Desperado Review by Michael Barrowclift
Thursday, January 9, 2025

“It is not the well-paid workman with a decent job and a home that steals or fights the law. It is the ill-treated man who feels the resentment toward the rules laid down by the powers that govern.”

—Emmett Dalton

The cover story of the Saturday, June 9th 1894 copy of the Daily Ardmoreite¹ reports on the death of William Marion “Bill” Dalton. According to the Daily Ardmoreite, that Thursday, local Houston Wallace, who was accompanied by two women and not known for being well-to-do, was arrested in town for their suspicious purchases of unusual amounts of ammunition, camping supplies, and jewelry in addition to their receipt of three gallons of whiskey at the express office. The arresting Deputy, “acting on suspicion and a strong clue”, then gathered a posse of “well known fearless officers” and rode off to Houston Wallace’s ranch; they arrived the following day. During their approach a couple hundred yards from the ranch, they met a woman wrangling cattle, and being seemingly nervous, she beat the officers back to the house and woke up a napping Dalton on the inside.

He immediately jumped through the window in the rear of the house, thinking that was unguarded. In this he was mistaken for there stood Los Hart, true game and a dead shot. He called to Dalton to surrender but instead of throwing up his hands he ducked his head and started for the timber where no doubt the remainder of the gang was in hiding. Again Hart called “Surrender” when Dalton went for his gun, but he was too late for Hart fired his ball going true to the mark entered the vitals, and Dalton fell prostrate and dying.

“Bill Dalton Dead” Daily Admoreite June 9th 1894

During the search of the house, a Longview bank money sack was found among the other plentiful unhidden money in every nook and cranny of the house “settling beyond any question of doubt that Dalton was one of the band²”; the First National Bank in Longview TX had been robbed just a couple weeks prior.

The Daily Ardmoreite then proceeds to describe the events following Dalton’s death including Mrs. Dalton’s identification of the corpse, grief, and funeral planning–the events during which reporters twice attempted interviews to no avail. Despite failing to obtain an interview with Mrs. Dalton, the Daily Ardmoriete proceeds to report, in first person as Mrs. Dalton, her family history as obtained “from a reliable source”.

The Daily Ardmoreite concludes the cover story with a definitive declaration of Dalton’s guilt and a nod towards Captain Lindsey and C.L. Hart’s brave service to the community.

Of one thing there can be no doubt, one of the Longview bank robbers is dead and there is little, in fact we think none at all [sic], but he is Bill Dalton for whose head large rewards are standing today and to which the brave officers are entitled. They have earned it and at the same time sustained their reputation for bravery and fearless vigilance in the discharge of their duty.

“Bill Dalton Dead” Daily Admoreite June 9th 1894

The Rewards, Aggregating $25,000
Will be Paid to the Brave Offi-
cers—The Country Can Now
Draw a Sigh of Relief, for
the Terror of the West
is no More — The Rest
of the Gang will
be Caught.

Time does not corrode the luster of true heroism and bravery. Over the next four and a half years, the luster of Hart and his posse’s bravery flaked away revealing its gilded, haphazard nature. There was no record of the disbursement of the $25,000 reward. The posse had no warrant, and their public infamy grew. On December 4th, 1898, on the seventh page of the The Daily Ardmoreite³, the story “The Bill Dalton Killing” tells of the flake of the last chip of luster.

Paris, Tex., Dec. 2—The last chapters of a very noted case, relating to the killing of the most noted outlaw of the land since the days of Jesse James, were closed here to-day when Deputy United States Marshals Booker, Reynolds, McKee, Lindsey, Leatherman, Thompson, Tucker, Little, McAfee, Kilgore and Hart were charged in federal court with murder. […] At the time none of the deputies had any idea who the dead man was, and the body was taken to Elk and photographed. […] After hearing the evidence all the defendants were discharged.⁴

“The Bill Dalton Killing” Daily Admoreite December 4th, 1898

The grandson of Marshal Lindsey, Harrell McCullough, confirms the after-the-fact verification of Dalton’s identity in his searing rebuttal to Sam Henderson’s school-boy, fantasy article in True West magazine, “The Many Careers of Sheriff Buck Garrett”.⁵

Even when Marshal Lindsey […] led his posse toward Elk, he did not know that the man he sought was Bill Dalton. Indeed, Dalton’s identity was not learned until after he was dead, and it was only upon the return of Dalton’s body to Ardmore that the wife of the slain outlaw was herself identified.

Harrell McCullough’s rebuttal to Sam Henderson sent to Mac McGalliard of The Daily Ardmorite August 25, 1971

It turns out that this “suspicion and strong clue” that gave the officers such confidence and conviction in their actions did not later stand up in the court of law. McCullough continues to describe the details of the haphazard posse and subsequent, reckless encounter in his book, Selden Lindsey U.S. Deputy Marshal⁶.

The posse [Lindsey] led after Dalton was hurriedly collected and he gathered up whoever was available. E.H. Roberts was the clerk of the court at Ardmore and had never ridden with a posse. This was the largest posse I can recall grandfather starting out with. Whether he expected big trouble or thought the three men he had were the equivalent to one Swain, I do not know, for he did not explain this matter.

Marshal Lindsey organized his posse in haste. My mother, then eleven years old, remembered his rushing past her into the house to tell my grandmother where he was going and then riding rapidly away on his big black horse, Dan. […] He left with the posse in the late afternoon and rode all night. […] [During the three mile walking approach to the Wallace cabin from Elk], Marshal Lindsey had made another discovery. Two of his three postmen were drunk. They were drunk on Bill Dalton’s whiskey, as later events disclosed. One man passed out before the posse reached its destination. As he approached the lair of the most wanted and certainly one of the most dangerous outlaws in the land, Marshal Lindsey had only one fully sober postman; and this man had never before ridden with a posse.

