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By 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. Afterwards, he was sent to an
Industrial School for
Indians in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania for two years. However, despite attempts
to provide him a good education, some sources indicate that he could
barely read and write.
He left school at the age of 12 and returned to
Fort Gibson. It
was at this tender age that some say he killed his first man. Crawford,
large for his age confronted his brother-in-law who had told him to
feed some hogs. Grabbing a gun,
Crawford
shot and killed him, but was not prosecuted because of his age.
A year later his mother remarried and young Crawford
did not get along with his new stepfather. It was around that
time that he began to associate with a bad crowd, drank liquor, and
generally rebelled against any authority. Two years later, at
the age of 15, he moved from his mother’s house to his sister
Georgia’s and her husband. By the time he was 17, he was working
a ranch, where he said to have been well-liked. However, that
would all change the very next year when he would begin his
outlaw
career, becoming one of the most dangerous and
feared men in
Indian
Territory .
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. 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 June, 1894, the trio was confronted at Fourteen Mile Creek
near
Tahlequah,
Oklahoma
with
a warrant for Jim Cook. In the inevitable shoot out that
occurred,
Cherokee Bill
shot and killed lawman
Sequoyah Houston. Jim
Cook was also badly wounded and the other two took him to
Fort Gibson. Forced to leave him, he was later captured by lawmen. In the
meantime,
Cherokee Bill
rode to the home of his sister, Maud Brown, hiding from the law. 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.
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Afterwards,
Bill Cook
and
Cherokee Bill rounded
up a gang, mostly comprised of black men with
Indian
blood and began to terrorize
Oklahoma. Starting out small, they were first accused on whiskey charges and horse
theft, before advancing to robbing banks, stores and stagecoaches. The
outlaws were
ruthless, shooting anyone who got in their way.
On
July 16th, the gang allegedly robbed a man named William Drew and two days
later, held up the Frisco train at Red Fork. However, due to the
express messenger having had the foresight to hide the money behind some
boxes, the gang escaped with very little.
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.
Hotly pursued, the Cook Gang was surrounded at the home of a friend some
fourteen miles west of
Sapulpa,
Oklahoma
on August 2, 1894. During the volley of gunshots, one of the lawmen
was shot and severely wounded. Two of the gang members, Lon Gordon
and Henry Munson were killed and Ad Berryhill was captured. The rest
of the gang fled.
Continuing with their
outlaw
deeds they robbed the J.A. Parkinson & Company store in Okmulgee,
Oklahoma
on September 21st, getting away with over $600.00.
Several weeks later, the gang got really daring when on October 11th
they first robbed the depot of the Missouri Pacific Railroad in
Claremore,
Oklahoma
and less than two hours later, robbed the railroad agent at Chouteau.
Just
some nine days later, they wrecked the
Kansas City
and Pacific Express five miles south of Wagoner,
Oklahoma,
making off with the loot.
Ever
continuing their treachery through
Oklahoma,
Bill, along with several other members of the gang, rode into
Lenapah on November 8th. While robbing the
Shufeldt and Son General Store, an innocent passerby named Ernest Melton
heard the commotion and stuck his head in to see what was going on. His curiosity got him killed when
Cherokee Bill
raised his rifle and shot him in the head. Shortly afterwards,
U.S. Marshals
got a tip to the
outlaw's
hiding place; however, when they attempted to capture him,
Bill
escaped.
Continuing to
be hotly pursued,
Cherokee
Bill
persistently eluded the posse, for a while, at least. His final act
along the
outlaw
trail happened on
December 31, 1894,
when he acted alone to rob the train station at
Nowata,
Oklahoma.
With
the assistance of acquaintances who hoped to receive part of a $1,500
reward, he was captured on January 30, 1895 and was soon delivered to
Fort Smith,
Arkansas
to await trial for murder. On February 26th,
Cherokee Bill was tried
for the murder of Melton before
Judge Parker and found guilty. On
April 13th, the seemingly unconcerned
Crawford
Goldsby was
sentenced to death.
 Later,
we find out why
Cherokee Bill was so
unconcerned, as he was planning a daring escape. Somewhere along the
line,
Goldsby
had obtained a gun smuggled to him by a trustee. On July 26, 1895 he
attempted a jailbreak a gun battle soon broke
out between him and the prison guards and one of them was killed. The shootout resulted in a standoff when the guards were unable to disarm
Cherokee
Bill. However, also jailed with
Bill
was an even more notorious
outlaw,
that of
Henry Starr. Old acquaintances,
Starr offered to disarm
Bill
if the guards would in turn promise not to kill
Cherokee Bill afterwards. The promise was made and
Henry entered the cell telling his friend that he had no chance of
escape. Cherokee Bill gave up his revolver and
Starr turned it over to the guards. This incident helped
Henry Starr to later acquire his freedom.
In
the meantime,
Cherokee Bill's lawyer
was working on an appeal, maintaining that
Bill
had not received a fair trial in the court of
Judge Isaac
Parker, who had characterized him as a "bloodthirsty mad dog who
killed for the love of killing" and as "the most vicious" of all the
outlaws in the
Oklahoma
Territory.
However, the appeals were to no avail, and on March 17, 1896 federal
officials hanged him before hundreds of spectators. Reportedly, when
he was asked if he had any last words, he said: "I came here to die, not
to make a speech."
At
the tender age of 20,
Crawford
“Cherokee Bill” Goldsby died at the end of a rope. His mother
then took his remains back to the
Fort Gibson
area where he is buried at the Cherokee National Cemetery.
©
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of America, Updated September, 2007.
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