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July 3, 2025 20 mins

On this episode of Our American Stories, Art Burton, author of numerous books on African Americans in the West, tells the story of Cherokee Bill: one of the most feared and notorious outlaws in Indian Territory. Known for his violent robberies and multiple killings during the 1890s, Cherokee Bill became a legendary figure whose brief but deadly career earned him comparisons to Jesse James and Billy the Kid.

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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories. Up next a
story from Art T. Burton, arts and author who writes
about an often overlook group of people in the Western Frontier,
African Americans. Today, he'll share with us the story of
one of the most beard outlaws in the Indian Territory,
Kerokee Bill, who terrorized the area for two years. But

(00:32):
before we talk about Bill, let's talk about his father, George.
Let's get into the story.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
George is very interesting because he was from Selma, Alabama,
and his mother was not enslave, but she was a
concubine of Thornton Goldsby, who was a very rich plantation honor.
He was in the banking so when the Civil War started,

(00:59):
not being a slave, George was hired by the Confederate
army and was actually at Gettysburg, and I guess at
Gettysburg he felt it was a good time for him
to lead the Confederate side and went to the northern

(01:21):
side and was at the Confederate surrender at Appomattics. George
went back to Selma, but there was some issues because
some of the Confederate soldiers recognized George as being at Appomatics.
In the Union, and they threatened to kill him, and
he left and went to the Indian Territory actually and

(01:52):
joined the tenth Us Calvary Regiment, which was all black regiment.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Ranked very quick well.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
He became a sergeant, one of the top sergeants in
the tenth Calf. After being there a while, he did
meet a young lady named Ellen, and she was a
laundress for the tenth Calf and they got married. And
later on that the regiment was relocated to UH Fort

(02:24):
Concho in Texas, and that is where Crawford was born.
But George got into a little problem at Fort Concho.
They were next to a town named San Angelo, and
some of the Buffalo soldiers was having a real hard time.
Many times they would go to town and go to the saloons.

(02:46):
They were being harangued by the UH Buffalo hunters and
the cowboys. And this one particular time UH soldiers stripes
were cut off his uniform and his pants and he
was roughed up and beat up. And he went back
to the posts at Fort Conchoe and told what happened.
And the story goes at George allowed the Buffalo soldiers

(03:08):
to get access to their weapons and they get went
back to San Angelo and shot the town up pretty good,
including the saloon with a incident had happened, and George
decided that he needed to leave the army at that point,

(03:28):
and he went awl and left her with four little kids,
Clarence and Luther, Crawford and his sister.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
So that's kind of like the background of the.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Story about Crawford Goldsby. And his name is not Goldsby,
it's r actually Gooseby, but uh, people call it Goldsby
because it's spelled gol dsb Y. I guess him and
his father didn't get along that well. After he got
a little bit older, mm got jobs odd jobs around

(04:03):
Fort Gibson, and then he started cowboying, so he was
a cowboy. The problem oc Kurk when there was a
dance in town and a guy started picking on his brother,
his little brother, and he didn't like it too much
and he tried to intercede and there was a fight.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
Now, Crawford was pretty big.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
He was he was about almost six feet tall and
probably weighed somewhere around a hundred ninety two hundred pounds,
so he was kind.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
Of stocky, well built young man. But he got beat up.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
The next day, after he got beat up, he caught
the guy coming into the livery stable and he shot
him two or three times.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
He thought he killed.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Him, but he didn't, and then went on the dodge
in the Indian Territory. He called it going on the
scout when you were trying to get away from the law,
and that's where his whole outlaw career kind of jumped off.
Crawford had earlier worked with a couple of young men

(05:07):
known as the Cook brothers, Bill and William Cook. Crawford
took up with them, and they uh had decided to
do some things that was not legal, selling bootleg whiskey
and and stealing horses and such. And then eighteen ninety three,
the Cherokee Nation received an eight point five million dollar

