The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1899-07-22
REFUSED 70 POSTPONE
TONkES EXECUTION
choctaw Authorities Ignore Judge
Thomas Writ and Garry Out
Death Sentence.
He MEETS HIS FATE sTolcALLY
Indian sherin,s Poor Aim Causes
Unnecessary suffering--Tonka
Lives Half an Hour
After Being Shot.

Kansas City. Mo, July IA spe-
cial from Antlers, o. t., to the Star,
confirms the report that William Go
ings Walla Tonka) has been execut-
ed. The dispatch says:
In spite of a writ of hubens corpus,
issued by Judge Thomas, a United
States judge, ordering a stay of execu-
ton, William Goings, or Wnlla Tonla.
was shot at 2:23 o'clock Thursday aft
Judge Thomas order was
sent by wire from Tusla and yas fol-
lowed by a written order. The Choc-
taw authorities were commanded to
have Goings brought before the judge
at Muscogee July 90.
After a hurried ride of twenty miles
G.. w. Clay, deputy marshal, reached
Alikchi at . o'clock Thursday norm
ing, and i'll company with james En-
mis-, deputy marshal, and a posse,
sought the sheriff, Thomas Watson,
and stated his mission. One of the
party, j. NJ. White, read the writ to
the sheriff and as the sheriff could
not understand English very we'll, it
was interpreted to him. When the in
terpreter had finished the sheriff re-
piled in a clear voice: II refuse to
obey the order"
II demand that you obey the order
of that writ in the name of the presi-
dent of the United States" Deputy
Marshal Clay said. Il am a United
States officer" iii.
a runner was dispatched for Judge
James, the Choctaw judge, fifteen
miles away. The runner returned
with the information that the judge
was too ill to write an order, but he
sent a verbal order to the effect that
n commission, consisting of the sher-
if, the district attorney, the clerk and
two deputy United States marshals,
be organized aud inquire of Clay if
he could show any law whereby the
United States had the power to stop
the execution and, if he could not, TO.
carry out the sentence.
The commission decided that it
knew of no law to justify turning the
prisoner over to the United States au-
thoritics aud the sheriff set the hour
of execution at 2 o'clock. Shortly be-
fore 2 o'clock two Choctaw ministers
visited the condemned man in the
Jail, and religious services, lasting
about half an hour, were held, con-
sisting of song and prayer, Goings
joining in the singing in a clear,
strong voice.
Tonka Greets His Friends.
A guard of twenty-four deputies
formed n line on each side of the door
way of the Jail and Goings, supported
on either side by the sheriff and dep
uty, stepped out, the guards kept
step and the procession marched down
the full length of the line of specta-
TORS, about 100 yeards. turned and
marched to the spot where the shoot
ing was to take place, in front of the
court house and distant from the
spectators about thirty yeards. AS the
procession moved down the line Co.
ings recognized several people and
spoke to them. He was seated on a
blanket that had been spread upon the
ground and his eyes bandaged, a dep
uty sheriff holding each arm. A piece
of paper with a black spot on il was
pinned to his shirt over his heart.
The sheriff walked almost ten PAGES
away, knelt, rested his rifle over q
bench, sighted carefully and fred.
The bullet passed through the body
and knocked up the dust on the other
side. Tonka sank down on the blanket,
the deputies still holding his hands.
He did not die at once, but lived for
fully half an hour, all the time groan-
ing so that he was heard all over the
place, and once he spoke in a chokea
voice. A brother and two of his cous-
ms stood about thirty yards away and
saw the execution, and not until after
the shot had been fired did they ex-
hibit any signs Of emotion. The body
vas placed in the coffin a few feet dis
tant from the spot and turned over to
his relatives for burial.
Tonka's Crime.
The interest in William Goings, or
Walla Tonka, vas caused by a story of
Indian honor remarkable only in the
fact that the sentiment should exist
ut all. Walla Tonka and Wallace Cros-
by were Choctaw Indians. One day in
the spring of 1897 they killed an In
dian deputy, Sampson Goings, n rela-
tive of William. 1t was Tonltn's sew
enth murder. They were tried and
sentenced to death. and. so the story
went, were released from custody with
the understanding that they would be
on hand to be killed when the time
came. During the interim WaIla Ton
ka came to Kansas City, accompanied
by a deputy sheriff.
1t was advertised widely. The fact
that a member of one of the ball teams
was under sentence of death would
probably not have been known had it
not been that the Indians were en-
gagged to play about August 1, 1897.
and the game was postponed by those
mt the head of the enterprise at Kansas
City. The date set by the ball manag-
ers conflicted with the date of the
shooting. The young Indians could