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The reconstructed gallows at Fort Smith. NPS photo.
For twenty-three years, from 1873 to 1896, the federal court at Fort Smith carried out executions on its gallows. In 39 separate executions, 86 men convicted of murder or rape were put to death — more than the U.S. government has executed in any other place. The first seven men, in four executions, were hanged under Judge William Story; the rest under Judge Isaac C. Parker, beginning in September 1875.
The executions
| Date | Condemned | The crime |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 15, 1873 | John Childers | The court's first execution. Killed Reyburn Wedding in the Cherokee Nation in 1870 for his $280; escaped the federal jail (then in Van Buren), was recaptured in 1871, and confessed on the gallows |
| Oct 10, 1873 | Tunagee (Tuni) and Young Wolf | Cherokee men who killed two trappers on the Grand River, apparently for robbery, getting only a few steel traps |
| Apr 3, 1874 | John Billy, Isaac Filmore, John Pointer | Three separate murders: Billy (Choctaw) killed Deputy Marshal Perry Duval; Filmore (Choctaw, about 17) killed a traveler from California for his shoes and $1.50; Pointer (Seminole) killed a white man in the Chickasaw Nation |
| Jan 15, 1875 | McClish Impson | Shot an unidentified man in the back; on the scaffold he blamed his father's teachings. The last hanging under Judge Story |
| Sep 3, 1875 | Daniel Evans, William Whittington, Samuel Fooy, Edmund Campbell, Smoker Mankiller, James Moore | Parker's first, and one of two six-man hangings. Evans and Whittington killed traveling companions for their goods; Fooy killed a schoolteacher for $250; Campbell killed Lawson Ross and his wife over an insult; Mankiller shot a neighbor; Moore made Officer William Spivey his eighth victim |
| Apr 21, 1876 | Gibson Ishtanubbee, Isham Seely, William Leech, Orpheus McGee, Aaron Wilson | Robbery-murders of a farmer and his housekeeper, of a traveling companion, and of James Harris and his 12-year-old son; McGee claimed revenge for a friend's killing |
| Sep 8, 1876 | Samuel Peters, Osey Sanders, John Valley, Sinker Wilson | Peters stabbed the wife of a man who had accused him of theft; Sanders (who said he was innocent) and Valley (who blamed whiskey) robbed and killed; Wilson killed a sheep drover in 1867 and was at large nine years after escaping jail |
| Dec 20, 1878 | James Diggs, John Postoak | Diggs killed a cattle drover for $27 in 1873 and was freed for lack of witnesses, until a deputy marshal found them years later as far away as Michigan and Ohio; Postoak shot a man in the Creek Nation |
| Aug 29, 1879 | William Elliott ("Colorado Bill"), Dr. Henri Stewart | Elliott, suspected of murders in four states, killed a man in Muskogee; Stewart, a Harvard- and Yale-educated physician who abandoned his Illinois family, joined outlaws and killed a man in an attempted train robbery |
| Sep 9, 1881 | William Brown, Patrick McGowen, George Padgett, Abler and Amos Manley | Brown shot at a shadowy figure he feared and killed his friend; McGowen and Padgett claimed self-defense; the Manley brothers killed a farmer who had given them shelter |
| Jun 30, 1882 | Edward Fulsom | Two killings in a saloon fight. His neck didn't break; he died an hour and three minutes after the drop |
| Apr 13, 1883 | Robert Massey | Shot his cattle-drive partner in the head on the South Canadian River, burned his belongings and took the sale money |
| Jun 29, 1883 | William Finch, Martin Joseph, Te-o-lit-se | Finch killed two soldiers taking him to face desertion charges; Joseph killed a man and raped and murdered his wife; Te-o-lit-se (Creek) killed a traveler for $7.40. All three later confessed |
| Jul 11, 1884 | John Davis, Jack Womankiller, Thomas Thompson | Three apparent robbery-murders; Thompson hid his victim's body in a well |
| Apr 17, 1885 | William Phillips | Killed his sleeping father-in-law after years of conflict |
| Jun 26, 1885 | James Arcine, William Parchmeal | Cherokee men who killed a Swedish traveler in 1872 for his clothes and 25 cents; arrested thirteen years later |
