Outlaws & Loyalty

I’m on the trail today of some of the most notorious female outlaws in the Midwest. I’ve found a few among the ladies of easy virtue. The Rose of Cimarron, Belle Starr, Cattle Annie and Little Britches – all had their reasons for becoming unshackled outlaws, the common one being they lost their hearts to some romantic reprobate, and therefore could lay the blame, as their sisters had done for centuries, upon the unregenerate male sex. Nothing has changed. From the 1850s to 2010, men are still being blamed for women’s bad actions. Writing about male outlaws is much more interesting because they don’t make excuses. They’re bad, they know it, and they accept it. Many of the Old West outlaw gangs, and for that matter Old West law enforcement teams, were brothers – the Youngers, the Daltons, the Earps, the Mastersons, the Tighlmans. They looked out for one another. I’ve not found any female gangs or police squads from that era that consisted of just sisters. Family wasn’t enough for women of old to give up everything and seek vengeance for a wrong to their sibling. At least I haven’t come across an example yet to support that. On this day in 1896, the Dunn brothers faced the challenge of fighting for one another. Bill Dunn and his four brothers Bee, Dal, Calvin, and George most often operated as bounty hunters. But the Dunn brothers were better known as the proprietors of a road ranch outside Ingalls, Oklahoma, where passing travelers were waylaid after being put up for the night. On May 2, 1895, two desperados known as Charley Pierce and Bitter Creek Newcomb arrived at the Dunn ranch to spend the night. As they stabled their horses, Bill and one of his brothers ambushed them outside the barn to collect the $5,000 bounty on Newcomb in Guthrie. A year later, on August 25, 1896, the outlaw leader Bill Doolin was killed much the same way. Dunn was part of the posse surrounding Doolin’s farm in Lawson, Oklahoma, and waited for the fugitive to appear at the door. When he showed himself, his surrender was demanded. Doolin refused and was shotgunned to death. Later that year, the people of the county grew angry over Dunn’s tactics. On November 5, Dun answered his critics by blaming Deputy Sheriff Frank Canton for the brutal way in which Newcomb and Pierce were killed. In the streets of Pawnee, Canton confronted Dunn. Dunn drew first, but Deputy Canton fired a .45-caliber slug into Dunn’s forehead, killing him instantly. Bill’s brothers swore revenge for his death. One of them announced, “I’ll get even if I have to crawl back from the grave.” Bill Dunn was in the wrong, but I can’t help but admire his brother’s loyalty.