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Posse Management: Lessons from the Old West for Today’s Leaders
One of the grizzliest battles between outlaws and lawmen took place on September 3, 1893, twelve miles east of Stillwater, Oklahoma, at the town of Ingalls. More than ten people who were situated on the eastern edge of Payne County only a few miles from the rocky retreats and nearly inaccessible wooded areas of Creek County were killed. For some time it had been the spot where a gang of bandits, murderers, train robbers, and horse thieves known as the Doolin-Dalton Gang had made their headquarters.
The two-hundred-fifty people that resided in Ingalls had decided it was better business and safer to accept the outlaws who had overtaken the town than to fight them. In return for not robbing local merchants, outlaws could get drunk in an Ingalls’ saloon without having to shoot their way out, and they could rent a bed in Mary Pierce’s hotel (with or without a girl in it) and not have to worry about waking up with a sheriff’s gun in their chests.
The Doolin-Dalton Gang was the last great bandits of the old West. Bill Doolin and William Dalton worked to together at the HX-Bar Ranch in Oklahoma Territory. In 1891, they decided life as ranch hands was too sedate and traded in their legitimate jobs to rob trains and banks. Federal marshals began pursuing the gang in October 1892, after the daring outlaws attempted a double band holdup in Coffeyville, Kansas. The gang was comprised of more than eight men. In addition to the Dalton boys and Bill Doolin, there were also George Newcomb, alias Bitter Creek, Tom Jones, also known as Roy Daugherty, William “Texas Jack” Blake, and Dan Clifton, alias Dynamite Dick.
It wasn’t until after the Doolin-Dalton Gang held up two trains in the Cherokee Outlet at Wharton in Oklahoma that law enforcement learned the outlaws were hiding in caves outside Ingalls, Oklahoma, and as an extension, Ingalls itself. Deputy U. S. Marshal John Hixon rode toward Ingalls on Thursday, August 31, 1892. Among the fourteen members of the posse with him were marshals L. J. Shadley, T. J. Houston, Dick Speed, and Jim Masterson. They had received information that the gang was rendezvousing at the hotel at nine in the morning. The posse decided to separate and make their way into Ingalls from different directions. They would surround the town and move in to capture the outlaws on Friday, September 1, 1892.
The Pierce Hotel was a two-story structure that possessed an almost unobstructed view of the entire town. A woman named Anderson, commonly reported to be George Newcomb’s girlfriend, was at the hotel when the posse began approaching Ingalls from the north, northwest, and northeast. While on the balcony surveying the sights, Newcomb’s paramour saw something suspicious moving in the middle distance. Other gang sympathizers noticed the activity, too, and reported to Bill Doolin. An alarm warning the outlaws that the law was closing in sounded throughout the burg.
Four of the five bandits hurried across the street to Ransom’s Saloon where a fifth bandit was waiting, prepared to open fire on the posse fast approaching. Tom Jones stayed behind at the hotel in an upstairs room ready to cover his colleagues when and if they retreated. Tom had no sooner loaded his gun and aimed out the window than the lawmen opened fire on the outlaws in the saloon. The desperadoes returned fire. Bullets pierced buildings and shattered glass.
To learn more about the Doolin-Dalton Gang read
Principles of Posse Management
