Last updated: January 12, 2025
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Stories Behind the Executions
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For twenty-three years, the federal court carried out executions on the gallows at Fort Smith. In thirty-nine separate executions, a total of eighty-six men were put to death after being found guilty of rape or murder. More men were put to death by the U.S. Government in Fort Smith than in any other place in American history. These executions, as well as the crimes and trials that lead to them, form a unique and fascinating part of the story of Fort Smith.
Summary of Crimes Committed
Summary of the crimes committed by the men executed on the gallows at Fort Smith from 1873 to 1896.
On October 10, 1873, two men were executed on the gallows at Fort Smith. Tunagee (alias Tuni) and Young Wolf were Cherokee men who had killed two trappers on the Grand River in the Cherokee Nation. The motive for the crime was apparently robbery, but the culprits only secured a few steel traps and other items of little value. Both men were sentenced by Judge William Story and were among the seven men hanged for murder before the arrival of Judge Isaac C. Parker.
On April 3, 1874, three Native American men were executed for three separate crimes. John Billy, a Choctaw man, was convicted of the murder of deputy marshal Perry Duval on November 2, 1873. Isaac Filmore, a full-blood Choctaw man who was approximately seventeen years old, was found guilty of killing a traveler from California for his shoes and $1.50. John Pointer, a Seminole man, had murdered a white man in the Chickasaw Nation. This was the third of four executions that occurred before Isaac Parker was appointed District Judge in Fort Smith.
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 the 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.
While federal executions began in Fort Smith in 1873, the one that occurred on September 3, 1875, was the first under Judge Isaac C. Parker.
Of the six men hanged in Fort Smith on that day, three committed murder to rob their victims. Daniel Evans and William Whittington killed their traveling companions for the cash and goods they carried, while Samuel Fooy murdered a school teacher for $250. Edmund Campbell murdered Lawson Ross and his wife in revenge for an insult. The motives of the final two men remain unknown. Smoker Mankiller shot and killed his neighbor, and James Moore, a hardened killer, made Officer William Spivey his eighth victim.
On April 21, 1876, five men were executed on the gallows at Fort Smith. With a motive of robbery, Gibson Ishtanubbee and Isham Seely murdered a white farmer and his housekeeper on May 10, 1873. William Leech also killed to rob his victim. He murdered his traveling companion on March 8, 1875 as they rode through the Cherokee Nation. When Orpheus McGee shot and killed Robert Alexander on April 20, 1874, he said he did so for revenge. McGee claimed that Alexander had murdered a friend of his. On October 12, 1875, Aaron Wilson killed James Harris with an axe and then shot and killed Harris' 12 year old son. Again, the motive was theft.
On September 8, 1876, the federal court at Fort Smith carried out the death sentences of four men. Each had been convicted of murder in a jury trial. After being accused of theft by James Hanson, Samuel Peters visited his home and stabbed Hanson's wife to death. Osey Sanders protested his innocence but was found guilty of the robbery and murder of Thomas S. Carlyle. John Valley was also convicted of robbery and murder, but blamed his crime on whiskey. Sinker Wilson murdered a sheep drover named Datus Cowan in 1867. He was arrested, convicted and sentenced that year, but escaped jail and remained at large for nine years until captured early in 1876.
On December 20, 1878, James Diggs and John Postoak were executed at Fort Smith. Juries convicted both men of murder in unrelated cases. In 1873, Diggs murdered J.C. Gould, a cattle drover, for the sum of $27.00. Although arrested immediately after the crime, Diggs was released when the court in Fort Smith failed to bring any witnesses against him. Deputy Marshal James Wilkinson heard about the case several years later, rearrested Diggs, and located the witnesses, some as far away as Michigan and Ohio by this time. The officer's persistent efforts resulted in a guilty verdict. Postoak committed his crime in October of 1877, shooting and killing John Ingley in the Creek Nation.
On August 29, 1879, the federal court at Fort Smith executed two men convicted for unrelated murders. William Elliott, alias Colorado Bill, killed David J. Brown in Muskogee in February 1879. Suspected of murders in four different states, a local newspaper noted that "He will hardly be wanted...after they get through with him here." Dr. Henri Stewart, a physician educated at Harvard and Yale, abandoned his family in Illinois in 1877 for reasons unknown. Arriving in Indian Territory, he joined a gang of outlaws and in May 1879 killed J.B. Jones in an attempted train robbery in the Choctaw Nation.
Five men were executed on the Fort Smith gallows on September 9, 1881. The motives for their crimes ranged from mistaken identity to senseless violence. In August of 1880, William Brown, trying to defend himself against a man who threatened his life, fired at a shadowy figure moving toward him. Instead, Brown killed his friend, Robert Tate. Self defense was also the claim of Patrick McGowen and George Padgett, but juries found both men guilty of murder. Brothers Abler and Amos Manley shot and killed Ellis McVay, a farmer who offered them shelter for the night of December 3, 1880. Their motive was unknown.
Found guilty for his involvement in the murders of two men during a saloon fight, Edward Fulsom faced his fate on the gallows on June 30, 1882. During the execution, his neck did not break. Fulsom was pronounced dead an hour and three minutes after the drop.
Robert Massey was executed on April 13, 1883 for a crime he committed almost two years earlier. In the summer of 1881, he and Edmond Clark drove a cattle herd from Dodge City to Dakota Territory. On December 1, Massey shot Clark in the back of the head. The crime occured on the South Canadian River, 200 miles from Fort Smith. After the murder, Massey dumped the body in a hole near the campsite and burned Clark's clothing and saddle. The apparent motive was robbery, as Massey took the proceeds from the cattle sale along with Clark's horse and pistol. Massey was arrested the following April with Clark's gun still in his possession.
On June 29, 1883, three men were executed for three separate crimes. William Finch shot and killed two U.S. soldiers who were transporting him to Fort Sill to face charges of desertion. Martin Joseph shot and killed Bud Stephens and then raped and murdered Stephens's wife. Te-o-lit-se, a Creek Indian, shot and killed a traveler, E.R. Cochran, to rob him of the $7.40 he carried. Each of these men pled not guilty to their crimes, but juries convicted them after hearing the evidence at trial. All three later confessed.
Three men were executed in Fort Smith on July 11, 1884. They had been found guilty of three separate crimes. John Davis killed a traveler in the Choctaw Nation in 1883. Jack Womankiller killed a settler in the Cherokee Nation. Thomas Thompson stabbed and beat James O'Holleran to death, throwing the body in a well to escape discovery. Neighbors of the murdered man grew suspicious at his disappearance and mounted a search that located the victim. The motive for each of these crimes was apparently robbery.
On April 17, 1885, William Phillips was executed at Fort Smith. He had been found guilty by a jury of murdering his father-in-law, William Hill, in the summer of 1884. The victim was asleep at the time. The two men had a history of conflict. An earlier argument had also resulted in gunfire, with Phillips wounding Hill in the ankle.
James Arcine and William Parchmeal were executed in Fort Smith on June 26, 1885 for a murder they committed thirteen years earlier. In November of 1872 Henry Feigel, a native of Sweden, was traveling in the Cherokee Nation. He was overtaken by two Cherokee Indians, James Arcine and William Parchmeal. They shot Feigel four times, crushed his skull with a large rock, and robbed the body of its clothing and 25 cents. Thirteen years passed before a diligent deputy marshal gathered the evidence to arrest Arcine and Parchmeal. Although a first trial ended in a hung jury, the second attempt resulted in a guilty verdict. Both men later confessed to the crime on the gallows.
Joseph Jackson and James Wasson were executed on April 23, 1886. Both of these men were found guilty of murder in jury trials held before Judge Isaac C. Parker. Jackson shot and killed his wife, Mary, on March 9, 1885 at Oak Lodge in the Choctaw Nation. Although Wasson was wanted for an 1872 murder of a man named Henry Martin, he eluded capture until 1884. At that time, a large reward was offered for his arrest in connection with the murder of Almarine Watkins. He was convicted for this crime.
Calvin James and Lincoln Sprole were executed at Fort Smith on July 23, 1886. The two men had been tried and found guilty for two separate crimes. In August 1885, Calvin James traveled with three other men to Texas to acquire a supply of whiskey. During the trip, James shot and killed one of his companions in order to take the four gallons he had purchased. The other men with James later served as witnesses against him. In May 1885, Lincoln Sprole worked on a farm in the Chickasaw Nation. A disagreement with Benjamin Clark, who lived on the farm, escalated to violence. While Clark and his son were returning home one day, Sprole suddenly appeared from a thicket by the roadside. He shot and killed them both.
On August 6, 1886, Kit Ross was executed for the crime of murder. On December 20, 1885 he shot and killed Johnathan Davis. Though wounded, Davis chased Ross for seventy-five yards and wounded him twice before Davis began to weaken from the loss of blood. Davis died that night. Citizens gathered a reward of $150 for Ross's capture and six weeks later he was apprehended.
Four men were executed by the federal court at Fort Smith on January 14, 1887: James Lamb, Albert O'Dell, John T. Echols and John Stephens. Lamb, 23, and O'Dell, 26, received the death penalty for the murders of George Brassfield and Edward Pollard. These men happened to be the husbands of Lamb and O'Dell's mistresses, both of whom were pregnant by them. A jury convicted Echols, 35, of shooting and killing John Pattenridge in a quarrel over a cattle deal. In May of 1886, Stephens, 28, used an axe to kill Mrs. Annie Kerr, her sixteen year old son, and Dr. James Pyle. Stephens's motive was apparently escaping prosecution in a larceny case, as the Kerrs and Dr. Pyle were to appear as witnesses against him.
Patrick McCarty was hanged on April 8, 1887 for murdering Thomas Mahoney and his brother in the Cherokee Nation. The Mahoney brothers were Kansas farmers who worked with a grading crew on the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad during the winter. On February 17, 1886, McCarty was a traveling companion with the Mahoneys who were returning to Fort Scott, Kansas. When the brothers were asleep, McCarty killed them both, one with a gunshot to the head and the other with an axe. He robbed them of two teams and wagons and $200. McCarty's execution was originally scheduled for January 14, 1887, but he was given a respite while President Grover Cleveland reviewed his case.
Silas Hampton and Seaborn Kalijah were executed on October 7, 1887. Hampton, an 18 year old Cherokee man, killed a white farmer, Abner Lloyd, for $7.50 and a pocketknife. When arrested, Hampton reportedly said "Don't take me to Fort Smith; kill me right now." After arresting Seaborn Kalijah on January 17, 1887, Deputy John Phillips left the prisoner in the care of his posse: Mark Kuykendall, Henry Smith, and William Kelly. Upon returning the next morning, Phillips found the three lawmen murdered and Kalijah gone. The prisoner was rearrested and found guilty of the killings.
Three men were hanged on April 27, 1888. Jackson Crow killed a prominent merchant named Charles Wilson in the Choctaw Nation in 1884. Owen Hill was convicted of the beating his mother-in-law and his wife to death. He was arrested after writing to a friend inquiring if his wife had died of her wounds. George Moss killed a rancher on the Red River after stealing his cattle.
Gus Bogles was executed by the federal court on July 6, 1888. He had been found guilty by a jury of murdering J.D. Morgan. On June 27, 1887, conducters removed Gus Bogles, J.D. Morgan, and three other men from a train near McAlester because they had not paid their fares. The next day, Morgan's body was found robbed and beaten to death. Officers arrested Bogles in Texas where he confessed to the crime. Although he recanted the confession during the trial, the jury still found him guilty.
