Location of the gunfight near Blackwell, Oklahoma.
Location of the gunfight near Blackwell, Oklahoma.

A gunfight outside Blackwell, Oklahoma just proved that lawmen didn’t always get the right man.

Outlaws Ben Craven and Dick Ainsley had been casing a bank there in December 1896. The law got suspicious and tracked them to a shack outside of town, where a gunfight broke out.  Ainsley died during the fight and Cravens was severely wounded.  Officers were disappointed at what they found, for they had believed Ainsley was really ex-Doolin Gang member Dynamite Dick Clifton.  The mistake cost them $3500 in reward money.

Related Articles

  • Medicine Lodger Robbers

    Henry Brown rode with Billy the Kid in the Lincoln County War, then after cowboying…

  • sibley tents true west

    Henry Hopkins Sibley gained fame as a Confederate cavalry officer during the Civil War. But…

  • david terry true west

    Former California Supreme Court Justice David Terry had a temper—as he showed in the 1859…