Documenting and Analyzing the History of Federal Executions
Charles Perkins
On December 2, 1897, Charles Perkins (alias Henry Whitfield) killed George Miller in Muskogee, Indian Territory. Miller had previously intervened in Perkins’ efforts to talk with Nancy Adkins, a slight which Perkins vowed to avenge.
Perkins, who was Black, was captured in Atoka and returned to Muskogee for trial.
Charles Perkins was convicted of murder in federal court on April 2, 1898, and sentenced to death on April 27.
Indian Sentinel, June 3, 1898
With K.B. Brooks, Perkins was hanged on July 1, 1898; they were the first people hanged under federal jurisdiction in Oklahoma.
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 