The Rufus Buck Gang For Western Wednesday...!

Now these fellas were some pretty bad hombres, to say the least. Their make-up was unusual for the time as well. It appears that these guys weren't after money so much, but wanted to start a war!

Rufus Buck Gang

The only known photograph of the Rufus Buck gang, taken in the summer of 1895 in Indian Territory. Buck is in the middle. Photo credit: Leonce Gaiter

The Buck Gang was an outlaw multi-racial gang of members who were part African American and part Creek-Indian. The gang rose to prominence in July of 1895. Named after their leader, Rufus Buck, the gang had a total of five members. Sam Sampson and Maoma July were both Creek Indians. All of them had been apprehended on minor offenses and served time in the Fort Smith jail prior to their crime spree that summer.

The Buck Gang went on a vicious two-week spree of robbery, rape, and murder. The apparently random violence terrified not only the local white settlers but also the neighboring Indians and African-American freedmen. the gang began holding up various stores and ranches in the Fort Smith area. But the violence wasn’t random. The gang’s leader, Rufus Buck, the 18-year-old son of a black mother and Creek father, burned with a zealot’s passion: he dreamed that his gang’s spree would trigger an Indian uprising that would expel the illegal white majority and reclaim the whole Territory for its native people.

They were finally caught up with outside Muskogee, Oklahoma by a combined force of U.S. Deputy Marshals and the Creek Lighthorse police, led by Marshal S. Morton Rutherford on August 10th. The execution of the five members of the Rufus Buck Gang on July 1, 1896 was the second to last execution to occur at Fort Smith. The Buck Gang were the only men to die on the gallows in Fort Smith for rape.

Only good thing I can say about this gang is that it didn't last too long. They finally got what was coming to them, that's for sure!

Coffee out on the patio this morning. The temps are gonna reach the high 70s.