Legends of the Old West - OUTLAWS Ep. 2 | “Cherokee Bill”

Episode Date: April 29, 2026

In 1893, Crawford Goldsby suffers humiliation at a dance at Fort Gibson in the Cherokee Nation. His plan for revenge lands turns him into an outlaw who is on the run in Oklahoma Territory. He forms a ...gang with a pair of brothers and they become the terror of the territory before Cherokee Bill ends up in the courtroom of the Hanging Judge, Isaac Parker. Thanks to our sponsor, Quince! Use this link for Free Shipping and 365-day returns: Quince.com/lotow Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:12 Two years before Cherokee Bill tried to shoot his way off of murderer's row in the Fort Smith Jail with a pistol that had been smuggled in by a friend, he was a 17-year-old kid whose life changed forever during the harvest dance at Fort Gibson in Oklahoma Territory. Fort Gibson sat near the Big Fork in the Arkansas River, just above the growing town of Muskogee and just inside the border of the Cherokee Nation in the eastern part of the territory. The entire eastern section of Oklahoma Territory was home to the nations of the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Chautau, and Seminole. In the autumn of 1893, the outlaw, who would be known as Cherokee Bill, was still using his given name, Crawford Goldsby. 17-year-old Crawford Goldsby went to the harvest dance to rendezvous with 15-year-old Maggie Glass.
Starting point is 00:01:05 They had met at her cousin's house, and apparently it was love at first sight. Now, the teenage lovebirds were undoubtedly excited for the big dance, but the night took an unexpected turn in a bad direction. A local man named Jake Lewis, who was in his mid-30s, asked Maggie for a dance. Jake was thoroughly drunk. Maggie declined the dance, and he did not take the refusal well. As Jake Lewis hassled Maggie, Crawford Goldsby told Jake to back off. Jake was double the size and double the age of Crawford. And even though Jake was drunk, he was more than capable of handling the teenager. Jake pummeled the young man in front of the crowd at the dance.
Starting point is 00:01:53 Crawford eventually escaped the beating, ran outside, and galloped away as Maggie shouted for him to come back. He didn't go back that night or the next. The public humiliation was unbearable, and Crawford Goldsby was determined to settle the score. Two days after the dance, Jake Lewis was doing some work at the local livery. Crawford crept up to the barn with a revolver and waited in ambush. When Jake showed himself, Crawford stepped out, announced his intention to kill Jake and
Starting point is 00:02:25 opened fire. Crawford fired twice and hit Jake with both shots. As Jake fell to the ground, Crawford took off running. He ran from the site of the ambush and he ran all the way out of the Cherokee Nation. he had killed Jake Lewis, Crawford fled west across the Arkansas River and into the neighboring Creek Nation. Ironically, it might have been easier for Crawford Goldsby to hide if he had committed the more serious crime of murder. Jake Lewis would not have been alive to identify his attacker. But Jake survived the ambush, and he knew who pulled the trigger. So Crawford Goldsby was now
Starting point is 00:03:03 wanted for the shooting. And while part of him was probably just a love-sick teenager would taken his revenge to the extreme, that wasn't the full story. Virtually all of Crawford's 17 years on earth had been rough. If he had not ended up on the outlaw trail for the attack on Jake Lewis, it could easily have been something else. He grew up wild, as folks like to say. And his final year of freedom after the shooting at Fort Gibson would be the dictionary definition of wild.
Starting point is 00:03:45 From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the stories of six outlaws. They're horse thieves, bank robbers, train robbers, and gunfighters. This is episode two. Cherokee Bill, a most violent year. Crawford Goldsby's background and upbringing were complex. His father was George Goldsby, a buffalo soldier with the 10th cavalry who was from Perry County, Alabama. His mother was Ellen Beck, who was born in and was a member of the Cherokee Nation. Her parents had been slaves in the Cherokee Nation until they received their freedom during the Civil War when Ellen was a child.
Starting point is 00:04:36 Ellen and George met in Indian territory and married at Fort Sill in 1874. They had four children in rapid succession, the second of whom was Crawford. With a heritage that was a blend of black, white, Cherokee, and maybe Lakota and Mexican, the kids were destined to struggle to feel like they belong anywhere. And then in 1880, when Crawford was four years old, the family fell apart. According to the story, the family was stationed at Fort Concho in West Texas. In San Angelo, the town near the fort, a sergeant with the buffalo soldiers of the 10th cavalry, entered a saloon and was confronted by cowboys and buffalo hunters.