| Apr 23, 1886 | Joseph Jackson, James Wasson | Jackson killed his wife; Wasson, long wanted for an 1872 killing, was convicted of another murder |
| Jul 23, 1886 | Calvin James, Lincoln Sprole | James killed a companion for four gallons of whiskey; Sprole ambushed and killed a farm neighbor and his son |
| Aug 6, 1886 | Kit Ross | Shot Johnathan Davis, who, though wounded, chased and wounded him before dying |
| Jan 14, 1887 | James Lamb, Albert O'Dell, John T. Echols, John Stephens | Lamb and O'Dell killed the husbands of their pregnant mistresses; Echols killed a man over a cattle deal; Stephens killed three witnesses in his larceny case with an axe |
| Apr 8, 1887 | Patrick McCarty | Killed two Kansas farmer brothers for their wagons and $200; hanged after President Grover Cleveland reviewed his case |
| Oct 7, 1887 | Silas Hampton, Seaborn Kalijah | Hampton (Cherokee, 18) killed a farmer for $7.50 and a pocketknife; Kalijah killed three posse members guarding him |
| Apr 27, 1888 | Jackson Crow, Owen Hill, George Moss | A merchant, Hill's mother-in-law and wife, and a rancher whose cattle Moss stole |
| Jul 6, 1888 | Gus Bogles | Beat a man to death after both were put off a train near McAlester for not paying fares |
| Jan 25, 1889 | Richard Smith | Convicted partly on a boot print with rows of tacks — 21 in the right sole, 14 in the left — matching his stripped boots |
| Apr 19, 1889 | Malachi Allen, James Mills | Allen killed two men over a saddle and lost an arm in the shootout with marshals; Mills's motive was never known |
| Aug 30, 1889 | Jack Spaniard (Sevier), William Walker | Spaniard killed Deputy Marshal William Irwin to free a horse thief; Walker said he was hired to kill a man for ten dollars and two quarts of whiskey |
| Jan 16, 1890 | Harris Austin, John Billy, Jimmon Burris, Sam Goin, Jefferson Jones, Thomas Willis | The second six-man hanging; nine had been sentenced for that day, but three received reprieves or commutations |
| Jan 30, 1890 | George Tobler | Shot a fiddler at a dance through a crack in the wall |
| Jul 9, 1890 | John Stansberry | Killed his baby and then his wife to be free to marry another woman |
| Jun 30, 1891 | Boudinot Crumpton | Killed a traveling companion; see his warning below |
| Apr 27, 1892 | Sheppard Busby | A former deputy marshal who killed Deputy Marshal Barney Connelly |
| Jun 28, 1892 | John Thornton | Shot his daughter six days after her wedding; his insanity plea failed |
| Jul 25, 1894 | Lewis Holder | Killed his trapping partner, claiming self-defense; his Supreme Court appeal failed |
| Sep 20, 1894 | John Pointer | Killed two traveling companions with an axe; the Supreme Court upheld his conviction |
| Mar 17, 1896 | Crawford Goldsby ("Cherokee Bill") | Killed a man in a store robbery, then shot jail guard Lawrence Keating in an escape attempt |
| Apr 30, 1896 | Webber Isaacs, George and John Pierce | A peddler beaten to death; a traveling companion robbed and killed |
| Jul 1, 1896 | The Rufus Buck Gang: Rufus Buck, Lewis and Lucky Davis, Sam Sampson, Maoma July | A thirteen-day spree in 1895; the only men hanged at Fort Smith for rape — quite possibly the largest mass execution for rape in U.S. history |
| Jul 30, 1896 | George Wilson (James Casharago) | The last. Convicted partly on blood-soaked earth dug from a crack in the dry ground where he killed his companion |
Last words
Two condemned men left lines still quoted:
"To all present, and especially young men; when you are about to drink a glass of whiskey, look closely in the bottom and see if you cannot observe therein a hangman's noose. There is where I first saw the one which now breaks my neck." — Boudinot Crumpton, 1891
"This is about as good a day to die as any." — Cherokee Bill, walking to the gallows before a crowd of 3,000, 1896
Sources
Based on "Stories Behind the Executions," Fort Smith National Historic Site, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
I dessa samlingarFort Smith National Historic Site
SpråkEnglish
Licens: CC0 1.0 (allmän egendom) · Bearbetat efter www.nps.gov
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Version: 1Underhållare: 1Avsnitt: 0CC0 1.0 — public domain
Version: 1Underhållare: 1Avsnitt: 0CC0 1.0 — public domain
