William Doolin (January 26, 1858 – August 24, 1896) was an American bandit and outlaw and a founder of the Wild Bunch, sometimes known as the Doolin–Dalton Gang. Like the earlier Dalton Gang, the group specialized in bank, train, and stagecoach robberies in Arkansas, Kansas, Indiana, and the Oklahoma Territory during the early to mid-1890s.

Early life

Doolin was born in 1858 in Johnson County, Arkansas, to Michael Doolin, a share-cropper, and the former Artemina Beller. Doolin was one of six children, and he and his family farmed forty acres northeast of Clarksville, Arkansas, near Big Piney River. Doolin left home in 1881 to become a cowboy in Indian Territory, where he worked for cattleman Oscar Halsell, a Texas native. During this time, Doolin worked with other cowboy and outlaw names of the day, including George Newcomb (known as "Bitter Creek"), Charley Pierce, Bill Power, Dick Broadwell, Bill "Tulsa Jack" Blake, Dan "Dynamite Dick" Clifton, Billie "Little Bill" Raidler and the better-known Emmett Dalton.

Doolin's first encounter with the law came on July 4, 1891, in Coffeyville in southeastern Kansas. Doolin and some friends were drunk in public, and lawmen attempted to confiscate their alcohol since Kansas was a dry state. A shootout ensued, and the lawmen were wounded. Doolin escaped capture by fleeing.

Dalton Gang

Shortly thereafter, Doolin became a member of the Dalton Gang. On October 5, 1892, the Dalton Gang tried to rob two banks simultaneously in Coffeyville. It was an utter failure. Coffeyville residents and lawmen rallied in a shootout against the outlaws, resulting in four of the five gang members being killed. Emmett Dalton was captured and convicted at trial, and imprisoned. Historians have speculated that a sixth gang member was in town, holding the horses in an alley, and escaped. The sixth man has never been identified. Some speculate that he may have been Bill Doolin.

Following the Spearville robbery, the gang embarked on a spree of successful bank and train robberies. In March 1893, Doolin married Edith Ellsworth in Ingalls, Oklahoma. Shortly thereafter, Doolin and his gang robbed a train near Cimarron, Kansas. During a shootout with lawmen, Doolin was shot and seriously wounded in the foot. The only survivor of the Wild Bunch was "Little Bill" Raidler (aka Radler) who had been shot and captured by Tilghman in Osage territory near Caney Creek on September 6, 1895. Little Billie had split from the gang after the Rock Island robbery near Dover. Near death, Billie was nursed back to health and stood trial in Kingfisher, Ok. He was permanently crippled, but sent to the Ohio Penitentiary near Columbus. He was released for poor health in 1892 and returned to western Oklahoma where he married his girlfriend, Blanch Whitenack on Nov.19, 1902 in Taloga, Oklahoma. He died an early, natural death in about 1910.

  • Burt Lancaster portrayed Doolin in the film Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1981). Lancaster was 65 during the shooting of the film, but was playing Doolin in his 30s.
  • In the film Return of the Bad Men (1948), Robert Armstrong plays Doolin as the leader of a gang more powerful than the Wild Bunch. This fictional account added the Sundance Kid, Billy the Kid, and two of the Younger brothers to the known members of Doolin's gang. Randolph Scott, as Marshal Vance Cordrell, is a fictional composite of the many lawmen who pursued Doolin.
  • Randolph Scott portrayed Bill Doolin in the film The Doolins of Oklahoma (1949)
  • War hero Audie Murphy played a fictionalized Bill Doolin in the film The Cimarron Kid (1952).
  • Leo Gordon portrayed Doolin in a 1954 episode of Jim Davis's syndicated television series, Stories of the Century. The dramatization concludes with Doolin being shot to death after an earlier escape. Heck Thomas in Stories of the Century is referred to as Deputy Marshal Gleason, played by Kenneth MacDonald.
  • In the TV movie You Know My Name, Marshal Bill Tilghman, played by Sam Elliott, tells his sons how he arrested Doolin, who is played by James Baker.
  • The Eagles album Desperado contains two tracks titled "Doolin-Dalton" and one named "Bitter Creek". The album is loosely themed around the Dalton Gang.

References

  • Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Doolin, Bill
  • The Doolins of Oklahoma
  • The Doolin Gang