Starting point is 00:05:20 They stripped the chevrons off of the sergeant's uniform and forced him out of the bar. At the fort, when First Sergeant George Goldsby heard about the altercation, he led eight soldiers back to the saloon. The next confrontation led to a shootout, in which three civilians and one soldier died. To avoid being arrested for inciting a riot and murder, George Goldsby went AWOL and fled north to Indian territory. His family never saw him again. Soon afterward, Ellen Goldsby moved her four children back to her childhood home of the
Starting point is 00:05:55 Cherokee Nation and settled in Fort Gibson. But no sooner had they arrived, then Ellen had to leave. Ellen Goldsby worked as a laundress for the army. She traveled from fort to fort doing laundry. For the better part of three years, she was away from home. When she was gone, a woman named Amanda Foster cared for the four Goldsby children at Fort Gibson. When Ellen Goldsby returned, she wanted her eldest son, Crawford, to have more opportunities than menial laborers. or the Army. She sent Crawford to school in Kansas for three years, and then to Pennsylvania to the notorious Carlisle Industrial School for Indians, commonly called the Carlisle Indian School. The goal of the school was to strip Native American children of their culture and customs
Starting point is 00:06:47 and assimilate them into white Christian society, a guiding principle which was embodied by the unofficial slogan, Kill the Indian, Save the Man. Crawford Goldsby endured two years at the school until he returned to Fort Gibson at the age of 12. When he got back, he learned that his mother had married a man named William Lynch. So now, Crawford's father had vanished when he was four. His mother was gone for a long stretch of time after that. Then he went to school in Kansas and Pennsylvania,
Starting point is 00:07:18 and when he returned home, there was a new man living in the house. To no one's surprise, Crawford did not get along with his stepfather. At age 15, Crawford left the house and moved in with his older sister and her husband. There are accounts which say the husband was physically abusive, so that could have been a bad environment as well. The arrangement lasted two long years, until Crawford moved out and took work on a local ranch. Crawford Goldsby was 17. It was the autumn of 1893, and it was the harvest dance at Fort Gibson. Crawford took a beating from Jake Lewis and was humiliated in front of Maggie Glass.
Starting point is 00:07:59 In a fit of revenge, Crawford shot and wounded Jake Lewis and fled to the Creek Nation. Jake identified his attacker, and the law in the Cherokee Nation swore out a warrant for Crawford's arrest. But Crawford Goldsby successfully evaded the law, and in the Creek Nation, he encountered two brothers, Bill and Jim Cook, who were also running from the law. truck salsa, whether it's Verde, Roja, or the orange one. For Jeff, trying any salsa is like playing Russian roulette with a flamethrower. Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Habaniero? More like habanier, yes. Save the everyday with Amazon.
Starting point is 00:08:54 The Cook brothers were similar in age to Crawford Goldsby. Cook was a little older and Jim Cook was a little younger. They were mixed-blood Cherokee citizens like Crawford, and also like Crawford, they lost their father early in life. Their father passed away when they were children, and their mother died when Bill was 14 and Jim was 10. At that point, with no parents, the boys were sent to the Cherokee orphan asylum in the Cherokee Nation capital of Talaquah. The boys didn't like the orphanage, which was no surprise, and they left before long. They survived the next few years by doing odd jobs.
Starting point is 00:09:37 Bill Cook became a decent cowboy and an expert whiskey drinker. When he was 18 or 19, he started selling illegal whiskey in Oklahoma territory until he was caught by the U.S. Marshals and thrown in jail for 40 days. Along the way, Bill fell in love with a girl named Martha Pittman. To prove to her father that he wasn't a no-account-outlaw, Bill started working with the marshals as a posseman. But the pursuit of legitimacy came to an end when his younger brother, Jim, stole a watch. Jim was quickly caught and taken to Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Starting point is 00:10:12 That was the headquarters of the Deputy U.S. Marshals who ranged through Oklahoma Territory and the home of the hanging judge, Isaac Parker. 16-year-old Jim Cook had no interest in facing justice in Judge Parker's courtroom, so he jumped bail and went on the run. He ran back to Oklahoma Territory, to the Creek Nation, at the same time that Crawford Goldsby was running to the Creek Nation to avoid the law in the Cherokee Nation. When Bill Cook learned that his brother had been arrested and charged with grand larceny and had then escaped Fort Smith, Bill abandoned his job with the Marshals and rushed to the Creek Nation in search of his brother.
