Hanging Judge

Isaac C. Parker, the stern U.S. judge for Indian Territory from 1875 to 1896, brought law and order to a lawless frontier region. He held court in the border city of Fort Smith, Arkansas, but his jurisdiction extended over the Indian tribal lands to the west. Pressing juries for convictions, Parker sent seventy-nine convicted criminals to the gallows - as many as six at a time. More often than not, however, he passed sentences on thousands of liquor dealers, rapists, and cattle and horse thieves - even throwing Belle Starr in the penitentiary for stealing a horse from a crippled boy.
Credit is due to this "hanging judge" and the men who rode for Parker and restored order - two hundred deputy marshals, sixty-five of whom died in the line of duty. This new edition includes a foreword by Larry D. Ball, who situates Parker's court within the context of unrest and rising crime in Indian Territory.