Bill Doolin - Doolin-Dalton Gang

 The Doolin-Dalton Gang rose from the ashes of the Dalton Gang’s bloody Coffeyville disaster. When Grat and Bob Dalton fell dead in October 1892, brother Bill Dalton joined forces with Bill Doolin, a seasoned outlaw from Oklahoma Territory.

Their new gang soon struck fear across the frontier. Members included “Bitter Creek” Newcomb, William “Tulsa Jack” Blake, and Charley Pierce. One of their fiercest gunmen was Israel Carr, a black outlaw. Carr was said to have killed more men than the entire gang combined. A lawman called him “one mean son-of-a-bitch.”

Other deadly characters joined the gang. There was Dan “Dynamite Dick” Clifton and “Arkansas Tom” Jones. The law knew them all as hardened killers. “Tulsa Jack” had once worked as a cowboy but preferred robbing trains to riding fence. Dynamite Dick got his name from his favorite tool—he was the gang’s explosives expert, always grinning as he lit the fuse. Arkansas Tom was a brooding, unpredictable sort who claimed he only rode with the gang for the excitement.

Gingerbread, Lies & Murder (Book Trailer)

 

Five Things You Didn't Know About Marilyn Monroe

 

George Washington in the French & Indian War

 

Great Northfield Minnesota Bank Raid Jesse James

 

Jackie Robinson Breaking Color Barriers in Baseball

 

Lizzie Borden Murder, Mystery, or Misunderstanding?

 

Burning of Washington War of 1812

 

Death on the Little Big Horn Custer's Last Stand

 

Seven Things You Didn't Know About A Christmas Carol

 

Artist Pablo Picasso

 

Artist Joan Miro

 

Lake Okoboji Serpent -- Fact or Fiction?

 

Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans

 

McDonald's Through the Ages

 

Black Bart California Poet Bandit

 

Billy the Kid New Mexico Outlaw

 

Joseph Plumb Martin Revolutionary War Soldier

Joseph Plumb Martin joined the Connecticut militia at age 15 and served for nearly eight years.

He saw action in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. He endured hunger, disease, and bitter winters, and kept a journal the whole time.

Years later, he published his memoir under the long-winded title: A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier. It’s one of the most detailed accounts we have of what life was really like for an ordinary soldier.

Martin didn’t sugarcoat anything. “We were absolutely, literally starved,” he wrote of the winter at Valley Forge. In another entry, he joked, “We had nothing to eat but fire-cake and water—fire-cake is flour and water mixed and baked in the ashes.”

His honesty and humor helped people understand while generals made the plans. It was kids like him who carried them out.

Molly Pitcher Revolutionary War Heroine

Historians believe “Molly Pitcher” was based on a real woman—Mary Ludwig Hays—who followed her husband, a Continental soldier, to the Battle of Monmouth in 1778. As soldiers dropped in the heat, she ran pitchers of water to cool them down. When her husband collapsed at his cannon, she stepped up and took his place.

A soldier who witnessed it wrote: “She attended the piece during the whole time; and in the sight of the enemy, she fought as manfully as her husband.”

After the war, the state of Pennsylvania awarded her an annual pension for her heroism. Her tombstone says: “Molly McCauley, the heroine of Monmouth.”

Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant)

For many Native Americans, it wasn’t their fight. But they were dragged into it, anyway. Tribes were forced to choose between the British, who promised to protect their lands, and the Americans, who wanted to expand westward. Some joined the British. Some sided with the Americans. Most simply tried to survive.

Joseph Brant was a Mohawk war chief, and a highly educated man who had studied at a colonial school in Connecticut and translated the Book of Common Prayer into Mohawk.

When the war broke out, Brant sided with the British, believing they were more likely to respect tribal boundaries. He led Mohawk warriors in a series of battles across New York and Pennsylvania. His forces fought at Oriskany, Cherry Valley, and Wyoming Valley—sometimes alongside British troops, sometimes independently.

After the war, he traveled to London to argue for Native land rights. He met with King George III and lobbied the British government to fulfill its promises to the Iroquois. Though he didn’t win every battle, he fought fiercely for his people.

“The Indians are not to blame,” Brant once said. “They have only followed the white man’s example.”

