Henry Harding (Execution of)

Henry Harding was executed at Wynne (Cross County) on May 6, 1910, after being convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting death of his attorney.

Henry Harding, a “wealthy planter” in Cherry Valley (Cross County), had purchased land in Cross County, “afterward having litigation over the title of his newly acquired lands.” He hired two Jonesboro (Craighead County) lawyers to represent him in the matter, but they “found their client too disagreeable and the case so unsatisfactory” that they quit.

Harding then hired sixty-year-old lawyer J. T. Patterson, who was a former state representative in Wynne. Patterson successfully represented him in a lawsuit filed by a pair of real estate agents. On October 11, 1909, they argued over the lawyer’s fee, and Harding’s “language was so abusive that Patterson ordered him out of the office and raised a chair to drive him out.” Harding turned at the office door, pulled a pistol, and “fired one shot which struck Patterson to the right of the heart killing him instantly.”

Harding was arrested and put in jail, “but feeling became to strong against him that…he was secretly removed from town” and transported to Paragould (Greene County) to keep him from being lynched.

Harding was returned to Wynne for trial in November and claimed that he had fired the fatal shot in self-defense after Patterson raised the chair, but a witness who was in the office said the victim had set the chair down before Harding shot him. The jury deliberated for about twenty hours before finding Harding guilty of first-degree murder on November 10, 1909. He was sentenced to hang on December 31, 1909.

On December 22, Chief Justice Edgar Allen McCulloch granted Harding’s request to appeal his conviction to the Arkansas Supreme Court, which affirmed the sentence on February 28, 1910, in an opinion written by Justice Burrill Bunn Battle.

Governor George W. Donaghey set May 6, 1910, as the date of Harding’s execution and “refused all applications made for a commutation of sentence or further stay” of the hanging, despite the fact that Patterson was “opposed to capital punishment and once prepared a bill for its abolition.”

Harding, who had been jailed in Forrest City (St. Francis County), was taken to Wynne on the morning of May 6 and made speeches at the Cross County Courthouse and at the gallows in which “he said that he was an honest man and that he was being hanged by a bunch of thieves and robbers.” The trap door opened at 12:20 p.m., and Harding was declared dead twenty minutes later. The Arkansas Democrat wrote that he “died game as a peacock.” His body was sent to Memphis, Tennessee, for burial in Calvary Cemetery.

For additional information:
“Affirms Sentence of Death for Harding.” Arkansas Democrat, February 28, 1910, pp. 1, 6.

“Former Jonesboro Man Kills Lawyer at Wynne and Narrowly Escaped Fury of an Angry Mob.” Jonesboro Daily News, October 12, 1909, p. 1.

“Governor Donaghey Fixes Execution.” Jonesboro Daily Tribune, March 22, 1910, p. 1.

“Harding Defendant in Suit for Damages.” Paragould Daily Press, October 23, 1909, p. 2.

“Harding Died Game on Gallows.” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, May 7, 1910, p. 4.

“Harding Gets Sentence Stayed.” Arkansas Democrat, December 22, 1909, p. 1.

“Harding Hanged for Murder of J. T. Patterson.” Arkansas Democrat, May 6, 1910, pp. 1–2.

“Harding Placed on Trial.” Arkansas Gazette, November 9, 1909, p. 2.

“Henry Harding Faces Gallows.” Arkansas Gazette, November 11, 1909, p. 2.

“Henry Harding Guilty of First Degree Murder.” Paragould Daily Press, November 10, 1909, p. 1.

“J. T. Patterson Shot to Death at Wynne.” [Jonesboro] Sun, October 12, 1909, p. 1.

“Patterson’s Slayer.” Arkansas Democrat, November 3, 1909, p. 1.

“Two Are Sentenced to Hang in December.” Arkansas Democrat, November 15, 1909, p. 1.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas