The Encyclopedia of Lawmen, Outlaws, and Gunfighters

by Leon Claire Metz

  As for Barrymore, by 1889 he had grown more unbalanced. As time passed, his erratic, irrational actions finally cost him his acting career. The state eventually committed him to the Amityville Sanitarium on Long Island, New York, where he died on March 25, 1905.

  CURRY, George Sutherland (a.k.a. Flat Nose Curry) (1864?-1900)

  George Curry (frequently spelled "Currie") was born on Prince Edward Island, Canada, but when he was a boy his family moved to Chadron, Nebraska. Some authorities believe he was an uncle to the Logan boys-Harvey, John, and Lonie. They rustled cattle together, but a kick in the face by a horse earned George the moniker of "Flat Nose Curry." The kick may also have contributed to his slight stoop when he walked.

  On April 13, 1897, he and the Logan brothers allegedly killed Deputy Sheriff William Deane of Johnson County, Wyoming. Somewhere around this time they joined the Wild Bunch, participating in train and bank robberies. In 1899, he was caught changing the wrong brand and was shot to death by Sheriff Jesse M. "Jack" Tyler of Moab, Utah. Before dumping him into a grave at Thompson, Utah, however, souvenir hunters reportedly peeled away portions of his skin. His father later disinterred the body and moved it to Chadron, Utah, for burial.

  Sheriff Tyler and Deputy Sheriff Sam Jenkins were both slain by Harvey Logan on May 27, 1900, reportedly in retaliation for the killing of Curry.

  .S6'6 akzo CASSIDY, BUTCH; LOGAN, HARVEY

  CYPRIAN

  This is a word almost never used by ordinary people in the Old West. An exception was newspaper men, and they loved the expression. It meant prostitute.

  5615- (JJARGD: SOILED DOVES

  DAKE, Crawley P. (1827-1890)

  Crawley P. Dake was born at Kentfield, Ontario, Canada, but while still a youngster, he relocated to New York, along with his parents. By the time he was 28, he had moved to Michigan, where he tried his hand as a retail merchant. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Dake raised a company of volunteers and received a commission in the Fifth Michigan Cavalry. Major Dake fought at Gettysburg and in other stirring engagements until he was wounded and forced to retire in August 1864.

  Dake returned to Michigan and accepted an appointment as chief deputy marshal of Detroit. He was also appointed as Michigan's collector of internal revenue. Up until now, Dake had been known more for his administrative roles than as an enforcer, but that was about to change, because on June 12, 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Dake as the U.S. marshal for the Arizona Territory.

  From the very beginning, two problems plagued Dake. First he complained, and with justification, that he was not provided sufficient funds for an efficient federal operation. In fact, for 1879 the U.S. Congress failed to appropriate any money at all for federal law enforcement. Secondly, sometimes the public questioned his selection of deputies-namely, Joseph W. Evans, because of his perceived involvement in the death of Jack Swilling; and later the brothers Virgil and Wyatt Earp, for their question

  able activities at Cochise County's booming mining town of Tombstone.

  General lawlessness plagued Arizona during its formative years, highlighted by a spate of stagecoach robberies. Bureaucratic red tape further hampered Dake's efforts to field posses. Supervisors in Washington viewed each robbery as a separate exception to the rule of law and insisted that funds for pursuing lawbreakers be requested and approved after each offense. Furthermore, the Department of justice typically became weary of hearing bad news, and bad news included Dake's continuing complaint, "If I am to protect the people, I must have the funds to do it." Even the murder of deputies J. H. Adams and Cornelius Findlay (Finely) by a band of desperadoes south of Tucson failed to persuade certain political leaders in the nation's capital that law enforcement problems on the southwestern frontier were a festering sore in need of lancing.

  Adding to Dake's enforcement headaches was Arizona's proximity to the border with Mexico. Admittedly, Anglos were crossing the border and rustling Mexican livestock, but from Dake's perspective problems of greater weight were illegal incursions onto American soil by Mexican bandits. In truth, fugitives from each country simply stepped across the line to avoid capture by their respective governments.