 

Baron von Steuben Drill Master of Valley Forge

 

In the middle of misery that was Valley Forge, something unexpected happened. A stranger arrived—a man with a strange name, a thick accent, and a sense of purpose. He called himself Baron Friedrich von Steuben. He was a former officer in the Prussian army, where soldiers were drilled to perfection. He had heard about the American cause and offered his help. Desperate, Washington agreed.

At first, the soldiers weren’t sure what to make of him. Von Steuben spoke little English, though he had a translator and a fiery temper. He’d shout orders in German, then curse in French, then throw up his hands and start over. But there was something about him—something bold and funny and sharp.

Von Steuben didn’t just bark commands from a distance. He got right in the mud with the men, demonstrating how to load a musket faster, how to march in formation, how to wheel and fire and hold the line. He introduced new discipline—not cruel, but smart and effective. He taught them how to fight like a proper army.

He began with a group of 100 chosen men, drilling them endlessly until they mastered every move. Then those men trained others. Soon, the entire army was learning the von Steuben way.

Patrick Henry Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death

By  early 1776, bullets had been flying for nearly a year, but the folks in charge still hadn’t made up their minds about what exactly they were fighting for.

Some wanted independence. Others still thought King George might change his mind and patch things up. A few were hoping someone else would decide, so they didn’t have to.

Back in Virginia, Patrick Henry wasn’t waiting for anyone. He already knew where he stood.

Henry wasn’t a soldier. He didn’t carry a musket or march in formation. He was a lawyer—a loud, passionate one—and when he spoke, people listened.

In March 1775, just weeks before the first shots were fired, Henry gave a speech at the Virginia Convention that rattled the walls. No one had ever heard anything like it. The British were sending more troops; he warned. They weren’t coming to keep the peace—they were coming to put chains on the colonies.

You Can Only Fool ...

 

Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick

 

Have I got a story for you ...

 

Frank James Western Outlaw

Frank James turned himself in to Missouri Governor Thomas Crittenden in 1882. He surrendered his pistol and gun belt in a quiet room at the Capitol in Jefferson City, asking only for a fair trial.

He got it. After several weeks behind bars, Frank was acquitted. Public sentiment had softened, and the state couldn’t prove its case. Unlike the Youngers, Frank James never spent a day in the penitentiary.

He lived out the rest of his days quietly guiding tourists, giving the occasional interview, and tending to chickens on his farm. He died in 1915, an old man who had once terrorized the railroads.

Wyatt Earp Western Lawman

 

If you pointed a gun at Wyatt Earp, you’d best mean business and be ready to “burn powder.” The glint in his eyes and the guns on his hips meant business.

Wild Bill Hickok Gunfighter, Lawman, and Gambler

Wild Bill and Davis Tutt squared off in the town square of Springfield, Missouri, on July 21, 1865. They stood fifteen paces apart, hands twitching at their sides. Only one man walked away.

Clay Allison Gunfighter

Clay Allison entertained himself by shooting up dance halls and small towns, making respectable gents leap around barefoot while he riddled the floor with bullets. He didn’t need much of a reason—just a little liquor and a bad mood.

Doc Holliday Gambler, Gunfighter, Lawman

When he wasn’t raising hell with a pistol, Doc Holliday spent most of his time at the tables, dealing faro or sitting in on a game, and if someone crossed him, they weren’t long for this life.

Custer's Last Stand

All two hundred and ten men in Custer’s command died in the fighting at the Little Big Horn. The Bismarck Weekly Tribune described the gruesome scene in their July 12 issue. Lieutenant Bradley told General Terry, “He had found Custer with one hundred and ninety cavalrymen. They lay as they fell, shot down from every side. General Custer shot through the head and body, seemed to have been among the last to fall.” (Century Magazine. 1890)

Lincoln & McClellan at Antietam

“After the battle of Antietam, I went up to the field to try to get him to move and came back thinking he would move at once,” Lincoln told his secretary John Hay. “But when I got home, he began to argue why he ought not to move. I peremptorily ordered him to advance. It was nineteen days before he put a man over the [Potomac] River. It was nine days longer before he got his army across.” (Elson, Henry W. The Photographic History of the Civil War. 1912)

Major Robert Anderson Surrender Fort Sumter

 

The War Department instructed Major Robert Anderson to prepare for battle but not assume a warlike stance. The government could not reinforce or supply the garrison without bringing the conflict to a head. Anderson was to make do with the materials and men he had. He was to walk a fine line between readiness and disaster. Not long after, the fall of Fort Sumter launched the Civil War. (Elson, Henry W. The Photographic History of the Civil War. 1912)

President James K. Polk

 James K. Polk was probably the most unsociable, drab, stick-in-the-mud ever elected president. Fun was a four-letter word in his book. Sports, drinking, dancing, and anything to do with being around people didn’t make his A-list. Instead, he was short, scholarly, lived for his work, and avoided face-to-face conversations and confrontations. (Munsey’s Magazine. January 1897)

Actresses Helen Macbeth and Dorothy Dorr

 

Actresses Helen Macbeth and Dorothy Dorr shooting pool. (Greenbook Magazine, 1910).