When it was daylight, the posse approached the Wallace ranch with caution. […] [Lindsey] planned to remain hidden and watch the cabin until nightfall if necessary to catch the outlaws at a disadvantage. These plans were soon disrupted by the inexperienced Roberts, who allowed his presence to be discovered by some boys from the cabin who were driving up calves. They quickly returned to the cabin where they no doubt informed Bill Dalton that there was a man near the cornfield with a Winchester.

A few moments later, Bill Dalton, pistol in hard, jumped through a window on the north side of the cabin. […] Marshal Lindsey called to Bill Dalton to halt. Bill’s answer was the roar of his .45 but for once he missed. Another .45 ball would follow in a flash and Dalton would not miss again.

Marshal Lindsey now had no choice, for there would be no second chance with Bill Dalton. […] [Lindsey’s] aim was true. His powerful .38-56 Winchester ball struck near the left nipple and tore through the heart of Bill Dalton. […] As Dalton fell, Hart sent a .44 Winchester ball into the right side of Dalton’s back at the waistline. […]

One reporter assumed that the .38-56 hole in the front [Lindsey’s heart-shot] was where the .44 that entered the back [Hart’s shot] had come out. Actually, neither bullet emerged; both remained in Dalton’s body.

Harrell McCullough Selden Lindsey U.S. Deputy Marshal

Twenty years later, Emmett Dalton, brother of Bill Dalton and lone surviving member of “The Dalton Gang”, provided his telling of Bill’s last day in his autobiography, Beyond the Law—a post-incarceration telling in which Dalton hopes to “offset the malignant lies” regarding him and his brother.

That summer evening evening in 1894, the wives went out to town leaving Bill Dalton, his crippled four year old daughter, Grace, and a teenage house-sitter at his friend Houston Wallace’s ranch. After dinner, Dalton sat in the yard playing with Grace while the house-sitter attended to the horses at the corral. However, Dalton’s playtime with his daughter was interrupted by the posse of U.S. Marshals.

Hearing a round of reports, the house-sitter left the corral and headed back to find Dalton without a firearm dead on the ground a few feet from where he last left him. Upon his return, the posse spokesman addressed the house-sitter: “We wanted him and told him to throw up his hands and he grabbed a Winchester and started for the brush. We shot him, and now, young fellow, you would better keep quiet or you will get into trouble yourself.”

“I heard some shooting and papa jumped up and fell and some men run up” was all that Grace could relay from the event. The examination of the body revealed a single shot entering through the kidney and out over the heart—an unlikely bullet path for an upright running target.

Regardless of Bill Dalton’s guilt and involvement in the Doolin-Dalton gang, the collective accounts of Bill Dalton’s death—despite their inconsistency and contradiction—provide a great looking glass into life in the Indian Territories in the mid to late 1800’s.

As Emmett Dalton recalls, people living in the Indian Territories did not enjoy the same protections of basic civil law that we take for granted today; in fact, as he recalled, “There were no civil laws in the Indian Territory in those days. You could carry as many concealed weapons as you cared to.” Emmett further explains that the basic lawsuit was not available for protection—the phrase “I’ll sue!” would have carried no weight. In his book, The Lawmen: United States Marshals and Their Deputies, 1789-1989, Frederick Calhoun⁷ helps set the stage on the state of the law.

Professionalism is a twentieth-century phenomenon in the United States, particularly in law enforcement. Before World War I, federal law—the only law the marshals enforced—was limited and comparatively simple. The complex rules and regulations of today did not exist then. Few marshals and deputies had difficulty in quickly learning their duties and carrying them out with proficiency.

Frederick Calhoun The Lawmen: United States Marshals and Their Deputies, 1789-1989

Calhoun further summarizes that the United States Marshal served as the practical, regional, boots-on-the-ground manifestation of the federal law. A manifestation of which no central administration oversaw until 1950. This left the marshals with limited resources, large amounts of autonomy, and no law enforcement training. The government typically appointed⁸ locals to the officer’s region of jurisdiction ultimately making the position a temporary patronage job. In reality, this meant that the marshals had to walk a tightrope. They had to enforce the law while also falling within the good social graces of their community. Life back then still had a “small”, immediately-regional feeling to it; the country’s great expanses were far less easily travelled, and as a result, one’s community social standing had greater significance. This work-social tension had historical peaks particularly in the contentious time leading up to the Civil War. The Fugitive Slave Law’s clunky and messy attempt at lawful compromise and power balance between the North and the South landed marshals in constant no-win conflicts. The conflicts eventually transcended the social tightrope into some of the earliest bloodshed of the Civil War.

Additionally, governmental, “junk-drawer” scope creep burdened the office. As Calhoun further discusses, the nation’s first Legislative and Executive administrations discovered a forehead-slapping hole in its structure. During all of the Founding Father’s rebellious, philosophical discourse, it appears that they did not discuss the small and operational. The constitutional design of the country left no provision for the regional administrative structure. So, the government treated the marshals service as the metaphorical spare, open drawer that they could efficiently arm sweep many unusual responsibilities into including: hunting and catching counterfeiters for the Treasury Department⁹, confiscating property used to assist the Confederacy, arresting Confederate sympathizers, enforcing international neutrality laws and arresting filibusters, conducting the national census¹⁰, and distributing presidential proclamations; to name a few. This “agile”, operational scope creep piled on top of the marshal’s primary function as the federal court’s operational support.

