Bill later married Jane Bliven and was the only one of his brothers that would start a family, fathering a son, Charles "Chubb" Coleman Dalton, and a daughter, Gracie.

After rustling horses in the Indian Territory, Bob, Emmett, and Grat fled to California in January 1891 and worked on Bill's ranch.

Bob and Emmett then attempted to rob the Los Angeles train at Alila (near present-day Pixley, California) that February and afterwards hid out at Bill's ranch.

A posse led by Sheriff Eugene Kay of Tulare County, California tracked Bob and Emmett to Bill's ranch.

Early the next morning, as Sheriff Kay prepared to leave, he found the remnants of a saddle in a manure pile near Bill’s barn.

He then received a telegram from Tulare and learned that men matching the description of Bob, Emmett, and Grat had spent the past few days drinking heavily, gambling, and following the Southern Pacific pay car as it made its monthly journey down the San Joaquin Valley.

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

The Daltons had many friends in Oklahoma willing to hide them and Sheriff Kay was forced to give up the chase in order to return to California for Grat's trial.

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 led him to receive an unfair trial.

Kay found Bill 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.

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

Bill remained in his cell, and was found in the morning playing a popular song on the guitar that he set his own words to and titled, "You'll Never Miss My Brother Till He's Gone", and joked about how the boys had left him.

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

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

Grat then rode to a friend's home near Livingston, California, and stayed there for several weeks before he escaped back to Oklahoma with the help of his brother Cole.

First among these recruits were George "Bitter Creek" Newcomb and "Blackfaced" Charlie Bryant, who had received his nickname because of a gunpowder burn on one cheek.

Bill Doolin, "Bitter Creek" Newcomb, and Charlie Pierce, none of whom were at Coffeyville, were the only members left of the original Dalton Gang.

[2] For a time Bill Doolin and his partners operated under outlaw Henry Starr (Cherokee), hiding out about 75 miles northeast of Kingfisher, Oklahoma, from where they made several raids.

Bill Dalton took part in several robberies with the Wild Bunch, including a gun battle on September 1, 1893, at Ingalls, Oklahoma Territory, where three deputy US marshals were killed.