George L. Wheeler killed his neighbor, Robert McCabe, near Tishomingo, Chickasaw Nation on June 12, 1894. The killing was the culmination of an ordinary dispute.
Wheeler was tried in federal court in Paris, Texas. He was convicted of murder on December 22, 1894, and sentenced to death on January 2, 1895. The testimony of McCabe’s five year old son, the only witness to the killing, was crucial.
George Wheeler was hanged on September 4, 1896. Wheeler, who was white, was hanged first. Two Black men – Silas Lee and Hickman Freeman – were hanged after him.
The Federal Death Penalty Project 