So, as Calhoun concisely put it, the law lacked professionalism in the 19th century. The temporary, politically appointed nature of this unprofessional job also made it vulnerable to abuses. Simply put, the young nation was learning to walk. Based on Emmett Dalton’s account, corrupt is a more apt descriptor of the law at the time. At all levels, from the ranks to those in the government, power-hungry men abused the system.

But the law then was enforced with the same recklessness and ruthlessness that the lawless enforced their demands […] In those wild days what we knew as law and order was merely graft and corruption masquerading under the cloak of the law. […] Money was as necessary then as now, but in those days the country was overrun with men who had placed themselves in power, and power had sinister meaning. Grafting as we of today know the term was a mild, soothing description of what occurred. The government was fleeced by the men in authority, and then the men in the ranks were fleeced as well. Was it any wonder that many men who worked long and faithfully for the enforcement of the law and then found themselves swindled and mulcted by the lawless finally threw up their hands in disgust with the mental comment, ‘What’s the use?’ It was this treatment of this sort […] that was responsible for much of the outlawry that started. Conceived in dissatisfaction, it gradually took different forms until the entire west was impregnated with it. […] Is it any wonder then that the thoughts of a young fellow who had gained a fairly good start in life should turn to thoughts of retaliation and revenge?

Emmett Dalton Beyond the Law¹¹

Whether they were fueled by the lure of fame for taking down the “Terror of the West” or the sweet thought of a $25,000 reward, Deputy Lindsey’s posse’s actions on that summer day in 1894 provide a prime example of this rapid, reckless, emotional thinking that influenced the actions of both law enforcers and outlaws—in the span of a day, a “strong suspicion and a clue” evolved into a warrantless raid on Wallace’s ranch and subsequently Bill Dalton’s death. Nineteenth century westerners did not regularly practice logical, self-reflective thought. As Emmett Dalton details, a savage, Darwinistic “survival of the fittest” ethos dominated the environment of the west and this facilitated rapid, emotional, reckless, and knee-jerk actions. It’s as if a steady fight-or-flight response lingered in 19th century western society. At best, this resulted in swiftly-delivered vigilantism. At worst, accidental deaths and injury; the inevitable result of discharging firearms without PID¹².

In those days a man acted, and then thought out the reasons for that act. He had to do so. […] the Indian Territory was a vortex around which all the law-breakers congregated. If you went to read a subpoena to even a preacher he was liable to whip a six-shooter out of his bootleg and take a shot at you. […] The men of those days were not the calm, deliberative, logical, slow-thinking men of today. The country, the customs and the people were not of that kind. It was a time when the bare passions showed on the surface at all times. […] When a man became dissatisfied he did not try to fight down his emotions. He let them have full sway. [….] In those days, it was almost an insult to ask one’s name, where he came from, or where he was going.

Emmett Dalton Beyond the Law

This environment is also well exhibited in the journalism of the day—the Daily Ardmoreite’s cover story being this article’s case study example. The Daily Ardmoreite declares Bill Dalton’s without-a-doubt guilt without him having stood trial, reports an inaccurate first person interview of Mrs. Dalton as obtained “from a reliable source”, and likens Bill Dalton’s death to that of a “hunted tiger”. Several things encouraged this recklessness on the part of journalists: the aforementioned ethos of the west; the telegraph; the ‘coconut telegraph’¹³, grapevine gossip in the Indian Territories; and the Easterner’s appetite for legends from the West.

In his books, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School, and The Disappearance of Childhood, Neil Postman¹⁴, a social critic and communication theorist, explores the mechanisms of epistemological, cultural, educational, and societal changes. Across all the explored disciplines, one predominant mechanism of change remains consistent—evolving modes of communication. Postman sites the telegraph, and it’s resulting “annihilation of space”, as one of the most significant communication evolutions and therefore one of the most significant mechanisms for change.

The telegraph made a three-pronged attack on typography’s definition of discourse, introducing on a large scale irrelevance, impotence, and incoherence. These demons of discourse were aroused by the fact that telegraphy gave a form of legitimacy to the idea of context-free information; that is, to the idea that the value of information need not be tied to any function it might serve in social and political decision-making and action, but may attach merely to its novelty, interest, and curiosity. The telegraph made information into a commodity, a “thing” that could be bought and sold irrespective of its uses and meaning.

But it did not do so alone. The potential of the telegraph to transform information into a commodity might never have been realized, except for the partnership between the telegraph and the press. The penny newspaper, emerging slightly before telegraphy, in the late 1830s, had already begun the process of elevating irrelevance to the status of news. Such papers as Benjamin Day’s New York Sun and James Bennett’s New York Herald turned away from the tradition of news as reasoned (if biased) political opinion and urgent commercial information and filled their pages with accounts of sensational events, mostly concerning crime and sex.

Neil Postman Amusing Ourselves to Death

As McCullough notes, the Eastern United States populace craved the commodified, context-free information of the West that the telegraph enabled. For them, it was hero vs. villain entertainment akin to comic books. With the “annihilation of space” and the subsequent speed of communication that telegraphy empowered, accuracy no longer served priority. After all, a newspaper prioritizing accuracy would be outcompeted by others leveraging telegraphy’s speedy novelty to sate the demand. McCullough describes the journalistic environment between the East and the West:

It is significant that the two preceding news stories depicting Bill Dalton as a sort of folk hero were published in the leading newspapers of major cities outside the Southwest. Bill Dalton was as well known in the East as in the West. Such newspaper stories fed on themselves and helped create the Bill Dalton legend.

Easterners would believe anything about the West, and it seems that some saw it as a challenge to invent a tale about Bill Dalton so tall that it would choke even an Easterner.

