Historical Account of Outlaw Bill Doolin

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Hello! I'm Mr. Ed

Blog Created: 11-22-2023

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William Doolin (1858 – August 24, 1896) was an American bandit outlaw and founder of the Wild Bunch, sometimes known as the Doolin-Dalton Gang. Like the earlier Dalton Gang alone, it specialized in robbing banks, trains, and stagecoaches in Arkansas, Kansas, Indiana, and Oklahoma during the 1890s.

Early life ~

Doolin was born in 1858 in Johnson County, Arkansas, to Michael Doolin and the former Artemina Beller. Doolin left home in 1881 to become a cowboy in Indian Territory, where he worked for cattleman Oscar Halsell, a Texas native. During this time, Doolin worked with other cowboy and outlaw names of the day, including George Newcomb (known as "Bitter Creek"), Charley Pierce, Bill Power, Dick Broadwell, Bill "Tulsa Jack" Blake, Dan "Dynamite Dick" Clifton, and the better-known Emmett Dalton.

Doolin's first encounter with the law came on July 4, 1891, in Coffeyville 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.

Dalton Gang

Wild Bunch ~

In late 1892, Doolin formed his own gang, the Wild Bunch. On November 1, 1892, the gang robbed a bank in Spearville, Kansas. After the robbery, the gang fled with gang member Oliver 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 as Little Britches and Cattle 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.

Following the Spearville robbery, the gang embarked on a spree of successful bank and train robberies. In March 1893, Doolin married Edith Ellsworth in Ingalls, Oklahoma. Shortly thereafter, Doolin and his gang robbed a train near Cimarron, Kansas. During a shootout with lawmen, Doolin was shot and seriously wounded in the foot. He retreated to Ingalls.

On September 1, 1893, 14 deputy U.S. marshals entered Ingalls to apprehend the gang. The armed confrontation became known as the Battle 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.

Three Guardsmen; Bill Tilghman, 'Heck' Thomas, and Chris Madsen.

For a time, the Wild Bunch was the most powerful outlaw group in the Old West. Because of the relentless pursuit by the deputy marshals known as the Three Guardsmen (lawmen Bill Tilghman, Chris Madsen, and Heck 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 by bounty hunters known as the Dunn brothers. They were the older brothers of Rose Dunn, the teenaged girlfriend of Newcomb. Allegedly, she had betrayed Newcomb, but her brothers may have trailed her to the outlaws' hideout.

Doolin fled to New 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 near Burden, Kansas. They went over the border to visit the resort community of Eureka Springs in northwestern Arkansas. There, Doolin soaked in the sulfur springs in the bathhouses; the waters relieved the rheumatism 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 in Lawson 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.

Bill Doolin is buried next to outlaw Elmer McCurdy, in the Boot Hill section of Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

Summit View Cemetery in the town of Guthrie, Oklahoma.

By the end of 1898, all 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 other posses.

In popular media ~

Burt Lancaster portrayed Doolin in the film Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1981). Lancaster was 65 years old during the shooting of the film, but was playing Doolin in his 30s.

In the film Return of the Bad Men (1948), Robert Armstrong plays Doolin as the leader of a gang more powerful than the Wild Bunch. This fictional account added the Sundance Kid, Billy the Kid, and two of the Younger brothers to the known members of Doolin's gang. Randolph Scott, as Marshal Vance Cordrell, is a fictional composite of the many lawmen who pursued Doolin.

Randolph Scott portrayed Bill Doolin in the film The Doolins of Oklahoma (1949).

War hero Audie Murphy played a fictionalized Bill Doolin in the film The Cimarron Kid (1952).

Leo Gordon portrayed Doolin in a 1954 episode of Jim Davis's syndicated television series, Stories of the Century. The dramatization concludes with Doolin being shot to death after an earlier escape. Heck Thomas in Stories of the Century is referred to as Deputy Marshal Gleason, played by Kenneth MacDonald.

In the TV movie You Know My Name, Marshal Bill Tilghman, played by Sam Elliott, tells his sons how he arrested Doolin, who is played by James Baker.

The Eagles album Desperado contains two tracks titled "Doolin-Dalton" and one named "Bitter Creek". The album is loosely themed around the Dalton Gang.

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LOT 3338

A COLT SINGLE ACTION ARMY REVOLVER ATTRIBUTED TO OUTLAW BILL DOOLIN ~

Sold for US $22,230 inc. premium.

Serial no. 133736 for 1890, .45 Colt. 4 3/4 inch barrel, nickel-plated finish, checkered hard rubber Colt eagle grips. Attached to the triggerguard is a brass tag bearing the number 142. Together with a notebook containing provenance including: 1) A notarized statement listing the descent of the gun to the Grand Prarie Wax Museum collection which had purchased it as part of the collection formed by Henrietta, Texas peace officer Harrison Schwend (1865-1926). 2) A Colt factory letter confirming configuration of the gun and stating shipment to Simmons Hardware in 1890. 3) Photocopied biographical material on Bill Doolin.

Condition: Very good. Barrel retains 75-80 percent nickel. Balance of gun retains generous traces of nickel plating with areas of light pitting overall. Grips very worn.

Footnotes ~

Note: Bill Doolin, 1858-1896, embarked on his criminal career in 1891 after a shooting incident with lawmen in Coffeyville, Kansas. Robbing banks and trains with the Dalton brothers, he formed his own gang, which became the Wild Bunch, after the Dalton career was ended in the Coffeyville Raid in October of 1892. Members of his gang included Bill Dalton, Dynamite Dick Clifton, Bitter Creek Newcomb, Little Dick Raidler, Little Dick West and others. Doolin was killed on August 24, 1896 by a posse led by Heck Thomas.