Oklahoma Journeys
Week of August 19, 2007
Outlaw Bill Doolin Killed, 1896
An outlaw meets his maker this week on Oklahoma Journeys: Celebrating our Centennial. Bill Doolin was a member of several different outlaw gangs including the one he himself headed up, the Oklahombres. Doolin was perhaps one of the Sooner State's most successful old-time outlaws and his life and death is the story on this week’s Oklahoma Journeys from the Oklahoma Historical Society.
From the Oklahoma Historical Society, this is Oklahoma Journeys: Celebrating our Centennial. I'm Michael Dean.
Unfortunately, one of the things for which Oklahoma is well known is outlaws. For many years, law enforcement was so loose in Indian and Oklahoma territories that it fostered a healthy outlaw culture. One of the more successful people practicing the outlaw business in Oklahoma and Indian Territory was Bill Doolin. Originally from Arkansas, Doolin moved into Oklahoma Territory at the age of 21 to work on the HX Bar Ranch. It was there that he meant other future outlaws-to-be, the Dalton brothers. The story goes that Doolin got his start on the owl hoot trail when he shot two deputies who were trying to break up a rowdy cowboy beer party. From there Bill Doolin joined other outlaw gangs including the Dalton gang and worked his way up from there eventually earning the moniker, "King of the Oklahoma outlaws." In 1893 Doolin hit his stride, he married the daughter of a Payne county farmer and formed an elite gang of outlaws dubbed the Oklahombres, consisting of Bill Dalton, George, "Bitter Creek" Newcomb, Little Dick West, Dan "Dynamite Dick" Clifton, George "Red Buck" Weightman, Arkansas Tom Jones, Tulsa Jack Blake among others. Between 1893 and 1896 Doolin and his gang robbed numerous trains, banks, and stores along with dozens of individual citizens as well as battling it out with law officers several times, including the famous gunfight at Ingalls. In the wake of their travels Doolin’s gang left behind death, despair, and the broken dreams of innocent people. In their biggest heist the gang netted $40,000.00 from a bank in east Texas.
For almost the entire three years of the gangs existence, they were dogged, tracked and shot at by some of the most competent lawmen in the world, most notably, Chris Madsen, Heck Thomas, and Bill Tilghman. The chase went on for so long that both parties came to respect and admire the skill and tenacity of the other. The Oklahombres and the law officers were so close at times that on one occasion Bill Tilghman ended up paying for Doolin’s breakfast. Doolin's spree ended as do all good outlaw stories with a hail of bullets and a violent death. It was in this week of 1896 on August 25th that Bill Doolin's luck ran out. Under cover of darkness he left his wife and father-in-law's house in Lawson, now Quay Payne County, Doolin was confronted by a posse. Ordered to give-up Doolin pointed his rifle in the direction of the voices. When his rifle was shot away he reached for his pistols at which point deputy Bill Dunn leveled his shotgun at the outlaw and fired putting and end to the story once and for all. You can learn more about law and order in the territory by visiting the Oklahoma History Center, in Oklahoma City at NE 23rd Street just east of the State Capitol. Oklahoma Journeys: Celebrating our Centennial is a production of the Oklahoma Historical Society dedicated to the collection, preservation, and sharing of our state's past. I'm Michael Dean.