Harrell McCullough Selden Lindsey U.S. Deputy Marshal

McCullough provides some examples, such as the Washington Post’s description of Dalton as “a handsome well-built fellow, weighing about 185 pounds with deep set piercing eyes and has mixed so much in all walks of life that he is at home anywhere.” Additionally, The Kansas City Times described him as a walking arsenal that is “[…] a magnificent specimen of brute manhood. He stands about five feet eleven inches high and is extremely athletic […]”; a man so dangerous that “the existing rewards are not sufficient to induce the officers to go after him.” As McCullough notes, the Dalton folklore reached a point of infamy where Bill Dalton was “killed” regularly in the newspapers.

Lastly, the grapevine gossip manner of news communication in the Territories—what I have deemed the ‘coconut telegraph’ of the West—further contributed to the problem. Loose lips and imprecise, casual conversation produced more severe effects than likely intended or anticipated. Ultimately, the rail corporations benefitted greatly from this. It was easier to hunt down and make an example of someone innocent than to wait for the determination of the truth.

We knew we had done nothing. But we also knew that being suspected meant half conviction in those days. […] We continued to ride about for a time and without our aid our reputation grew. Hold-ups and raids occurred in different parts of the country, and it was always reported that ‘The Daltons did it’

Emmett Dalton Beyond the Law

So, when the built-up “Terror of the West” finally fell, all these characteristic elements combined to produce inconsistencies and inaccuracies. In the case of the Bill Dalton story, McCullough notes that silence on the part of the posse members exacerbated the problem.

Indeed, when one considers the corrupt albeit “successful” swindling of those who sought to faithfully uphold the law; the unprofessionalism of the law; the prevalent, emotional, and reckless thinking of the time; and the inaccurate, anecdotal journalistic reporting that grew folk legends, it comes to no surprise why thoughts of frustration in the 19th century west easily evolved into lawless retaliation and revenge.

Lay down your law books now
They’re no damn good.

“Doolin-Dalton”

This is not your romantic, swashbuckling Hollywood western with devil-may-care bandits. This is life in the late-1800’s western territories—an environment, as Emmett Dalton describes, “that took its toll hundreds of good and bad and by the same method-a quick shot, a quivering form, one final twitch-and then silence forever.” This is Desperado.

The Sophomore LP

In Graeme Thomson’s Uncut retrospective¹⁵ on the band’s early days, Bernie Leadon, former banjo and guitarist for the Eagles, discloses the true business goal for the band.

When we got together we defined our business plan: we wanted to be successful, world famous, acclaimed and rich.

Bernie Leadon¹⁵

In the early June of 1972, the Eagles released their debut self-titled, and as any listener to their local classic rock radio station would know, the album featured three of the band’s most popular singles: the upbeat, front porch country musings of “Take it Easy” and “Peaceful Easy Feeling” along with the ominous, country-rock tonal foreshadowing for “Hotel California” and “Journey of the Sorcerer”—”Witchy Woman”. Needless to say, it appeared that the Eagles were well on their way to achieving their goal. However, as previously discussed on our “Strange Trails” podcast¹⁶, sophomore albums are simply difficult. Artists are challenged to truly discover and understand what made them successful. Whether they are pressured by scheduling, influenced by a desire to make ‘safe’ choices, or seeking to recapture the same magic, some artists choose to repeat the same formula by polishing up B-side material, extra material, or leftovers from the debut album. Results of this can vary from uninspired, dull albums that detract from the debut’s original success (Sophomore Slump) to enjoyable, albeit not always memorable, returns and highlights to old formulas and styles (Sequelitis). In rare cases, the sophomore albums will be transformative; artists take the original heart and foundational sound but completely change and evolve the experience. As Leadon recalls in Thomson’s article, the Eagles sought the reception of the transformative case, but their focus was shifted outward; they wanted to transform the critic’s perception of them and prove that they were not one-time wonders.

There was all this success and then - whammo - we were due back in the studio, […] Frey said at the time, “We’ve had the hits, now what we want is critical acceptance as serious artists. We’ll do that with this album”

Bernie Leadon¹⁵

The Eagles planned to achieve this using, as Leadon describes, “a little bit of a thin premise, the outlaw gang compared to the modern rock’n’roll band”. In retrospect, this appears to be a recipe for disaster. The band had an outward facing goal to be taken seriously and planned to achieve that using an unoriginal subject matter. To put this premise into context, the Outlaw Country trend influenced many leading country music artists at the time. Artists in this trend prided themselves on not conforming to the increasing pop shift in Nashville’s country.¹⁷ Outlaw country took many forms. Jerry Jeff Walker’s heartfelt, bittersweet “Desperados Waiting for a Train” presents writer Guy Clark’s “cool-dad” sidekick relationship with his Grandmother’s boyfriend and likens it to the idealized, freemasonry camaraderie between desperados prior to a train heist. While Ed Bruce’s “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys” presents a melancholic, candid depiction of the emotionally distant and loner lifestyle of modern guitar playing and old truck driving “cowboys”. In “I Ain’t Living Long Like This”, Rodney Crowell describes the coolness of an unsustainable outlaw lifestyle while Waylon Jennings eventually sells it in his album, What Goes Around Comes Around.

