Orpheus McGee (Execution of)

On April 21, 1876, a twenty-three-year-old Native American man named Orpheus McGee was hanged at Fort Smith (Sebastian County). He was convicted of murdering a white man named Robert Alexander in April 1875. He was one of five men who were hanged that day.

According to an April 22, 1876, article in the Chicago Daily Tribune, McGee and his brothers Dave and Charles owned land on the Red River in Choctaw country. They, along with their brother-in-law Moses Horner, were “known throughout the country as a wild and reckless set of men.” An April 21 article in the Arkansas Gazette added that Orpheus McGee (here called McGill) was a “hardened, desperate-looking man,” and the gang had been “the terror of the country,” participating in midnight robberies and disappearances. Their white neighbors, Robert and W. V. Alexander, often assisted deputies in investigating them, worsening the animosity between families.

In April 1875, Orpheus, Dave, and Moses lured Robert Alexander out of a friend’s cabin with a turkey call. After Alexander left the cabin in pursuit of the turkey, the neighbor heard two shots, and Alexander never returned. The neighbor and W. V. Alexander went to search the following morning and found the body, which had been robbed. The McGees apparently bragged about the murder to some friends, and they were found with Alexander’s gun and some of his belongings. Orpheus McGee was captured a few months later, and Moses Horner was killed as authorities were trying to arrest him. Dave McGee was eventually acquitted.

On April 25, 1876, the Arkansas Gazette noted that Orpheus McGee had tried to escape in September 1875. He reportedly tried to run through a partially open jail door and misjudged the distance. He managed to roll out the door but was shot three times by the marshals: “With every shot the Indian gave vent to a war whoop that was heard the length and breadth of Fort Smith. He was a brave, powerful man, and it was only after a hard fight that he was subdued.”

According to the Dallas Morning Record, McGee was tried and convicted in January 1876; his attorneys filed a motion for a new trial, which was denied. On February 5, he was sentenced to death. On April 21, the Gazette reported that the sentencing hearing had attracted people “for miles and miles around.” Author Jerry Akins quoted the February 9, 1876, Fort Smith New Era, which described McGee and two others convicted of different crimes: “The appearance of these three children of Lot would sadly disappoint those whose knowledge of the noble red man is derived solely from Cooper’s stories or similar creations of fiction. In fact they were a shabby set; two of them under-sized, the third (McGee) large and burly; all of an indefinable dirty color, with a very small amount of intelligence discernible in their physiognomies. It was plain that the brute predominated in their organizations fitting them for the heinous deeds they will have to suffer death for.”

On the day of the hanging, the Gazette noted, “The stoic Indians, the negro and the white man, all appear to be unconscious that the day of their death is so near at hand. In truth they, for some time, have expressed a perfect willingness to die.” (The idea of the “stoic Indian” is a common trope in reports of such executions.)

According to Akins, by the time of the hanging on April 21, thousands of spectators had gathered in Fort Smith. The prisoners, under guard, exited the prison at 11:00 a.m. As they climbed to the scaffold, “they ascended without showing fear or emotion.” The sentence and death warrant for the three Native Americans in the group were read by an interpreter. McGee, when asked to speak, said that “he was ready and willing to go and sure of salvation.” The trap door opened at 11:53 a.m., and the crowd then began to leave. After the bodies had hung for sixteen minutes, the men were pronounced dead.

For additional information:
Akins, Jerry. “Hangin’ Times in Fort Smith.” Journal of the Fort Smith Historical Society 26 (September 2002): 4–9. Online at https://uafslibrary.com/fshsj/26-02_Complete_Issue.pdf (accessed November 20, 2024).

Dallas Daily Record, January 13, 1876, p. 1.

“Hanged.” Chicago Daily Tribune, April 22, 1876, p. 5.

“Hanging Day.” Arkansas Gazette, April 21, 1876, p. 1.

Untitled. Arkansas Gazette, April 25, 1876, p. 4.

Nancy Snell Griffith
Davidson, North Carolina