Robert Massey (Execution of)

Robert Massey was hanged at Fort Smith (Sebastian County) on April 13, 1883, for murdering a fellow cowboy in the Indian Territory.

Robert C. Massey was born on September 28, 1856, at Preston, Texas. In 1881, he and Edmond P. Clark, age eighteen, drove a herd of cattle from Dodge City, Kansas, to the Dakota Territory, after which they headed back to their homes in Texas. On December 1, 1881, they camped near the South Canadian River in the Chickasaw Nation. While Clark slept, Massey shot him in the back of the head and then hid his corpse in a nearby hole. He burned Clark’s saddle and clothing and, taking the dead youth’s revolver, rode away on Clark’s gray mare, turning his own worn-out horse loose.

Clark, though, had written home from Abeline, Kansas, to tell his parents that he would be home in time for Christmas. When he failed to show up, his father, John W. Clark, wrote letters to several Kansas newspapers describing his son and seeking information.

In mid-February 1882, a hunter followed wolf tracks to where Clark’s body was hidden. He and some others examined the corpse, finding a bullet hole in the back of the head. One member of the party who had seen the letter to the Kansas papers wrote to Clark’s father, who confirmed that the remains were those of his son. He also found his son’s boots and a spur near his burned belongings.

John Clark tracked Massey for months, finally finding him on April 11, 1882, at a cattle camp near Fort Sill, where he arrested him. He also found his son’s pistol, which Massey had traded with another man. He took Massey in chains to Fort Smith.

At Massey’s trial in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, several cowboys testified that they had seen Massey and Clark together in the days before the latter’s death and that they recognized Clark’s boots and pistol. Massey, who during the trial “was decidedly stoical, and at all times…showed himself devoid of feeling,” testified that he and Clark had argued and that he shot Clark only after he was shot at three times. The jury convicted him of first-degree murder on December 11, 1882, and Judge Isaac C. Parker sentenced him to hang on April 13, 1883. A plea for a presidential commutation of the sentence was refused.

While in jail, Massey was baptized into the Episcopal faith, and when he left the jail at 11:00 a.m. on April 13 to walk to the gallows, his priest began reading a service, leading several of the guards accompanying them to remove their hats. Massey, his arms bound, asked a lawman to remove his. They proceeded to the enclosure where a small group waited, including the victim’s father.

The service concluded on the platform, after which Massey, speaking “cooly and quietly,” said, “I have had no justice, for I am not guilty….I acknowledge I killed him, but it was in self-defense. This is all I have to say on this subject.” The trap door opened at 11:44 a.m. The five-and-a-half-foot drop broke his neck, and “there was not a quiver or movement of the limbs.” He was declared dead twelve minutes later, and his body was taken to Fort Smith’s Oak Cemetery for burial.

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.

“The Fatal Noose,” Daily Arkansas Gazette, April 14, 1883, p. 1.

Riley, Michael Owen. “Capital Punishment in Oklahoma: 1835–1966.” PhD diss., University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 2012. Online at https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/518/ (accessed December 4, 2025).

“Robert C Massey.” Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/81075754/robert-c-massey (accessed December 4, 2025).

“State News.” Russellville Democrat, December 21, 1882, p. 1.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas