Parkinson & Company store in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, on September 21, getting away with over $600.00. The rest of the gang fled.Ĭontinuing with their outlaw deeds, they robbed the J.A. Two of the gang members, Lon Gordon and Henry Munson, were killed, and Ad Berryhill was captured. During the volley of gunshots, one of the lawmen was shot and severely wounded. Hotly pursued, the Cook Gang was surrounded at a friend’s home some fourteen miles west of Sapulpa, Oklahoma, on August 2, 1894. On July 31, 1894, the gang stole $500 from the Lincoln County bank in Chandler, Oklahoma, killing one person and wounding others. In the process, one member of the gang, Elmer Luca, was shot and captured by authorities. However, the gang escaped with very little due to the express messenger having had the foresight to hide the money behind some boxes.
On July 16, the gang allegedly robbed a man named William Drew and, two days later, held up the Frisco train at Red Fork. The outlaws were ruthless, shooting anyone who got in their way. Starting small, they were first accused of whiskey charges and horse theft before advancing to robbing banks, stores, and stagecoaches. When her husband, George Brown, a vicious drunk, began to beat Maud with a whip for not responding quickly enough to his orders, Bill walked up behind the man and shot him to death.Īfterward, Bill Cook and Cherokee Bill rounded up a gang, mostly comprised of black men with Indian blood, and began to terrorize Oklahoma. In the meantime, Cherokee Bill rode to the home of his sister, Maud Brown, hiding from the law. Forced to leave him, he was later captured by lawmen. Jim Cook was also severely wounded, and the other two took him to Fort Gibson. In the inevitable shoot-out that occurred, Cherokee Bill shot and killed lawman Sequoyah Houston. In June 1894, the trio was confronted at Fourteen Mile Creek near Tahlequah, Oklahoma, with a warrant for Jim Cook. Though Lewis would later recover from his wounds, Bill was sure he had killed the man and fled for the Creek and Seminole Nations, where he joined up with outlaws Jim and Bill Cook. In the spring of 1894, at the age of 18, Cherokee Bill’s crime spree began when he shot a man named Jake Lewis for beating up his younger brother. However, that would all change the following year when he would begin his outlaw career, becoming one of the most dangerous and feared men in Indian Territory. By the time he was 17, he was working a ranch, where he said to have been well-liked.
Two years later, at the age of 15, he moved from his mother’s house to his sister Georgia’s and her husband. Around that time, he began to associate with a bad crowd, drank liquor, and generally rebelled against any authority. Grabbing a gun, Crawford shot and killed him but was not prosecuted because of his age.Ī year later, his mother remarried, and young Crawford did not get along with his new stepfather. Large for his age, Crawford confronted his brother-in-law, who had told him to feed some hogs. It was at this tender age that some say he killed his first man. He left school at the age of 12 and returned to Fort Gibson. However, despite attempts to provide him with a good education, some sources indicate that he could barely read and write. His mother was a Cherokee Freedman, mixed with African, Indian, and white ancestry.īy the time he was seven, his parents had separated, and his mother moved him to Fort Gibson in Indian Territory. Before long, he was sent to an Indian School in Kansas, where he attended for three years. Afterward, he was sent to an Industrial School for Indians in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, for two years. George and Ellen Beck Goldsby Bill’s father was a mulatto from Alabama, a sergeant of the Tenth United States Cavalry, and a Buffalo Soldier. Crawford Goldsby, better known as Cherokee BillĬrawford Goldsby, better known as Cherokee Bill, was an outlaw who operated in Indian Territory (Oklahoma), leading a gang of thieves and murderers in the late 1800s.Ĭrawford Goldsby was born in Fort Concho, Texas, on February 8, 1876, to St.
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