DOOLIN

[Margaret-Anne Moore]

We have probably all heard the outlaw Bill Doolin was shot and killed by Federal Marshals as he was leading a wagon with his wife and young son down a darkened road.  He was apparently trying to flee from the area and settle with his family further West.  He was also in poor health and apparently sought  safe refuge on the ranch of Eugene Manlove  Rhodes.  Most historians have given this senario of Doolin's death.  However, Denis Mc Loughlin in Wild and Wooly, an Encyclopedia of the Old West, gives another version.  He states that Doolin had died earlier of consumption and that Heck Thomas fired the shotgun bullets into his corpse.  Mc Loughlin's book was the only place I had ever seen this particular version, until recently.  In The Encylopedia of American Crime, Carl Sifakis recounts both versions  He states:  "It was not.\, however, an act of greed on Thomas' part.  Like many other law officers, he respected Bill Doolin and did not wish to see his widow and young boy live in poverty.  He gave the  $5,000 reward money to the widow."  This second version did not appear for a great many years after Doolin's death, and may well be an example of what I call flim-flam.  Have any of you ever heard of this second version, or know anything about its veracity?

 

[Wolfgang]

Nope.  Never heer'd of it 'till now.    And I doubt it's authenticity very much.

[Kent Fevurly]

I've heard the story.  Don't know if it's true, but I'd like to think so.  Heck was a helluva lawman.  I'd like to htink he did right by Mrs. Doolin.

[Bob 'Buckshot' Bradley]

OTHER VERSIONS

There have been other stories over the years describing different ways in which Bill Doolin died or was killed. The two primary stories involve (a) Bee Dunn firing the fatal shot rather than Heck Thomas, and (b) Doolin dying of illness, and his body then being shot by officers to collect a reward. Learning the full story of an event that happened 100 years ago can be hard to do, but an examination of certain information reveals that these other stories of Doolin's death lack credibility.

Author Bailey C. Hanes describes the incident this way: "When he drew abreast of the cane field on the south side of the road, Heck Thomas suddenly shouted, 'Halt, Bill!' Quickas a striking rattler, Doolin fired at the voice in the darkness, narrowly missing Thomas and Bee Dunn. He almost never missed, they knew. At that same instant, Bee Dunn, standing close to the right of Thomas, let go with Dr. Call's shotgun. Later Bee claimed the gun went off accidentally as he fired at the same instant Thomas told Doolin to stop. The second shotgun, in the hands of Bill Dunn, along with several rifles, cracked only seconds later, including Heck's Winchester, which, by a strange coincidence, was also a caliber .40-.82. Heck fired twice. All of the shots went wild except the shotgun blasts of Bee and Bill Dunn, and one slug from Heck;s rifle which caught Doolin in the right side......"

While it may be somewhat feasible that Bee Dunn fired a shotgun, or the shotgun that killed Doolin, the most glaring problem with this version of Doolin's death is: Bill Dunn. Who is Bill Dunn? According to available information, "Bee" Dunn's full name is William T. Dunn, who would have also been called Bill on occasion. Bee had brothers named Charles (Dal), George, and John. Hanes clearly states that Heck picked up Bee, Dal, George, and John Dunn at the ranch for the posse, so where did this Bill Dunn come from? This account is clearly unreliable.

Albert Thomas wrote: "I have never known positively which one fired the shot that killed Doolin. My father did not say, and I never asked him. I did not care to know. I do know my father risked his life many times trying to make arrests without a gun fight, and in this instance Bill Doolin had the first shots, regardless of who used the shotgun."

Deputy U.S. marshal Frank Canton also maintained that Heck Thomas did not fire the fatal shot, but Canton was not happy that the information about Doolin had been given to Thomas instead of himself. Canton himself had a questionable past, and he is the subject of a new book by OklahombreS member Bob DeArment.

The other version of Doolin's death, that he actually died of illness, is apparently the result of an observation of Doolin's body in Guthrie. According to Hanes, "One man who viewed the body remarked that it looked to him as if Doolin had died and the marshal had filled his body with buckshot so that he and his posse might collect the $5,000 'dead or alive' reward." This observation was apparently made because of a "lack of bloodstains on the body when it was delivered to the morgue..."

The State Capital newspaper reported ".....When the undertaker washed the body he found twenty buckshot wounds in the chest......" And, it has also been reported that a Guthrie photgrapher named Dougherty took two pictures of Doolin's body, "one with his body propped on the undertaker's board and stripped to the waist, the second after it had been dressed and placed in a casket." These statements indicate that a picture of Doolin was taken at the undertaker's establishment either before or after the body was washed. If the photo was taken before being washed, blood may have been present and may have been visible. Since none is seen in the photo, then the photo was taken after the body was washed, or no blood was present when the body first arrived.

Blood was indeed present, and the straw in the bed of the wagon used to take the body to Guthrie was soaked with Doolin's blood. After the body was taken to the morgue, the wagon and team were taken to the home of Heck Thomas to be cared for. The mules got into the straw, so the wagon was immediatey cleaned and the straw burned.

The final word on whether Bill Doolin was dead or alive when the posse arrived in Lawson is given by Harry Hoke, the son of John Hoke. Harry could observe the Ellsworth place from his bedroom window and described what he saw to author Glenn Shirley: "......I can't describe the feeling we had lying there watching Bill as he started leading his horse off and carrying his Winchester, ready to fire.......Soon we heard the command: 'Halt, Bill' followed by a shot, then by a volley and very quickly two shots......I know that in writing this I am going to stir up dissention for there are persons still living who will say Bill Doolin died of TB or some other cause, and that the officers made a deal with his widow for the body. How such a tale got started is hard to figure. Dead outlaws just do not walk and lead horses down the road and fire rifles and six-shooters."

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