On January 25, 1889, Richard Smith was executed for the murder of Thomas Pringle. Although a dying Pringle named Smith as his assassin, the key to conviction was a unique footprint at the crime scene. This showed that the murderer wore a pair of boots with soles full of roundheaded tacks; twenty-one in the right foot and fourteen in the left. When arrested, Smith was wearing boots matching the footprints, but the heels and tacks had been removed. A witness led officers to the location where Smith had thrown the heels, and while the tacks were never found, the holes from them were visible in the shoe soles. Despite confessing to the deputy who arrested him, Smith declared his innocence on the gallows.
Malachi Allen and James Mills were executed by the federal court at Fort Smith on April 19, 1889. Both of these men were found guilty of murder in jury trials held before Judge Isaac C. Parker. On July 15, 1888, Malachi Allen shot and killed Shadrach Peters and Cy Love during an argument over a saddle. When deputy U.S. marshals tried to arrest Allen for the murders, he resisted until wounded. Allen's arm, badly shattered in the shootout, had to be amputated before he was taken to Fort Smith. James Mills was found guilty of murdering John Windham in the Seminole Nation on December 15, 1887. No motive for his crime is known.
On August 30, 1889, Jack Spaniard and William Walker were executed. Both men had been found guilty by a jury of the crime of murder. Jack Spaniard (or Sevier) shot and killed Deputy Marshal William Irwin in April 1886. The motive was to gain the release of Felix Griffin, a horse thief in Irwin's custody. Although other men may have participated in the killing, they were never captured and the jury found Spaniard solely responsible. William Walker killed Calvin Church in the Choctaw Nation in December 1888. While admitting his role in the murder, Walker claimed that he had been hired by another man to kill Church. He was to receive ten dollars and two quarts of whiskey for the crime.
Twice in the history of federal hangings in Fort Smith, six men were hanged at one time: September 3, 1875 and January 16, 1890. On that 1890 date, Harris Austin, John Billy, Jimmon Burris, Sam Goin, Jefferson Jones and Thomas Willis died on the gallows.
Austin was found guilty of shooting and killing Thomas Elliott in a dispute over whiskey. Billy and Willis robbed W.P. Williams in the Kiamichi Mountains and then killed him. A jury convicted Jones of the murder of Henry Wilson for the $12.00 he carried. Burris and Goin killed Houston Joyce as he traveled through Indian Territory. Originally, Judge Isaac Parker had sentenced nine people to be executed on this date, but three received reprieves or commutations.
Austin was found guilty of shooting and killing Thomas Elliott in a dispute over whiskey. Billy and Willis robbed W.P. Williams in the Kiamichi Mountains and then killed him. A jury convicted Jones of the murder of Henry Wilson for the $12.00 he carried. Burris and Goin killed Houston Joyce as he traveled through Indian Territory. Originally, Judge Isaac Parker had sentenced nine people to be executed on this date, but three received reprieves or commutations.
On January 30, 1890, George Tobler was executed for the murder of Irvin Richmond. On the night of April 30, 1889, Tobler attended a dance in the Choctaw Nation. Richmond was also there, with a woman that he and Tobler had previously fought over. At one point during the evening, a shot was heard and Richmond, who had been playing the fiddle, fell mortally wounded from his chair. No witnesses saw the murderer, as he had fired the shot from outside the house, pointing the gun through a crack in the wall, but circumstances pointed to Tobler. Although he left a written statement declaring his innocence, Tobler told a fellow prisoner that he dreamed of the man he killed the night before his execution.
John Stansberry was executed on July 9, 1890, having been found guilty of murdering his wife. Although he and his wife had a new baby, Stansberry had fallen in love with someone else. To sever the ties that prevented his marriage to another woman, Stanberry killed his child on September 20, 1889. About a month later, he murdered his wife with repeated blows from an axe. Stansberry was arrested while still at his wife's grave after the funeral and was convicted shortly thereafter.
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.”
On April 27, 1892, Sheppard Busby, an ex-deputy marshal, was hanged for the murder of Deputy Marshal Barney Connelly. Busby shot and killed the officer as he tried to arrest him for adultery.