(05:29):
payment for the sale of the Cherokee.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
Outlet, and that was land that the Cherokee Nation at once.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Payments were made to citizens that selected towns, and the
Cook brothers and Crawford requested their share of the land payment.
The Cooks had a good friend named Effie Critic and
'em who agreed to pick up their shares because they
couldn't go in and pick up their money cause they
had warrants for arrest from the Cherokee authorities. And Effie

(05:58):
was also the manager of a place known as the
Halfway House.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
It was a stage coach station.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Between Talaquah and Muskogee, and on June fifteenth, Effie went
to Talaquah. She had her strange husband who was working
as a guard for the payment. He read the names
on her crest. She gave the Cherokee treasure and Dick
Crediting knew that two of the men had outstanding the
warrants Crawford goes before attempting murder and Bill Cook for larceny,

(06:28):
and he realized that they would be waiting at the
Halfway House, the stage coach station, for their moneies, and
he told the authorities about it, and so they gave
Effie the monies.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
That they were old a.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Little to her knowledge, she's been followed by a fairly
large posse before they they got there, though as these
young men, I guess they were fair they very enterprising.
There was a stage coach that did stop at the
house and it was robbed by them while they were
there waiting for their moneys. And as Efie got to

(07:07):
the Halfway House, Crawford was outside the stagecoach station and
he seen the posse coming. There proceeded to be a
very hillatious uh gunfight that took place.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
They got away.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
One of the Cooks, not Bill Cook, but his brother
did get wounded in the fight. But Cherokee Bill did
kill one of the Cherokee lawmen. After the outlaws got away,
Effie was interviewed by the lawman and they she was asked,
was Crawford Goldsby a member of the outlaws that they
just had to shoot out with? And she said, no,

(07:42):
it wasn't Crawford Goldsby, but uh, Cherokee Bill was here
and uh after that, Crawford Goldsby was always known as
Cherokee Bill. He was eighteen years old at that time.

(08:02):
He said that he could shoot from his waist on
a level and hardly miss his target. He would also
brace the rifle butt against his leg and work the
lever very fast. He could sound so fast it sounded
like a sewing machine.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
He said.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
He shot it like that to scare people. He said,
for accuracy, he always put the rifle to his shoulder.
But he's also he loved to have shootouts with lawman
and that's a very interesting cause.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
Most outlaws never loved.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
To have shootouts, but he really, uh never turned down
a good shootout if he could have one with the lawman.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
He was very colorful, they said. He used to wear a.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
White hat with a red band on it, and he
wore jingle bob spurs, and he had studied chaps, leather
chaps with metal studs on it. So he was very
colorful guy. He used to like to, uh, you know,
be like a peacock, I guess you could say.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
And we've been listening to Art T. Burton tell the
story of Cherokee Bill and his father George, and my goodness,
what a story. George had an African American fighting for
the Confederates and then also finds himself one day in
Gettysburg where he changes teams and then is at Appomatics.
When we come back more of the remarkable story of

(09:16):
Cherokee Bill as told by Art Burton here on our
American Stories. And we returned to our American Stories and

(09:41):
our story with Art T. Burton on outlaw Cherokee Bill.
When we last left off, Art was telling us about
how Bill turned to a life of crime after committing
an attempted murder.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
After a fight.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Bill would soon link up with the Cook brothers and
that's where things went even further south. Let's continue with
the story.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
It originally was known as the Bill Cook Gang, and
Cherokee Bill became the the worst element of that gang
and the most feared member of that game. The gang
was made up of white, Black, and Indian for the
most part, youth young men. The size of the gang
would change over the months. Some men would drop out,
some would join. The original members of the gang were

(10:29):
Lion Gordon, George Sanders, and Henry Munson, all black Indian freedmen.
Curtis Dason, Jes Snyder, Elmer Chick and Lucas who were
white men, and Sam Verdigree, Kid McWilliams, Jim French, and
Bill Cook were Cherokee mixed bloods, so it was a
very diverse gang. The bolts and most brazen r y

