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Out on the frontier, hangings were more than just a method of executing the guilty, they were a form of entertainment that offered spectators an escape from their everyday lives.
Like many modern forms of entertainment, hangings weren’t just empty spectacle -- they also conveyed important messages to onlookers. Hangings were a stark reminder that while the west may have been wild, law and order still existed there.
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Out on the frontier, hangings were more than just a method
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of executing the guilty. They were a form of entertainment that offered spectators
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an escape from their everyday lives. Like many modern forms of entertainment
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hangings weren't just empty spectacle. They also conveyed important messages to onlookers
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Hangings were a stark reminder that while the West may have been wild, law and order still existed there
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Today, we're going to take a look at what it was actually like to be at a frontier hanging
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Do you have any last words before we begin? New movies typically open on weekends because that's when most people have time to go to the movies
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Frontier hangings were often held on weekends for the exact same reason. It was considered a form of entertainment and it wouldn't be unusual to see an entire family come to watch
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Spectators would often bring blankets and picnic baskets to stake out seats and pass time while waiting for the show
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On occasion, attendees could even purchase concessions and souvenirs. How big did the crowds get
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It is believed the hanging of convicted murderer Charles Waller, which took place in Marshfield, Missouri in 1867
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was attended by approximately 8,000 people. When Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Harold
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and George Atzerodt were sentenced to hang for conspiring to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, interest was so high
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authorities had to make it a ticketed event just to keep the crowds at bay
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Though thousands applied for them, those tickets went mostly to Union soldiers
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court officials, and other dignitaries. While the general public couldn't attend the event itself
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people still gathered outside the gates of the penitentiary where it was taking place
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A contemporary reporter wrote that the streets were filled with restless, impotent people
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willing to spend hundreds of dollars to get in. He described trainloads of others arriving
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throughout the day, country roads clogged with foot traffic, and a general air of excitement in
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the city. A legal hanging was usually a complicated and expensive affair. You couldn't just grab some
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rope and tie it to any old beam, although that did sometimes happen. You were supposed to build
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a platform. There were many different ways to build this platform, but one typical example from
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1875 Arkansas specifies it'd be six feet above the ground with a 12 by 12 inch overhead beam
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supporting the noose ropes and slanted roof in case of rain. The whole affair required lumber, labor, a coffin, rope
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and other materials necessary to build the platform. This cost, which could be considerable
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was usually absorbed by the territorial government. A surviving invoice from the Santa Fe County District Attorney's
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Office of 1849 pegs the price of a hanging, all told, at $110
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a sum equivalent to about $3,500 today. As hangings became more common
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the process became increasingly standardized. A clean hanging would require the knot of the noose
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to be placed on the left side of the prisoner neck which was supposed to knock the individual unconscious The ultimate goal was to break the neck and crush the spinal cord which would result in an immediate demise Failure to do this would result in a so dirty hanging
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where a prisoner would wheeze and thrash and swing for minutes on end. Once the prisoner was secured on the gallows, they would be allowed to address the crowd
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These addresses could vary significantly in length and tone. In 1850, one of five Cayuse Native Americans
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hanged in the Oregon Territory ended his life by asking, did not your missionaries teach us
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that Christ perished to save his people? So we pass to save our people
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In 1859, abolitionist John Brown was sentenced for his failed attempt to take the arsenal at Harper's Ferry
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When he got his chance to address the crowd, he denied his guilt. But he said that if it was necessary for him to forfeit his life in furtherance of justice for the enslaved, he accepted his fate
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Henry Plummer, the leader of Montana's Plummer Gang, was slightly less eloquent
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Hanged in 1874, Henry is said to have begged for his life and even offered body parts like his tongue, hands, and ears in exchange for being allowed to live
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Unfortunately for him, he didn't find any takers, and long story short, wound up being grabbed out of his bed
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and strung up by a mob of vigilantes. The last words of Jack McCall, the man who famously killed
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Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood, South Dakota, are disputed. Executed in 1877, some accounts have McCall asking the marshal
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to tighten the noose around his neck, while others have him crying out for rescue
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After a prisoner had spoken their final words, the noose was placed around their neck
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and their head was covered with a fabric hood. Despite the hood, many prisoners just kept on talking
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But keeping them silent wasn't really the point. There were two reasons for the hood
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First, it would keep the prisoner from seeing the trap door open beneath them
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Second, it would protect the crowd from seeing the decedent's bulging eyes and contorted expression
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To make an understatement, even under ideal circumstances, a hanging could be disturbing
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But when it went wrong, it could be really disturbing. Take the story of Thomas Edward Blackjack Ketchum
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Blackjack was the leader of a gang of train robbers that had been active in the Southwest during the 1890s
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He was eventually apprehended and convicted for felonious assault upon a railway train
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He was sentenced to die in Clayton, New Mexico in 1900. After his sentencing, Ketchum spent some time in prison
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waiting on the outcome of his appeal. During that time, he is said to have
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gained a considerable amount of weight, which may have played a role in the bizarre outcome
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of Ketchum's hanging. Whatever the cause, when the platform dropped, Black Jack Ketchum lost his cranium Sheriff Salome Garcia who witnessed the event reported that Ketchum head had been severed from his body by the fall His body landed squarely upon its feet
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stood for a moment, swayed, and fell. Losing one's head wasn't the only risk, though
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This was demonstrated by Tom Horn, who was hanged in Wyoming in 1903
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Reports state that Horn didn't drop far enough for his neck to snap and instead was left swinging
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at the end of the rope for a full 17 minutes until his heart finally gave out
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Justice on the frontier could be unforgiving, and it wasn't unusual to see more than one hanging at a time
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Sometimes the gallows could even get downright crowded. Such events were common in the jurisdiction
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of Judge Isaac C. Parker of Arkansas. He sat on the bench in Fort Smith
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and was nicknamed the Hanging Judge for reasons you can probably guess
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In fact, during his two decades as judge, Parker sentenced 160 people to die by hanging
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although only about half of those were actually carried out. On one notable occasion in September of 1875
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Parker sent six men to their deaths at the same time. This mass hanging represented the maximum carrying capacity
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of the Fort Smith gallows. Naturally, thousands showed up to watch. Yet even that wasn't the largest hanging event to take place
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Not even close. In 1862, during the conflict known as the Dakota War
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roughly 300 Dakota warriors were captured and sentenced to death. Before the executions could be carried out, however
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President Abraham Lincoln commuted the sentences of all but 39. The public was disappointed, and this clemency quite possibly
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cost Lincoln and his party the state of Minnesota in the next election
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Nonetheless, when informed that a higher execution rate might have secured him an electoral majority
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Lincoln is said to have replied, I could not afford to hang men for votes
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This hanging remains to this day the largest mass execution in American history
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A hanging could produce some pretty macabre sights. For example, a dancing dead man
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You see, while the hands and arms of the prisoner were typically pinned down, the lower extremities were left free. An individual being hanged could
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still move their legs as though they were walking or riding a bike. This kicking and flailing looked
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a bit like a jig and was often referred to as dancing on air or the Texas cakewalk. Flailing
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legs, however, wasn't the worst of it. The condemned person's bladder and bowels often
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emptied themselves while they hung. Officials would try to keep the mess to a minimum by tying
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the prisoner's pants to his legs, but it wasn't really a foolproof system
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As technology improved the proliferation of newspaper media and photography resulted in an ever public fascination with hangings According to one expert photographers would try and shoot the body as quickly as possible
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and the images were sold right on the spot in the form of view cards and postcards
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This fascination held true not just for legal hangings, but also lynchings and the punishments
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that were inflicted upon border raiders. In fact, the first known photo was in Texas
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shows the hanging of three such border raiders who stormed the town of Brownsville in 1859
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Photos like that not only show historical events of the frontier, but also help shape the public's perceptions of the landscape
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and the people who inhabited it. Some things never change, and one of those things
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is the power of the press. Newspapers then, like now, were responsible
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for keeping people informed about noteworthy events, like executions. For example, after those six felons were hanged on the same day in Fort Smith, the local paper
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ran a headline that proclaimed it Execution Day. But this type of post-event wrap-up was only one
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aspect of the newspaper's involvement. They also kept the public up to date on recent developments
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in high-profile legal proceedings. Much like our modern media, the frontier press loved to play up
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the dramatic elements of stories. Take the case of William Jackson Marion, who was executed in 1887
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for slaying his friend, a man named John Cameron. After his arrest, the local paper printed an article
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that reported Marion had been a bad man for some years. Marion pled not guilty, but he was convicted
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before a large audience at the Gage County Opera House. The media attention surrounding his case
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no doubt contributed to the huge crowds that turned out on March 25, 1887 to see him hang
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The public was absolutely fascinated with these grisly events. As such, they eventually fostered an entire genre of folk ballads
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These songs recounted tales of the lives and deaths of men like Tom Horn
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and others like him who perished in the gallows. One song, which was popular after Horn's death, contained the lyrics
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Tom Horn, Tom Horn, he killed Willie Nickle, so now he has to die
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He killed Willie Nichols, so he's got to swing high. It's catchy, but tough to dance to
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Other songs were meant to remind aspiring outlaws of the kinds of things that could bring them to the gallows
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namely violence over a woman. Take the song Arizona Killer, whose lyrics go
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I want to warn you, fellas, and tell you one by one what makes a gallows rope to swing, a woman and a gun
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The song Fuller and Warren makes a similar point about women's roles in the crimes committed by men
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In the song, Fuller falls in love with Warren's fiance. When Warren decides to marry the girl anyway, Fuller shoots him
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As Fuller goes to the gallows, the crowd of 10,000 people and guards alike all lament his fate
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and reflect on how the woman is the one who should have been hanged. Tough crowd
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