The Morning herald., 1875-09-03
HANGMAN's DAY.
SIX EXECUTIONS AT oxcE,

!, VIII oc siA cAcCutioHs, all iOr crime
wholly distinct and independent of eac
other. The men who are to perish to-da
are John Wilmington, Daniel Evans, Ed
mund Campbell, James Moore, "Smoke
Man-Killer," and Samuel Fooy. The
We're all tried in the United States Distrit
Court for the Western District of Arkan
sas in June last, and with the exception G
Fooy, all were sentenced, on June 26th, t.
be executed to-day. Fooy was sentence,
on Monday. June 2Sth. The session O
the Court which included in its busines
the trial of these cases is described as on
OF the most extraordinary the Court eve
held. The Court of the District, as re
CARDS the extent of territory and the
strange mixture of people and races it has
jurisdiction over, is unparalleled in this
country, and its sessions are attended with
incidents of thrilling interest. The In.
dian Territory, on the Arkansas frontier
has become what Texas was thirty years
ago, the refuge of the desperadoes af the
continent, and of course furnishes most Of
The cases before the Court. Even without
the admixture of bad whites, the natives
Of the Territory have enough of the turbu-
lent and reckless in them to make up a
community which is, happily, exceptional,
and which justified, if anything justifes,
the most severe and inexorable afilictions
known to the law. 1t was known that on
Saturday, June 26th, sentence of death
was to be passed upon several of the con-
victed men, and the court room on that
day was crowded with spectators from the
town and from the adjacent country. The
prisoners were brought in two at time,
surrounded by strong guard, armed with
drawn reyolvers, and each prisoner held
by two guards. These precautions were
deemed specially necessary from the fact
that few days previous convicted mur-
derer ran away from his guards while be-
ing conducted to the court room, a pro-
ceeding which precipitated and rendered
irregular his execution. He was shot
dead in his tracks. The six sentences
passed on this day, as well as that passed
upon Fooy on the Monday following. fixed
Friday, September 3d. as the date O. exc
cution.
John Wilmington was the first upon
whom sentence was passed. He and a
neighbor, John J, Turner, went across Red
river together " Sunday, Feb. 7, 1875.
While returning on the evening of the
same day, Wilmington knocked Turner off
his horse with club and then cut aud
slashed,his throat until he was dead. He
then took $165 from his victim. Daniel
Evans, a white man, a native of Tennessee,
aged twenty years, well built, and of light
He was convicted of having
killed young man named William r.
Seebolt, Of Texas, with whom he was tray
elling from Denison, Texas, in November
last. He was seen riding with Seebolt just
before the latter's disappearance, and, i'm
after the murder, was seen riding
seebolts horse, leading his own. The
body of Seebolt was not found until a week
after the..murder, and was recognized by a
patch he wore over his left eye, and by a
book containing his name
md the names Of all his family. Evans,
with incredible recklessness, wore his vic
inns boots long after his arrest, and they
formed strong link in the chain of evi-
1ence resulting in his conviction, as did
'lso Seebolt's horse, which Evans had
given to one of his counsel as a fee for de-
ending him.
Edmund Campbell, a full-blooded negro,
wenty years Of age, is next on the list
He was born and raised near Scullyville,
Jhoctaw Nation, about twenty miles from
Fort Smith. He, with his brotheS Sam,
ourteen years old, and Frank Butler, a
lalf brother, on February 18th last, went
Q the house Of Lawson Ross and there
'illed him and young girl, both colored,
n revenge for some injury his father and
mother professed to have suffered at tho
lands Of Ross short time previous. Both
Campbell and Frank Butler were
ound guilty Of murder; but the latter was
illed few days after in trying to escape.
James Moore is next. He is native of
ohnson county, Mo-, aged twenty-eight
ears, over six feet high, and we'll built.
his man introduced and sold some stock
Washington county, Ark, over year
go, and, with confederate named Hun
)n stole some horses from a cr;nnlod far