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Bill Doolin | |
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| Born | 1858 Johnson County, Arkansas, USA |
| Died | August 24, 1896 (aged 37–38) |
| Cause of death | Gunshot wound |
| Resting place | Summit View Cemetery 35°53′45″N97°24′12″W / 35.89583°N 97.40333°W /35.89583; -97.40333 (Bill Doolin Burial Site) |
| Occupations |
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| Spouse | Edith Ellsworth Doolin |
| Parents |
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William Doolin (1858–August 24, 1896) was an American bandit outlaw and founder of theWild Bunch, sometimes known as the Doolin-Dalton Gang. Like the earlierDalton Gang alone, it specialized inrobbing banks,trains, andstagecoaches inArkansas,Kansas,Indiana, andOklahoma during the 1890s.
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Doolin was born in 1858 inJohnson County, Arkansas, to Michael Doolin and the former Artemina Beller. Doolin left home in 1881 to become acowboy inIndian Territory, where he worked for cattleman Oscar Halsell, aTexas native. During this time, Doolin worked with other cowboy and outlaw names of the day, includingGeorge Newcomb (known as "Bitter Creek"),Charley Pierce, Bill Power, Dick Broadwell, Bill "Tulsa Jack" Blake,Dan "Dynamite Dick" Clifton, Billie "Little Bill" Raidler and the better-knownEmmett Dalton.
Doolin's first encounter with the law came on July 4, 1891, inCoffeyville in southeastern Kansas. Doolin and some friends were drunk in public, and lawmen attempted to confiscate their alcohol. A shootout ensued, and two of the lawmen were wounded. Doolin escaped capture by fleeing.
Shortly thereafter, Doolin became a member of the Dalton Gang. On October 5, 1892, the Dalton Gang tried to rob two banks simultaneously in Coffeyville. It was an utter failure. Coffeyville residents and lawmen rallied in a shootout against the outlaws, resulting in four of the five gang members being killed. Emmett Dalton was captured and convicted at trial, and imprisoned. Historians have speculated that a sixth gang member was in town, holding the horses in an alley, and escaped. The sixth man has never been identified. Some speculate that he may have been Bill Doolin.[1]
In late 1892, Doolin formed his own gang, the Wild Bunch. On November 1, 1892, the gang robbed a bank inSpearville, Kansas. After the robbery, the gang fled with gang memberOliver Yantis to Oklahoma Territory, where they hid out at the house of Yantis's sister. Less than a month later, the gang was tracked to that location. In a shootout, Yantis was killed, but the rest of the gang escaped.
Two teenaged girls, known asLittle Britches andCattle Annie, also followed the gang as bandits. They warned the men whenever law-enforcement officers were in pursuit. Sources indicate that Doolin gave bandit Jennie Stevens her nickname of Little Britches.[2]
Following the Spearville robbery, the gang embarked on a spree of successful bank and train robberies. In March 1893, Doolin married Edith Ellsworth inIngalls, Oklahoma. Shortly thereafter, Doolin and his gang robbed a train nearCimarron, Kansas. During a shootout with lawmen, Doolin was shot and seriously wounded in the foot.[1] He retreated to Ingalls.
On September 1, 1893, 14 deputyU.S. marshals entered Ingalls to apprehend the gang. The armed confrontation became known as theBattle of Ingalls. During the shootout, three marshals and two bystanders were killed, one bystander was wounded, three of the gang members were wounded, and gang member"Arkansas Tom Jones" was wounded and captured. Doolin shot and killed Deputy Marshal Richard Speed during that shootout.[1]
For a time, the Wild Bunch was the most powerful outlaw group in theOld West. Because of the relentless pursuit by the deputy marshals known as theThree Guardsmen (lawmenBill Tilghman,Chris Madsen, andHeck Thomas), by the end of 1894, they had either captured or killed many of the gang. In late 1894, gang member Bill Dalton was killed by U.S. marshals. Rewards were offered for the capture or death of remaining gang members, a lure that sometimes turned friends into foes to collect the money. On May 1, 1895, gang members Charlie Pierce and George "Bittercreek" Newcomb were shot and killed bybounty hunters known as theDunn brothers. They were the older brothers ofRose Dunn, the teenaged girlfriend of Newcomb. Allegedly, she had betrayed Newcomb, but her brothers may have trailed her to the outlaws' hideout.[citation needed]
Doolin fled toNew Mexico Territory, where he hid with outlaw Richard "Little Dick" West during the summer of 1895. In late 1895, Doolin and his wife hid out nearBurden, Kansas. They went over the border to visit the resort community ofEureka Springs in northwestern Arkansas. There, Doolin soaked in the sulfur springs in the bathhouses; the waters relieved therheumatism in his foot that set in after an earlier gunshot. In early 1896, Doolin was captured in a bathhouse by deputy marshal Bill Tilghman.
Doolin escaped from jail on July 5, and took refuge with his wife inLawson in the Oklahoma Territory. There, on August 24, Doolin was killed by a shotgun blast in a confrontation with Deputy U.S. Marshal Heck Thomas.[1]
Bill Doolin is buried next to outlawElmer McCurdy, in the Boot Hill section of Summit View Cemetery inGuthrie, Oklahoma.
By the end of 1898, all but one of the remaining former Wild Bunch gang were dead, having been killed in various shootouts with lawmen. Heck Thomas had tracked most of them; the remainder were tracked down and eliminated by lawmen Madsen and Tilghman, or otherposses.[1][page needed] The only survivor of the Wild Bunch was "Little Bill" Raidler (aka Radler) who had been shot and captured by Tilghman in Osage territory near Caney Creek on September 6, 1895. Little Billie had split from the gang after the Rock Island robbery near Dover. Near death, Billie was nursed back to health and stood trial in Kingfisher, Ok. He was permanently crippled, but sent to the Ohio Penitentiary near Columbus. He was released for poor health in 1892 and returned to western Oklahoma where he married his girlfriend, Blanch Whitenack on Nov.19, 1902 in Taloga, Oklahoma. He died an early, natural death in about 1910.
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