Starting point is 00:10:52 Bill found Jim and they both found Crawford Goldsby. And since they all needed money, they quickly settled on a goal which was not illegal but made them permanent outlaws nonetheless. The U.S. government had just purchased a strip of land in the Cherokee Nation to open the land to white settlers. After the purchase, each Cherokee citizen was entitled to $265.70. Crosford-Goldsby and the Cook brothers were Cherokee citizens, and they were entitled to payment. But as wanted men, they couldn't collect their money personally in Taliqua. So they rode to Taliqua, and the Cook brothers asked a woman who was a friend if she was a woman. would collect the money on their behalf.
Starting point is 00:11:40 The three young men offered to give her $50 each if she performed the errand. She agreed, and she successfully collected the money from the treasurer's office. Crawford and the Cook brothers gave her $50 each, and she had earned a handsome reward for an easy job. But what none of them knew was that the woman's estranged husband had watched her go to the treasurer's office to collect the money. The husband became suspicious that she might be with the wanted boy, Jim Cook, and he alerted Cherokee authorities.
Starting point is 00:12:11 A posse found the three young men on the evening of June 17, 1894, only a few hours after the boys had collected their money. Deputy Sheriff Sequoia Houston of the Cherokee Light Horse Police Force led the posse that arrived to arrest Jim Cook on outstanding larceny charges. Houston had planned to surround the hotel restaurant where the boys were staying. and wait until nightfall to capture Jim Cook. But as the posse approached the hotel, Crawford Goldsby was sitting outside under a tree
Starting point is 00:12:42 enjoying the quiet summer evening. Crawford saw them coming. He grabbed his Winchester and raced for the hotel. He shouted at Bill and Jim to prepare for battle as the posse surrounded the building. Deputy Houston demanded their surrender. The young men refused and a gun battle erupted. Houston took a position in a nearby ravine
Starting point is 00:13:04 and fired at the hotel. The shots wounded Jim Cook inside the building. Crawford Goldsby fired a barrage at Deputy Houston and at least one of the bullets found its mark. Deputy Houston fell, mortally wounded. In the small hotel, Jim Cook was nearly as bad. Outside, the men of the posse rushed to Deputy Houston's position, which afforded Crawford Goldsby and Bill Cook an opportunity. Crawford and Bill ran out of the hotel and dashed across the yard to the barn. They leapt onto their horses, collected Jim Cook from the hotel, and raced away into the darkness. With that shootout and that killing, the Cook brothers and Crawford Goldsby were officially outlaws who would be hunted forever, though forever would come much sooner than they hoped.
Starting point is 00:13:58 Crawford and the Cook brothers made it 20 miles down the road from Talaquois to Fort Gibson. They found a doctor and forced him to dress Jim's wounds. Then they stole a horse for Jim and kept moving. They started riding east toward Arkansas when they were spotted by lawmen. In the panic to escape, Crawford and Bill Cook became separated from Jim Cook. The lawman overtook Jim and arrested him, but Crawford and Bill evaded capture. When Crawford Goldsby and Bill Cook disappeared into the wilderness, it marked the beginning of six months of utter chaos in eastern Oklahoma territory.
Starting point is 00:14:36 Crawford and Bill organized a group of bandits who would be called the Cook Gang, and Crawford became known by his famous nickname. Back in Talaquah, when the posse had questioned the woman who helped Crawford and the Cook brothers, she referred to Crawford as Cherokee Bill, and the name stuck. She probably wasn't the first person to use the nickname, but that was when it took hold. Like all outlaw gangs, a revolving cast of characters rotated in and out of the lineup. But the thing that made the Cook gang unique was that its members had the same mixed backgrounds as its founders. They had blended African American and Native American heritage,
Starting point is 00:15:16 and they operated in the familiar grounds of the Cherokee Nation, the Creek Nation, and the Osage Reservation. And they wasted no time. The gang roared to life as if it knew its days were numbered. and the guys wanted to make the most out of every minute. On July 2nd, 1894, the gang raided a mercantile shop in the Creek Nation. Three days later, the gang hit a railroad depot in Nuwada, north of Tulsa, on the Osage Reservation. Less than 12 hours later, the gang held up the Muskogee to Fort Gibson stage and relieved the passengers of their money and watches.
Starting point is 00:15:58 One hour later, they robbed William Drew, a prominent Cherokee man, of $80, his belt, and his pistol. In mid-July, Bill Cook found out that a large amount of money was coming into Red Fork, south of the city of Tulsa, on a train from Frisco, Texas. Bill, Cherokee Bill, and four other gang members decided to greet it upon its arrival. When the train pulled in, Bill Cook and Cherokee Bill stormed the express car while the others held the engine crew hostage. The large amount of money turned out to be forced.
Starting point is 00:16:32 $15, plus the bonus prize of a box of cigars and whiskey. Two weeks later, at the end of July, the gang ventured as far west as it dared. On July 31st, five heavily armed men rode into the small town of Chandler on the trail between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The five men dismounted in front of the Lincoln County Bank, stepped inside, and drew their weapons. The teller fainted, and the outlaws collected around $500 with low. little effort. Outside, J.B. Mitchell, a barber who worked across the street from the bank,
Starting point is 00:17:09 saw the robbery, and shouted the alarm. As the bandits exited the bank, Cherokee Bill raised his rifle and fired. J.B. Mitchell fell dead in the street, but his alarm raised the town. A citizen ran to the courthouse and alerted the sheriff. During the gangs escaped from town, the sheriff and others opened fire, and someone hit gang member Elmer Lucas. Elmer fell from his horse and was captured. Under intense interrogation, he named everyone in the gang and admitted to the Red Fork train robbery. It took just two days for a posse of lawmen to find the gang. The five from the Chandler robbery had rendezvoused with the others at the house of a friend. On August 2nd, the posse surrounded the house where the gang was hiding. Both sides of the
Starting point is 00:17:58 sides opened fire and exchanged about 40 shots in a heated firefight. When the shooting stopped, two gang members, Lon Gordon and Henry Munson, were dead. One, Ad Berryhill was captured, and the other four, Cherokee Bill, Bill Cook, Thurman Baldwin, and Buck Snyder escaped the house. For Cherokee Bill and Bill Cook, it was their second shootout with Lawman in less than two months in the summer of 1894, and as they quickly demonstrated, the brush with the law had no effect on their plans. In September 1894, the gang robbed the J.A. Parkinson and Company store in Okmogi. In early October, they robbed a traveler and then a train depot later that night.
Starting point is 00:18:50 A few days later, they hit two more train depots on the same night. On October 22nd, they hit the post office and two stores in the village of Watova, north of Tulsa on the Osage Reservation. On November 9th, Cherokee Bill and gang member Sam McWilliams rode into the tiny town of Lennepa in the northernmost reaches of Oklahoma Territory. The town was straight south of Coffeyville, Kansas, where the Dalton gang had been wiped out two years earlier. In Lennepa, Cherokee Bill walked into the general store while Sam McWilliams stayed on his horse outside and controlled the townspeople with his Winchester.
Starting point is 00:19:31 Cherokee Bill robbed the store and two of its customers of $600, the store owner's gold watch and a bag of supplies. Before leaving, Cherokee Bill decided he needed ammunition. During the process of collecting the ammunition with the store owner from a back room, the outlaw spotted a painter named Ernest Melton watching the robbery from the window of the building next to the store. Cherokee Bill shot Ernest Melton in the head, stole the ammunition, and returned to Sam Mick Williams outside. As the outlaws galloped away, the townsfolk rushed to Ernest Melton's side. Ernest was unarmed and posed no threat. The outlaws had not worn masks, so it wasn't a case
Starting point is 00:20:14 where Ernest Melton was the only person who could have identified Cherokee Bill. The outlaw had just done it. A small posse of townspeople gave chase, but they were no match for the outlaw's speed. The robbery and murder in Linnapaw marked five months of nearly nonstop action by the Cook Gang, from the Osage Reservation in the north to the Cherokee and Creek nations in the south. The people of Oklahoma Territory were terrified and fed up. Nearly 5,000 citizens signed petitions begging President Grover Cleveland for protection. The authorities issued rewards as high as $1,500 for Cherokee Bill and members of the gang, but the gang kept going. On December 17th, the outlaws robbed the Lafayette
Starting point is 00:21:06 Brothers merchandise store in the Creek Nation near Lake Ufala. On Christmas Eve, they were 100 miles north robbing a train depot in Nuada, and they finished their spree on Christmas Day by robbing the passengers of a stagecoach. That was how Cherokee Bill and the Cook gang closed the year, with six straight months of robbery and murder from July to December. There had been at least 14 robberies and at least two killings. But as abruptly as the spree began, it stopped. Bill Cook was captured in New Mexico on January 12, 1895, and sent to Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he was eventually convicted on multiple robbery charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Starting point is 00:21:52 Cherokee Bill and some of the other gang members were still at large, but Bill was the real prize for law enforcement. The reward money hadn't worked, and possees couldn't catch Cherokee Bill. So, U.S. Marshal George Crump decided to lure the outlaw into a trap using Cherokee Bill's old sweetheart Maggie Glass. Maggie was now 16 years old, and her 17th birthday was coming up at the end of January 1895. Maggie had a cousin named Ike Rogers. Maggie and Crawford Goldsby had met at Ike's house two and a half years earlier,
Starting point is 00:22:28 before the harvest dance when it all went wrong. Ike Rogers had a complicated history. He had served as a deputy marshal but had been dismissed for harboring fugitives. Now, Rogers was in financial trouble and had recently asked for reappointment as a deputy marshal. Marshall Crump made Rogers an offer.