One of the common threads of this trend are the artist’s identification with and/or romanticization of wild west lore, including cowboys and, as Emmett Dalton would put it, penny-dreadful desperados. This trend has not gone away and is not limited to the country music genre either. Take for example Bon Jovi’s late 90s schoolboy day-dreaming in “Dead or Alive” where he likens himself to a cool, suave, guitar-toting and motorcycle riding outlaw with a bounty on his head. Furthermore, alternative band LUDO’s 2010 song, “All the Stars In Texas”, presents an upbeat poppy story on the bank robbing couple Bonnie and Clyde’s love. So, simply put, Leadon appeared to be right. An album focusing on a band’s projection and self-proclaimed identification with outlaws or cowboys runs the real challenge of bringing anything fresh to the table. Despite this, Eagles went all-in.

Prior to flying out to London to record, the band worked with famed music photographer Henry Diltz to capture the photos for the front and back cover of the LP. However this was no ordinary photo shoot. The photoshoot took place in an old western movie set in Malibu hills. With horses, guns, blanks, and rented cowboy clothes, the band fully immersed themselves.

This was 1972 and it could easily have been 1872. It just looks so real. They were going back out of the bank with their guns blazing. […] All the guys just wanted to shoot their guns all day – they played cowboys like kids would, clutching their chests and falling in the dirt, ‘Bang, bang, bang!’ We did it so much that a big cloud of smoke began to rise above the Malibu hills and the fire department came. People thought the hills were on fire.

Henry Diltz¹⁸

This well produced playground game of “cops and robbers” resulted in album covers that tell the tonal bookend story of a majority of western outlaws. The beginning, the front cover, displays the members of Eagles cooly and confidently lined up toting their western gear and firearms. The end, the black-and-white back cover, displays a recreation of the iconic photo of The Dalton Gang after their death and capture in Coffeyville, Kansas. The dead desperados, Eagles, lay tied up below the victorious posse; the posse included Glyn Jones (producer, white hat), Gary Burden (graphic designer, far left), John Hartmann (manager), and Tommy Nixon (road manager). With the duality of the front and back cover¹⁹, one of the main themes of the album is conveyed without hitting play.

These things that are pleasin’ you
Can hurt you somehow

“Desperado”

With the photoshoot completed and band fully and playfully immersed in the subject matter, they returned to London to record Desperado. The logical follow-up question becomes: did they pull it off? Did the Eagles achieve critic acclaim as serious artists and prove that they were not one hit wonders? From a sales and audience perspective, no. Desperado flopped as it posted the Eagles’ lowest international median peak chart position²⁰. Users on Album of The Year reflect a mediocre reception as well—at the time of writing this, users scored the album to a 68% average²¹. As for critical acclaim, they failed as well. Graeme Thomson and Eagles manager, Ron Stone, sum things up well in the Uncut retrospective.

[…] the initial impact of Desperado when it was released in April 1973 seemed to confirm the band’s concerns. There were no hit singles, critically and commercially the response was lukewarm, while “everybody at the record company was horrified,” says Stone

Uncut¹⁵

At release, the album and band failed relative to the their original goal. However, in hindsight, the band learned from this album and eventually achieved their goal with later releases. Every album post-Desperado achieved upwards of a Top 20 international median chart position; four of which were in the Top 5²⁰. Chart positions are all dandy and that, but critical acceptance as real artists? Well, I will let Eagles’ omnipresence on every local, classic rock FM radio station answer that one. Arguably more important is that, in creation of this sophomore LP, the band sorted through their creative, team dynamic that allowed this subsequent explosion to happen. The album’s producer, Glyn Johns, notes in Graeme Thomson’s Uncut retrospective that, “Henley and Frey assumed control during Desperado, is the best way of putting it. […] That feeling was always there, but stronger on the second LP.”

So, like the Dalton’s quest for revenge and paradisal escape to South America, the Eagles’ quest for a transformative sophomore LP ended tragically. However, unlike the Dalton’s, Eagles’ failure formed the band into the huge success that it is today.

Uva Uvam Vivendo Varia Fit - Brothers’ Descent

In Desperado’s opener track, “Doolin-Dalton”, an acoustic guitar following the trudging cadence of a tired horse’s hooves accompanies a swaying harmonica that introduces the album’s central motif. In this opener, you can practically hear the howling winds of the dusty western territories. Just as the listener settles in, Don Henley’s iconic vocal timbre pierces and echoes through the somber landscape.

They were duelin’, Doolin-Dalton

“Doolin-Dalton”

It is in this opener, that we are introduced to what manager Ron Stone would describe as the album’s wistfulness—an aura of longing that blankets the album, particularly in “Doolin-Dalton”, “Tequila Sunrise”, “Desperado”, “Saturday Night, “Bitter Creek”, and “Doolin-Dalton / Desperado Reprise”. For Desperado, Eagles returned to London with producer Glyn Johns, the same producer as their self-titled. While Leadon notes that they loved England, Stone observed the locational influence this had on their creativity: “They longed for Southern California, and the album has that wistfulness. Not being in that place helped them. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” I would further argue this separation from home and subsequent longing gave the band a further, figurative connection to their creative influence. When under constant pursuit of posses, detectives, and marshals, psychologically, nowhere is truly home for those who landed on the wrong side of a suspicion, framing, or the law in the late 1800s.

The electric guitar and drums crescendo to kick off the listener into the rest of the track, in which, the active listener will be rewarded with a treat. For the tentpole title tracks (a shorthand I will use to refer to “Doolin-Dalton”, “Desperado”, and “Doolin-Dalton / Desperado Reprise” collectively), Eagles exercise the unique lyrical perspective of a historical narrator who is, at times, empathetic like a powerless, pleading friend (primarily exercised in “Desperado” and “Doolin-Dalton / Desperado Reprise”). By exercising this lyrical perspective in the opening track, Eagles defy listener’s expectations around the outlaw-gang-as-a-rock’n’roll-band premise producing an almost off-putting effect that likely would lose its potency if say either “Twenty-One” or “Out of Control” kicked off the album. Those two tracks that fall into the more typical first-person lyrical perspective characteristic of the premise. Further, it is not by mistake that these three tentpole tracks bookend and split the album. This strategic placement gives the album a unified sound and thesis, especially in its tight 36 minute runtime.

