"This is as good
a day to die as any."
Cherokee Bill, March
17, 1896, as he stepped into the courtyard at Fort Smith and saw the gallows.
Crawford Goldsby (a.k.a. Cherokee Bill) was born at Fort
Concho, Texas, on Feb. 8, 1876. He was of mixed blood, being part white
, Hispanic, and black. He was homeless at the age of seven when his parents
separated. An old black woman, named Amanda Foster, took him in and raised
him at Fort Gibson, I.T.
At age twelve, Goldsby shot and killed his first man.
It was his brother-in-law, who told him to feeds some hogs. Because of
his age he was not prosecuted. As a teenager Goldsby took to petty thievery.
He got into fights regular, and when he could not settle them with his
fists he would go for his guns. By the age of fifteen he had became an
expert shot.
In 1894 he shot and wounded Jake Lewis while attending
a dance at Fort Gibson. The two men had got into a fight over a woman,
and as Goldsby was getting the worst of the fight, he drew his six-gun
and shot Lewis. Goldsby didn't hang to answer to the law, he took to the
brush. He was charge with assault with intent to kill.
At the age of eighteen, a wanted man on the run, Goldsby
fell in with some of the worst outlaws in the Indian Nations, William and
James Cook. Goldsby was given the nickname "Cherokee Bill" by
Bill Cook. He was with the Cook brothers when a posse cornered the three
desperadoes near Tahlequah, I.T., in June of 1894. Lawmen had a warrant
for the arrest of Jim Cook on a charge of larceny, but when they moved
forward to arrest Cook, all three youths went for their guns. The outlaws
were able to drive the lawmen back and they quickly mounted their horses
and made a run for it, but the posse was hot on their heels. As they were
being chased Cherokee Bill turned in his saddle and fired a shot that killed
Deputy Sequoyah Houston.
After the fight with marshals at Tallequah, Cherokee Bill
used his sister's home, Maud Brown, to hide out from the law. Her husband,
George Brown, a vicious drunkard, took a whip to Maud one day for not responding
fast enough to his orders. While he was beating the woman, Cherokee Bill
walked up behind him and shot him to death. He then rejoined the Cook brothers.
In the summer of 1894, Cherokee Bill robbed the railroad
depot at Nowata, I.T. At the depot he shot and killed station agent Richard
Richards as he went for his gun. Then he waited on the platform for the
next train to arrive. When it did, he ordered the express car to open up.
When conductor Sam Collins opened the door, he order Bill to leave, at
which point Bill shot him in the face and killed him. Then the brakeman
came running down the platform, and Bill shot and wounded him. He then
mounted his horse and rode away.
Later that year of 1894, Cherokee Bill and the Cook Gang
robbed the Shufeldt & Son store at Lenepal, I.T. During the robbery
Cherokee Bill shot and killed Ernest Melton, an innocent by-stander. It
was for this murder that Judge Isaac Parker placed a $1,300 reward on Cherokee
Bill, payable dead or alive.
Deputy Marshal W.C. Smith learned that Bill was infatuated
with Maggie Glass, a cousin of Isaac "Ike" Rogers, who had been
a deputy for Smith on several occasions when posses were needed. Smith
arranged for Roger's to lure Bill to Roger's home to meet the girl. Bill
showed up at the Roger's the evening of Jan. 29, 1895, and after dinner
as the night wore on he fell asleep. Rogers and a neighbor, Clifton Scales,
jumped Bill as he laid asleep and tied him up and took him to Fort Smith.
On Feb. 26, 1895, Cherokee Bill was tried for the murder
of Melton by jury before Judge Isaac Parker. He was found guilty. Judge
Parker sentenced him to hang on June 25, 1895. Cherokee Bill seemed unconcerned
about the sentence, and joked that no one would ever put a noose around
his neck. His lawyer, J. Warren Reed, managed to file several appeals that
delayed the execution date.
In the meantime, Bill was working on his "appeal".
Sherman Vann, a trusty at the jail, had smuggled a six-gun into Bill, which
he hid in a hole in the wall of his cell. On July 27, 1895, Bill attempted
a jail break using the weapon. When the night guards came to lock the prisoners
in their individual cells for the night, he jumped them. Guard Lawrence
Keating reached for his gun and Bill shot him in the stomach. Keating wheeled
and staggered down the corridor. Bill shot him again in the back. Other
guards arrived and were able to keep Bill from escaping. In a spectacular
gun battle that lasted several minutes, neither the guards were able to
enter the jail nor was Bill able to leave his cell. Then another prisoner,
was able to convince the guard that
he could enter the cell and bring out Bill if they promised not to shoot
him. They reluctantly agreed, and Starr walked down the corridor and entered
Bill's cell, then moments later reappeared with the disarmed killer.
Cherokee Bill was quickly tried for the murder of Keating.
He was once again found guilty and sentenced to hang on Dec. 2, 1895. His
lawyer once again filed several appeals, but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld
the verdict in the Keating murder, and a execution date was set for March
17, 1896. On March 17, 1896, Cherokee Bill was led from his cell to the
gallows. As he stood on the gallows with a noose around his neck, he was
asked if he had any final words, he said, "No! I came here to die,
not make a speech." A moment later he was dead. His mother took his
body to Fort Gibson to bury it.