  Nevertheless, in spite of inherent political, geographical, and cultural adversities, Crawley Dake during his first term fielded seven posses, five of which captured or killed at least one outlaw. Dake, fully recognizing the importance of effective communications for law enforcement made extensive use of the telegraph. He also fostered a positive working relationship with Wells Fargo and Company. Somewhat unfairly, however, Dake's legitimate successes were often overshadowed by the chaotic unraveling of events at Tombstone. The friction between rival political, economic, and cultural factions in the mining camp, plus the eye-popping street fight of October 26, 1881, and its bloody aftermath, in effect were death knells for Dake's tenure as U.S. marshal.

  Despite 20th-century glamorization, Dake's appointment of Virgil and Wyatt Earp as U.S. deputy marshals, even though their service lasted only two months, did not meet with universal public approval. Complicating the already abrasive state of affairs was Dake's failure to maintain a tight rein on these part-time, highly partisan deputies, a situation noted by many in the community of Tombstone, especially the Democrats. Furthermore, Dake's continual remonstrations regarding finances exacerbated an already severe public loss of confidence stemming from his lack of efficient record keeping, his pressuring of private companies for investigative funds, and his alleged mingling of government monies with his personal finances. An official Washington investigation ultimately resulted in the charge that Dake had "feloniously converted" over $50,000 of official funds to his own personal use. It led to his forced resignation and the filing of charges. In 1886, the controversy ended with a negotiated settlement.

  After Washington replaced him with Zan L. Tidball, Crawley P. Dake resided in Prescott, Arizona Territory, where he developed mining and business interests. On April, 9, 1890, he died at Prescott from natural causes. Certainly from a purely objective point of view, his law enforcement activities could be characterized, at least in part, as innovative and progressive during a time when investigative support was not forthcoming from headquarters at Washington.

  .S6e a190: EARP, VIRGIL; EARP, WYATT BERRY STAPP; EVANS, JESSE J.; GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL

  DALTON Brothers: Bob, Emmett, Frank, Grattan, Mason

  Of the 15 Dalton children, two died in infancy. Three were girls. Four sons went bad. Their father, Lewis

  Dalton, had been a fifer during the Mexican War but otherwise spent his life operating saloons and betting on slow horses. The mother, Adeline, a tiny woman distantly related to the Youngers, held the family together, although she and her husband got along like Sitting Bull and George Armstrong Custer. When the boys grew older, the four black sheep followed their father throughout the racing circuit, particularly in California.

  Although Grattan (Grat), born in 1861, was the oldest of those who went wild, Bob (born 1869) seemed the smartest. Mason, better known as Bill (born 1863), seemed the most devious, as well as the most articulate and in odd ways the most ambitious. Emmett (born 1871) was the youngest and most impressionable. He tagged along with the others because he looked up to them.

  Bill, properly Mason Frakes Dalton, would spend a majority of his life in California. During the mid1880s he worked as a ranch foreman in Merced County, California, married the boss's daughter, had his own spread, and entered politics. He supported the local Democratic Party and worked as a party officer.

  As for Frank (born around 1865), he caught the attention of Isaac Parker, a Fort Smith, Arkansas, "hanging judge" who commissioned Frank a U.S. deputy marshal. Deputies in those days picked up two dollars for every prisoner delivered and six cents a mile for travel expenses. The work was so dangerous that almost one-third of Parker's men-65 out of 225-died in the line of duty. Frank died during a shootout in 1887 while chasing whiskey smugglers; he killed three bootleggers. Frank thus became the first Dalton to
die with his boots on. Bob Dalton, meanwhile, had become police chief of the Osage Nation, but he and Grat did little more than rustle cattle and shake down bootleggers and other nefarious characters. By 1890, when it seemed like they might become residents of their own jail, they resigned their positions and went to visit their brother Bill. Safe at Bill's ranch, their big question seemed to be: How can we make a good living without working for it?

  Train robbery, if the Wild Bunch successes were any indication, seemed an easy way to put bread on the table. Thus in mid-February 1891, Bob, Grat, and Emmett struck the Southern Pacific near Alila, California. They killed a fireman but were driven off without getting any money. Bill Dalton may or may not have been along on this attempted heist, although he was arrested along with Grat Dalton and charged with the robbery. Grat was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in San Quentin, but in September he broke jail and took refuge in Indian Territory (Oklahoma), where Bob and Emmett were hiding.

