calsfoundation@cals.org
December 4, 1837
Speaker of the House John Wilson stabbed and killed Representative Joseph J. Anthony on the floor of the Arkansas House of Representatives over an insulting remark Anthony made about the paying of bounties for wolf scalps. Although indicted for murder, Wilson was found not guilty by a jury in Saline County after a change of venue. Anthony became the only sitting member of the state legislature to be killed during a debate in the Arkansas House.