My favorite aspect of history is how completely the world can change within a single lifetime.  A 95-year-old in 2013 was born in a world where the Ottoman Empire still existed, many Americans lived in the middle of nowhere with no electricity or indoor plumbing, and Presidents wore top hats.

But let's push that timeline back a little and look at the life of Emmett Dalton:



Born in 1871, Emmett worked as a posseman for his brother, U.S. Marshal Frank Dalton.  In the Old West, Marshals had the authority to assemble posses, which were gangs that worked for the government.  Think privateers vs. pirates.  Frank died while pursuing whiskey runners and, depending on whom you believe, a false accusation of train robbery turned Emmett and his brothers to lives of crime.

Their reputations grew to such an extent that they were blamed for train robberies that they could not have possibly committed.  After years of pursuit, they decided to do one last job before they disappeared that would cement their names in legend: rob two banks at once, in broad daylight.



They accomplished their goal, while also cementing their names in tombstones.  The robbery in Coffeyville, Kansas left four of Emmett's brothers dead.  Emmett himself received twenty-three gunshot wounds and survived to receive a life sentence.

He was paroled in 1907 and went on to act in movies, including one based on his experiences with his brothers.  In fact, you can visit his IMDB page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0198276/

In his later years, he became a real estate agent and died in Hollywood.

Dalton's story boggles my mind.  One of the most feared men in the West was in a movie that you could probably track down and watch, then settled down to a chummy domestic existence in the 1940's.

We think of decades as islands, set apart by their aesthetics and what they come to mean in film and fiction.  And so the rapid mutation of a time like the Old West into the Golden Age of Hollywood comes off as surreal, and men like Emmett Dalton or this guy, or really any old person seem to be time travelers within their own lifespans.

What any of us will live to see is a mystery, but let's hope we don't get twenty-three bullets in the chest on the way there.

Sources:
http://www.kansasheritage.org/families/dalton.html
http://www.kayempea.net/coffeyville.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DaltonEmmett.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dalton_Gang_memento_mori_1892.jpg
http://books.google.com/books?id=1FOlLdcl8iUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

I discovered this story while doing research for my sci-fi Western Buzzards Over Carson, which you can find over at JukePop Serials.