(11:00):
by Cherokee Bill and the Cook Gang occurred on the
day that the gang robbed the Lincoln County Bank and Chandler.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
And there was a barber named JB.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
Mitchell who was sitting in front of his establishment and
cried out the Daltons Iron Town they're robbing the bank.
Cherokee Bill hollered for him to shut up, and Mitchell
rose up from his chair. He was still hollering, and
Cherokee Bill took his Winchester rifle and shot him at
two hundred yards. After Cherokee Bill shot the barber, there

(11:34):
was approximately one hundred gun shots far better gang. After
they robbed the bank of one hundred and seven dollars
and fifty cent, the gang rode west of town and
they rolled into a timber and they had a gunfight.
Once they got into the timbers, one of the members
of the gang was captured by the posse and the
rest of the gang escaped into the hills.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
October ninth, the gang split up.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
A few followed Bill Cooke, and the rest of the
game went with Cherokee Bill. On the night of October
twenty second, eighteen ninety four, Cherokee Bill and three outlaws
looted the small town of with Tooba. The gang robbed
two stores and the post office and four hundred dollars.
Cherokee Bill took the first storekeeper as a hostage to

(12:27):
the second store, and then took the two storekeepers to
the post office. A few days later, Cherokee Bill robbed
the town of Tallala. Bill started on one end of
the main street and ropped every business on the street,
and then he and his gang.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
Rode out of town.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
In my research looking at gangs, this is the only
time the Whey I've known outlaws to go into towns
and started one ind of town on main street and
ropped every business on main street.

Speaker 3 (12:58):
This is unprecedented.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Cherokee Bill next struck at the small cattle town the
Lenapol and the Cherokee Nation, not far from the Kansas border.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
The money and valuables amounted.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
To six hundred dollars, which was a lot of money
back then because the average wage for an a person
could be a hundred dollars a year, so six hundred
dollars was quite a bit of money.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
A man by the name of Ernest.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
Melton from Paris, Texas was working across the street at
a restaurant when they heard shots being fired. They all
rested the window to see what was happening. Cherokee Bill
glanced at the window and saw Melton staring at him,
and just for nothing at all. Cherokee Bill took us
Winchester rifle and shot Melton in the head, killing him instantly.

(13:50):
After this rivalry, the Federal Court at Fortsmouth Arkasaus put
up a thirteen hundred dollar bounty dead or alive on
Cherokee Bill. This scheme to catch Cherokee Bill was plotted
by US Marshal George Crump and deputs Marshalls Bill Smith
and George Lawson, and they were very dedicated to tryna

(14:10):
bring Cherokee Bill in.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
They say.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
Smith and Lawson found out that Bill was sweet on
the niece of former Deputy U. S. Marshall Ike Rogers,
and they met with Rogers and devised a plan for
Cherokee Bill to be invited to rogers home while his niece,
Maggie Glass was there. Rogers procured the sistance of a
good friend, another Cherokee freeman named Clint Scales, to assist
with the capture. On January twenty ninth, eighteen ninety five,

(14:44):
Cherokee Bill arrived at Rogers' home and he spent a
good barty of the evening visiting with Maggie, who he
truly had a crush on. Then he played cards with
Rogers and Scales all night up til four o'clock in
the morning. All the time Cherokee Bill he kept his
Winchester in his laugh and never gave Rogers his chance
to surprise him at breakfast. It began to appear as

(15:06):
if the plan was not working. After eating, Ike sent
Maggie to a neighbor's house to buy a couple of chickens.
Bill decided he wanted to smoke and leaned over the
fireplace to light his cigarette. Rogers seized the moment hit
Cherokee Bill over the head with a fire stick. The
blow knocked Cherokee Bill down, but not out. Rogers and
Scales fought Bill for twenty minutes until they were able

(15:28):
to get a pair of handcuffs on him. Cherokee Bill
was finally captured, and even after they got the handcuffs
on him, Cherokee Bill was so strong he broke the handcuffs,
but Clint Scales had a double barreled shotgun and kept

(15:50):
the gun on Cherokee until they got him to Uh,
the town where they met up with uh Bill Smith.

