'He Hung Them High' -Webber Issac, George and John Pierce -April 30, 1896

Few men in the annals of the American Old West represent 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 stone, 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 tales of the men that met their final justice under the auspices of Parker's court.

April 30, 1896 - Webber Issacs and George and John Pierce

On April 30, 1896 three men were executed on the Fort Smith gallows.

Webber Isaacs, a Cherokee Indian, robbed Mike Cushing, a 60 year old peddler, and then beat him to death. Isaacs tried to burn the body of his victim to destroy evidence of the crime but letters found near the scene confirmed Cushing's identity.

In November 1894, George and John Pierce, brothers, murdered William Vandever, their traveling companion, as they rode through the Cherokee Nation.

The Pierces robbed Vandever of his horses, mules and a wagon.