Northern Arkansas Lynching of January 1, 1892

Newspapers across the country reported in early 1892 the double lynching of an adulterous couple in northern Arkansas accused of murdering the woman’s husband. Reliable information about what actually occurred is scarce, as reporting on the event occurred months after the fact and was based on second-hand information.

Most of the reports say that a deputy U.S. marshal identified only as Liggett, on returning to Fort Smith (Sebastian County) after “chasing moonshiners” in northern Arkansas, told of the murder of a farmer named Peter Baker and the double lynching of his wife and a man named Johnson.

A more detailed January 9, 1892, article in a California newspaper, citing “a Fort Smith, Arkansas dispatch of this week,” said that “some months ago” farmer Peter Baker was “found murdered in his house and his wife had disappeared.” Neighbors made a half-hearted search for her, but concluded that she “had killed him in one of the many fights which the mountain people indulge in between themselves.”

A man named Jim Johnson left the area at the same time, and no one connected the two disappearances until he and Mrs. Baker came back “and took up their abode in the house where the murder had been committed.”

One night shortly afterward, a group of local people went to their house to ask them “to explain their action and connection with the murder.” When they called out to Johnson, he fired a shot that wounded one of the group, after which they stormed the cabin and dragged the couple outside.

The newspaper reported that “they were stripped stark naked and lashed together, back to back, and then hanged on the same limb with the same rope until they were dead.” The corpses were left hanging from the tree “with an inscription saying that the people would not tolerate such things…and warning evil-minded persons to take care that they did not receive the same punishment.”

For additional information:
“Back to Back.” St. Joseph [Missouri] Gazette, January 19, 1892, p. 1.

“Double Lynching.” Arkansas Democrat, January 18, 1892, p. 1.

“Rather Apocryphal.” Waco [Texas] News-Tribune, January 21, 1892, p. 4.

“Two on One Line.” Merced [California] Express, January 9, 1892, p. 3.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas