Bill Doolin "Oklahoma Outlaw"

[buckshot roberts]

Bill Doolin

 
Bill Doolin taken at Wagoner, Indian Territory in the 1890's. The scholars appear to be divided into camps on the authenticity of this photo. Many claim it is the photo of another outlaw named Bill (unknown) who rode in the gang, and many claim it really is Bill Doolin. Who is right and who is wrong is anyone's guess.
 
 
 
 
 
William "Bill" Doolin was born on a farm in northeastern Johnson County, Arkansas. At the age of 23, he drifted west, eventually ending up in Caldwell, Kansas, where he met rancher Oscar D. Halsall of Texas, who had a ranch in Oklahoma Territory. It was during this time as a cowboy that he would meet most of the members who would later comprise his future Wild Bunch: George "Bitter Creek" Newcomb, Charlie Pierce, Bill Power, Dick Broadwell, Bill "Tulsa Jack" Blake, and Emmett Dalton.
 
Doolin's first brush with the law appears to be 4 July 1891, when he and several of his cowboy pals decided to celebrate with a keg of beer in Coffeyville, Kansas. At that time, Kansas was a dry state, and when the constables showed up to confiscate the beer, a shootout commenced, which left two lawmen wounded. From that day onward, Bill Doolin was on the dodge. Two months later, Doolin was part of the Dalton Gang, and his train-robbing spree began.
 
Historians are not sure if Bill Doolin was the mysterious sixth rider on 5 October 1892, when the Dalton Gang hit the two banks in Coffeyville, Kansas, at the same time. It is accepted that a sixth man was in the alley holding the horses, but whoever he was, he escaped the fate of the rest of the Gang members that day. Emmett Dalton was the only known member to live through the Coffeyville shootout, and he never revealed who was in the alley. It is an on-going mystery to this day.
 
With the death of the Daltons in Coffeyville, the three surviving members - Doolin, Newcomb, and Pierce - reorganized themselves under the leadership of Doolin. ONe new recruit named Oliver "Ol" Yantis helped rob a bank in Spearville, Kansas, on 1 November 1892, before high-tailing it to his sister's house in Oklahoma Territory, where marshals eventually tracked and killed him in a shootout one month later. By the end of 1892, four other men had joined the gang: Bill "Tulsa Jack" Blake, Dan "Dynamite Dick" Clifton, George "Red Buck" Waightman, and Bill Dalton of the infamous Dalton Gang.
 
As their reputation for robbing banks and trains grew, the gang became bolder and bolder. It was not long before Bill Doolin was known as the "King of the Oklahoma Bandits." On 14 March 1893, Doolin married Edith Ellsworth of Ingalls, Oklahoma Territory. Whether Edith knew her husband was an outlaw or not is not known, but throughout his career, she stuck by him, keeping the marriage a secret and meeting him in secret. To celebrate the wedding, the gang robbed a train near Cimarron, Kansas, and while attempting to escape, Doolin was shot in the foot. Although he recovered, he walked with a limp, and rheumatism set in. It would be a contributing factor in his capture years later.
 
Roy "Arkansas Tom Jones" Daugherty had also joined the gang by now, but he was not scheduled to last long. The marshals had discovered that the Doolin-Dalton Gang was using Ingalls as a home base, and they set a trap. On 1 September 1893, two wagons loaded with 13 marshals entered town. In the battle which followed, 3 marshals were killed, 2 bystanders were killed and 1 wounded, 2 of the bandits were wounded, and Arkansas Tom was captured. He received a sentence of 50 years in prison.
 
By the summer of 1894, Bill Dalton had been killed by marshals, but the rest of the Wild Bunch was still robbing trains and banks in the territories. By now, they had such high rewards on their heads that it was customary for them to scatter after each job. Former friends suddenly became enemies for the reward money. On 1 May 1895, Bitter Creek and Charlie Pierce were shot dead while they slept, for the price on their heads. With his buddies dying one by one, Doolin saw the handwriting on the wall. He contacted a lawyer and had him offer a deal with Marshal Nix. If the marshal would promise him a light sentence, he would turn himself in. The marshal refused, and Doolin left for New Mexico, hiding out with another member of the gang, Richard "Little Dick" West, until the summer of 1895.
 
U.S. Deputy Marshal Heck Thomas
 
Tiring of life without his family, Doolin returned to Oklahoma to gather his wife and son and retreat into obscurity in Burden, Kansas. But Marshal Bill Tilghman learned of Edith's disappearance from Ingalls, and he managed to track her to Kansas. He was too late. Edith had already returned to Oklahoma, and the man she traveled with, Tom Wilson, had gone to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, for the hot spas for his rheumatism. Tilghman suspected the man was Doolin, and he went to Eureka Spring, where he placed Doolin under arrest and returned him to Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory. For the first time, Bill Doolin was behind bars.
 

On 5 July 1896, Bill Doolin and 12 other prisoners made good an escape from the Guthrie Jail. Doolin made it to Lawson, where he found Edith. They made plans to escape the territory, but the law was too close. One month later, on 24 August, Bill Doolin was ambushed and killed by Deputy Marshal Heck Thomas and his posse. By 8 April 1898, all the remaining members of the Doolin Gang had been tracked to earth by Heck Thomas, and all chose to shoot it out rather than surrender.
 

Bill Doolin lies buried in the Boot Hill part of the city cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

The Bill Doolin Story

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[Widlcat]

Good article.