Fort Smith National Historic Site - January 15, 1875 Execution (U.S. National Park Service)

On January 15, 1875 McClish Impson was executed at Fort Smith. In murder charges filed on July 22, 1873, Impson was accused of shooting the victim, a man whose identity was never known, in the back. Found guilty in a jury trial in November 1874, Impson received a death sentence. On the scaffold he confessed to the crime and said his father's teachings had brought him to the gallows. Impson was one of seven men executed by the federal court in Fort Smith before Judge Isaac C. Parker arrived. This execution was the last to occur under the tenure of Judge William Story.

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