July 2017 30 602.524.7338 For Turn Key Priefert Walkers, Contact Digger: rocksolidframes@aol.com • WWW.ROCKSOLIDFRAMES.COM On October 5, 1892, Bob, Emmett, and Grat Dalton, the infamous Dalton Gang, achieved a lifelong ambition. They staged the most spectacular bank holdup in the history of the West. The Dalton Gang simultaneously hit two banks in Coffeyville, Kansas, and in the blood bath that followed, a dozen men were shot, including all three Dalton brothers and their two confederates. Bob and Grat Dalton died of their wounds, but Emmett survived and was sentenced to life in prison. However, he was pardoned in 1907. After getting out of prison, Emmett Dalton “went straight.” He turned to honest labor to make a living, including working as a building contractor and a real estate agent. He moved to Hollywood and parlayed his colorful background, as an authentic Wild West outlaw, into a brief career as a technical advisor for Hollywood westerns. He even appeared in a couple of silent films himself. In 1909, he returned to Coffeyville to act as the advisor on a short film about the Dalton’s famous raid. Emmett also used his former career to try to keep others on the straight and narrow. He spent much of his time crusading against crime by describing the tragic and violent deaths of his brothers. He declared that anyone who thought he could beat the law was “the biggest fool on earth,” and he pointed to his brothers as examples. He detailed his exploits as an outlaw in numerous lectures and writings, including “When the Daltons Rode,” published in 1931. “One thing I must say to the credit of the old fashioned bad man. He seldom shot his victim in the back. He had a certain pride at arms, a code of death, a certain punctilio in his deadly dealings. His reputation didn’t hang on potting someone in the rear or on the run which requires no guts at all. When he came ‘a-smokin’ it was in the face of his challenger… In this respect, the Western gun play was more like the older duello. It was entirely unlike the savage behavior of the modern city gangster or mountain feudist who places his victim ‘on a spot’ without a chance, to be mowed down in the dark with machine guns or rifles spitting from ambush.” Emmett Dalton died in 1937. THE DALTON GANG