32. Ending a Deadly Rampage
The Rufus Buck Gang’s depredations led to the formation of posses of Indian Police and white settlers. However, while the posses combed the countryside, Buck and his gang brazenly rode into Okmulgee and robbed three stores. Whenever they encountered somebody riding a horse they liked, they offered to trade, and shot the rider if he declined. On the outskirts of Eufala, they came across a black child, and shot him just to see him twitch as he died.
US Marshals found the gang on August 10th, 1895, in a hideout near Muskogee. After a furious firefight, they were forced to surrender when they ran out of ammunition. Taken into Muskogee, the gang barely escaped lynching by a Creek mob, which dispersed only after a tribal chief pleaded with them, and the US Marshals vowed to shoot the first man who tried to seize their prisoners. Taken to Fort Smith for trial, the gang were found guilty of rape, murder, and robbery, and sentenced to death by “hanging judge” Isaac Parker. They were hanged on July 1st, 1896.