Comedians Harry Watson and George Bickel.

Comedians Harry Watson and George Bickel on a fishing trip. (Greenbook Magazine, 1910).

Actress Louise Barthel

Louise Barthel of Chicago’s German Comedy Opera Company (colorized photo of an image in the Greenbook Magazine, 1908)

Actor William Courtenay

Actor William Courtenay (colorized photograph of an image published in Greenbook Magazine, 1908)

Actress Lotta Faust Walking Dog

 Actress Lotta Faust walking her dog in New York. (colorized photograph of an image in Greenbook Magazine, 1908)

Actress Grace Hazzard at Colonial Theatre

Actress Grace Hazzard leaving the stage door of the Colonial Theatre in New York (colorized photograph from an image in Greenbook Magazine, 1908)

Actor Frank Daniels

Actor Frank Daniel’s at his home in Rye, New York. (colorized photograph of an image in Greenbook Magazine, 1908).

Frank James Bank Robber

Frank James turned himself in to Missouri Governor Thomas Crittenden in 1882. He surrendered his pistol and gun belt in a quiet room at the Capitol in Jefferson City, asking only for a fair trial.

He got it. After several weeks behind bars, Frank was acquitted. Public sentiment had softened, and the state couldn’t prove its case. Unlike the Youngers, Frank James never spent a day in the penitentiary.

He lived out the rest of his days quietly guiding tourists, giving the occasional interview, and tending to chickens on his farm. He died in 1915, an old man who had once terrorized the railroads.

Condon Bank Coffeyville, Kansas

A typical day outside the Condon Bank in Coffeyville, Kansas, until Grat Dalton, Bill Powers, and Dick Broadwell walked inside, guns in hand. Bob and Emmett Dalton entered the First National Bank across the street.

Emmett Dalton Western Outlaw

Emmett Dalton said the Coffeyville raid was a suicide mission, but “I was damned if I did, and damned if I didn’t. If I stayed out, I’d still hang. So, I rode in.”

Death of the Dalton Gang

Deputy sheriffs standing by the dead bodies of Bob and Grat Dalton. The town had done what no one else could. They’d taken down the Dalton Gang and lived to talk about it.

Black Bart California Stagecoach Robber

 

Black Bart was one of the most prolific stagecoach robbers to haunt the Old West, and he did it without firing a shot. He was polite, calm, and—most curious of all—he left poetry behind at the scene of his crimes.

Billy the Kid New Mexico Outlaw

Pat Garrett said Billy the Kid was always laughing—he ate and laughed, drank and laughed, fought and laughed... killed and laughed.

Pat Garrett The Man Who Killed Billy the Kid

After his election as sheriff of Lincoln County, Pat Garrett formed a posse and hunted the Kid down. Billy surrendered, was hauled to Mesilla, and convicted of killing Sheriff Brady. He was sentenced to swing on May 13, 1881.

John Wesley Hardin Western Gunfighter

 John Wesley Hardin was the meanest, orneriest, deadliest cuss to sling iron in Texas. He once shot a man for snoring. That’s not a tall tale either.

Clay Allison Western Outlaw

 Clay Allison entertained himself by shooting up dance halls and small towns, making respectable gents leap around barefoot while he riddled the floor with bullets. He didn’t need much of a reason—just a little liquor and a bad mood.

Lawman Bill Tilghman

Bill Tilghman was “tall and slim, straight as an arrow,” and “was not afraid of anything living.” He didn’t talk much, and the word “quit” wasn’t in his vocabulary. Once he got his man in his sights, that was the end of the story.

Harry Tracy Oregon Outlaw

Harry Tracy & David Merrill escaping from prison.