Go down, Bill Dalton, it must be God’s will,
Two brothers lyin’ dead in Coffeyville […]

“Doolin-Dalton” (Start of Side One)

Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses?
You’ve been out ridin’ fences for so long now
Oh you’re a hard one
I know that you got your reasons
These things that are pleasin’ you
Can hurt you somehow

“Desperado” (End of Side One)

Desperado (Is there gonna be anything left, is there gonna be anything?)
You sealed your fate up a long time ago (Ain’t it hard when you’re all alone in the center ring?)
Now there’s no time left to borrow (Is there gonna be anything left?)

“Doolin-Dalton / Desperado Reprise” (End of Side Two)

These lyrics delivered in the unique lyrical perspective reveal Eagles’ immersion in the subject matter, and through this immersion, they breathe depth into an otherwise exhausted premise. The only problem being: what casual listener will have the historical background to appreciate?

On October 5th, 1892, a group of outlaws known as “The Dalton Gang” reached their climatic end in their attempted double-bank robbery of the C.M. Condon and First National Bank in Coffeyville, Kansas; a town known at the time for being one of the staple business points in Southern Kansas due to its access to three of the country’s railroad systems. The catch? Of the five outlaws, three of them were brothers—Gratton (Grat), Emmett, and Robert (Bob) Dalton—two of which served in the marshal service—Grat and Bob. Only a buckshot-riddled Emmett survived. Which begs the question: why? Or perhaps, more appropriately, how do three brothers turn to outlawry especially on such an ambitious, grand scale? To answer this, we need to go back almost five years to the death of Frank Dalton.

Frank Dalton, a Deputy U.S. Marshal at Fort Smith Arkansas, served as an admired, older-sibling leader of sort among the Dalton siblings. This is especially apparent given Emmett’s stories of Frank’s bravery, honesty, and morality. Frank Dalton died in his and Deputy Jim Cole’s pursuit of three whisky peddlers on November 27th, 1887. Frank’s leadership and subsequent gruesome death motivated Grat Dalton to later answer Colonel John Carroll’s call to replace Frank’s position. He had hoped he could uphold the honor of the Dalton name that Frank set before him. Bob, who had been guarding prisoners for Frank, guarded for Grat and then later also became a deputy. The irony of Grat’s motivation is that one can draw a direct line between the formation of “The Dalton Gang”, and its subsequent tainting of the Dalton name, to Grat and Bob’s deputy service. For Grat and Bob were thrown right into the deep-seated corruption and swindling that proliferated the service at the time all while living in a highly reactive, emotional, and well-armed culture. Optimistic dreams slowly turned to dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction slowly turned to bitterness. This bitterness, disillusionment, and failure to secure their due pay resulted in Bob and Grat ultimately resigning from the service. More importantly though, this injustice stuck heavy with them—priming them with a short, embittered fuse, just waiting for the right ignition.

But some just went stir crazy, Lord, ‘cause nothin’ ever changed

“Doolin-Dalton”

[…] we talked over our past troubles while in the marshal’s service and, as is always the case, the more you think and talk over your troubles the larger and more menacing they become.

Emmett Dalton Beyond the Law

Freshly resigned from the service, cash-poor, and emotionally raw, Bob and his brother, Emmett, traveled with William McElhanie, George Newcomb, and Charlie Bryant to New Mexico in hopes to get some business. On their travels, they all made a rest stop in Santa Rosa. After taking care of their horses at the feed yard, the group stopped by a Chinese restaurant to get some food for themselves. While eating and having conversation, the restaurant owner informed them of a busy night at the local saloon: a big card game and lots of cowboys. After some long travel and good food, the group could use some good nighttime entertainment, and so the owner escorted them to the saloon. Carrying an old habit from their marshal days, Emmett stood guard while the others partook in the monte game. This gave Emmett a better vantage on the game, and it did not take long until Emmett spotted cheating. Whether truthfully rigged or perceptually taken as such given their emotionally frustrated state, this monte game provided the right ignition to their short fuses, and their fuses quickly burned to detonation. Emotions took full sway—victims no longer. After Emmett’s confirmation of cheating and Bob’s go-ahead, Bob, Emmett, and crew swiftly drew their pistols, held-up the saloon, snagged the rigged game leader’s cash, and rode off while discharging a flurry of rounds into the air. The following day, a posse pursued the group across the New Mexico plateaus. Spotting this posse ahead of time while glassing the plateaus, Bob led the group down the banks to the Sitting Bull Falls where they unleashed a surprise-attack volley at the posse, sending them back on the run.

The echoes of the bullet flurry faded, the smoke settled, and Bob and Emmett primed the Western Territories’ grapevine communication—freshly branding the family name with their first crime on their way to Guthrie.

It wasn’t for the money, at least it didn’t start that way
It wasn’t for the runnin’, but now he’s runnin’ everyday

“Certain Kind of Fool”

It did not take long for the grapevine, ‘coconut-telegraph’ communication to intermix in the most unfortunate manner with the suspicion-equates-conviction law and politically powerful rail-road companies. The Wells-Fargo Express Company and the Southern Pacific railroad held out an award of $5,000 for the men that robbed a train at Alila, killed the fireman, and blew up the express box. Meanwhile, wild Oklahoman and United States Marshal stories about the Daltons grew and started to precede them.

