Few men in the annals of the American Old West represen\t the phrase “frontier justice” as well as Judge Isaac C. Parker, the infamous “Hanging Judge” of Fort Smith, who ruled over the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas with an iron hand from 1874-1895.
During his 21-year tenure on the bench, Parker presided over 160 cases that resulted in the sentence of death and 79 of those men met their final fate at the end of a hemp rope attached to the wooden and mortar gallows that defined and justified the nickname “Hell on the Border” on the Arkansas-Indian Territory border.
In later life, Parker was quoted as saying, “I never hanged a man, the law did,” and it was the keen sense of adherence to the law that allowed the court to operate and clean up what had become a lawless civilization in the years after the Civil War.
These are the stories of men who met justice under the gavel of Issac C. Parker.
Gus Bogles - July 6, 1888
Gus Bogles was executed by the federal court on July 6, 1888.
He had been found guilty by a jury of murdering J.D. Morgan. On June 27, 1887, conducters removed Gus Bogles, J.D. Morgan, and three other men from a train near McAlester because they had not paid their fares.
The next day Morgan's body was found, robbed and beaten to death. Officers arrested Bogles in Texas where he confessed to the crime.
Although he recanted the confession during the trial, the jury still found him guilty.
