Amos McCurtain was a member of the Choctaw Nation implicated in the murder of two Black men – James McClain and James Blakely – in that nation on September 7, 1869. After encountering the two men as they were traveling, McCurtain decided to kill them and steal their possessions.
After their bodies were found, investigators tracked down McCurtain. McCurtain’s traveling partner, William Fry, who had refused to participate in the scheme, provided evidence against McCurtain.
McCurtain was tried in U.S. District Court for the District of Arkansas and convicted of first-degree murder in November 1869. Sentenced to death in May 1870, he was hanged in Van Buren, Arkansas, on June 24, 1870.
The Federal Death Penalty Project 