  Bob Dalton and his sweetheart in 1889 (Author's Collection)

  The Dalton gang now recruited mean and ambitious help: George "Bitter Creek" Newcomb, "Black Face" Charlie Bryant, Dick Broadwell, Charley Pierce, Bill Doolin, and Bill McEhanie. In early 1891, they hit the Texas Express near Wharton, Oklahoma. With no resistance offered, the outlaws rode away with $14,000. Black Face Charlie celebrated too much, however, and was captured. He escaped but died in August of that same year when he and a U.S. marshal shot each other to death.

  Meanwhile, Bob Dalton's girlfriend, Eugenia Moore, made inquiries regarding the safety of property she planned to ship by rail. She therefore had a pretty good concept regarding railroad security, and she passed the information along to Bob. On September 15, 1891, the Dalton gang successfully struck a train near Lellietta, Oklahoma. On July 1, 1892, the gang stopped a train in the Cherokee Strip, and again without resistance cleaned out the cash. On September 15, at Adair, Oklahoma, the Daltons not only raided the depot and the cash box but backed a wagon up to the express car of the Missouri-Kansas & Texas train just as it pulled in. They quickly convinced the guard to open up, but when the doors swung open, the Daltons encountered Indian police and railroad detectives, who opened fire. The outlaws escaped without a scratch, leaving behind one official dead and three wounded.

  Bob Dalton decided that it was time to switch tactics. With lawmen concentrating on protecting trains, Bob considered it a perfect chance to rob a bank. In fact, why not rob two at the same time? While much has been made of the fact that robbing two banks at once would be an accomplishment even Jesse James could not pull off, whether the Daltons had that thought in mind is questionable. Bob probably saw the two banks solely as targets of opportunity, a chance to make a huge, final cash withdrawal-and then retire.

  So the Daltons turned their horses toward Coffeyville, Kansas, where Bob had once lived. He knew about the Condon and First National Banks, so Bob, Grat, and Emmett, Bill Powers, Bill Doolin, and Dick Broadwell rode north and east. On the day they approached the community, Bill Doolin's horse came up lame, so he turned toward the last ranch seen in order to make a swap. At 9:30 A.M., still minus Doolin but undaunted and convinced of their infallibility, the outlaws fastened on false beards, rode down Maple Street, and secured their mounts in an alley between Walnut and Maple. Bob and Emmett then entered the First National, while Powers, Broadwell, and Grat strolled into the Condon.

  Surprisingly, the two men had better luck than the three, although all five ultimately had no luck at all. While Bob covered the bank employees and customers, Emmett stuffed money in a grain sack, by some accounts over $21,000. Across the street, Grat was having trouble. A clerk claimed the cash was inside a safe with a time lock and that it would not open for another three minutes. Grat agreed to wait.

  Meanwhile, the outlaws had been recognized, and the street was filling up with citizens loading rifles. Bob Dalton, who saw the congestion, and of course noticed bullets flying through the windows, yelled, "Out the back door!" The two brothers headed that way, Emmett carrying the money. Bob, with a rifle, shot down Lucius Baldwin, a bank clerk who had armed himself.

  From both banks the outlaws now poured into the street, guns blazing, heading for the horses in the alley. Bob killed three men along the way, although some of those deaths could have been attributed to the firepower of the other outlaws, or even the excited townspeople.

  The desperadoes reached their horses, but that was all they reached. Riflemen were approaching from both ends of the alley. Bill Powers was shot out of the saddle, stone dead when he hit the ground. Dick Broadwell vaulted into the saddle and galloped through the crowd to the end of the alley, but he was dead before he got another 50 feet. The town barber, Carey Seaman, fired a shotgun blast into Bob Dalton from less than five feet. City Marshal Charles Connelly and Grat Dalton began closing and firing at one another. Both men went down; Grat did not get up. Emmett, repeatedly wounded, managed to climb on his horse, reportedly pausing to help his brother Bob. At that instant, another shotgun blast blew him out of the saddle. Emmett would be the only survivor, if one doesn't count Bill Doolin, who, reportedly, heard the gunfire while approaching Coffeyville, turned his horse, and disappeared in the direction of Oklahoma. The Dalton gang had ceased to exist.

