John Poynter (Execution of)

John Poynter was hanged at Fort Smith (Sebastian County) on September 20, 1894, after being convicted in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas of murdering two traveling companions.

John Poynter (sometimes spelled Pointer in newspaper accounts) was born in Buffalo, Missouri, on February 14, 1973, to Thomas and Charity Poynter. By 1891, the family was living in Eureka Springs (Carroll County). Young John was frequently in trouble with the law. That spring Ed Vandevere, age twenty-six, and William Bolding, age twenty, passed through Eureka Springs heading to Wise County, Texas, to pick cotton for Vandevere’s father, and Thomas Poynter asked them to take his son John, who was wanted in Missouri on horse theft charges, with them.

The three men left Texas on December 13, 1891, to return to Eureka Springs. On December 26, a rabbit hunter found two corpses lying in a creek bed near Wilburton in the Choctaw Nation. Summoning lawmen, they found evidence that a wagon had left the area, which they pursued to McAlester in the Indian Territory, where they found Poynter trying to sell the wagon and team, along with some clothing. It was determined that the two dead men were Vandevere and Bolding.

At his March 1892 trial, Poynter claimed that Bolding had killed Vandevere and that he killed Bolding in self-defense, but he was convicted of the two axe slayings on March 24. Judge Isaac Parker on April 30, 1894, sentenced Poynter to hang on June 28, telling Poynter that “the double murder you committed must stand before the world as one of peculiar wickedness, of the greatest brutality and one which exhibits a state of moral depravity seldom seen in one so young.” Poynter’s execution was delayed while he appealed his conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In October 1893, Poynter was one of three ringleaders of an attempt to break out of the jail in Fort Smith. The breakout failed when a deputy shot one of the rioters and the rest returned to their cells.

The Supreme Court affirmed Poynter’s conviction on January 24, 1894, and on June 30 Parker set a new execution date for September 20, 1894.

Poynter then sought a pardon from President Grover Cleveland, but on September 14 he learned that “after a careful review of the case the chief executive confirmed the sentence of the court.” A newspaper reported that “being informed of the action of the President, Poynter broke down for the first time during his three years imprisonment.”

On September 20, 1894, Poynter “spent a restless night but ate a hearty dinner.” He had set his hanging for 3:30 p.m., but as the hour approached he requested another half hour. He was granted fifteen more minutes, and a newspaper wrote that “about three-quarters of an hour before the execution he broke down completely. Up to that time he had displayed wonderful nerve.”

At 3:45, he was led to the gallows supported by deputies who helped him mount the gallows. Poynter again said that he did not kill Vandevere, and claimed that his weakness on the scaffold was because he had taken poison given to him by a jail trusty. He was able to walk to the trap door, where his limbs were tied and a hood placed over his head. The door was opened at 4:07 p.m., and “he made no struggle after the drop. His neck was broken and death resulted in thirteen minutes.”

Poynter was taken to Eureka Springs for burial in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) Cemetery.

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.

“An Awful Doom.” Arkansas Gazette, May 1, 1892, p. 3.

“A Break for Liberty.” Arkansas Gazette, October 3, 1893, p. 3.

“The Death Watch.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 14, 1894, p. 1.

“For Double Murder.” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 21, 1894, p. 1.

“John Coleman Poynter.” Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/97720351/john-coleman-poynter (accessed September 30, 2026).

“Killed Two Men.” Arkansas Gazette, March 24, 1892, p. 1.

“Must Stretch Hemp.” Arkansas Gazette, January 25, 1894, p. 6.

“Poynter Hanged.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, September 21, 1894, 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 September 30, 2026).

“Three to Hang.” Fayetteville Weekly Democrat, July 12, 1894, p. 1.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas