Prof. Taylor examines our never-ending culture of violence in this week’s Taylor Tuesday. Published in the Gainesville Times, November 29, 1988, his Crime Stories column features the career of Isaac “Hanging Judge” Parker, famous (or infamous) for his frequent use of ropes. I’m titling this one as “The Hangman’s Ball”.
A transcript and additional commentary follow the column.
TRANSCRIPT:
Judge Parker would feel at home on TV
If you’ve noticed an unusual number of violent episodes on television lately, you’re not alone.
The talk around breakfast clubs seems to be, “Did you see all those FBI men getting killed?” or, “Did you see the little kids being tortured to death?
“Yes, whether we like it or not, ours is a violence-obsessed society, wallowing in daily doses of hate, greed, corruption and human slaughter. You see, history glaringly demonstrates our deep-rooted obsession with violence, even official violence. Relax for a moment and I’ll tell you about more violence — the case of Isaac C. “Hanging Judge” Parker, the man who was responsible for the phrase, “Dance of Death.”
Having served four years as a Republican congressman from Missouri, Parker was appointed to the federal bench by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1875. His jurisdiction was the Western District of Arkansas, including the crime-ridden Indian Territory of Arkansas and Oklahoma. For the next 21 years, Parker became so obsessed with hanging people that his court became known as “The Court of the Damned.” During that time, he sentenced 172 persons to death, of whom were executed. It’s only fair to state that during this same period, 65 of Parker’s deputies were killed in the line of duty.
Multiple hangings became so common under Parker that thousands flocked to see these “special events.” The most infamous, was the celebrated “Dance of Death” at Fort Smith, Ark., on Sept. 3, 1875. Six men were found guilty of murder and condemned to die on Judge Parker’s special 12-man gallows, constructed by George Maledon, Parker’s lord high executioner. Families came from as far away as 60 miles to witness this event and stood shoulder to shoulder with members of the press from all over the country.
The execution became a circus when some of the condemned began to wave and talk to the crowd. Dan Evans, who had killed an 18-year-old for his boots, surveyed the crowd and yelled, “There are more men down there than me!” Newspaper readers were horrified over the public hangings and Parker was regarded as a monster who enjoyed wholesale executions. Even the prisoners began to sneer at Parker. As time passed, the judge became an object of scorn by the public and most of the prisoners.
In 1895, Judge Parker was about to pronounce sentence on a bandit named Henry Starr, when Starr broke in, “Cut out the rot and save your wind, for if I am a monster, you are a fiend, for I have put only one man to death, while almost as many men have been murdered by your jawbone as Samson slew with the jawbone of that other historic ass.”
For the first and perhaps only time in his life, Parker was struck speechless. Starr’s death sentence was later reversed by the Supreme Court.
Finally Congress had enough and ordered Parker’s removal from the bench a few months after the Starr incident.
Was Parker wrong in his tough application of the law, or was he another product of a violent time in a violent place? Just before his death, Parker stated, “During the 21 years that I have engaged in administering the law here, the contest has been one between civilization and savagery being represented by the intruding criminal class.”
Sound a little familiar to you now in 1988?
Alex Taylor’s column on criminology and history appears in The Times on Tuesdays.
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Familiar then, familiar in 1988, familiar today. My father, perhaps wisely, eschewed a direct political commentary as it might not have favored the personal viewpoints of the paper’s editors. Indeed, our culture of violence existed then as it does today. Movies have spared no imagination in the cruelty and gore splattered upon the screen. Video games have become play-per-view interactions of violent behavior, and many actually reward such behavior (Grand Theft Auto, etc.). Direct comparative attributions are debatable, subjective to age and other dispositions, yet the level of civil disobedience and illegal, falsely-moralized entitlement has become a little more than notable given the severity of recent riots — organized looting mobs, and their political puppeteers. We are as violent and desensitized as we’ve ever been.
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