He Hung 'Em High: Jack Spainard and William Walker- August 30, 1889

On a sweltering summer day in 1889, the gallows of Fort Smith bore witness to the final chapter of two men’s violent legacies. Judge Isaac Parker, had sent many to their deaths, but on this particular day, fate had paired two notorious outlaws for their last breath.

Three years earlier, in April of 1886, U.S. Deputy Marshal William Irwin had arrested Felix Griffin, a horse thief, and was making the long journey back to Fort Smith when he was ambushed on the road.

Among the gang of men who attacked him was Jack Sevier, better known as Jack Spaniard. Gunfire erupted, and Marshal Irwin was shot down, his life taken to facilitate Griffin's escape.

Though several men were suspected of involvement in the attack, only Sevier was caught and held accountable. When he was finally brought before Judge Parker, his fate was sealed with chilling certainty.

The judge’s infamous words rang out in the courtroom: Sevier was sentenced to hang until he was "dead, dead, dead."

Two years after Sevier’s crime, the law set its sights on another killer. William Walker, a gunslinger of ill repute, ended the life of Calvin Church in the Choctaw Nation in December of 1888. Unlike many outlaws who denied their guilt, Walker confessed.

Yet to his dying breath, he insisted he had been hired by an unnamed man to kill Church for two quarters of whiskey and a $10 gold piece.

The confession mattered little in the eyes of the law. Walker’s reckless disregard for life had led him straight to the gallows.

Fort Smith’s infamous hangman, George Maledon, had sent many to their fates. As the summer of 1889 stretched on, he prepared his ropes once more. On that fateful day, Sevier and Walker climbed the scaffold, both staring into the abyss of justice served without mercy.

A short drop, a sudden stop-- two more men joined the long list of outlaws who had faced the law’s final judgment in Fort Smith.