Starting point is 00:22:50 Help us capture Cherokee Bill and we will reconsider your appointment. Rogers agreed and he found a way to invite Cherokee Bill. to a birthday party that he was hosting for Maggie at his house. Maggie Glass and Cherokee Bill were both suspicious of Ike Rogers' invitation, but they both attended the party on January 29, 1895. At one point, Maggie asked the outlaw to leave, but he refused.
Starting point is 00:23:23 He remained vigilant, but he didn't leave. Throughout the afternoon and evening, Rogers made several unsuccessful attempts to subdue Cherokee Bill. Rogers suggested Bill lay his weapon aside, and Bill refused. Rogers offered Bill a glass of whiskey, which was secretly laced with morphine, and Bill refused to drink. Cherokee Bill slept lightly and awakened whenever Rogers approached. The hours ticked by, and Rogers started to panic. Cherokee Bill would probably leave the house sometime after daybreak, and Rogers needed to do something.
Starting point is 00:23:59 In the morning, Rogers saw his chance. When Cherokee Bill lit a cigarette from the fireplace, Rogers struck Bill across the back of the head with an iron poker. Cherokee Bill dropped to his knees, stunned but still conscious. Rogers and his neighbor Clint Scales fought with the wounded outlaw and subdued him long enough to apply handcuffs. Rogers and Scales bound Bill's feet with bailing wire and placed him in a wagon. They drove him to the train station and handed him over to Deputy Marshal Bill.
Starting point is 00:24:32 Smith. Several hours later, Cherokee Bill was in Fort Smith, Arkansas, with an appointment to visit the courtroom of Judge Isaac Parker. At the end of February 1895, Crawford Goldsby, alias Cherokee Bill, had just turned 19 years old, and he went to trial for the murder of Ernest Melton, the man who had witnessed part of the robbery of the General Store and Lenape three months earlier. Crawford's mother, Ellen, secured the legal services of J. Warren, Reed, one of the most renowned defense attorneys in Fort Smith. Reed put up a good fight, but in a lightning-fast two-day trial, a jury found Crawford Goldsby guilty. The outlaw sat in jail for six weeks awaiting his sentence, and it came on Saturday morning, April 13, 1895.
Starting point is 00:25:26 Judge Parker delivered a scathing condemnation before announcing the sentence. He said, from the evidence in this case there can be no doubt of your guilt. That evidence shows a killing of the most brutal and wicked character. Melton was the innocent, unoffending victim of the savage brutality which prompted the robbery and murder. Judge Parker, who was nicknamed the hanging judge for the number of times he imposed a death sentence, surprised no one by sentencing Crawford Goldsby to death by hanging. The execution was supposed to happen eight weeks.
Starting point is 00:26:02 weeks later, on June 25th, but it was delayed while the case worked its way through the appeals process. As the original date came and went, Crawford Goldsby sat in his cell on the first floor of the three-story jail in Fort Smith. The first floor was further condemned, and it was known as Murderers Row. While the weather grew hotter and summer dragged by, the prison guards noticed Crawford behaving erratically. On July 10th, a supervisor ordered a search of all the cells. The guards found nine 45-caliber cartridges in Crawford's cell. In the crude bathroom on the first floor, they found a 45-caliber revolver hidden in a bucket of lime. No one knew for sure how the gun and bullets had been smuggled into the jail, but it was a scary development.
