Killing Dan “Dynamite Dick” Clifton was a popular pastime among western newspaper editors who were quicker to print a story than to
run a fact check. As a result, Wikipedia
calls him “the most killed outlaw in the American West.” There’s no denying it. Just about every western newspaper
published between 1895 and 1897 carried the gory details of Dynamite Dick
“biting the big one”—going out with guns blazing, Winchester balls tearing
through his body, leaving nothing but a blood-drenched carcass laying in the
desert.
But
no sooner would you read about his death than he was robbing another bank,
another train, or getting all shot up again. If he were alive today, “Dynamite Dick” would be “Kenny” on South Park or a popular victim in dozens
of video games.
Legend has it Clifton got the name “Dynamite Dick” because he got a kick out of boring holes in his cartridges and filling them with dynamite. When they exploded, it made a hell of a ruckus and took a deadly toll on anyone or anything that crossed its path.
“Dynamite Dick” joined the Doolin-Dalton gang, or
Wild Bunch, shortly after the original Dalton Gang had been wiped out in the
Coffeyville Bank raid.
One
of the first jobs he pulled with the gang was the robbery of the Ford County
Bank in Spearville, Kansas, on November 1, 1892. Three men rode up to the bank
at about 2 p.m. One stayed outside to watch the horses. The other two men
walked into the bank, revolvers at the ready. They put a gun to cashier Baird’s
head, snatched up all the cash in sight, and walked out over $1700 richer. As
they ran out of the bank and jumped on their horses, a group of citizens opened
fire. Fifteen shots crashed around them; fortunately, no injuries occurred in the
exchange.
Dynamite Dick in a Main Street shootout
The bandits headed out of town with a posse hot on their trail. A running fight broke out on the trail, but the bandits made good on their getaway after a few well-placed shots.
On
June 10, 1893, the gang robbed the Santa Fe Southern Express west of Cimarron,
Kansas.
The
Meade County Globe reported, “Four
masked robbers held up the California Express.” The robbers set up a danger
signal about a half-mile out of Cimarron. When the engineer stopped the train,
two men, with revolvers drawn, jumped onto the train and forced the engineer to
go with them to the express car. The express agent refused to open the door, so they blew it with dynamite. It’s thought the boys made off with about $1,000
that time.
All
hell busted loose in Southwest City, Missouri, in May 1894, when the
Doolin-Dalton gang robbed the bank there. Over 100 shots were fired on Main
Street as the gang made their getaway. Many townspeople said it “sounded like
war times.”
Seven
men rode up to the bank about 3 p.m. that afternoon. “Two of them were stationed on the sidewalk, three entered
the bank with a sack, and two others guarded the horses.” Bill Doolin pulled a
gun on cashier Snyder and the bank owner, Mr. Ault. Another robber covered the
rest of the employees while the third crawled through the teller window and
began scooping up all the money in sight.
A
pitched fight broke out as the outlaws made good their escape. Four townsmen were wounded. Bill Doolin took several
rounds of buckshot in the left temple close to the hairline but kept riding. A
local paper said, “A posse was made up and started in pursuit, but the robbers
have a good lead and will probably get away.”
Their
take was $4,000.
Dynamite Dick rode through town with his guns blazing
The San Francisco Call said, “Slaughter Kid and Dynamite Dick Riddled by Flying Buckshot.” That was on May 3, 1895. A newspaper article said that the “dead men were stretched out on two boards” at Spengle’s undertaking house. But, of course, they got some details wrong. For example, they said, “Dynamite Dick” was Charlie Pierce, not Dan Clifton.
“Dynamite
Dick,” had “thirty buckshot in him, mostly in the right shoulder and side,
although he had fully six shot in his stomach and as many in one foot. One
Winchester bullet struck ‘Bitter Creek’ in the forehead and tore out his brains
at the back of his head, and the other hit his hand as he was pulling the
trigger.”
There
was only one problem with that story.
A
little later, in May of the same year, “Dynamite Dick” and the Doolin-Dalton
gang robbed the Rock Island Railroad at Dover. They got several thousand
dollars from the express car and some additional booty from the passengers.
Deputy
Marshal Chris Madsen and seven posse members hit the trail in hot pursuit. “Tulsa
Jack” Blake was killed during the pursuit. The other gang members got away, but
their escape was short-lived. By the end of 1896,
most of the Doolin-Dalton gang was dead or in jail.
Bill
Tilghman shot Bill Raidler and put him in jail. Loss
Hart killed Bill Dalton outside his wife’s house in an ambush. Then
Charlie Pierce and “Bitter Creek” Newcomb got themselves shot full of holes by
a couple of bounty hunters.
