There is quite a bit of information on outlaws from the 5 Tribes Domain. But there is very little information on Indian, white and black outlaws who were captured and tried at Fort Smith. Why is this? There are even photos of Indian outlaws on the steps of the Fort Smith court who were transported from Fort Sill or Fort Reno. Diron has made a available some information on these individuals but there is very little to found in a book. "Hell on the Border" said very little about these individuals caught in western Indian Territory. Like to hear what others have to say on this.

Art, Nye's "Carbine and Lance," has a five page chapter on Desperadoes around Ft. Sill.
Basically, I think the problem is that the Ft. Smith court involvement was so short, later cases being heard at Wichita, Kansas, that authors have ignored this arena. And, too, Nye says that no homicides were reported within Ft. Sill for four years after 1876. There were murders and other crimes nearby, but unless they were especially outrageous, Nye says "they hardly excited comment." But, a discussion of the area sounds like something you or Diron might want to do.

"Carbine & Lance" was actually my first introduction into the world of law enforcement history in the Fort Sill area. Years later after first reading that book, I learned through my own research that Nye was only partially correct on most of his narratives and some were just out and out incorrect. The problem is that he only used Fort Sill's original records as source material and didn't dig deeper into newspapers and court records.

I have found a ton of information on the outlaws arrested in the western part of the Territory and the majority actually were arrested and tried during the Van Buren/Fort Smith Courts' tenure from the founding of Fort Sill in 1868 to the loss of criminal jurisdiction in 1883 to the Graham federal court in Texas. After the change in jurisdiction, law enforcement became even more muddled which is rarely discussed in printed material. Whereas at Fort Smith a horse thief would be likely to get at least a year in the penitentiary if convicted, at Graham the same conviction would bring a minimal fine of $10.00 and jail time of 30 days in the county jail which was used by the federal court at the time. Trials of those accused of murder were a bigger joke once the jurisdiction changed to Graham and I believe I have found only one in which a conviction was made and then that was only manslaughter and the man was sentenced to five years in the federal pen. I don't know how much prejudicial attitudes had to do with this attitude of the federal court in Texas but I would not doubt that it had something to do with it.

Any other questions or comments made to this posting I'll be happy to respond to.

Seems this Texas/Oklahoma rivalry goes deeper and longer than suspected. I've always wondered if Nye had used anything more than post records.

If "Outlaws from 'Comanche' Country (not "county") is really what is intended, the book A TEXAS FRONTIER, THE CLEAR FORK COUNTRY AND FORT GRIFFIN, 1849-1887 by Ty Cashion has an incredible bibliography and many, many interesting historical anecdotes regarding outlaws in the Comanche country around Fort Griffin and Albany, Texas; more generally, Shakelford, Throckmorton, Haskell, and Jack counties of West Texas. Of special interest might be John Selman and John Larn, a couple of early "double-agent" vigilante outlaws/lawmen. A visit to the Old Jail Art Center to examine their extensive archival collections is extremely revealing!

vive la historie