On Nov 27, 1887 Frank and another deputy marshal, Jim Cole, went across the river from their base at Fort Sefmith to arrest three whiskey bootleggers.

After Bob killed a man in the line of duty, which he claimed was in self defense, he began to drink heavily and become restless.

Hiding out in the bluffs on the Canadian River about seventy miles southwest of Kingfisher, Oklahoma, they sent to Grat for help.

They worked there for about a month while playing poker games and getting in bar fights in San Luis Obispo County, spending most of the money they had made from horse stealing.

At this time Bob Dalton began making plans to rob a train with the help of Emmett and Grat.

On the night of February 6, 1891 a Southern Pacific Railroad passenger train was held up by two masked men carrying only 44-calibre revolvers near the town of Alila (present day Earlimart, California).

Finding out what they could about the brothers, Sheriff Kay's posse learned that Bob, Emmett and Grat had spent the past few days drinking, gambling, and following the Southern Pacific pay car as it made its monthly journey down the San Joaquin Valley.

On March 17, 1891 the Tulare County Grand Jury indicted brothers Bob, Emmett, Grat, and Bill Dalton for the Alila robbery.

Bob and Emmett borrowed money and supplies from brothers Cole and Lit, and made their way east across the Mojave Desert.

Even though much of the evidence showed that Grat was in Fresno, California the night of the Alila robbery, including the testimony of several witnesses, the influence of the powerful Southern Pacific Railroad resulted in his having an unfair trail.

Kay found Dalton and Dean at an abandoned overland stage station where they looked as if they were either planning a robbery or to break Grat from jail.

Both Dalton and Dean had a clear alibi but Kay held Bill in the Tulare County Jail to await trial for his part in the Alila robbery.

On the night of September 27th, Grat and two other men escaped from the County Jail in Visalia while Sheriff Kay was in San Francisco, California.

Bill Dalton had remained in his cell and was found in the morning, playing a guitar, joking about how the boys had left him.

He sold the lease to his ranch in San Luis Obispo County, moved his family to his wife's parents in Livingston, California, and left for Kingfisher.

Grat managed to escape, firing at the lawmen with his Winchester rifle and stealing a horse from a nearby ranch, but Riley Dean was captured.

Grat rode to a friends near Livingston, California and stayed for several weeks before escaping back to Oklahoma with the help of his brother Cole.

After their unsuccessful career in California they decided they could do much better in their home country and, unlike their first attempts, they began carefully planning their robberies.

The gang was also assisted by Bob's lover Eugenia Moore, known by her aliases "Tom King" and "Miss Mundays", who acted as their informant but was also a notorious horse thief and outlaw.

He arrested Bryant and took him on a train to be committed to the jail at Wichita, Kansas without a guard or notifying Marshal Grimes at Fort Smith.

Short put the baggage man in charge of Bryant giving him his revolver while he went to the rear platform with his rifle.

Here the Santa Fe had found out about the Daltons plans and attempted to set up a trap for the gang filling the train with heavily armed officers.

They were also accused of robbing a bank in El Reno, Oklahoma on July 28, however this was based on little evidence as no one saw any members of the gang.

For reasons unknown, Grat Dalton dismissed gang members "Bittercreek" Newcomb and Charley Pierce, telling them their services were no longer needed.

The western actor Gregg Palmer, then twenty-five, portrayed Gratton Dalton in the 1952 film The Cimarron Kid.

Thereafter, in 1954, Fess Parker played Grat in an episode of Jim Davis's syndicated series Stories of the Century.

Jim Davis portrayed Grat Dalton in the 1963 episode "Three Minutes to Eternity" of the syndicated western series, Death Valley Days.

[7] In 1975 Grat Dalton was played by the actor Richard Jaeckel in the TV movie western The Last Day.