Bill Raidler

Bill Raidler, known as "Little Bill" Raidler (1870 – 1909/10) was an American outlaw of the Old West, and member of the Doolin-Dalton gang.

Raidler was born William F. Raidler in Pennsylvania in 1870, and raised to be an educated man. Family name also spelled Readler in Pennsylvania. However he had an adventurous side, and drifted down to Texas where he became a cowboy, then eventually ventured up to Oklahoma Territory, where he met Bill Doolin. He joined Doolin's gang around 1892. He was involved in numerous bank robberies and train robberies, as well as a number of shootouts with lawmen. On September 6, 1895, Raidler was trailed to a hideout in Oklahoma by Deputy US Marshal Bill Tilghman. Raidler engaged Tilghman and his two deputies in a gunbattle, and was shot in the wrist by Tilghman. As he attempted to flee, Tilghman shot him two more times, once in the back and once in the neck. Raidler survived, and was sentenced to ten years in prison. In prison he befriended William (Bill) Sydney Porter, later to become O. Henry. They were friends until their deaths. He was released in ill health in 1903, suffering greatly from his gunshot wounds that never completely healed. Billie became the owner of a cigar store in Woodward, Oklahoma, after prison and married Blanche Whitenack, mother of his daughter, Dollie Radler. They moved to Yale, Oklahoma in 1905 and ran a general store. In 1907 he wrote numerous letters to Blanche and Dollie in Hammon, Oklahoma where they were visiting the Whitenack family and looking for work. At the time of his death, which was probably in 1909–10, he was one of only two surviving members of the Wild Bunch gang, as well as one of only two members who survived into the twentieth century. Roy Dougherty, the last surviving member, outlived him by over 10 years. Billie's 1907 correspondence and some photos of him (1909) are archived at the University of Oklahoma, Western History Collections. His time of death and grave are unknown.

External links

• "Little Bill" Raidler