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.
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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 