Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1895-08-15
indian DEPREDATIONS
Women and Girls Brutally
Maltreated.
Band of Fiends Captured After a
Desperate StruggIe-WelI Supplied
With Ammunition and Stolen
Property - Attempts Made To
Lynch Them Unsuccessful

Wagner, l. t., Aug. 12.-With the
exception of one, the gang of Indians
who have committed series of diaboli-
cal crimes since July 30 in the territory
were captured near Okmulgee last
Thursday after a desperate fight and
started for the Fort Smith, Ark, Jail,
to avoid being lynched. News has been
received here that anumber of Muscogee
citizens have gone across country to
Fort Gibson to intercept the Missouri
Pacific train carrying the fiends and
their captors for the purpose of dealing
out summary justice. The gang which
began its heinous operations by murder
ing Deputy United States Marshal John
Garrett at Okmulgee and escaping to
the hills of the Creek nation was led by
Rufus Buck, Uche Indian. His fol
lowers were Samuel Sampson, Meorna
July, Bud Lucky, alias Lucky Davis;
Albert Stake and Levy Davis.
The day after numbering Garrett the
gang met white man and his daughter
in a wagon. Covering the man with
their guns the Indians took the girl from
the wagon and each assaulted her within
sight of her father Their next victims
were Ben Callahan and a negro boy
whom the gang met on the road. They
that they believed him to be dead when
they left the scene after robbing the
man of money, boots and saddle. At the
country stores of West and J. Nerrburg,
at Oiket, the murderers and robbers held
up the owners and took away every
thing they could carry. Next in their
path of crime they met two white
women and a girl fourteen years old.
All were repeatedly assaulted by the
fiends, who added another murder to
their list. The girls feet and hands
were tied and the unfortunate creature
was assaulted until life was extinct.
By this time the country in the
vicinity of these crimes had become
aroused. Federal and Indian posses.
including the Greek light horse guards.
in command of Capt. Edward Barry,
and Deputy Marshals Jesse Jones. M
ID. Irwin, Samuel Hayes and other de-
telmined officers, started at first to cap.
ture or kill the murderers of Garrett
that being the first crime heard of.
Thursday afternoon the pursuers came
up with the gang twelve miles from
Okmulgee and divided, one half going
to a place of ambush, into which the
other party drove the gang from the
summit of hill. A fight with rifles
and revolvers followed, in which Capt
Barry fell from his horse, a bullet
grazing his head, and three horses
were killed. Five of the gang We're
captured alive, but the sixth, Lucky
Davis, escaped.
In the possession of the murderers
were 1000 rounds of ammunition and a
great quantity of stolen property. They
were taken to Okmulgee, where mob
of citizens, bent on lynching them, sur
rounded the officers, but the latter
escaped to Muskogee with their prison
ers. Another mob with ropes and
rifles awaited their arrival but again
theposse cheated the mob of its prey by
getting sufficient warning to land the
gang in Jail. This was Saturday night,
and the town was kept in an uproar all
night by the attempts to lynch the In-
dians and the efforts of the business
men to prevent mob violence. The
mob was finally quieted long enough to
allow of third escape of the posse and
prisoners on a train for Fort Worth.