The Western outlaw gang has been part of American history and culture since the American Civil War ended. The Dalton Gang was one of the most notorious and among the last of the Old West outlaw gangs. “The Last Outlaws: The Desperate Last Days of the Dalton Gang,” by Tom Clavin, tells their story. It puts the gang in the context of their times, showing how the end of the horse-riding Western outlaw paralleled the closing of American Frontier in the 1890s.
The Dalton Gang emerged from a 19th-century Missouri family. James Lewis Dalton and his wife Adeline Lee Dalton (nee Younger) had 15 children: 10 sons and 5 daughters. Only four of the sons turned to crime. One, Frank Dalton, became a famous lawman. As deputy marshal, he died heroically enforcing the law before his other brothers, Bob, Grat, Emmett, and Bill turned to crime. (Ironically, Bob, Grat, and Emmett also did stints as lawmen.)
Mr. Clavin traces the family through the turmoil of Civil War Missouri, and afterwards. Adeline was aunt to Cole and Jim Younger of the James-Younger Gang. This book examines the exploits of the James-Younger Gang (including the famous and failed Northfield Bank Heist) and the influence their cousins’ activities later had on the Daltons. The author then traces their descent into crime. Bob and Emmett turned to train robbery. Their activities drew Grat and eventually Bill to follow suit. They were joined by other desperados.
In many ways, the gang proved they that couldn’t shoot straight. Mr. Clavin shows how some robberies flopped due to poor planning. This included their most famous crime, the Coffeyville Bank Robbery. An attempt to outdo the Northfield Bank Heist, it failed even more spectacularly, with four outlaws dead (including Grat and Bob) and Emmett wounded and captured.
While the book’s focus is on the Daltons, it also presents other outlaws and the men who stopped them. The lawmen most responsible for bringing the Daltons to heel, Chris Madsen, Bill Tilghman, and Heck Thomas (also known as the Three Guardsmen), play a prominent and positive role in the book. The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, and Sam Bass also make appearances.
“The Last Outlaws” captures the spirit of the American West. While retaining the romance, Mr. Clavin reveals the realities of life, death, crime, and punishment in the Old West. It is a refreshing and informative examination of law on a closing frontier.
