Cherokee Bill
William (Bill) Doolin was born in 1858 in Johnson County, Arkansas. In 1881, at the age of 23, he drifted west working at odd jobs and eventually ended up in Caldwell, KS were he met Oscar D. Halsall of Texas. Halsall hired Doolin to work for him on his ranch on the Cimarron River in Oklahoma. Doolin soon became a top hand for Halsall.
It was during this time of working as a cowboy that he would meet most of the members of his future Wild Bunch. Working on the ranches in Oklahoma, Bill Doolin would meet George “Bitter Creek” Newcomb, Charlie Pierce, Bill Power, Dick Broadwell, Bill “Tulsa Jack” Blake, and Emmett Dalton.Doolin’s first brush with the law came in the summer of 1891, while working on the Bar X Bar Ranch. Several of the cowboys decided to celebrate the 4th of July holiday by riding over to Coffeyville, KS and throwing a party. There was a keg of beer there and the law showed up. Kansas was a dry state. When they tried to confiscate the beer there was a shoot-out, and two officers were wounded. From that day on Bill Doolin was on the dodge.