Dodge by Marshal Thomas and he brought it home in his pocket. It had been fully loaded, one cartridge only being discharged.

Mrs. Doolin, Captain Dodge said, accepted the situation philosophically, and did not show any malice toward the authorities who killed her husband. She married the desperado three years ago with the expectation of effecting his reformation, but in this she signally failed. She is a member of a respected family in Oklahoma.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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