Busted - True West Magazine
Vowing revenge from being fired from their jobs as lawmen (for horse rustling and selling liquor on Federal land) patrolling the Indian Territory, Bob Dalton forms what will be known as the Dalton Gang ... a group of hard cases that includes Bob, Bob's older brother Grat, his younger brother Emmett, and three of Emmett's friends from his days cowboying for Oscar D. Halsell's Bar X Bar Ranch along the Cimarron River, George "Bitter Creek" Newcomb (a cowboy from the age of 12, he picks up his nickname from his repeated singing of an old cowboy tune that includes the lyrics, "I'm a wild wolf from Bitter Creek and it's my night to howl!"); Bill McElhanie (an Arkansas native good with a gun and a branding iron), and "Black Face" Charley Bryant.
Bob Dalton
Halsell
Byrant is born in Wise County, Texas (the exact date is unknown) before the Civil War and is cowboying for a living by the time he is a teenager. A hard case known to authorities, he is easy for victims to identify after crimes because he bears a souvenir of one of his wilder saloon evenings ... almost hit in the face at point-blank range in a drunken gunfight, Bryant is "Black Face" Charley because of the black spots all over his left cheek where the grains of black gunpowder from the near miss are embedded. His first criminal job working for the Daltons is to supply the former lawmen with stolen horses. When Bob Dalton decides to form a regular band of outlaws for train and bank robbery in the region, Black Face Charley is one of the first recruits and will be there when the gang makes its first robbery, taking the money from a Mexican gambling hall outside of Silver City, New Mexico that the men convince themselves has been cheating at faro (and the subsequent gun battle with a chasing posse), and at the band's first train job, the night robbery of a Santa Fe train just outside of Wharton in the Oklahoma Territory (about sixty miles south of the Kansas border) that nets the five outlaws involved only $500 (aware of what is going on, the quick thinking messenger in the train's express car hides money meant for Guthrie, Oklahoma's bank in the car's empty stove). Told by Bob Dalton that there is to be no gun play during the robbery unless the men's lives are in jeopardy, Black Face Charley ignores the admonition and as he is riding out of town following the heist, takes a killing potshot at the young station agent and telegraph operator for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad when he sees the man silhouetted by the glow of the depot's kerosene lamps(Bryant will state he thought the man was sending a telegraph message about the robbery). Later, when Bob rips into Bryant for not following orders, the gunman will try to justify his behavior by stating he hopes he goes out in "... one hell-firin' minute of smokin' action." A fate he almost encounters again when he is one of the shooters at Skeleton Creek that kills Bill Starmer (after wounding another posse member, William Thompson, in the chest) when the posse man from Missouri rides into Oklahoma looking to reclaim 10 horses the gang has stolen.
Black Face Charley - True West Magazine
In July of 1891, the bandits are camped out near Buffalo Springs, Oklahoma, readying for their next raid when Byrant becomes sick ... no one sure what the cause of his chills, sweats, and tormented bowels is, the bandit is either suffering from malaria or some form of venereal disease. Already mulling over whether to kick Bryant out of the gang and replace him with a young hooligan named Bill Doolin, with a $1,000 reward now on Byrant's head for killing the depot agent, Bob Dalton is glad to send the ailing desperado off to recuperate from his illness at the nearby home of his brother, Jim Bryant, in the town of Mulhall (the rest of the family is still in Texas). Headed for his brother's place with two single-action Colt .45 revolvers, a Winchester rifle, and 100 rounds of ammunition, Bryant makes it as far as the small town of Hennessey when his illness grabs him again and instead of proceeding on, he leaves his horse at the local livery stable, books himself into a second floor room (he is so sick he uses his own name to register) at the Rock Island Railroad Hotel (run by an old friend named Ben Thorne and his kid sister Jean, whom Bryant is rumored to be having an affair with), contacts the local doctor, and stripped down to his underwear, gets into bed with his weapons. A mistake on Bryant's part, seeking succor from his sickness has placed him within the reach of 27-year-old United States Deputy Marshal, Charles Edwin "Ed" Short.
Bill Doolin
Short
Ed Short is born in New Marion, Indiana on October 27, 1864. Looking for something different than being a farmer in rural Indiana, as a 17-year-old teenager, Short heads west and settles first in Emporia, Kansas, becoming a cowboy. Next stop is a ranching job near the cowtown of Hunnewell, Kansas, on the state's border with Oklahoma. By 1888, Short is in Stevens County, Kansas, serving as the town marshal of Woodsdale (and heavily involved in the vicious Stevens County Seat War that will see four men murdered and a number more wounded). No nonsense reputation gained, in 1890 when William C. Grimes is appointed United States Marshal for the Oklahoma territory, one of his first appointments is to make Short a deputy marshal and assign him the task of reining in the Daltons (the Daily Oklahoman will describe the large blonde lawman as a "fearless gunman). A born detective, though the raiders wore bandanna masks, Short uses witness testimony (which also mentions the gunman having a Texas accent) to identify the Wharton robber with a gunpowder smudge on his face as Black Face Charley Bryant ... an identification that Short connects to the outlaw once working with Emmett Dalton as a cow puncher on the Bar X Bar, and that Byrant's brother is homesteading near the town of Mulhall, and that information then leads to knowledge of Bryant's friendship with Ben Thorne and his sister, Jean. Making the town of Hennessy his base of operations for duties within the Second Judicial District of Oklahoma (comprised of the counties of Kingfisher, Canadian, Washita, Roger Mills, Day, and Beaver), Short believes that sooner or later Bryant (and maybe some Daltons too as their mother's farm is also located in Kingfisher County, only a couple miles north of the town of Kingfisher, she is also aunt of outlaws Jim, John, Cole, and Bob Younger) will show up in the area to see his friends ... and Short is right.
