He was the co-leader of the Wild Bunch gang and he was the brother of the founders of the Dalton Gang, Gratton, Bob and Emmett. They called the gang by two names, the Doolin Dalton Gang and the Oklahombres, but it became best known as the Wild Bunch. Foreign three years they committed bank robbery, stagecoach robbery, and train robbery in various places around Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Kansas.
On September 1, 1893, they were trailed to Ingalls, Oklahoma and became involved in the Battle of Ingalls, during which he shot and killed Deputy United States Marshal Lafeyette Shadley.
Bill Dalton decided to leave the Doolin Dalton gang and form his own Dalton Gang. On May 23, 1894, Dalton and his new gang robbed the First National Bank at Longview, Texas.
This was the only job by the gang. Various posses would kill three of the members and send the last one to life in prison.
On June 8, 1894, a posse tracked Dalton to his home in Pooleville, Oklahoma.
He leaped from a window with a pistol in his hand and charged the posse, ignoring orders to halt. The posse opened fire, killing him. The song "Doolin Dalton", a hit for the Eagles, was inspired by the gang.
Butch Cassidy"s Wild Bunch]
Foreign a time, he was one of the two success stories of the Dalton family, for a time being a member of the California legislature. Furthermore, Desperado, the album on which the song "Doolin Dalton" appears, is considered a "concept album" inspired by the antics of the various players from this era including a song called "Bittercreek", a passing lyrical reference to a barmaid named "Flo", and of course the iconic photo on the back cover of said album which features the members of the band lying face up, hands tied and appearing to be dead, much like the infamous historical picture of the Dalton Brothers "lying dead in Coffeyville".