They loved the money, the fame, the notoriety, all of that! What they didn't enjoy was getting caught! Slowly, but surely they were all caught or killed. Back then, prison time was hard time...not like today! No matter how famous or well known you were, sooner or late you had to pay the price!
Mar 8, 1893:
Emmet Dalton goes to prison
Emmet Dalton, the only survivor of the Dalton Gang's disastrous attempt to rob two Kansas banks, begins serving a life sentence in the Kansas State Penitentiary.
Born in 1871, Emmet was the youngest of the three Dalton brothers, who banded together to pursue a life of crime. Initially, his brothers Bob and Grat were reluctant to include Emmet in their crimes because of his youth--when the two elder brothers traveled to California to rob trains in 1889, they refused to take along the 18-year-old Emmet. After returning to Oklahoma several years later, though, Bob and Grat judged Emmet sufficiently mature to assist them in a string of train robberies that made the three brothers and their gang famous throughout Oklahoma and Kansas. By then, Emmet had a sweetheart named Julia Johnson, but he gave up his dreams of a normal family life to remain with his brothers. "What had I to offer Julia?" Emmet later mused. "I rode away. An outlaw has no business having a girl, no business thinking of marriage."
Emmet's wild days riding with his two older brothers were short-lived. On October 5, 1892, the brothers attempted a daring dual robbery of two Coffeyville, Kansas, banks in broad daylight. The plan might have worked had the citizens of Coffeyville not been alerted to the arrival of the bandits. While Emmet and Bob were stuffing $21,000 in grain sacks in one bank, the townspeople quietly surrounded the building. When the boys tried to leave, a barrage of gunfire forced them back inside. They fled through a rear door and managed to reunite with Grat and the other team of robbers, who were also under attack. In a back street-later named "Death Alley" by the proud citizens of Coffeyville-the gang was blasted by heavily armed townspeople. Bob and Grat were hit first. Emmet tried to pick up Bob, but as he reached down from his horse a bullet slammed through his hip and a load of buckshot hit him in the back.
Bob, Grat, and two other gang members died, and the people of Coffeyville propped them up for a famous series of grisly photographs. Townspeople carried the wounded Emmet to a nearby hotel and he lived to stand trial. Sentenced to life in prison, he began serving his time in the Kansas State Penitentiary on this day in 1893.
After 14 years in prison, Emmet won parole and returned to society a reformed man. He finally married Julia Johnson and began a successful career as a real estate agent. When the couple later moved to the booming Los Angeles area, Emmet even found work in Hollywood as an authenticity consultant for western movies. He died in 1937.
I guess the prison life made a believer out of young Emmet! Maybe some of the old time prison could help in the taming of a few of our modern day "bad guys!" Ya think?
Fresh coffee in the kitchen this morning. Rain is expected and better safe than sorry!
8 comments:
Yeah, I think we need more of the "old prison time" for people now days. I feel we are too soft on criminals. A lot of them have it better in prison than some folks living outside of prison. Remember the guy who committed a crime because he wanted the free medical and dental care he got in jail?
Well, sounds like he did in fact pay for his crime.
Like Robert Blake as Baretta said in the TV series. "If you can't to the time, don't do the crime".
Sounds like he managed to do the time associated with the crime and survived to tell about it.
Rain starting here this morning , so yep,, coffee inside .
I think you are right. Especially some of the crooks in DC!
When I was a kid I knew a bum who, as winter was coming on, threw a rock through a store window so that he would be thrown in jail. He said it was a lot warmer in there and he got three meals a day. He called it his winter hotel.
I have read about these guys. At least he learnd his lesson.
We need rain here to get rid of the dust and dirt in the air from all the wind.
So coffee in the kitchen sounds good.
Great read today. The Daltons tried to rob the train here in my lil hometown, somebody ratted on them and the shoot out commenced. The townspeople were forewarned and victory was theirs. I think only one town person was killed and the Daltons rode off into the sunset. Must have been a pretty big shoot out, as my great grandmother was working in the genral store at the time, and had to hide behind the counter til it was over.
Interesting story! I enjoyed it.
Killing bad asses as examples is always a good deterrent. We should kill some fucking bankers and rich capitalists.
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