Customer Reviews

Daltons!: The Raid on Coffeyville, Kansas

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The Coffeyville raid on the First National and Condon banks by the Dalton Gang was one of the last raids during the "Wild West" era. By the time of the raid in 1892, Kansas had long shedded its reputation from its antebellum days as "Bleeding Kansas" and pretty much became a settled area with some lingering county border disputes in the western part of the state. To the south lay Indian Territory where it would be absorbed some 15 years later to become the new State of Oklahoma. In its last years of tribal rule, chaos was the order of the day and law enforcement in that area was scarce and to those who actually took up the mantle to chase the outlaws down it was a hazardous occupation that resulted in mostly short careers as desperadoes crossed the territory with impunity while making raids into neighboring states.

Robert Smith gives us a good overview of that fateful day in October, 1892 where a five-member gang (with the possibility of a sixth member) launched a scheme to rob two banks in Coffeyville to finance their "retirement" to South America. Bob, Grat and Emmett Dalton, along with two other men rode into town expecting an easy heist, but sloppy planning and poor execution and an alert populace spelled the end for all but Emmett Dalton who went down in a hail of bullets. Emmett lived on for many years afterward until his death in Los Angeles in 1937.

The book also tells of the background of Dalton boys, the broken home they grew up in and the search for the real story behind the raids. The book gets bogged down in sorting out the stories from the eyewitnesses of the raid and the ferreting out of facts from Emmett Dalton's concocted stories that he told later in life about his life of banditry. It made for some frustrating reading at times. A good book that gives adequate background of the raid and dwelled on the heroics of the people who did not wait to "dial 911" but took it upon themselves to deliver final justice. Four stars.