When I was doing research on a Western novel I am writing, I came across an article about the Dalton gang and their failed attempt to rob two banks in the same day in Coffeyville, Kansas in 1892. There are some things that puzzle me.
According to the article Emmett Dalton was shot twenty-three times and survived, in fact he lived another forty-five years. How is it possible to be shot twenty-three times and survive? With that many shots I would think at least some would have penetrated vital organs and killed him or at least the loss of blood would have killed him.
There is an accompanying photo of the bodies of the four gang members who were killed that day. The photo shows that they have had their boots removed and they are handcuffed. Why would law enforcement officers, or whoever, remove the dead men’s boots and handcuff them? Was it a common practice in the nineteenth century to remove a dead man’s boots and to handcuff him, if so, why? I also read an account of the incident and these men were definitely dead at the time the photo was taken so there was no danger of them trying to escape.
My novel is not about the Dalton gang, but having these questions clarified would help me write a more accurate novel.
This page may answer your questions.
He was shot in the arm (not fatal unless they hit an artery), the shoulder (again, not faal unless they hit an artery), in the hip and groin (yet again, not fatal unless a major blood vessel gets it) and “and got 18-23 buckshot in the back” (bolding mine).
The buckshot is where the ‘23’ number comes from. While I’m sure it hurt, I doubt the buckshot did much more than lodge in the skin and fatty tissue of the back, so it didn’t harm any vessels.
The article also notes he was immediately taken to a doctor at the time, which probably helped his survival.
The boots were probably removed because they had spurs on them (could be used as a weapon). I would guess they were handcuffed/boots removed before the official declaration of death. At that point, why bother removing the cuffs, putting the boots back on (especially since the spurs could make it awkward to pick up the body by the feet).
“Wild West” calibers (like 45 Colt, 44-40 and 38 S&W) aren’t huge like earlier guns (.58 to .69 calibers) or hyper-fast like modern rounds (30-06) so getting hit 20 times and living doesn’t shock me much. Short of head-heart-lungs, most hits were pretty survival. And a lot of that (his hits) could have been legs or arms. Its also possible that some of the wounds were “counted twice” with both the entrance wound and exit wound being counted.
The handcuff thing I don’t get. These days its not unusual for a “he’s dead Jim” suspect to be cuffed pending official determination of death (as part of “officer safety”) but I don’t know about back then. Removing the boots though is understandable as boots could contain lots of things from hold-out weapons to “burying money”. Best to get them off and in your hands before someone else does.
And the boots and spurs of a nefarious villain would be a great souvenir and probably could be sold for some $$.
Getting boots off also helps in prepping the body for burial later. Do it before rigor mortis sets in. You can more easily takes clothes off a “stiff”. Cutting at worse, snipping the seams at best. But cutting boots off will ruin a good pair of boots which were usually worth real money.
Cuffs, I don’t get it.