On June 9, 1902, Harry Tracy and David Merrill made their break from the Oregon State Prison. They were working in the prison foundry when Tracy grabbed a rifle and dropped guard, Frank Farrell. Another prisoner, Frank Ingraham, tried to stop them—Merrill shot him in the leg. It later had to be cut off.

Out in the yard, the place turned into a shooting gallery. They gunned down the fence guard, Thurston Jones Sr. with shots to the chest and gut. Guard Bailey Tiffany was next. He was shot dead while standing watch. Duncan Ross hit the dirt and played dead. The escapees climbed a ladder, dragged Tiffany with them, and used his corpse as a shield. As they hit the tree line, Tracy put a bullet into Tiffany’s head. Three guards lay dead in three minutes.

That night, Tracy and Merrill holed up in the woods. Around 10 p.m., they met a man named Stewart and made him strip before breaking into his house. A few days later, they forced Mrs. H. Akers to cook them breakfast, then looted her pantry.

On June 15, they stole a team of horses near Oregon City. The next day, they crashed Charles Holtgrieve’s home on the Columbia River, demanded a meal, and made five men row them across. Outside Vancouver, they mugged a rancher named Reedy for his clothes, then disappeared for two weeks.

Arapahoe Chief White Whirlwind

Chief White Whirlwind was a leader of the Arapaho people during the 1800s.

In 1864, U.S. soldiers attacked a peaceful camp of Cheyenne and Arapaho people along Big Sandy Creek. Many Native Americans, including women and children, were killed.

In 1867, Chief White Whirlwind and other leaders signed the Treaty of Medicine Lodge, aimed to bring peace between Native American tribes and the U.S. government. It involved relocating tribes to reservations.

Chief White Whirlwind traveled to Washington, D.C. in 1873, and met with President Ulysses S. Grant. Along with other leaders, he discussed issues affecting their people, seeking better treatment and rights.

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Japanese Geisha Girls

Cosmopolitan Magazine published this photo of Japanese Geisha Girls in an 1898 issue.  (We colorized the photo)

Joshua Speed And Abraham Lincoln

You might know Joshua Speed as Abraham Lincoln’s closest friend, the guy who may (or may not) have known all of Lincoln’s secrets — including the fangy, bloody ones if you’re a fan of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

But before we go full Hollywood, let’s get real for a sec. Who was Joshua Speed, and why did he matter so much?

Joshua Speed was born in 1814 in Kentucky. He came from a well-connected, wealthy slaveholding family, which would become an awkward talking point later, considering Abe freed the slaves. But when Lincoln arrived in Springfield, Illinois, in 1837 — broke, depressed, and carrying nothing but a carpetbag and a dream — Speed stepped in and gave him a job and a place to live.

Speed eventually moved back to Kentucky, married a woman named Fanny, and continued to be Abe’s go-to guy for emotional support. When the country was splintering apart, Lincoln leaned on Speed, for help keeping Kentucky from joining the Confederacy.

Fast forward to 2012, and history decided it needed a little more…bite. Enter Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter — the movie that asked the bold question: “What if the Great Emancipator was also a Great Decapitator?”

Joshua Speed gets a whole new job title in the movie: assistant vampire slayer. Speed is recast as the loyal wingman who helps Lincoln wage a secret war against bloodsucking monsters who just happen to be pro-slavery.

Edwin H. Stanton Nearly Became A Dictator After Lincoln's Assassination

Edwin Stanton damn near staged a one-man coup after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination at Ford’s Theater.

He turned Petersen House into the White House as Lincoln lay dying. He set up a de facto command center in the back bedroom, had guards posted, messengers sprinting, and generals lining up like schoolboys outside the principal’s office. While Vice President Andrew Johnson was reportedly half-drunk, Stanton took charge, “Find Booth,” he said. “Arrest everybody.”

Stanton’s War Department became a full-blown surveillance state with bayonets. He rounded up hundreds of suspected conspirators. One man was arrested for renting John Wilkes Booth a horse. He had newspapers shut down, editors jailed, and mail intercepted.

And if anyone questioned him, he steamrolled them with the Constitution in one hand and a saber in the other. Habeas corpus? Never heard of it.

Stanton ignored Andrew Johnson. He kept control of the military. He handed out appointments, and used the Army to enforce his own policies when Johnson tried to boot him.

When Johnson tried to fire Stanton in 1868, he refused to leave, and barricaded himself in his office at the War Department.

