Details
DALTON, EMMETT. Typed letter signed ("Emmett Dalton") to C.W. Mowre of Dell Publications in New York; Hollywood, California, 26 February 1935. 1 page, 4to, typed (probably by Dalton) entirely in upper-case letters. Fine. RARE.
AN AGED GUN-SLINGER DERIDES "GUN-NOTCHING" AND RECALLS THE DALTON BROTHERS 1892 COFFEYVILLE BANK ROBBERY
An excellent letter in which the former outlaw enthusiastically praises the hard-boiled characters in western pulp fiction and denigrates the gun-notching display of a younger brother who was killed in the famous 1892 Coffeyville, Kansas robbery: "Thanks for the two letters...I should have answered them sooner but I was under the weather at that time, but I am getting much better now. I enclose you one of 'Chuck' Martin's letters, and I agree with all he says. I always liked a 'Hard Boiled guy,' especially if he was genuinely 'Hard Boiled,' I always found them men who would not lie or four flush. I am proud you like the stories 'Chuck' wrote for me, some day we will hear from him.
"We always left our old guns at home. I had a brother younger than I am and he thought he was tough. He knew we did not like 'this two gun stuff' nor gun notching either. Its all a fake, but he did some of it. I will be glad to meat [sic] you when you visit 'Chuck,' if I am alive, and I think I will be. I think that Coffeyvil[le] stuff of Chuck is the best he wrote...."
Emmett, Robert and Gratton Dalton began with horse-stealing and later took to robbing trains and banks in Oklahoma and California. On 5 October 1892 they attempted the simultaneous robbery of two banks in Coffeyville, Kansas. Robert, Gratton and other members of the gang were killed in the attempt. Only Emmett survived, though shot 16 times. After serving a 15 year jail sentence, he became successively a farmer, a law enforcement officer in Tulsa, a Los Angeles building contractor, and a not-very-successful Hollywood film producer. In his later years, Dalton became friendly with Charles Morris Martin ("Chuck Martin"), a successful western pulp fiction author, whose novels include titles like Arizona Sheriff,;Dapper Donnelly; Six-Gun Doctor; Gunsmoke Bonanza; Repentance at Boot Hill; Stick 'Em Up, Cowboy! and Vigilante Law. Martin published a number of articles on the Daltons, adding to the legendary fame of the gang.
AN AGED GUN-SLINGER DERIDES "GUN-NOTCHING" AND RECALLS THE DALTON BROTHERS 1892 COFFEYVILLE BANK ROBBERY
An excellent letter in which the former outlaw enthusiastically praises the hard-boiled characters in western pulp fiction and denigrates the gun-notching display of a younger brother who was killed in the famous 1892 Coffeyville, Kansas robbery: "Thanks for the two letters...I should have answered them sooner but I was under the weather at that time, but I am getting much better now. I enclose you one of 'Chuck' Martin's letters, and I agree with all he says. I always liked a 'Hard Boiled guy,' especially if he was genuinely 'Hard Boiled,' I always found them men who would not lie or four flush. I am proud you like the stories 'Chuck' wrote for me, some day we will hear from him.
"We always left our old guns at home. I had a brother younger than I am and he thought he was tough. He knew we did not like 'this two gun stuff' nor gun notching either. Its all a fake, but he did some of it. I will be glad to meat [sic] you when you visit 'Chuck,' if I am alive, and I think I will be. I think that Coffeyvil[le] stuff of Chuck is the best he wrote...."
Emmett, Robert and Gratton Dalton began with horse-stealing and later took to robbing trains and banks in Oklahoma and California. On 5 October 1892 they attempted the simultaneous robbery of two banks in Coffeyville, Kansas. Robert, Gratton and other members of the gang were killed in the attempt. Only Emmett survived, though shot 16 times. After serving a 15 year jail sentence, he became successively a farmer, a law enforcement officer in Tulsa, a Los Angeles building contractor, and a not-very-successful Hollywood film producer. In his later years, Dalton became friendly with Charles Morris Martin ("Chuck Martin"), a successful western pulp fiction author, whose novels include titles like Arizona Sheriff,;Dapper Donnelly; Six-Gun Doctor; Gunsmoke Bonanza; Repentance at Boot Hill; Stick 'Em Up, Cowboy! and Vigilante Law. Martin published a number of articles on the Daltons, adding to the legendary fame of the gang.