When Kansas Governor Edward Hoch pardoned Emmett Dalton in 1907, the reformed outlaw eventually made his way back to California (via National Park Service). But before he embarked on a trek west, he initially settled in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he began working as a tailor (The Oklahoman via Woodbutcher).
A year after his release from prison, Dalton and a small congregation arrived in Coffeyville. He was greeted when he walked onto the train platform by a crowd of admirers, who stood in line to shake his hand. The very man who was part of a gang that killed several townsfolk less than two decades before was now being treated like a folk hero. He met several men who had shot his brothers, the doctor who had performed surgery on his wounded arm in the Lansing, Kansas prison, and gave interviews to the local paper.
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Dalton also rekindled a relationship with Julia Lewis in 1908 (via The Sun). The two were childhood sweethearts and wasted no effort making up for lost time. They wed in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, later that year. Legends of America tells us that the newlyweds stayed in Oklahoma for a couple of years before heading to southern California.
Dalton earned his keep as a building contractor, but he soon found himself great with a pen. In 1918, he published “Beyond the Law,” a five-part serial about his life (per The Wilmington Dispatch).
