Written by Tom Clavin
SUMMARY:
Released in 2023 by St. Martin’s Publishing Group, this Tom Clavin title is available in multiple formats: digital, hardcover, audiobook, large-print hardcover, and, presumably, paperback, at a later date. Per the photo below, the edition reviewed here is the large print edition — it is distributed through Thorndike Press and shares the same cover artwork as the St. Martin’s hardcover.
The prologue begins in April 1931, as an aging Emmett Dalton briefly returns (with his wife) to Coffeyville nearly forty years after the infamously botched dual bank heist where multiple citizens and four Dalton Gang members were killed. With mixed emotions, Emmett personally reflects upon the headstone he had purchased to adorn the shared gravesite of his brothers, Bob and Grat Dalton, and associate Bill Power. The somber departure of Emmett and his wife from the cemetery initiates Clavin’s narrative in flashback.
‘Act I: The Daltons’ summarizes the Daltons’ ancestral past and their maternal link as cousins to the Youngers: Cole, Jim, Bob, and John (who was killed years prior to the failed Northfield raid). More so, Clavin describes the Youngers’ criminal activities with brothers Jesse & Frank James dating back to the Civil War. By war’s end, the Youngers and the two James brothers had shifted from Confederate guerillas to professional criminals. Upon the James/Younger Gang’s bloody failed 1876 bank heist in Northfield, Minnesota, Jesse and Frank James had fled back to Missouri. The three wounded Youngers, however, were left behind to face capture and then be sent to prison for decades.
In the years to come, Judge Isaac Parker and a vigilant division of U.S. Marshals would be hard-pressed protecting the Mid-South region from a seemingly unending reign of terror by roving criminals. After the heinous murder of older brother Frank Dalton, as one of Parker’s deputy marshals, brothers Grat, Bob, and Emmett Dalton all briefly pursued careers as lawmen.
Corruption and incompetence ended the three younger Daltons’ law-abiding aspirations and precipitated their escape to California. Bungling their first train heist, Bob and Emmett’s antics implicated Grat, and much to his chagrin, another older brother: Bill. Simmering with resentment, Bill’s subsequent attitude was that, if he was going to be unfairly branded an outlaw (by his surname), then he might as well become one.
Having fled back to Oklahoma and Kansas, now-professional thieves Bob and Emmett officially assemble their dubious gang in mid-1891, per ‘Act II: The Gang.’ Including Bill Doolin and a fugitive Grat, the gang’s notoriety over a series of train robberies soars – even if they were really more lucky than good making their escapes and evading capture.
‘Act III: The Lawmen’ examines the U.S. Marshals, an assortment of local posses, and the train industry’s detectives, as they all join the hunt for the elusive Daltons and their cronies. Among these determined manhunters are U.S. Deputy Marshals Bill Tilghman, Chris Madsen, and Heck Thomas – each of whom is profiled.
By early October 1892, the Daltons intend to make one last profitable score and then flee the region – all the way to South America, if necessary. As Emmett would readily acknowledge decades later, the relentless pursuit by Heck Thomas and his posse had expedited the gang’s decision-making. Specifically, they sensed that Thomas was only mere days away from catching up to them.
Opting to rob their hometown’s two banks simultaneously in broad daylight, the Daltons’ grisly demise in Coffeyville unfolds in ‘Act IV: The Shoot-Out.’ Left out of the Coffeyville disaster, the remaining gang members would soon reassemble under Bill Doolin and Bill Dalton’s shared command. This spin-off group of desperadoes became known as the Doolin-Dalton Gang — this gang’s other monickers include the original ‘Wild Bunch;’ ‘The Oklahoma Long Riders,’ and, though Clavin doesn’t mention it: ‘the Oklahombres.’
Per the concluding ‘Act V: The Desperadoes,’ the two Bills (Doolin and Dalton) lead a more successful and evidently competent crew over the next few years. Still, due to the persistence of Thomas, Madsen, and Tilghman, virtually all of the Doolin-Dalton contingent and various associates are ultimately killed or nabbed one by one. Saved for last, Clavin reveals the fates of the surviving players and/or their families. As far as Clavin is concerned, though long overlooked by history, he considers the wily Bill Doolin the Old West’s ‘last outlaw.’
Note: Though Clavin makes a logical case for Doolin, two of this desperado’s old associates could make equally valid claims as the Old West’s ‘last outlaw.’ Including stints in prison and then Hollywood (I kid you not), these other two outlaws/killers would Roy Daugherty (aka ‘Arkansas Tom’ Jones) and Belle Starr’s distant nephew, Henry Starr – both of whom Clavin briefly profiles.
After years in prison and a failed try at Hollywood fame, Daugherty/Jones went back to bank robbing. As a fugitive from justice, he was ultimately killed in 1924 in a shootout with a Joplin, MO policeman.
Curiously reminiscent of Emmett Dalton, Starr’s post-prison life including a memoir and even starring in his own bio-pic. Per his own return to bank robbing, Starr updated to the 20th Century by switching to fast cars and automatic weapons for his getaways. He later suffered mortal wounds ‘on the job’ in 1921 during a Harrison, AR bank heist. Hence, Starr was a high-profile predecessor for the likes of John Dillinger, “Baby Face” Nelson, Bonnie & Clyde, and “Pretty Boy” Floyd.
REVIEW:
Aside from a few sporadic typos (which might be limited to the large print edition), Clavin pens another solid and insightful narrative. That said, The Last Outlaws isn’t Clavin’s best work on the Old West – too often, his conversational style is somewhat languid and excessively constructed to fit his dramatic five-act storyline.
For instance, the prologue depicting an aged (and semi-remorseful) Emmett Dalton and his wife revisiting Coffeyville comes off as a dialogue-driven sequence meant for historical fiction (or even a film). Unlike Clavin’s other Old West works, readers will sense that he sometimes overindulges into theatrics vs. sticking to the reporting of historical facts. Though intentionally hilarious, Clavin’s propensity for jibes (i.e. sarcastically discussing ‘unenviable’ names and nicknames in Act V) may also be a bit distracting to readers. The flip side is that Clavin’s humor offers some welcome compensation for unavoidable monotony explaining the historical framework.
It surely isn’t Clavin’s fault that the biographies of his primary subjects (Bob, Emmett, Grat, and Bill Dalton) are more pathetic than compelling in this ‘good brothers gone bad’ account. Had Clavin instead structured his book around the ‘Three Guardsmen of Oklahoma:’ Heck Thomas, Bill Tilghman, and Chris Madsen (and thereby demoting the Daltons to secondary importance), that concept might have had intriguing possibilities.
Nonetheless, Clavin’s research is reliable enough in spelling out the complete Dalton/Doolin gang activities and how law enforcement finally brought these cretins to justice. The Last Outlaws, in that sense, likely presents one of the best contemporary analyses of this subject – especially the underrated efforts of ‘The Three Guardsmen.’
ADDITIONAL FEATURES:
A table of contents is provided, where the book’s thirty-five chapters are divvied up within five ‘Acts.’ That’s not counting Emmett Dalton’s prologue and an epilogue further detailing the fates of some survivors and/or their families.
Next up is a black-and-white map of the American Midwest in the early 1890’s. Prior to the actual text, the author’s note readily acknowledges that his book’s title isn’t quite accurate – given the notoriety of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s ‘Wild Bunch’ out West had still yet to come.
Clavin includes an acknowledgments section, a bibliography, and a brief summary of his credits. Though it would have been helpful, there isn’t an index.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 7 Stars
