Re: Afro Amer. Tobler Family From Ok.
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In reply to:
Afro Amer. Tobler Family From Ok.
12/09/99
From The Kansas Historical Quarterly, Aug 1950, an article by Louise Barry about legal hangings in Kansas.
"...among the murder cases orignally scheduled for the 1887 term of the federal court at Wichita were those of the Creek Indian-Negro brothers Jake and Joe Tobler. A postponement of their cases was secured by counsel, and these criminals who had murdered two white men in August 1855, were not tried until September, 1888." later in the article,"Judge C.G. Foster on September 15, sentenced the criminals to be executed on November 21, 1888. On that date, they were hanged simultaneously inside the Sedgewick county jail. The trap was sprung by Deputy U.S. Marshall Jack Stilwell of Fort Reno. Although few witnessed the actual executions, the double doors on the north side of the jail eeere thrown open before the bodies were cut down and "a crowd of some thousand persons passed along the sidewalk in view of the swinging bodies of the two men." These were the last legal hangings in Wichita."