Boudinot Crumpton was executed on the Fort Smith gallows on June 30, 1891. A jury found him guilty of having shot and killed his traveling companion. Crumpton asserted his innocence up until his execution. His final statement on the gallows is a poignant example of the role alcohol played on the frontier. He warned those at the gallows, “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.”
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