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Show Last Echo of a Hard-Riding Band of Western Outlaws Dies Away Recent Death of Emmett Dalton Recalls the October Day 45 Years Ago When He and His Brothers Rode into Coffeyvillo, Kan., to Rob Two Banks at the Same Time and There Fought the "Most Desperate Street Battle in the History of the Frontier." Western Newspaper Union. By ELMO SCOTT WATSON COFFEYVILLE, KAN., had a veritable "reign of terror" just before noon today. The Dalton band vt outlaws on horseback raided the town and captured cap-tured two banks and the employees. em-ployees. The citizens were soon aroused by the noise, got their guns and gave battle. bat-tle. The result was eight deaths, including three Dal-tons. Dal-tons. Three of the outlaws are dying and Emmett Dalton may expire at any minute. Four citizens are dead.includ-ing dead.includ-ing Marshal Connelly and three dangerously wounded. The Dalton gang is wiped out of existence, although Coffey-ville Coffey-ville paid a dear price. So read a message which flashed over the wires on October Octo-ber 5. 1S92, and, except for a few minor inaccuracies, it was an adequate summary of what future fu-ture chroniclers would write down as the "most desperate street battle in the history of the Vest." But Emmett Dalton did not "expire at any minute," as predicted. pre-dicted. Instead, he survived to serve 14 years of a life sentence in the Kansas state penitentiary, to be pardoned, "go straight" and preach the gospel of "crime doesn't pay," to make a comfortable com-fortable fortune as a business man in California and to die there on July 13 of this year at the age of sixty-six. The Coffeyville raid was the spectacular climax to the career of a band of hard-riding, hard-shooting hard-shooting train bandits and train robbers because of whose activity activ-ity rewards totaling $40,000 were offered by the railway and express companies for members ..-vc; - 4 - I j -k; fr-.-kk l''" '''' Bob Dalton in 1839. of this gang, "dead or alive." It3 personnel varied, being made up at various time3 of Bob, Grat and Emmett Dalton, Charlie Bryant, Bill McElhanie ("The Harrow Gauge Kid"), Bill Pow ers, Bill Doolin, Charley Pierce and Dick Broadwell. In 1E32, Bob Dalton proposed a hold-up that would eclipse anything any-thing the James-Younger gang had ever attempted a double-header" double-header" daylight robbery of the two banks in Coffeyville, Kan. Emmett was opposed to the plan, declaring that too many people in Coffeyville knew them, even if they were capable of handling such a job. But when he found Bob determined to try it, he consented con-sented to accompany the party which consisted of Bob and Grat Dalton, Bill Powers and Dick Broadwell. So on the morning of October 5, shortly after 9 o'clock, these outlaws rode into Coffeyville, intending in-tending to tie their horses to the hitchracks along Eighth street to the right and rear of the Condon bank. This was a flatiron building build-ing which faced on the Plaza, the triangular center of the town across which and to the left stood the other bank, the First National. Fate Intervenes. If everything had gone as they planned, their daring scheme might have worked. But a fateful fate-ful mischance interfered. That particular block in Eighth street was torn up while a gang of negroes ne-groes was putting in new curbing. curb-ing. Seeing this, Bob Dalton Emmett Dalton Tries to Rescue His Brother, Bob. (From an Illustration in "Beyond the Law" by Emmett Dalton.) quickly shifted his plans. He led his companions into an alley that paralleled Eighth avenue, a narrow nar-row thoroughfare that was destined des-tined to be "Death Alley" for the Daltons. Tying their horses here, Grat Dalton, Bill Powers and Dick Broadwell dashed across the Plaza into the Condon bank and Bob and Emmett Dalton rushed over to the First National. Covering Cov-ering the Condon bank officials with their Winchesters (the favorite favor-ite weapons of the Dalton Gang) the outlaws forced T. C. Carpenter Carpen-ter to put $3,000 in silver and SI, 000 in currency in a bag they had brought with them. But Grat Dalton wanted gold and demanded de-manded that the