Blackwell gunfight
The Blackwell gunfight occurred on the morning of December 4, 1896, when a posse of American lawmen confronted two bandits at their hideout near Blackwell, Oklahoma. During a lengthy shootout that followed, Deputy Alfred O. Lund killed an outlaw named Dick Ainsley while the other outlaw, Ben Cravens, was badly wounded and captured. Background Ben Cravens and Dick Ainsley were petty thieves and or cattle rustlers, although the latter had also developed a reputation as a gunman. Little is known about their lives before 1896, except that Ainsley also went by the name of "Buck" McGregg or "Diamond Dick," the latter because he had a diamond ring and three of his fingers shot away during a gunfight with Lincoln County policemen. On November 27, 1896, Ainsley and Cravens rode into Blackwell to purchase supplies and to case the town bank for a robbery. After completing their tasks, they then rode out of town to a small one-room shack next to a wooded ravine called Lost Creek. The location was about three and one half miles northwest of town. Because the creek was dry and the site lacked a well, Cravens went to ask the neighbor, Bert Benjamin, for some drinking