The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-04-13
Iinety-Nine Men Were Legally
Executed There In Twenty
Years.
IMAM WITHOUT A HEART
Judge Who Presided at Trial of a54
Men for Murder Became So Stern
He Was Given That Title
by Settlers.
From the Kansas City Star.


The bloodiest record of legal execu-
lions ever known was that of Fort
Smith. Ark. up to September /. 1896.
In just twenty years ni%nety-nine men
We're hanged in that little town, and
they were regarded as the worst char
acters the west ever had. n Judge
sentenced all of them. Besides these
he sentenced fifty-three Others who es-
capped the death penalty from various
reasons. He sat In the trial Of 354 men
charged with murder. He was so stern
IN his handling of the desperate men
who over ran the Indian Territory
from 1875 to 1896 that he became known
everywhere as the man without a
heart"
The man., whose record is preserved
In the department of justice in this city
was Judge Isaac c.. Parker of the west
ern district of Arkansas. He went to
Fort Smith in 1876 to sit in the cases
arlsing IN the Indian Territory, at that
time infested with the hardest, toughest
men, and the worst women the west
eve knew. Nothing but the sternest
law, rigidly enforced by the govern
lnent of the United States, had the
least effect upon them. Congress had
provided that all cases from the terri
tory hould be tried at Fort Smith.
This arrangement continued until Sep
tember 1. 1896, when congress gave jur-
isdiction over Indian Territory cases to
various judicial districts created with
IN the territory.
Judge Pa-ker's Work.
Judge Parker was sensitive to the
general belief that he was SO strict as
to be inhuman in his lack of sympathy.
and there was no doubt that he was
mfsrepresented. He vas a most kindly
hearted man, but he Knew that 1T was
the rigid application of law that would
ultimately conquer and subdue the law
less element that held sway in tina
portion OF the southwest.
Speaking OF the more than $50 men he
had sentenced to the gallows during his
judicial life at Fort Smith, Judge Par
ker said:
People have said to me: You are
the judge who hung so many men,
But my answer has been. 1T is not I
never hung a man. People who say I
am cruel do not understand how 1 am
situated. I am the most misrepresent-
ed OF men. I am, however, proud of the
record I have made. l believe it has
checked a flood Of crime.
Il think the courts of the country are
somewhat to blame for the thousands
Of murders yearly committed. In the
past five years Che was talking in 1880
$4,000 persons have been murdered in
this country. This fearful condition
does not exist because our laws are
defective. We have the most magnif-
cent legal system in the world. The
trouble is that the bench looks to the
shadow in the shape OF technicalities,
instead of to the substance, in the form
of crime. There is too much technical
ity.
Yes, they say I am cruel, but they
forget that for years I have had to
contend with the crimes of the worst
body OF ruffians the United States ever
had. They were brutes. or demons, in
human form. The crimes were DELHI
erately planned n flendishly executed.
They We're men of the most hardened
character, oblivious to decency, honor
and honesty. In my jurisdiction alone
~si&ty-fve United States marshals have
been murdered while attending to their
duties. Wilson, who was connected
with the Star gang, a man who boosted
that he had killed twenty-nine people.
one Of the men l sentenced to hang.
1t was no cruelty to do this, in view Of
his record.
One Of Many Crimes.
"One of the early cases that came be-
fore me was hat Of a young Chatta-
nooga physician who moved west with
his young wife and located in the Ar
buckle mountains. Two negroes, who
haunted the nefghborhood, waylaid the
doctor and tied him to a tree, leaving
him there to starVe. He could not free
hlmself and did starve there. The viii
lians then went to the little home
among the fir trees where the young
wife was a%nNiously waiting the return
of her husband. and told her that he
had fallen from a boulder high up
among the mountains and had broken
his leg. They would guide her to him.
She went with them and to her Death.
for they killed her and threw her into
an old we'll sixty feet deep. Months
her skeleton was found. One
OF the murderers boosted of his crime
and was soon captured.
Judge Parker condemned in unmeas-
ured terms the maudlin se~ntimentality
leads women to carry flowers and
jelltes to much advertised criminals.
These ladies mean well." he said.
There Is no doubt OF that. But what
mistake en- goodness! Back OF the SEN
timentality are the motives Of sincere
piety and charity, sadly misdirected.
They see the convict alone, h
In his cell. They forget the
crime perpetrated. There Is too much
of this kind OF thing all over the coun-