vault be opened. Quick-witted C. M. Ball, the cashier, cash-ier, told him that the vault was set on a time lock which could not be opened until nine-thirty. It was then 20 minutes of ten, but Grat Dalton didn't know that. "All right, we can wait ten minutes," he said. And that was a second fatal mischance for the Daltons. By this time the alarm had been given and the citizenry of Coffeyville was arming itself for a final accounting with the Dalton Gang. A Nervy Exhibition. "In all my life I have never known an exhibition of chilled steel nerve such as Grat Dalton, Powers and Broadwell gave there, waiting, watching the minute min-ute hand of the big clock creep slowly around while the town , armed itself and began bombard-i bombard-i ing the bank, the bullets boring ; hundreds of holes through the . plate glass window." So wrote . Emmett Dalton years later, and frontier historians agree with Vtim MoarmiViilo Ti-.h onH "Prv,. him. Meanwhile Bob ana t,m-mett t,m-mett Dalton had held up the First National bank, seized $23,000 and killed three citizens as they retreated re-treated to the alley where their horses were and where they expected ex-pected to find their companions. But by this time the bombardment bombard-ment of the citizenry had convinced con-vinced the three bandits in the Condon bank that it would be fatal to wait longer for the vault to be opened. They dashed out of the bank and ran across the Plaza under a heavy fire which wounded all three of them before they reached the alley. Of the desperate fighting there Emmett Dalton has written: In Death Alley. "This whole alley was thick with a haze of smoke from our rifles and from the guns of the citizens who were shooting at us from sheds and board fences all along the alley. Bullets whined and kicked up clouds of dust. I had been shot in the arm and hip. Broadwell had been shot through. Powers was shot in the arm. Grat was wounded. I saw Bob reel as a bullet hit him. But we were all still on our feet, all shooting, while trying to reach our horses. The rifles sounded like the popping of corn in a skillet. I saw a bullet hit Grat and heard the dull impact of it, and saw it knock out a little spurt of dust from his coat, and he dropped dead. I heard a bullet hit Bob and he sagged down against a board fence . . . City Marshal Connelly came into the alley, right among us, shooting and one of our band, I don't know which, killed him. "Death Alley was shrieking with bullets now, as other men in the hardware store got rifles and joined in the bombardment. My brother Grat and Powers were sprawled out dead. Two of our horses were down. Broadwell reeled as he clawed his way into his saddle and he called to me 'I'm bad hit.' " Broadwell managed to reach his horse but as he rode away Carey Seaman and John J. Kloehr, the keeper of the livery stable, who did some of the most effective shooting that day, opened fire on him. and he fell dead from his horse a short dis- i . t - ( k ..-iV 'if s ; ; : - " - - ' 1 t i j ?-w - i -r - -r. '' V- : ' 1 t , c ' 4 if i L . i r - fc-a v.' -i-- ."".f-sKS.--" r i r t The Condon Bank. tance out of town. A moment later Carey Seaman fired the last shot in this desperate battle. For Emmett Dalton, who had by this time reached his horse, now displayed that same "chilled steel nerve" for which he had praised his three companions. He might even yet have escaped, but as he started to ride out of the alley it suddenly flashed through his mind that his beloved leader and elder brother, Bob, was back there, helpless on the ground. Turning his mount, he spurred through the storm of bullets bul-lets to where Bob Dalton lay and leaned over to try to pull the stricken bandit up beside him. As he did so, Bob Dalton opened his eyes and muttered: "Don't mind me, Emmett. I'm done for. Don't surrender. Die game." At that moment Carey Seaman fired both barrels from a shotgun into Emmett Dalton's back. Then, writes Dalton; "I felt myself falling . . '. with a thud I dropped alongside Bob. Then came darkness and quiet. The popping of the guns died eway. The brightness of the sun ceased and all was still. I sank back on the ground. The Dalton Gang was no more." |