William Phillips (Execution of)

William Phillips was hanged at Fort Smith (Sebastian County) on April 17, 1885, after being convicted in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas in the murder of his father-in-law, a crime he denied committing to the end.

William Hill and William Phillips were both farmers in Franklin County’s Hogan Township. Phillips had married Hill’s fourteen-year-old daughter Mary, a union of which Hill did not approve. However, when the couple moved to a farm in the Cherokee Nation about a mile from Fort Smith, Hill moved his family to an adjacent lot on the same farm to be near his daughter.

Phillips and Hill argued frequently, with Phillips often threatening the older man, and Hill eventually moved to a different lot on the farm. When Hill went to Phillips to borrow a farming implement, the son-in-law shot him in the ankle. Hill went to Fort Smith to file an assault-with-intent-to kill complaint, and a grand jury indicted Phillips, who was released on bond and continued to threaten Hill.

On the night of September 8, 1884, someone went to Hill’s cabin “and poking a shotgun through a crack, near to the old man’s bed, blew his brains out.” Phillips was immediately arrested as a prime suspect.

A five-day investigative hearing was held in Fort Smith, and Hill’s son Bob—who was estranged from his father—and a man named John Lackey were arrested as accomplices in the murder. The two were released after testifying against Phillips, and the Arkansas Gazette reported that “Lackey’s testimony is very damaging to Phillips, and will likely break his neck.”

At trial, Phillips claimed that Bob Hill had killed his father, using Lackey’s gun, but Phillips was convicted of first-degree murder on January 20, 1885, based largely on circumstantial evidence. He was one of five men sentenced to hang on April 17, 1885.

Four of the condemned men received presidential commutations of their death sentences, and Phillips expected the same and “had made no preparations to meet his fate,” but on the morning of April 17, he sent for Methodist preacher J. T. Henderson. At 11:00 a.m., Phillips learned that his commutation had been declined and “took the matter with apparent coolness, and shortly afterward partook of his last meal on earth with apparent relish.” The doomed man “maintained his innocence to the last.”

At around 3:00 p.m., the death warrant was read to Phillips, who then “walked firmly to the gallows, ascending the steps without a tremor.” Henderson “offered up a fervent prayer,” and Phillips stepped onto the trap door, where his limbs were bound, a noose tied around his neck, and a black cap placed over his head. Phillips “repeated the Lord’s Prayer to the words ‘Thy will be done,’” and the trap door opened. The Gazette reported that “the body shot through the opening with a ‘dull thud,’” and Phillips’s neck was broken. He was pronounced dead fourteen minutes later, and his body was taken to Ozark (Franklin County) for burial.

For additional information:
“After Seventeen Years.” Arkansas Gazette, September 17, 1884, p. 2.

Akins, Jerry. Hangin’ Times in Fort Smith: A History of Executions in Judge Parker’s Court. Little Rock: Butler Center Books, 2012.

Arkansas Democrat, September 10, 1884, p. 1, col. 3.

“Turned State’s Evidence.” Arkansas Gazette, September 12, 1884, p. 5.

“Yesterday’s Hanging.” Arkansas Gazette, April 18, 1885, p. 1.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas