page_title: Bob Dalton
section_title: Outlaw career
hierarchical_section_title: Bob Dalton / Outlaw career
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of Robert "Bob" Dalton c. 1889
context_page_description: Robert Rennick Dalton, better known as Bob Dalton, was an American outlaw in the American Old West. Beginning in 1891, he led the Dalton Gang, whose varying members included three of his brothers. They were known for robbing banks, stagecoaches and trains, primarily in Kansas and Oklahoma Territory, quickly attracting pursuit by lawmen.
  On October 5, 1892 the gang attempted to rob two banks the same day in Coffeyville, Kansas, hoping to gain enough loot to leave the country. Attacked by townsmen and law officers, Bob and Grat Dalton, Bill Power, and Richard L. "Dick" Broadwell were all killed. Younger brother Emmett Dalton was severely wounded, but survived. He was tried and convicted, and served 14 years in prison before being pardoned. Bill Dalton was not part of this heist.
context_section_description: Grat Dalton returned to California to meet Emmett and Bob at their brother Bill's ranch in January 1891. They worked there for about a month, but also played poker and regularly got into bar fights in San Luis Obispo County. They spent most of the money they had made from horse stealing. Bob began to make plans to rob a train with the help of Emmett and Grat. Their brothers Cole, Lit, and Bill unsuccessfully tried to dissuade them.  
  On the night of February 6, 1891, two masked men held up a Southern Pacific Railroad passenger train near the town of Alila (present day Earlimart, California). They were reportedly carrying 44-caliber pistols and did not succeed in taking any money. The expressman accidentally killed the fireman during crossfire with the robbers. 
  Years later, Littleton Dalton said that his brothers, Bob and Emmett, had told him many times that they had robbed the Alila train. Grat had not joined them as he had spent all his money on drinking and gambling in Tulare, California, and could not even rent a horse. 
  Sheriff Gene Kay of Tulare County tracked the outlaws with his posse to San Luis Obispo County, near San Miguel. Eventually the party found the remnants of a saddle that was missing a leather strap which had been found at the scene of the hold up. It was found at Bill Dalton's ranch. Asking around about the Dalton brothers, Sheriff Kay's posse learned that Bob, Emmett and Grat had spent the past few days drinking heavily, gambling, and following the Southern Pacific pay car as it made its monthly journey down the San Joaquin Valley. By this time their reputation as horse thieves in Indian Territory had followed them to California.  
  On March 17, 1891 the Tulare County Grand Jury indicted brothers Bob, Emmett, Grat, and Bill Dalton for the Alila robbery. A few days later, Grat and Bill were arrested and jailed in Tulare County. A $3000 bounty was announced for the capture of Bob and Emmett. Bill had already helped them escape California, and the pair were on their way back to Oklahoma Territory. Bill secured bondsmen and gained release, then hired attorneys to defend Grat, who was jailed in Visalia. 
  Bob and Emmett had borrowed money and supplies from their brothers, Cole and Lit; they crossed the Mojave Desert. After their horses were discovered at Ludlow, California, Sheriff Kay decided to pursue them with his deputy, Jim Ford. He discovered that the brothers were actually making their way to Utah to throw him off, tracking them to the town of Ogden, Utah. After some close encounters Bob and Emmett escaped capture by train. Sheriff Kay continued to track them throughout the Southwest for several months, even at one point entering Mexico, but with no success. Eventually they ending up at the Dalton home near Kingfisher, Oklahoma. The Daltons had many friends in Oklahoma willing to hide them, and Sheriff Kay gave up the chase to return to California for Grat's trial. 
  Bob and Emmett robbed a train at Whorton, now Perry, Oklahoma, May 1891. They began forming what would be known as the Dalton Gang. 
  Even though much of the evidence showed that Grat was in Fresno, California the night of the Alila robbery, including the testimony of several witnesses, the influence of the powerful Southern Pacific Railroad resulted in his having an unfair trail. Grat's lawyer was corrupt. Neither the defense nor the prosecution noted the fact that the fireman had been killed accidentally by the expressman. Grat did not know this either; he and his brothers assumed that Emmett had killed the fireman. Grat was convicted on murder charges and sentenced to life imprisonment. 
  On September 3, 1891 a train was stopped and robbed near Ceres, California, but the perpetrators did not get any money. As the circumstances were similar to the Alila robbery, Sheriff Kay suspected Bill Dalton, and arrested him and an associate named Riley Dean. Kay found the two at an abandoned overland stage station. He believed they were preparing a robbery or to break Grat out of jail. Both Bill and Dean had alibis for the Ceres robbery, but Kay he
caption: Photo of Robert "Bob" Dalton c. 1889
exif: {}