“The Daltons did it”

The Wells-Fargo’s Detective Smith and Sheriff Ed O’Neill hounded Grat Dalton through multiple attempts at prolonged arrest while Detective Smith arranged a posse to hunt down Bob and eventually Emmett. The brothers now faced an almost impossible choice: to flee would be to further the accusation rumor mill and presumed conviction whereas to not flee would be to face a court opponent whose ability to purchase witnesses and testimonies could easily achieve its example-setting goal. Grat chose the former and lost to the note of a $20,000 bail. Bob and Emmett chose the latter and lost to eventual wear of psychological fugitive stress, grapevine growth of additional accusations, and masonry forces that all-together solidified—or to use Emmett’s words “forced”—the Dalton Gang into reality.

The constant pursuit had worn upon our nerves. I never have been a deep psychological student, and possibly my logic is at times faulty, and I cannot give the exact reason we stepped over the border line between right and wrong. I do know, however, that during our long rides over the valleys and deserts and on the nights we camped out under the stars on the plains the injustice of the situation rankled more and more upon us.

There were plenty of others like us in that country, and it was not long before the masonry of those in trouble brought us together. In our dodging from pillar to post, always keeping ahead of the sheriff and marshals who wanted the reward offered for us for a crime of which we knew nothing except that we were accused of having committed it, we came into contact with robbers, horse thieves, and all-around rustlers [e.g. George Newcomb and Charley Bryant]. […]

In all our depredations our bitterness against the express company was the compelling force behind our actions. Grat was in jail, and from the reports we have received was almost certain of conviction. We were hounded with a price upon our heads. We blamed the express company, and it alone, and we agreed tighter that as the company had made us suffer for no real cause-we would make the fancied grievance a real one.

Emmett Dalton Beyond the Law

While listening in on the wire, Miss Eugenia Moore—amateur telegrapher, Bob’s romantic partner, and Dalton-gang confidante—picked up the news that the Wells-Fargo Express Company was transporting a large sum of money out of Kansas City, Missouri. Hearing this news and knowing Bob’s situation, Miss Moore saddled up and rode off to Bob from Guthrie. After receiving the news from Miss Moore, Bob called a conference with George Newcomb and Charley Bryant. The group agreed that the train’s crossing near Whorton in the Cherokee Strip provided the right opportunity to pay back the express company a bit of harassment. One held up train, two cracked safes, some discharged six shooters, and nine thousand dollars later, the Dalton Gang became reality. Fancied grievance a real one, indeed. Interestingly, Emmett never participated in the official realization of the gang. Instead, Bob sent Emmett off to Kingfisher and Riley’s range to unknowingly prepare for Bob’s ultimate goal—marriage to Miss Moore and familial, paradisal escape to South America. Vengeful and successful train heist behind them, Bob and Emmett considered themselves square with the express company and, believing in Grat’s chances of avoiding conviction, they began their escape.

Midway through their travels, the news of Grat Dalton’s conviction broke. Colored with the “yellow film of revenge”, Bob and Emmett abandoned their plans and returned home to find the gang²² eager and Miss Moore with news of another large sum of money, this time, to be transported over the Katy road²³.

The boys were all yearning for action and looking backward I think it was really the first time they ever went into a lawless thing with something akin to pleasure.

Emmett Dalton Beyond the Law

Another successful heist and nine thousand four hundred in silver dollars and halves later, Bob firmly proclaimed to the gang the conclusion of his and Emmett’s involvements much to their chagrin. A seemingly unbreakable resolve of which proved reactively premature once Bob’s reality set in: Grat was still in the thick of it. He faced lawyer fees, conviction, and jail in California and, while the other brothers got their taste of “even”, his bitterness continued to grow. South America postponed again. Bob had Miss Moore send some of their recent haul, and learning of Grat’s jailbreak plans from the outside, he planted a Winchester and some fresh rounds for Grat in the weeds outside of jail. Grat succeeded in his jailbreak and made the long trip from Merced, California to Kingfisher, Oklahoma to reunite with his brothers:

When Grat joined us the bitterness that had been burning within him burst forth and joined our flame of hatred directed towards the express company, toward Smith, the detective, and those who had taken part in the deal against us. Then we believed ourselves the victims of a plot of persecution. Now at this later day, I discount the plot theory, but I feel that we were made the victims of an unscrupulous, greedy corporation and the inordinate vanity of one man, Smith. […] There was no formal word of proposal that he [Grat] join us. We were Daltons together and Daltons we would stay until the bitter end. And we did.

Emmett Dalton Beyond the Law

In his book, Beyond Order, clinical psychologist, Dr. Jordan B. Peterson²⁴, discusses the delineation between natural, inevitable, and sometimes arbitrary catastrophes of life and those problems that are a direct result of one’s own actions and behavior. He discusses this delineation as one approach to helping people who were hurt by life, particularly those feeling resentful for their current lot. Revenge, particularly successful revenge, contributes to the problem of muddied delineation between these two categories. Once one allows their resentful mindset to send them over the line into enacted vengeful retaliation, inevitably more catastrophe follows; after all, as previously established, that’s just life. However, the propensity of which subsequent catastrophe follows increases as a direct result of vengeful retaliation. And so, more follows and a positive feedback loop results. A continued resentful victim mentality and subsequent successful retaliations emboldens and encourages more action. This continues until it becomes hard to discriminate between what within one’s own life is a random, inevitable, or natural challenge, tragedy, or catastrophe and what problems are a direct result of one’s actions.