On June 28, 1892, John Thornton was executed for the murder of his daughter. In 1891, Thornton was living in the Choctaw Nation and had long been suspected of abusing his daughter, Laura. On November 11, enraged that Laura had recently married (only six days earlier), Thornton shot and killed her. At his trial, the 65 year old Thornton pled not guilty by reason of insanity, saying he was drunk at the time of the murder and did not know what he was doing. This did not sway the jury. Thornton was convicted and sentenced to death for his crime.
On July 25, 1894, Lewis Holder was executed, having been convicted of the murder of his hunting and trapping partner, George Bickford. The body of the victim was found with a shotgun wound in the back in the San Bois Mountains, Choctaw Nation. Deputy marshals arrested Holder after he had been seen with Bickford’s team of horses and wearing his clothing. While Holder admitted to killing his partner, he insisted it was in self defense. The jury failed to agree and rendered a guilty verdict on September 19, 1892. An appeal to the Supreme Court did not succeed in overturning the conviction.
John Pointer, age 21, was executed on the Fort Smith gallows on September 20, 1894. In December of 1891, Pointer, a native of Arkansas, was traveling from Texas to Eureka Springs in the company of William Bolding and Ed Vandever. On Christmas night, the group camped in the Choctaw Nation. The next morning, the bodies of Bolding and Vandever were found in a creek, each killed by blows from an axe. Deputy marshals arrested Pointer as he tried to dispose of the wagon and team in McAlester, Choctaw Nation. Found guilty by a Fort Smith jury, Pointer appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The original verdict was upheld.
Crawford Goldsby, alias Cherokee Bill, was executed on March 17, 1896. A jury found Goldsby guilty of the murder of Ernest Melton during a robbery of a store in the Cherokee Nation. While awaiting an appeal, Goldsby engineered an escape from the new jail. On July 26, 1895, he pulled a pistol (which had been smuggled to him) on a jail guard named Lawrence Keating who was assisting in the nightly lockdown. As Keating reached for his gun, Goldsby opened fire, killing him. He was once again convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Again the decision was appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the first verdict. As Cherokee Bill began his walk to the gallows, surrounded by a crowd of 3,000 he remarked that "this is about as good a day to die as any."
On April 30, 1896, three men were executed on the Fort Smith gallows. Webber Isaacs, a Cherokee man, robbed Mike Cushing, a 60 year old peddler, and then beat him to death. Isaacs tried to burn the body of his victim to destroy evidence of the crime, but letters found near the scene confirmed Cushing's identity. In November 1894, brothers George and John Pierce murdered William Vandever, their traveling companion, as they rode through the Cherokee Nation. The Pierces robbed Vandever of his horses, mules, and a wagon.
On July 1, 1896, the five members of the Rufus Buck Gang were executed. In July of 1895, the gang embarked on a thirteen day crime spree. Leader Rufus Buck (a Euchee man), Lewis and Lucky Davis (Creek freedmen), and Sam Sampson and Maoma July (Creek men) all had previous criminal records. Within two weeks, they killed at least two people, including Deputy Marshal John Garrett, wounded several others, robbed anyone who crossed their path, and raped several women. They were finally apprehended after a seven hour shootout and stood trial for the rape of Rosetta Hansen. Found guilty, they were the only men to hang in Fort Smith for rape. This was, quite possibly, the largest mass execution for rape in U.S. history.
The last execution conducted by the federal court at Fort Smith took place on July 30, 1896. George Wilson, alias James Casharago, was the last man hanged in Fort Smith. On May 15, 1895, he killed his traveling companion, Zachariah W. Thatch, with an axe. Wilson became a suspect when he was seen with blood on his trousers and with Thatch's team and wagon. Deputy marshals located the crime scene and, although Wilson had burned a fire over the spot where his victim had bled on the ground, dry weather at the time of the crime caused the earth to crack, and blood from the murdered man had run deep into one of the fissures. The officers dug deep into the crack and collected several chunks of blood-saturated earth which were produced at the trial.