On February 6, 1891, the Dalton Gang attempted their first train
robbery near Alila, California. Bob, Emmett, and Grat Dalton were only three of
Lewis and Adeleine Dalton's 10 sons. The brothers grew up on a succession of Oklahoma
and Kansas homesteads during the post-Civil War period, when the region was
awash in violence lingering from the war and notorious outlaw bands like the
James-Younger Gang. Still, the majority of the Dalton boys became law-abiding
citizens, and one of the older brothers, Frank, served as a deputy U.S.
marshal.
Ironically, Frank's position in law enforcement brought his
younger brothers into lives of crime. When Oklahoma whiskey runners murdered
Frank in 1887, Grat took Frank's place as a deputy marshal and recruited Emmett
and Bob as assistants. Disillusioned by the fate of their older law-abiding
brother, the three Dalton boys showed little respect for the law and began
rustling cattle and horses to supplement their income. The brothers soon began
to use their official law enforcement powers for their own ends, and in 1888,
they killed a man for pursuing Bob's girlfriend.
By 1890, all three men were discredited as lawmen, though
they managed to escape imprisonment. Taking up with some of the same hardcore
criminals they had previously sworn to bring to justice, the Daltons decided to
expand their criminal operations. Bob and Grat headed to California, leaving
Emmett behind in Oklahoma because they felt he was still too young for a life
of serious crime. In California, they planned to link up with their brother
Bill and become bank and train robbers.
The Dalton Gang's first attempt at train robbery was a
fiasco. On February 6, 1891, Bob, Grat, and Bill tried to rob a Southern
Pacific train near Alila, California. While Bill kept any passengers from
interfering by shooting over their heads, Bob and Grat forced the engineer to
show them the location of the cash-carrying express car. When the engineer
tried to slip away, one of the brothers shot him in the stomach. Finding the
express car on their own, Bob and Grat demanded that the guard inside open the
heavy door. The guard refused and began firing down on them from a small spy
hole. Frustrated, the brothers finally gave up and rode away.
The Daltons would have done well to heed the ominous signs
of that first failed robbery, but instead, they returned to Oklahoma, reunited
with young Emmett, and began robbing in earnest. A year later, the gang botched
another robbery, boldly attempting to rob two Coffeyville, Kansas, banks at the
same time. Townspeople caught them in the act and killed Bob, Grat, and two of
their gang members. Emmett was seriously wounded and served 14 years in prison.
Of all the criminal Dalton brothers, only Emmett lived into old age. Freed from
prison in 1907, he married and settled in Los Angeles, where he built a
successful career in real estate and contracting.
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