  Emmett Dalton was the only survivor of the Coffeyville Bank robbery. (Author's Collection)

  The dead gang members were duly propped up, photographed, and buried. As for Bill Dalton, he moved to Oklahoma, teamed up with Bill Doolin, and killed Marshal Lafe Shadley during a shootout at Ingalls, Oklahoma. In late the May 1894, the Dalton/Doolin makeshift gang robbed a bank in Longview, Texas. A posse killed Bill Doolin on June 8.

  That left Emmett Dalton as the only survivor. He was tried for murder and received a life sentence. In 1907, the governor pardoned him for good behavior. He married his childhood sweetheart and lived as a model citizen until his natural death in 1937.

  See ~'+1So: BRYANT, CHARLES; DOOLIN, WILLIAM M.

  DALY, John (?-1864)

  John Daly, by most accounts, was born in New York and wound up in California by way of Canada. In late 1862, at somewhere around 25 years of age, with a string of dead men reportedly in his past, John Daly rode into Aurora, Nevada. The Pond Mining Company at Last Chance Hill hired him to protect its interests. Daly therefore brought together a group of thugs going by the names of John McDowell-alias Three Fingered Jack-Italian Jim, William Buckley, and Jim Sears. In the fall of 1863, John Daly also became a deputy city marshal. At this point one murder followed another. Honest merchants were shaken down by dishonest lawmen.

  Meanwhile, William Johnson, who owned a way station on the West Walker River, had asked one of his employees to recover a stolen horse, and the employee had killed the thief. It took Daly time to get his revenge, but on February 1, 1864, Daly and associates clubbed Johnson to the earth with revolvers, shot him in the head, and cut his throat.

  Such a senseless murder enraged the town. Aurora formed a Citizens Protective Order, essentially a vigilante committee. Italian Jim confessed and was given immunity. John Daly, Three Fingered Jack, James Masterson, and William Buckley were arrested and jailed. But the vigilantes broke them out and led them to a scaffold. Daly took a swig of whiskey. At 1:30, they were all jerked into eternity.

  DEADFALL

  As used by cowboys and some city folks, a deadfall was a gambling or drinking establishment of low repute. Patrons never had a chance of winning, or even of leaving sober.

  DEADWOOD, South Dakota

  Deadwood, South Dakota, might not be remembered at all had not Wild Bill Hickok been slain there in the No. 10 Saloon on August 2, 1876. His name and fate alone have brought thousands of visitors to this community. Buried first in the Ingleside Cemetery, he was later transferred to the Mount Moriah Cemetery. Calamity Jane lies near him, and her grave also has been a tourist draw.

  Prostitution dens and gambling halls (often called the Badlands) once lined the streets of this Black Hills community, which otherwise made its
living from the rich and plentiful ore that lay underground nearby. Also, some of the Wild Bunch broke jail here on October 31, 1897. At present the town is attractive, pleasant to stroll through, and modern yet old.

  .366 c CALAMITY JANE; HICKOK, JAMES BUTLER; WILD BUNCH

  DEMING, New Mexico, Hangings (1916)

  On the night of March 9, 1916, the Mexican insurrectionist leader Pancho Villa raided the sleeping village of Columbus, New Mexico. Ten American civilians were slain, as well as eight soldiers. Other Americans killed at least 100 of Villa's partisans and captured seven, all of them wounded. They were all indicted for the murder of Charles D. Miller, James Dean, J. L. Moore, and Cpl. Paul Simon.

  The indicted were: Juan Sanchez, age 16; Jose Rodriquez, 20; Taurino Garcia, 21; Francisco Alvarez (age unknown); Jose Rangel, 23; Eusebio Reneteria, 24; and Juan Castillo, 26. All were single, although one (Castillo) was a widower. All were Catholics from southern Mexico, and none could read or write.

  Since the attack had been against not a military post but a peaceful New Mexico community, jurisdiction in this murder trial went to the state of New Mexico. The trial began promptly on April 19, 1916, nearly six weeks after the Columbus attack. Burl R. Wood acted as defense attorney, but his defense was neither spirited nor articulate. A doctor testified that

  while he was treating their wounds the raiders had admitted to being in Columbus, although none had realized that Columbus was part of the United States. Nevertheless, the territory did not have to prove that any of these men had killed anyone. All it had to prove was that these individuals were in Columbus during the commission of a felony, which made irrelevant the excuse that most of the accused claimed to merely be holding and watching horses.