So, circling back to the first part of the original question: how do three brothers turn to outlawry? For the Daltons, their first crime in Santa Rosa seeded the aforementioned positive feedback loop; a loop facilitated by the environmental mechanisms of the Western Territories: an unprofessional, unstandardized, and possibly corrupt marshal service; word-by-mouth and word-by-wire grapevine growth of accusations and rumors; suspicion-as-conviction practice of the law; and an emotional, shoot-now-think-later culture with a well-armed populace. Further, their failure to take ownership of their lot, their resentful rumination on the injustices served against them, their successful taste of retaliation (i.e. Santa Rosa hold up and their train robbery), and their social camaraderie with peers—see George Newcomb, Bill Doolin etc.—blurred the aforementioned delineation, accelerated the loop, and facilitated the Dalton Gang’s formation. As Emmett discusses, there does not exist an exact reason, and the brother’s descent is best understood through the lens of this process. Uva Uvam Vivendo Varia Fit²⁵: our lives are heavily influenced by our environment and people we chose to associate and follow; reside and chose so that you become ripe, not rotten.

Circling back to the latter part of the original question: how do three brothers turn to outlawry especially on such an ambitious, grand scale? Well, as Emmett recalls, Grat’s bitterness stoked and accelerated the collective flame, and the gang was still shy of the money required to escape to South America despite their two additional and successful train robberies²⁶. While the gang was disappearing and laying low, friend, James Riley, arrived at camp and delivered the grim news that, in combination with their arrogance and short funds, provided the sufficient motivation for Bob’s plan of an attempted double-bank robbery at Coffeyville, Kansas.

Then came the word from our friend Canty at Silver City of Miss Moore’s death. I can yet see the expression on Bob’s face as he drew Miss Moore’s picture from his pocket, tore it up, and said, “Now I will make them understand that ‘Hell on earth’ is a reality.”

Emmett Dalton Beyond the Law

The gang reached the point where they no longer limited their supposedly justifiable, vengeful actions to their inciting enemy. While the Southern Pacific railroad and the Wells-Fargo Express company had been the motivating force and initial target of their retaliation, their targets and goals evolved into the indiscriminate and arrogant. If the trains are too hot, the banks—two at the same time, in fact—will do. Anything to escape from the present reality to paradisal South America.

“[…] We can take the C.M. Condon and the First National Bank at the same time. That ought to give us enough to get out all right. There is no more danger than with a train. We will ride in, get the banks, ride out, and that’s all there is to it. Easy, isn’t it?” [answered Bob]
[…]
We had almost come to think ourselves protected by some mysterious power; time after time we had gone to the well but never a nick had the pitcher as yet.
[…]
“On to Coffeyville! This is the last trick!” called Bob with a laugh as he spurred on ahead. I was close behind him.
“Yes, the last trick,” I answered.

Emmett Dalton Beyond the Law

We’re gonna hit the road for one last time
We can walk right in an steal ‘em blind
All that money (All that money)
No more runnin’ (No more runnin’)

“Bitter Creek”

Conclusion

To fully appreciate Desperado, one has to puncture through the thin veneer premise to see and appreciate the underlying depth. However, this is, in part, Desperado’s problem—the average listener will only see the veneer, and largely be disinterested as it blends in with the milieu of similar, shallow attempts at the outlaw-gang-as-a-rock’n’roll-band premise. And who can blame them? After all, “Twenty-One”, “Out of Control”, “Certain Kind of Fool”, and “Outlaw Man” do little to add anything unique to the premise; these tracks fall right into the trappings of the premise’s exhausted tropes. If tracks akin to the aforementioned filled the entire album, then Desperado would truly add up to nothing beyond the other tired attempts—the attempts that engage in romanticization similar to the penny-dreadful newspapers that Emmett and McCullough discuss.

However, Eagles save the album from total, exhausted mediocrity and create a unified album experience through their addition and strategic placement of the tentpole tracks alongside their assemblage with complimentary others (such as “Tequila Sunrise”, “Saturday Night”, and “Bitter Creek”) that play with that addictive, wistful sound. As discussed, the underlying historical depth exists for the curious, active listener. I paraphrased the historical context and gave a lens into world of the Western Territories in an attempt to help share some of the joy and enhanced listening experience for the common listener. With this extra historical context and scene setting, the listener can better appreciate the fuller, more realistic, and, subsequently, more dismal picture of the outlaw lifestyle that Desperado paints; one that provides a counterbalance to the typical, cool, law-flaunting narrative that four of its own tracks sport.

That said, I believe that the album still has value for listeners that do not have strong interest in the lore. Most generally, the album uses this exhausted premise as an artistic lens to wrestle and communicate a broader and perhaps, as of late, more timely message. Namely, the album unromantically, and yet empathically, outlines and confronts the final destination of the path of resentment: retaliation and revenge culminating in a “quivering form, one final twitch-and then silence forever”. The path of which the Dalton’s story provides exemplary, historic example.

Am I surrounding myself with people and placing myself in environments that make me better?

Am I accurately identifying problems of which I have fault in creating?

Am I taking ownership over said problems, learning from failure, and adjusting?

Am I avoiding the path and mindset of resentment?

These are the reflective questions that this album evokes for me. So, sit on the front porch, pour yourself a whisky, learn from history, and contemplate these questions in the melancholic comfort of wistful longing.

♫︎

Note On Historical Accuracy

I do not claim 100% historical accuracy in this essay. Obviously, I am no historian. As discussed in this article, the history of the mid- to late- 1800s Western Territories is laden with inconsistent details and completely contradictory main story beats. I have done my best to ensure accuracy insofar as it is needed for the thesis of this essay.

Footnotes & References