Speaker 3 (16:00):
M Parker.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
Judge Parker, the Hanging Judge, as people like to call him,
said Bill's the worst criminal that he'd ever come before
his bench, and Judge Parker was there from eighteen seventy
five to eighteen ninety six, so he's seen a many
a bad outlaw Bill was indicted for the murder of
Ernest Melton. He played now guilty and he was represented
by a defense attorney named Jay Warren Reed, who was

(16:26):
one of the top defense attorneys that worked the Fort
Smith Court. Cherokee Bill was found guilty and murder and
June twenty fifth, eighteen ninety five, was set as his
execution date, but lawyer Reid found fourteen heires in the
trial proceedings and appealed to the US Supreme Court. Judge
Parker issued a state of the execution date so the

(16:48):
Supreme Court.

Speaker 3 (16:49):
Could look at the uh appeal.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
And on July twenty sixth, eighteen ninety five, someone smuggled
a pistol into the jail for Cherokee Bill to attempted
to jail break. At seven pm, the jail guard Campbell
Eof and guard Lawrence Keating ended the party jail known
as Murderer's Row, where they kept people who was being

(17:15):
incarcerated for murder and it was responsibility Eof and Keyting
to ring the prisoners in for the night paper was
jammed in the keyhole to lock the row of sails
to keep it from locking, and Cherokee Bill jumped out
of his.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
Ceil and told them to throw up and give me
that pistol.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
Instead of obeying, Keating reached for his own, reviving Cherokee
Bill shouting instantly, and it was a fatal room for
fifteen minute gunfight ensue with no further injuries, but also
no resolution. Henry Starr, another Cherokee who was in jail
for murdering a deputous marshal, offered to speak to Bill
and get his gun. The guards agreed, and Starr took

(17:55):
his opportunity and went to Bill's sale and convinced him
that it was useless to continue. I guess Cherokee Bill
thought about it for a while, and he eventually gave
his gun over the Star. Supposedly, start had made some
comments that Cherokee Bill's mother would not be very happy
about the circumstances, and that was one of the things

(18:15):
that convinced him to give up his gun. But now
he had another murder charge on him. The trial lasted
three days and Judge Parker set the new execution date
as March seventeenth, eighteen ninety six. On his execution day,
Cherokee Bill showed no sign of fear while standing on
the gallows. He was asked if he had anything to say,

(18:36):
and he replied, I came not here to talk, but
to die. He's better not far from his companions, Jim
French and the Verdi Greek Kid. His niece stated that
Cherokee Bill probably would have had a different life if

(18:57):
he had a opportunity to get a better education, very
similar to the day where many people who fall into
a life of crime probably would have had a different
outlook on life.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
If they had got better education. Cherokee Bill is pretty
much analogous to.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Billy the Kid, but they've made I guess somewhere in
the area fifty movies in Hollywood about Billy to Kit.
There's never been a movie made about Cherokee Bill as yet.
But Cherokee Bill became the most famous outlaw in the
history of the Indian Territory.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
And a terrific job on the storytelling by Monty Montgomery.
And a special thanks to Artie Burton for sharing with
us the story of Cherokee Bill. His book is Cherokee Bill,
Black Cowboy, Indian Outlaw.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
Pick it up.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
At Arturton dot com. And by the way, what a
thing he managed with the Bill Cook Gang because it
was the first integrated gang. We had blacks, whites, and
Cherokees of mixed blood and pure all in the same place,
causing mayhem. He splits up and ends up in the
end facing Judge Parker. He was found guilty of murder.

(20:04):
On execution day, his final words were, I came here
not to talk, but to die. The story of Cherokee
Bill here on our American stories.
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