Fort Smith Double Execution of August 30, 1889

Jack Spaniard and William Walker were hanged at Fort Smith (Sebastian County) on August 30, 1889, after being convicted in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas of murders committed in the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).

Jack Spaniard, who was one-quarter Cherokee and described as “a fine-looking man and quite intelligent,” was part of a criminal gang operating in the Indian Territory. On April 12, 1886, Deputy U.S. Marshal William Erwin was escorting Felix Griffin, another member of the gang, to Fort Smith, and there was speculation that some of Griffin’s fellow desperadoes would try to free him. Erwin was found dead the next morning with his pistol still in its holster, a sign that he had been ambushed.

Witnesses reported seeing Spaniard and Frank Palmer in the area, accompanied by Palmer’s dog, and they were suspected in Erwin’s death; the marshal’s office offered a $500 reward for each of their captures. Deputy Marshal James Pettigrew apprehended Spaniard on March 25, 1888, seven miles from Eufaula in the Creek Nation. A Fort Smith grand jury indicted Spaniard and Palmer on first-degree murder charges but indicted Griffin only for robbery. Griffin’s “people [were] quite well off [and] they secured his release on bond.” (However, he would soon be killed while stealing a horse near Webber’s Falls in the Cherokee Nation.)

Spaniard was tried in April 1889, and Palmer’s dog was brought to the trial, with several witnesses saying they had seen Spaniard, Palmer, and the dog near where Erwin was murdered. The Arkansas Gazette reported that “the evidence is all circumstantial and prominent among the witnesses is a cur dog that has been identified as having been with the two men.” After “a tedious trial, lasting a week,” Spaniard was convicted of first-degree murder. Palmer was never caught, and there was speculation that he had either left the Indian Territory or had been killed to keep him quiet.

In a separate incident in Indian Territory, William Walker, described as “a big, strong, bright looking negro, a little over 19 years of age,” got into an argument with Calvin Church, another Black man, over an axe. On December 12, 1887, Walker followed Church to a store at Durant in the Choctaw Nation and threatened Church, who said he was not afraid. Walker said, “Maybe you think I won’t shoot?”—and promptly shot him in the head, killing him. Walker was convicted of first-degree murder on February 12, 1889, “on eye-witness evidence for a most wanton and wicked murder for which he could offer no excuse at trial.” A Fort Smith newspaper reported that “at the time the verdict was brought in the accused manifested very little interest in the proceedings, chewing gum meanwhile.”

On April 29, 1889, Judge Issac C. Parker sentenced Spaniard, Walker, and several other people to be hanged on July 17. However, President Benjamin Harrison granted a respite to all of the condemned until August 9, while their cases were reviewed, and a newspaper noted that Harrison “only respited Walker because the others were respited.” Most of the others had their sentences commuted, but Spaniard learned on July 23 that the “President declines to interfere” in his case, leading him to declare that “his fate was now sealed, and that he would prepare to meet it by making peace with his God.”

However, Spaniard’s execution was again respited until August 30, 1889, “because the President had not thoroughly examined the papers connected to the case.” At Parker’s request, Walker’s execution was also delayed until August 30. Harrison announced on August 19 that he again declined to commute Spaniard’s sentence.

On the night before their executions, Spaniard and Walker “spent the early portion of [the] evening in religious exercises,” after which “Spaniard did not rest well, Walker slept like a log. Both rose early and ate a hearty breakfast.”

The doomed men undertook religious exercises until around 11:00 a.m. on August 30, “when Mrs. Marquardt, a lady of this city, sent them dinner. This they ate with relish.” When lawmen read their death warrants at 11:30, “Walker appeared with seeming indifference,” but Spaniard grabbed a stool and refused to leave the cell, begging deputies to shoot him. After about three-quarters of an hour, he relented, and the two men walked to the gallows, which “they mounted with even tread, and when on top, engaged in prayer and singing for about twenty minutes.” When asked if they had any last words, Spaniard “made a request that his body be turned over to his half brother…and said he was innocent. Walker requested that his hat be given to a friend.” When the trap door was opened at 12:29 p.m., “both were nervy, showing no signs of fear. The necks of both were broken by the fall.” Their bodies were taken down about fifteen minutes later. Walker was buried in Fort Smith’s Oak Cemetery; Spaniard was interred in the Griffin-Hayes Cemetery in Webber’s Falls.

For additional information:
Akins, Jerry. Hangin’ Times in Fort Smith: A History of Executions in Judge Parker’s Court. Little Rock: Butler Center Books, 2012.

“Court Notes.” Fort Smith Weekly Times, August 1, 1889, p. 4.

Fayetteville Weekly Democrat, May 3, 1889, p. 3, col. 3.

“Fort Smith.” Arkansas Gazette, April 16, 1887, p. 1.

“Fort Smith, Ark.” Arkansas Gazette, April 25, 1886, p. 2.

“Jack Spaniard.” Arkansas Democrat, September 3, 1889, p. 6.

“Jack Spaniard Guilty.” Arkansas Gazette, April 16, 1889, p. 3.

“Jack Spaniard to Hang.” Arkansas Democrat, April 17, 1889, p. 3.

“More Time for Preparation.” Arkansas Gazette, August 10, 1889, p. 1.

“A Mute Witness.” Arkansas Gazette, March 13, 1889, p. 1.

“Only One May Hang.” Fort Smith Weekly Journal, August 15, 1889, p. 3.

“Our Special Telegrams.” Arkansas Gazette, March 28, 1888, p. 1.

“Resigned to His Fate.” Arkansas Gazette, July 24, 1889, p. 1.

Riley, Michael Owen. “Capital Punishment in Oklahoma: 1835–1966.” PhD diss., University of Arkansas, 2012. Online at https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/518/ (accessed October 29, 2026).

“A Silent Witness.” Arkansas Gazette, April 11, 1889, p. 4.

“Spaniard Will Hang.” Arkansas Gazette, August 20, 1889, p. 1.

“Strangled by the Law.” Arkansas Gazette, August 31, 1889, p. 8.

“The World at Large.” Russellville Democrat, July 18, 1889, p. 1.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas