Plaques in the alley mark where brave citizens fell.

Dalton Death Alley

Coffeyville, Kansas

The citizens of Coffeyville, Kansas, killed some bank robbers over 120 years ago and have been pocketing interest from it ever since. The robbers were members of the Dalton Gang, America's premier lawbreaking family of the Gilded Age. Two of the Dalton brothers, and two of their henchmen, were shot dead in Coffeyville on October 5, 1892.

Many towns offer self-guided walking tours of historic homes; Coffeyville encourages tourists to visit every spot where a body fell.

The principal venue for this one-of-a-kind tour is "Death Alley," where painted outlines on the pavement mark the bad guys' bodies, plaques mark where the good guys fell and expired, and every bullet hole in the walls is flagged with a helpful sign.

The restored Coffeyville City Jail is here as well. A picture window in the wall lets you see four showroom dummies dressed as the Dalton Gang's corpses - modeled on a famous postmortem photo that's also reproduced as sidewalk art across the street from the alley entrance. Fifty cents in a coin box gets you a recorded narration that tells you the history of the big day. It goes on, and on, and on, and will still be echoing down the alley as you leave.