In
1896, Deputy F. M. Canton tracked “Dynamite Dick” down and put him behind bars.
Two weeks later, on July 5, 1896, Bill Doolin, “Dynamite Dick,” and fourteen
other prisoners busted out of the U.S. Prison at Guthrie, Oklahoma. They rushed
one guard, seized two pistols and a Winchester, and forced the guards into the
cages. Deputy Marshal Lightman and his
posse rode off in hot pursuit.
On
October 18, 1896, six masked riders led by “Dynamite Dick” rode into the small
town of Carney, Oklahoma, with their guns blazing. Two desperadoes busted into
B. Fout’s store, forcing him and his son to hand over the contents of the
safe—about $800. After robbing them, the outlaws rode the two men a few miles
out of town and tied them to a tree. While the Fouts were being terrorized and
ridden out of town, the other gang members ransacked the post office, hotel,
and several smaller stores, searching for anything of value. The outlaws kept
up a “horrible commotion” the entire time they were doing that, screaming and
firing their guns into the air. When the boys finished having their fun, they rode out of town in three small
groups.
Newspapers couldn't stop talking about Dynamite Dick
Several months later, in December, “Dynamite Dick” used up another of his lives. Supposedly, a posse trailed him and another gang member, Ben Cravens, to a spot three miles east of Blackwell, Indian Territory. The posse came upon the two men a little after daybreak.
The
Barbour County Index said the Outlaws
planned to rob the Bank of Blackwell about 9 a.m. Sheriff J. R. Cox received a
tip the day before that “Dynamite Dick” and Ben Cravens were hiding out at the
house of a man named Hostler. He “organized a posse of seven good men in Blackwell,
all of whom were splendidly equipped with
arms, ammunition, and nerve.” The posse
challenged the outlaws to stop, but the outlaws opened fire. “At the first
round,” fired by the posse, “Dynamite Dick fell before the bullet of a livery
stable keeper named Lang...who used a .56
caliber Winchester rifle ball.” Cravens was shot three times—once in the
shoulder, another in the lung, and the third in the leg.
The
headline in the Wichita Daily Eagle
on December 5, 1896, said, “Dynamite Dick Bites the Dust.” However, the editor
of the Shiner Gazette dressed the
story up a little, saying, “bullets fell thick and hot on all sides for half an
hour.”
“Dynamite
Dick” played out his final hand in 1897.
Even
then, several stories circulated about how he met his maker. The most published
said Deputy Marshal George Lawson and Hess Bussey tracked Clifton to a cabin
west of Checotah, Indian Territory.
The
posse hollered for “Dynamite Dick” to surrender. As they did, a woman and a boy
attempted to leave the cabin. The officers told them to set the cabin on fire,
but they refused and hurried back in.
Moments
later, “Dynamite Dick” burst through the door—with a six-shooter in both hands,
blasting at the marshals. Seconds later, “Dynamite Dick” fell dead for real.
Another
version of the story says the marshals tracked “Dynamite Dick” to a wooded area
in Indian Territory. They soon discovered that a man answering to “Dynamite
Dick’s” description had been in the neighborhood for several weeks peddling
whisky. Post office inspector Houck and the two deputies waited in the woods
near Blair Hill, seeking clues. After two weeks of waiting, they learned the robbers had gone to Keokuk Falls to
replenish their whisky supplies but were
set to return shortly.
When
he got back, “Dynamite Dick” fired his Winchester into the air to let the
locals know he had returned. The hooch would soon flow freely. The marshals
watched the drunken orgy all night from their perch in the woods.
The
following day, they moved in on “Dynamite Dick.” He led a horse in one hand and held a rifle in the other. When the
marshals challenged him to surrender, he raised his Winchester, readying to
fire. However, the marshals were too fast. Dynamite Dick took a bullet in his
left arm, dropped his rifle, and ran into the woods.
The
lawmen tracked him all day. Finally, they located him in the house with a woman
and a boy. The deputies ordered him to drop his guns and come out, or they
would fire the cabin. At that point, “Dynamite Dick” decided he’d rather go out
in a blaze of glory. He opened the door, armed with a pistol and a shotgun, and
fired at the officers.
The
Houston Daily Post wrote, “After
about twenty shots had been exchanged,
Dynamite Dick fell dead, riddled with bullets.”
“Dynamite
Dick” had died his last death. But surprisingly, the stories this time were shorter and less spectacular than previous
accounts of his death.
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