Had Stanton decided to “suspend” democracy for “national security,” the country might’ve gone along with it — we were still reeling from the Civil War, Lincoln was dead, and Andrew Johnson had the charisma of a soggy biscuit. If a strongman was ever going to rise in America, this was the moment. And Stanton was close to seizing it.

Author Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

If there’s one thing Nathaniel Hawthorne understood, it was sin. Not just the kind you confess on Sundays, but the deep, gut-wrenching, life-ruining kind that haunts generations. Maybe that’s because he had his own ghosts rattling in the family closet.

His great-great-grandfather, John Hathorne, was one of the Salem witch trial judges who sent people to the gallows without so much as a blink. That little piece of family history must have gnawed at Hawthorne because he spent his entire career wrestling with Puritan guilt. His father died when he was a kid, and Nathaniel grew up under the shadow of a somber, widowed mother. He went to Bowdoin College in Maine, rubbing elbows with future president Franklin Pierce and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. After graduation he holed up in his mom’s attic for a decade, writing stories no one read and living an isolated existence.

Then came The Scarlet Letter (1850), the book that turned his brooding into literary gold. If you think high schoolers complain about it now, imagine how it hit in the 1850s—scandalous, biting, and loaded with more moral dilemmas than a Sunday sermon. The story of Hester Prynne, forced to wear the infamous “A” for adultery while her hypocritical lover, Dimmesdale, wastes away with guilt, was a brutal slap to the face of the Puritan past. The book made Hawthorne famous, but he still had to take government jobs to pay the bills.

He followed it up with The House of the Seven Gables (1851), a gothic masterpiece steeped in curses and family secrets, and The Blithedale Romance (1852), inspired by his time at Brook Farm

When Franklin Pierce became president in 1853, he rewarded Hawthorne with a cushy job as U.S. consul in Liverpool. By the time he returned to the United States, the Civil War was brewing, and Hawthorne didn’t quite know where he fit in.

Benjamin Franklin, Author, Politician, Nudist

Benjamin Franklin was a genius, a statesman, a writer, an inventor—and an absolute menace when it came to women. By the time he landed in Paris in 1776, he was 70 years old, balding, a little pudgy, and set seducing the entire city.

And Paris was ready for him.

The French adored him. His plain fur hat and folksy charm made him look like a wise, old philosopher straight out of the American wilderness, and maybe just a little sexy.

Women loved him.

Franklin had a way with words. He knew how to make a woman feel special. He wrote flirtatious letters filled with poetic nonsense, winking innuendos, and charm that made his targets swoon. Take Madame Brillon, a married woman and a talented musician. Franklin adored her. They spent hours together, playing chess, discussing philosophy, and exchanging letters dripping with not-so-subtle desire. She played coy, but likely enjoyed the attention.

Then there was Madame Helvétius, a free-spirited widow with a sharp mind and a wilder heart. Franklin was obsessed. He proposed marriage. She laughed. He tried again. She still wasn’t interested. She preferred her dead husband to Franklin’s very alive advances, but it didn’t stop him from trying.

But Franklin wasn’t just seducing women. He seduced the entire country.

Sir John French British General World War I

 

Sir John French was Britain’s top general when World War I began. He was bold, stubborn, and loved cavalry charges. Unfortunately, cavalry was useless in a war filled with machine guns, trenches, and barbed wire.

The London Times called him “a gallant soldier of the old breed.” The Daily Mail praised his “unshaken resolve.” But war would prove otherwise.

In August 1914, French led the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) into battle at Mons. His men fought hard, holding back the Germans with deadly rifle fire. But when he saw what he was up against, French panicked and ordered a retreat.

The next month, at the Battle of the Marne, French hesitated again. French commander Joseph Joffre had to pressure him to attack. When he did, the BEF helped stop the German advance. Some called it a turning point. Others wondered why French had waited so long.

Then came Ypres. For weeks in late 1914, the BEF held off relentless German attacks. It was a heroic stand, but at a terrible cost. The professional British army was nearly wiped out.

By 1915, French was struggling. The war had changed, but he hadn’t. He still believed in fast-moving attacks, even though trench warfare made them impossible.

At the Battle of Loos, he delayed sending reinforcements. British troops attacked without enough artillery support. It was a disaster. The Daily Telegraph wrote, “Our brave lads went forward with courage unmatched, yet the guiding hand faltered.”