the Roper Hotel in Marble Falls, Texas, in the early 1940s, J. Frank Dalton claimed to be the famous lawman of the Old West named J. (John) Franklin "Frank" Dalton, who from 1884 until his death in 1887 had served as Deputy U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Arkansas, administered out of Fort Smith, Arkansas, with jurisdiction including the Oklahoma or Indian Territory. He had previously made such claims while living in Independence County, Arkansas. Contrary to J. Frank Dalton's claims, the marshal was shot and killed in the line of duty on November 27, 1887, in a gun battle with members of the Smith-Dixon Gang. Claim to be Jesse James Following the death of Jesse James hoaxer William John James in 1947, Orvus Lee Howk, who claimed to be a grandson of J. Frank Dalton and later renamed himself Jesse Lee James III, engineered Dalton's adoption of a new identity as Old West outlaw Jesse James. Signing himself as J. Frank Dalton, the old man on April 24, 1948, executed an affidavit recounting the details of the historical Jesse James'a birth and claimed to be the famous outlaw. The affidavit was published, with additional historical information about James and the claim, in the newspaper "The Lawton Constitution" the following month. On May 22, 1948, Dalton made two public appearances in Lawton's business district, giving speeches at each location. Dalton posed as Jesse James in front of the crowds and spoke about what life was like in the days of the Old West. This fed into not infrequent claims that Jesse James had faked his 1882 death and then adopted an alias, and Dalton's account incorporated many aspects told by prior Jesse James impostor William John James. James expert Homer Croy went to Lawton and found Dalton unable to answer many questions the authentic James should have known, but Howk continued to promote Dalton as Jesse James. On hearing of the claim, Rudi Turilli, the manager of Meramec Caverns in Missouri, arranged to bring Dalton to his site and launched a major promotional campaign. It was there that in June 1949, Dalton was interviewed by journalist Robert C. Ruark, who then published a three-article account of this interview. Dalton, claiming to be 102 years old, told Ruark that the man shot and killed in 1882 and identified as Jesse James was actually a similar-looking houseguest of James named Charlie