Bill Tilghman was the greatest lawman that ever lived. I arrived back from the Missouri trip even more convinced of that notion. In addition to the digging I did on my brother’s case, I researched the life and times of Tilghman. It gave me the boost I needed to continue working to make sure Rick is vindicated. In 1896, Bill Tilghman doggedly chased outlaw Bill Doolin from Guthrie, Oklahoma to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Doolin assumed the law would forget about him and leave him alone. He traveled to Eureka Springs to take advantage of the therapeutic water. He’d been shot during a robbery and the injury gave him endless grief and thought a soak in the water would help him to feel better. The Persistent Tilghman tracked the bad guy to the Davey Hotel. Doolin was registered as Tom Wilson. According to Tilghman, “When I entered the bath house…I saw Bill Doolin sitting on a lounge in the further corner of the room reading a paper. He looked up sharply as I entered and it seemed to me for a second that he recognized me but I walked briskly through the room and into the bath at once…. With my gun in hand I slipped quietly in the room up to the stove he was sitting behind then jumping around the stove to the position immediately in front of Doolin and told him to throw up his hands and surrender. He got up saying, “What do you mean, I have done nothing,” but I grabbed his right wrist with my left hand as he raised it to get his gun and with the revolver in my right hand leveled at his head ordered him to throw up his left land. He put it up part way and then made a pass toward his gun but I told him I would shoot if he made another move.” Hundreds of people poured into Guthrie from throughout the territory to see the robber and murderer escorted back to the scene of the crime. Tilghman was celebrated for the job he’d done and accepted the accolades with quiet dignity. The investigators who have uncovered truth about my brother should be just as celebrated. They are as dedicated as Tilghman. Who knows where the bad guys will finally be tracked? Guess it doesn’t really matter. I’m satisfied they will be exposed. As I’ve written in the past, justice is coming.