Starting point is 00:26:53 Sadly, for guard Lawrence Keating, he and the other guards failed to find a second-loaded revolver and additional ammunition, which had been hidden behind a loose stone in the wall of Cherokee Bill's cell. On the evening of July 26, 1895, prison guard Lawrence Keating performed his nightly routine of locking the cell doors. He started on the first floor, Murderer's Row, and he had no idea that a murderer in one of the cells had a gun. When Keating reached the cell of Cherokee Bill, Bill shouted at Keating to throw up his hands and surrender his pistol. Instead, Keating reached for his gun. Cherokee Bill fired twice. The first shot hit Keating in the stomach and spun him around. The second shot hit Keating in the back as Keating stumbled away.
Starting point is 00:27:48 Four guards heard the shots and rushed to murderers' row. They opened fire on Cherokee Bill, and the scene turned into a sustained gun battle on the first floor of the jail. The noise must have been deafening as more than 100 shots were fired. Smoke filled the air, men screamed, and bullets ricocheted off the walls and the iron bars of the cells. Eventually, an inmate named Henry Starr negotiated with Cherokee Bill to surrender. Starr convinced Bill to turn over his revolver with the promise that the guards wouldn't kill him. Cherokee Bill agreed and handed the gun to Starr, who passed it to the guards. The only serious casualty of the gunfight was Lawrence Keating, who died from his wounds.
Starting point is 00:28:33 Cherokee Bill now faced a second murder charge, this time for killing a federal officer during an escape attempt. Cherokee Bill was tried for the murder of Lawrence Keating on August 8, 1895, and found guilty. On August 10th, he was sentenced to death for the second time. Seven months later, Cherokee Bill's final day arrived. According to reports from other prisoners, Bill spent his time singing and whistling, showing no fear. or remorse. He had turned 20 years old on February 8, 1896, and his execution was scheduled for March 17th. Judge Isaac Parker characterized Cherokee Bill as, a bloodthirsty mad dog who killed for the love of killing. Fort Smith executions drew large audiences, and the hanging of a
Starting point is 00:29:31 notorious outlaw like Cherokee Bill was not to be missed. Late in the afternoon of March 17, 1896, deputy marshal's escorted Cherokee Bill, real name Crawford Goldsby, to the gallows for his date with the hangman's noose. Crawford's mother Ellen, his sister Georgia, and his younger brother Clarence were there, as well as a few other supporters. The condemned man was offered the chance to speak any final words. According to the legend, he said, I came here to die, not to make a speech. though another popular version was, this is as good a day to die as any. It was all over a few minutes later.
Starting point is 00:30:14 Crawford Goldsby's mother Ellen and sister Georgia took his body by train to Fort Gibson. He was buried in what was then called the Cherokee National Cemetery, later renamed Citizen's Cemetery of Fort Gibson. Crawford Cherokee Bill Goldsby was the last famous hanging from the court of the hanging judge Isaac Parker.
Starting point is 00:30:36 The final hangings from Parker's Court happened on July 1st, four months after Cherokee Bill's execution. By that time, Judge Parker was showing the effects of a long illness. Two months later, on September 1st, the U.S. Congress removed Oklahoma territory from the jurisdiction of Judge Parker's Court, which effectively ended his long reign as the final arbiter of justice for the territory. Over the course of his 21-year career, he sent to him. sentenced 160 people to death, and 79 of those sentences were carried out.
Starting point is 00:31:12 Judge Isaac Parker died on November 17, 1896, eight months after the execution of Cherokee Bill. And the final coda of the Cherokee Bill story happened five months after the death of Judge Parker. On April 20, 1897, Ike Rogers, the man who had captured Cherokee Bill, stepped off the train at Fort Gibson. Clarence Goldsby, Cherokee Bill's younger brother, shot and killed Ike Rogers in the last act of revenge. Next time on Legends of the Old West, it's the story of notorious gunfighter Clay Allison.
Starting point is 00:32:04 From Confederate Army soldier in the Civil War to overall Wild Man of the West, Clay Allison's story features knife fights, vigilante lynchings, and shootouts. And all of that was before tensions rose in Dodge City, between Wyatt Earp and Clay Allison to the point where there was nearly a war in Dodge. Clay Allison's story is next week on Legends of the Old West. To binge all the episodes of a new season and to listen to every episode of the podcast with no commercials,
Starting point is 00:32:46 subscribe in Apple Podcasts or sign up through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. This series was researched by Mandy Wimmer and written by me, Chris Wimmer. Original music by Rob Villeer. Thanks for listening.

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