Grimes
Receiving word that Bryant is staying at the Rock Island Railway Hotel, Short secretly watches the hotel and the rooms Jean Thorne is serving. Seeing she is taking lunch up to a second room that is suppose to be unoccupied, Short slips out of his boots, and in socks, quietly follows Thorne upstairs to where she is serving the outlaw lunch. Bursting into the room at the most opportune time as Thorne is laying out the bandit's simple meal of soup, bread, and ice cold water, Short gets the drop on the obviously ill Bryant with his six-shooter (for a moment, Bryant weighs the odds of grabbing his own pistol from where it is concealed beneath a pillow on the bed) and makes his arrest (a support posseman shows up shortly afterwards). But there is a problem, the town of Hennessy has no jail and the nearest place of confinement is in the town of Guthrie, where Bryant and the Daltons have a slew of friends who would probably try and free the killer. Those two options negated, Short decides the only rational move is to take Bryant to Wichita, Kansas on the next day's northbound, late afternoon train. Waiting for tomorrow to arrive, Bryant is cuffed to his bed and then watched throughout the night by wither Short or his partner.
Just A Train Ride Away From Safety
On Sunday afternoon, shortly after noon, deciding to leave his assistant behind to man the office and that he can manage his sick captive alone, Short and a handcuffed Bryant make their way on to the train heading for Wichita, but grabbing their seats, Short notices that the other passengers are viewing the presence of the lawman and his sick charge with revulsion. Changing plans on the fly, Short convinces Conductor James Collins to allow him to hold Bryant out of sight in the baggage car. Moving to their new location, Bryant complains about the pain he is suffering having his hands cuffed behind his back and Short makes the mistake of changing the bondage to Bryant having his hands cuffed in front of him ... a major mistake that will lead to the gunfight that takes place. Arriving at the baggage car, Bryant, pretending to still be almost nonfunctional with his sickness, collapses on a pile of mail bags and appears to go to sleep, but he is actually watching and waiting for the right moment to escape. The moment arrives as the train starts slowing for a brief stop thirteen miles north of Hennessy at the town of Waukomis. Thinking it might be the perfect spot for the Daltons to mount an escape attempt, Short gives the messenger working the baggage car a pistol and tells him to watch Bryant (along with directions to kill the outlaw if he tries anything) while he steps on to the car's platform with his Winchester to reconnoiter whether any trouble is about. Still having a major load of sorting work to do, the messenger watches Bryant for a few seconds, then thinking him out with the sweats, he puts the weapon in a pigeonhole in his desk and goes back to putting the car's mail in order. Watching, as soon as Bryant sees no one between him and the gun, the bandit is suddenly well enough to jump up from the bags on the floor of the car and grab the pistol. Armed, Bryant tells the railroad employee to stay quiet or he'll blow his head off, and then quietly goes looking for Short, who arrives just as Bryant is opening the door to the baggage car.
Colt .45 Revolver
Bryant's minute of "smokin' action" has arrived (though it actually lasts only seconds). From only a few feet apart Bryant fires at Short, and Short triggers his rifle from waist level at the outlaw. Deadly shooting, Bryant empties all six chambers of his gun and punctures the vitals of the lawman, while Short fires eight rifle slugs at Bryant, one of which severs the outlaw's spine. Going down first, Bryant falls forward and then Short collapses next to him, but still trying to do his job, he reaches forward and grabs Bryant's ankle and croaks "Help me!" as if he is still fearful of Bryant escaping. "I have got him, and he has got me," Short whispers to the conductor as he helps pull Bryant back into the baggage car. Laying beside the outlaw he has brought down, Short's last words before death are "I want to see my mother!' (an outcome that will not happen, but the grieving woman does receive $500 in reward money for Bryant being taken out by her son). Two minutes after the gunfight breaks out, as the train comes to a halt at the Waukomis station, both men are dead.
Waukomis
Outlaw And Lawman - True West Magazine
Dead Charley
Journey not quite over yet, Short's body will be sent back to his family in Indiana for burial in the town of Osgood, while Bryant is buried in an unmarked family grave in Boonsville, Texas. The first killings in what will be over a dozen outlaw and lawman deaths in the coming years, Bob and Grat Dalton will be killed trying to rob two banks at the same time in their hometown of Coffeyville, Kansas (also killed will be outlaws Bill Powers and Dick Broadwell), also at Coffeyville, Emmett Dalton will be shot to pieces trying to rescue his older brother Bob, survive, and be sentenced to life in prison, Bittercreek Newcomb and Charlie Pierce (who will join the gang for their next raid) are assassinated for reward money by supposed friends in the Dunn Family (Newcomb is dating Rosa Dunn at the time, the famous Rose of Cimarron), a bitter Bill Dalton will become a bandit too after failing at ranching and politics in California, and will be killed at his home in Pooleville, Oklahoma by a posse after robbing a bank in 1894, and Bill Doolin, who misses Coffeyville when his horse goes lame on the ride into town, will be blasted into eternity by Deputy United States Marshal Heck Thomas and a posse when, after escaping from jail, he visits his wife in Lawton, Oklahoma on August 24, 1896. Only Bill McElhanie escapes becoming a bullet resident of Boot Hill ... wounded in the arm fleeing the Silver City faro posse, he decides being an outlaw isn't for him, and once he heals, he returns to Arkansas and cow punching, never to be heard from again for breaking the law.
Casket Time In Coffeyville
Wounded Emmett
Newcomb And Pierce
Dead Bill Dalton
Dead Doolin
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