The Rufus Buck Gang was a notorious group of teenage mixed-race boys of African-American and Creek Indian descent who enacted a 13-day reign of terror in the region that stretched between what is now known as Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Rufus Buck, the leader of the violent posse, reportedly wanted to strike fear in the hearts of the white settlers who invaded his people’s land and to become the most infamous gang of its sort at the time.

Buck, along with Lewis Davis, Sam Sampson, Maoma July, and Lucky Davis, began their spree on July 30, 1895 with the slaying of U.S. Deputy Marshall. The posse was unscrupulous in their dealings, with sexual assault and murder coming easily as robbing and looting. Their spree was ended in August when a group of white lawmen and police from the Creek Indian tribe joined forces to corner them.

The Creeks wanted to keep the gang for a trial but they were instead sent in front of a judge known for hanging criminals indiscriminately. As the gang was seen as an enemy of whites and their crimes occurring against them, the judge pushed for their hanging.

Some members of the gang had odd requests of when they’d be hanged because they wanted their bodies shipped to their families by a certain time. One gang member asked if he could hang himself.

All five members were hanged on July 1, 1896.

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