It was during the winter of 1895-96. Bill Doolin, the Oklahoma outlaw was spending his “vacation” in Eureka Springs, taking the baths and hiding out from the law. He had allegedly killed three marshals at Ingalls, Okla., a short time before and committed other crimes over a period of several years of outlawry, and the law was hot on his trail when he disappeared at the first of the year, 1896.

Bill Tilghman, United States marshal, knew Doolin personally and set out to capture him. At a boarding house in Ingalls he learned that the outlaw had gone to some resort in Arkansas for his health and safety. The marshal selected Eureka Springs as the most likely place for Doolin’s hideout.

Tilghman arrived in Eureka Springs disguised as a preacher, wearing a Prince Albert coat and a derby hat. He registered at a hotel and left his baggage. He then walked to a little park in the center of town. A man was stooped over the spring, filling a jug with water. When he raised up the marshal saw that it was Doolin.

Tilghman knew the outlaw was quick on the draw and did not attempt to arrest him. Instead, he dropped into a nearby shop and watched him through the window. Doolin walked across the park, crossed a bridge that spanned a little stream, and ascended a flight of steps leading to a hotel.

Tilghman went back to the park, sat down and began thinking. He had left a shotgun at his hotel and his first thought was to get the gun, hide behind a tree and get his man as he came down the steps. But he wanted to take him alive. Then he devised what he thought was a better plan. He went to a nearby carpenter shop and ordered a box made long enough to hold his shotgun. It was to be hinged and easy to open. With this contraption he could sit in the park without attracting attention and get Doolin as he approached. The carpenter promised to have the box ready by late evening. He would polish it and make it look like a musical instrument case. That would mean another day in Eureka Springs. He would lay for Doolin early in the morning as he came from his hotel.

Tilghman ate lunch at a cafe and then having time to kill, decided to take one of the famous Eureka Springs baths. He noticed the Basin Spring Bath House across the bridge from the Basin Circle. He walked into the hallway and opened a door at the left to enter the lobby. His eye took in everything in the room at a glance. There was a desk in the corner with a man sitting behind it. Several men were in the room, playing checkers or reading. One of them sat behind a pot-bellied stove at the east end of the lobby, his face behind a newspaper.

When Bill entered the room this man lowered his paper for an instant. The marshal saw that it was Doolin.

“I want a bath,” said Tilghman and stepped quickly into the hall, walking in the direction of the room marked “Baths.” Half way down the hall he stopped in front of a door that opened directly into the east end of the lobby; Doolin was sitting within a few feet of that door.

What if he had recognized him and was awaiting his entrance? He must take a chance. He pulled his .45 from its holster and opened the door. There sat Doolin still reading.

“Put up your hands, I’ve got you covered,” said the marshal as he stepped around the stove.

The outlaw’s eyes opened wide in surprise as he recognized Tilghman. He reached for his gun but Tilghman grabbed for his wrist, missed and caught his coat sleeve. The sleeve ripped, but he held on.

“Doolin, I don’t want to kill you, but I will if you don’t get your hands up.”

Doolin saw that he was trapped and obeyed. Tilghman asked the clerk to get the outlaw’s gun, but the man was so nervous that he made several attempts before he succeeded in getting it out of the holster. The other men in the lobby had run like quail when the trouble started.

Tilghman put handcuffs on Doolin and took him to his hotel to get his belongings. Among the items on the dresser was a silver cup the outlaw had bought for his baby boy. Tilghman put it in the suitcase along with other things and they were on their way to the depot to catch the 4 o’clock train. A boy was sent to the carpenter to tell him the box would not be needed.

When they got on the train, Doolin promised to make no attempt to escape and the handcuffs were removed. They arrived in Guthrie, Okla., at 10 p. m., and Doolin was placed in the federal jail to await trial. But that trial never came. He made a jail break in July, hid out on a Texas ranch for several months, and was killed by officers when he attempted to return to Oklahoma to get his wife and baby.

(Credit for source material on the capture of Bill Doolin goes to the late Charley Stehm, an article in the Eureka Springs Times-Echo by Annie House, “Eureka Springs: Stair-Step Town” by Cora Pinkley Call, and “Marshall of the Frontier—Life and Stories of William Matthew (Bill) Tilghman”, written by his wife, Zoe Tilghman and published by Arthur H. Clark and Company, Cleveland in 1949. The incidents of the capture are somewhat similar in all these accounts but Mrs. Tilghman goes into greater detail in reporting the story.)