Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-06-16

FORT SMITH, Ark, JUNE Id
R.-A strange memorial to a
strange man has just opened to
the public here.
The memorial: A gallows.
The man: Judge Isaac Charles
Parker, who sent IS badmen to-
death by hanging, more than
any other United States jurist
before or since.
From his United States Dis
trict Court bench in Fort Smith,
Judge Parker held legal sway
over a part of Arkansas and
10000 square miles of the Old
West, including the Indian and
Oklahoma Territories.
Between 1875 and 1896. the
changing judge" sentenced l64
men to the gallows. Eighty five
escaped the sentence by one
means or another.
All of them heard Judge Par
ker intone virtually the same
chilling phrase:
II sentence you to be
hanged by the neck until dead.
And may God, whose laws you
have broken. have mercy on your
soul"
AS a Federal district Judge |
acting as a circuit court jurist
in criminal cases, there was at
first no appeal from Judge Par
ker's death sentences. For IA
years only the President could
stop a Parker hanging. He sell
don did.
Fort Smith (current popula-
ton, 47.0O0) was a dusty frontier
town when the 37-year-old
Parker arrived from St. Joseph.
Mo-, to take his bench-and
build his gallows.
The settlement, originally an
Army post, was undergoing the
pains of Reconstruction. To the
west lay the vast, untamed land
of the outlaws: The Youngers.
the Daltons, Cherokee Bill.
Whiskey Jack and Belle Starr.
The only law was Judge Park
er's court and the judge adj
ministered it Justify. His record
as a Federal jurist included
1880 cases, of which 10000 in
volved criminal offenses. There
were 344 murder and rape trials:
$500 convictions.
Could Hang Dozen at Time
His gallows was enlarged to
provide for a dozen executions
at once. It was never used to
full capacity, although multiple
hangings were frequent.
Historians draw conflicting
pictures of Judge Parker.
Some see him as a cruel IA
natic whose public hangings
were entertainments.
Others sea him as a man Of,
necessarily stern justice-but a
champion Of the underdog, q
friend to the Indians and q
kindly husband and father.
Judge Parker came from Ohio
but moved to st. Joseph, where
he hung out his lawyers shingle
and became active in politics.
He was a Democrat at first, then
became a Republican as a result
Of the Civil War.
He had served two terms on
the Republican side of the
United States House. The chair
he used while a Representative
is now in the Smithsonian Insti-
tuition in Washington. Afterward
he was city attorney in st. Jo-
seph. prosecuting attorney and
circuit judge before he got the
Fort Smith job.
Had Heavy Docket
Despite his "carpetbagger"
status in Arkansas, Judge Par
ker found allies in the Fort
Smith citizenry from, which he
recruited his juries and many
Of his marshals.
Court opened early in the
morning and the six-day-a-week
sessions sometimes continued
well into night. For two decades.
one term Of court ran into an
other.
The outlaws brought in by
Judge Parker's marshals in no
manner resembled Hollywood
Robin Hoods of the plains.
A sampling included: A white
man charged with raping a To-
year-old Indian squaw; a man
accused of seducing his own sis
ter; man who shot his partner
in the. back, then raped and
killed the dead mans wife.
Belle Starr was not the buxom
beauty of western novels. either
She appeared in Judge Parker'i
court as a homely nympho.
maniac and horse thief.
Although he was the target o.
bitter criticism in later years
including an attack by thu
United States Attorney General
Judge Parker never wavereC
from the belief that he had ar.
rested the flood tide of crime
on the frontier.
Most critics noted Judge Par.
ker's court procedure. He seldom
allowed his judicial robes I,