Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-19
DARING DALTON BOYS.
Leaders of the Gang That Robbed
an Express Car Recently.
AS FEARLESS AS THE JAMES BOYS.
Their Stronghold in the Indian Territory
Broken Up.
OFFICERS RUN THE ROBBERS TO EARTH

ST. LOUIS, July 1S.-Train robbery ant
highway bandits have been themes of gen
eral discussion in st. Louis for the past da,
or two The bold hold-up of Missouri
Kansas and Texas passenger train in the In
dian Territory Thursday night has occa
stoned renewal of q subject which tev
years ago would not have attracted mucl
attention in the West on account of the fire
quencv of the occurrence, but since tn
breaking up of the James, the Younger AM
other desperate gangs that infested Missouri
and Kansas, Western people have felt cor,
paratively secure from depredations of thi
character. Three or four years ago Texa!
was the favorite arena for the exploits o
the freebooters, but the constabulary of tha
State became so vigilant and merciless il
the pursuit and punishment of the scoun
drels that they have all apparently beer
killed or driven out of Texas, as no trair
robbery has occurred there recently. The
Indian Territory seems to be now the only
rendezvous LEFT for the gentlemen of the
mask and Winchester, and when the condi.
tions there are considered it is no little
wonder that outlawry of this nature is moi
even more rampant than it really is. The
Daltons, who robbed the Pacific Express
car of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas at
Adair Thursday night, are by all odds the
boldest and most audacous bandits who
have ever piled their calling in the Terri
tory. There are four of the Dalton brothers
who are known TO have committed train
robberies in the past.
Only Two in the Last HoId-Up.
Only two of them-Ed and Charley-were
in Thursday nights hold-up. The other
two BOYS year ago were captured in Cali
fornia after desperate resistance and con-
victed of robbing a Wells-Fargo express
car on the Southern Pacific Railroad at
Toulare, near Los Angeles. They were
sentenced to life in the California peni-
tentiarv, and are now serving their terms.
All four of the bows were in the California
robbery, but Ed and Charley eluded capture
and made their way back to the Indian
Territory. They had been driven out of the
Territory only after bloody war between
themselves and their sympathizers on the
one hand and the officers and cattlemen on
the other. This war was inaugurated three
years ago, and cost the life of many good
citizen and Deputy United States Marshal
II will be remembered that the posses in
pursuit of the bandits were led by Deputy
Marshal "Hec" Thomas, one of the most
intrepid officers who has ever had to deal
with the lawless elements of the Southwest.
Various times he was reported killed. but
ne always managed to show up smiling
obout the time his friends had ordered
Grape. He pursued the Daltons farther
into their rendezvous than had anybody be-
fore or since. He succeeded in penetrating
far into the bushwhacker country, right
among the friends of the Daltons, and came
out unscathed, though empty handed. Prior
TO this time the Daltons were not known to
have committed any train robberies. They
had confined their rascality to stealing cat
tie and driving them through the public
lands" into New Mexico and selling them
along the route.
A Business That Was Attractive.
Then when they got ready to return to
the Territory they would steal bunch of
cattle in New Mexico and bring them home
to sell, always returning by a different
route. 1t did no good to indict them. Their
friends dominated the local courts, and even
if they we're brought to trial they got off
scot free. Honest cattlemen of the Terri
tory finally grew so exasperated at their
thievery that they organized to rid the
country of the Daltons, and waged bitter
war upon them. 1t was then that the cattle
thieves pertorce quit their old practices
and turned their attention to train robbery
1t is ever so much easier anyhow to rob
train than to steal few head of cattle. So
they found their new business incomparably
safer and more remunerative.
Situated as the Daltons were, the busi-
ness was especially attractive to them. The
Kansas and Texas and the Santa
Fe Railroads ran right through the country
over which they had ranged ever since emil
grating from Arkansas when only mere
of boys They knew everv In
dian trail and deerpath in it. Not man or
woman unfriendly to them had been al
lowed to live in the section thev claimed
tor their own, and so every circumstance
was most propitious to them in their new
calling. They lived for the most part on a
bald prairie east of the katy" road in an
country between Pryor Creek
md Chouteau, stations on the railroad.
Adair, the scene of their latest depreda- |
ion, is only 90 or 80 miles to the north of |
hem, and Leliaetta, where they held up a |
rain last September and secured s., 500 in |
BOOTY from the Pacific Express Company, is |
1ut few miles south of them. A little |
southwest of these two stations begins what |
s known as the Coweta district. 1t is heay-
ly timbered and abounds in deep rayines |
md serpentine paths
The Scene of Their Last Exploit
They know every foot of it better than |
he Oldest inhabitant knows St. Louis, but |
I a stranger enters it without guide he is |
liable to get lost after few hours travel, |
md never get out again. Through the |
Joweta district they dash into the Fox and |
Sac country, and then leisurely make their
way down to the Canadian River and cross
o the Seminole reservation, until they feel
ike venturing back to their prairie home.
since their hold-ups at both Red Rock, on
he Santa Fe, and Leliaetta, on the "Katy,"
hey have been bold enough to ride into
Wagner with their wagons and teams and
NV supplies for their ranch. Hundreds of
eople at Wagner knew perfectly well
Tho they were, but none of them dared
peach" on the boys, for if they did they
Iell knew their lives would pay the pen
lty sooner or later
IL is considered entirely useless and act
ally foolhardy for any posse of men to go
tier the Daltons now. They are perhaps
V this time many miles in the Coweta dis
rict, and are so safely ensconced that they
ould shoot the officers from ambush as fast
5 they entered. Then, too, the country
round them is full of spies who will keep
hem posted as to the movements of their
ursners A man who has nearly all his
fe lived in the section of the Indian Terri
'ry described, and who is well acquainted
18th the Daltons and all their kith and kin,
as at the headquarters of prominent de-
,ctiye agency here yesterday:
Don't, for Gods sake, use my name, he
egged OF reporter, to whom he was Civ
lg the information outlined above, "for if
ou do my life will not be worth shucks
hen l return to the Territory, as 1 am
,und to do on account of my business in
rests 1 am confident however, that no
'sse of men will very soon get close
lough to the Daltons to get shot at them,
I'd it is therefore foolish for body of
icers to 60 in pursuit.