Jonas Bogard (Execution of)

Jonas (sometimes called Joe) Bogard was a Black man hanged at Lonoke (Lonoke County) on August 27, 1884, after being convicted of raping a child. The Arkansas Gazette later published reports that he survived the execution, although he did not.

Jonas Bogard, about twenty-five years old, was living in the home of the Ray (or Rhea) family on the Robinson plantation in Lonoke County. On January 22, 1884, he reportedly “violently outraged” the Rays’ eleven-year-old daughter, with the Arkansas Gazette reporting that “the insane demon of desire prompted the man to make a victim of the poor innocent.” A “colored constable” captured Bogard and turned him over to Sheriff W. P. Fletcher, who took him to the state penitentiary in Little Rock (Pulaski County) for “safe keeping” after he was “threatened by Judge Lynch.”

A Lonoke County jury convicted him of rape on July 11, 1884, “after being out only a few minutes,” and he was sentenced to hang on August 27.

Bogard was returned to Lonoke on August 26, and on the morning of his execution he “ate a hearty breakfast” before meeting with a pair of Black preachers, followed by a visit from family members. A reporter then interviewed him, writing that Bogard said, “I am not afraid to die; I am fully prepared to go,” before he began to cry and said that “this world is no longer on my mind.”

A crowd surrounded the jail, and “every available eminence and even housetops were taken in an endeavor to see him.” Bogard left the jail at 1:15 p.m. and climbed into a buggy surrounded by the Eagle Guard militia with fixed bayonets, followed by thousands of people who included “probably 300 white women, hundreds of children and at least fifty babies.” The Gazette reported that “every conceivable kind of conveyance, except steam engines and boats, were in the procession.”

After arriving at the scaffold three-fourths of a mile from Lonoke, Bogard climbed the gallows “with a firm step.” He told the young men in the crowd to “take warning from this I am prepared to go before my God; all my sins are forgiven.” Fletcher opened the trap door at 1:50 p.m., and Bogard dropped six feet, but his neck was not broken, and “his struggles and contortions were very great and painful to witness.” Dr. L. H. Hall declared him dead at 2:30 p.m., and he was cut down and placed in a coffin so his parents could bury him at their Prairie County home.

About a month later, the Gazette published an article saying that people in Prairie County reported that Bogard was not dead and that the noose had failed to tighten around his neck; his trial lawyer indicated that he believed Bogard could have survived his execution, speculating that he could not be hanged again for the same offense. The Arkansas Democrat interviewed Fletcher and Hall, who both confirmed that Bogard was dead, and finally published affidavits from Bogard’s father and a pair of witnesses who confirmed that he was dead and buried.

For additional information:
“An Awful Crime.” Arkansas Gazette, February 26, 1884, p. 8.

“Convicted of Rape.” Arkansas Gazette, July 2, 1884, p. 4.

“The Country Arises.” Arkansas Gazette, October 3, 1884, p. 5.

“Fresh Facts.” Arkansas Gazette, October 1, 1884, p. 5.

“Joe Bogard Hanged.” Arkansas Gazette, August 28, 1884, p. 1.

“Jollie Joe.” Arkansas Gazette, October 2, 1884, p. 5.

“Legally Dead.” Arkansas Gazette, September 30, 1884, p. 5.

“Local Brevities.” Arkansas Democrat, February 26, 1884, p. 4.

“Nailed.” Arkansas Democrat, October 2, 1884, p. 4.

“Still Nailed.” Arkansas Democrat, October 4, 1884, p. 3.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas