Jack Spaniard, a Cherokee man raised in Cherokee Nation with a criminal record for violence, killed Deputy Marshal William Erwin at Webbers Falls, Indian Territory on April 12, 1886. Spaniard was trying to free Felix Griffin, an associate who Erwin had arrested and was transporting to Fort Smith.
Erwin’s body was found the next day. Despite a $500 reward, Spaniard was not arrested until March 17, 1888. Tried soon after, Spaniard was convicted of murder. He was sentenced to death on April 29, 1889.
Jack Spaniard was hanged at Fort Smith on August 30, 1889.
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Author: Bill Lofquist
I am a sociologist and death penalty scholar at the State University of New York at Geneseo. I am also a Pittsburgh native. My present research focuses on the history of the death penalty in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh), Pa.
This website is dedicated to collecting, analyzing, and sharing information about all Allegheny County cases in which a death sentence was imposed.
Please share any questions or comments, errors or omissions, or other matters of interest related to these cases or to the broader history of the death penalty in Allegheny County.
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The Federal Death Penalty Project 