Luke Tatum (Execution of)

Luke Tatum was an African American preacher who was executed at Camden (Ouachita County) on January 31, 1893, for murdering his wife in Union County, though he denied committing the crime to the end.

Luke Tatum, described as “a large man, coal black and of ordinary intelligence,” lived with his wife Eliza about eleven miles east of El Dorado (Union County). On July 13, 1892, her body was found in a wooded area, “the skull…crushed in and the neck broken” and a bloody pine knot lying nearby. An inquest concluded that “Eliza Tatum…came to her death at the hands of Luke Tatum, on or about July 10, 1892.”

Tatum waived his preliminary hearing so the case would go to a Union County grand jury, which indicted him. After gaining a change of venue to Ouachita County, he was tried based on circumstantial evidence in which it was alleged that he preached at his Baptist church “from the pulpit of which he walked to a spot in the woods where he knew his wife would pass…and on her appearance murdered her.”

Tatum was convicted of first-degree murder and was “visibly agitated while[the] sentence was being pronounced.” Tatum and another Black man convicted of murder, Henry Howard, were sentenced to hang at Camden on January 31, 1893. (Howard would gain a reprieve to appeal his sentence and was among eleven inmates who escaped from the Camden jail on December 3, 1893. He apparently was never captured.)

Tatum was visited by preachers on the day of his execution, and an Arkansas Gazette correspondent noted that he “heard the hammering on the gallows with composure and is displaying a remarkable amount of nerve even now in his last hours.” On the morning of January 31, 1893, he was taken to an enclosure by the jail where his death would be “witnessed by the number allowed.”

The preachers prayed and sang a hymn before Tatum told the witnesses that “my hands are as clean today from blood as any of yours….I know, and God knows, that I am innocent of the crime. I am prepared to die.” Sheriff Archie Hamilton opened the trap door of the gallows at 10:02 a.m., and “Tatum was launched into eternity. He fell seven feet, breaking his neck in two places.” He was pronounced dead a few minutes later.

Several newspapers reported that Tatum’s was the first legal execution in Ouachita County in over twenty years, though two men were lynched during that period—Hill Larkin on February 14, 1890, and Robert Jordan on August 8, 1892.

For additional information:
“Beat His Wife to Death.” St. Louis [Missouri] Globe-Democrat, July 19, 1892, p. 3.

“He Brained Her.” Arkansas Gazette, July 15, 1892, p. 1.

“His Life Paid the Penalty.” Memphis [Tennessee] Commercial, February 1, 1893, p. 1.

“Howard Will Hang.” Arkansas Gazette, November 26, 1893, p. 3.

“In Two Places.” [Phoenix] Arizona Republic, February 5, 1893, p. 1.

“A Jail Delivery.” Fayetteville Weekly Democrat, December 7, 1893, p. 2.

“Luke Tatum’s Last Hours.” Arkansas Gazette, January 31, 1893, p. 4.

“Luke Tatum’s Long Journey.” Arkansas Gazette, February 1, 1893, p. 1.

“State News.” Forrest City Times, December 2, 1892, p. 1.

“Two Negroes to Hang.” Osceola Times, December 10, 1892, p. 3.

Mark K. Christ
Central Arkansas Library System