Crawford Goldsby was convicted in the federal court at Fort Smith, Arkansas, of two murders committed less than nine months apart. The first victim, Ernest Melton, died at Lenapah in the Cherokee Nation on November 9, 1894. The second, Lawrence Keating, was a guard at the federal jail at Fort Smith, where Goldsby was held awaiting the outcome of his appeal; he died on July 26, 1895. The court convicted Goldsby of the Melton murder in February 1895 and of the Keating murder in August 1895. The Supreme Court affirmed the first conviction in December 1895, and he was executed in Fort Smith on March 17, 1896.
Goldsby was born in February 1876 at Fort Concho, Texas. By his late teens he was living in Indian Territory, in the Cherokee Nation, and had come to the attention of the authorities there.
In 1894 he was one of a gang that carried out robberies across the Cherokee and Creek Nations.
Ernest Melton died at Lenapah, in the Cherokee Nation, on November 9, 1894. He is the victim named in the indictment. Two other men of the gang were with Goldsby that day; they were not tried with him on this charge.
Goldsby was taken into custody in late January 1895 and lodged in the federal jail at Fort Smith.
A grand jury indicted him on February 8, 1895, for the murder of Ernest Melton. He pleaded not guilty before the court's judge.
The trial in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Western District of Arkansas began in late February 1895. His lawyer offered an alibi. Defense witnesses placed Goldsby between Fort Gibson and Tulsa, about 75 miles from Lenapah, at the time of the crime. The prosecution called eyewitnesses who identified him. A witness who had been at a dance after the killing testified that Goldsby had said he did not intend to kill Melton and had meant only to frighten him.
The jury returned its verdict within days: "Guilty as charged in the indictment." On April 13, 1895, the judge denied a motion for a new trial and sentenced him to death, setting the date for June 25.
On April 29, 1895, the defense appealed to the United States Supreme Court, assigning fourteen errors: two on refused continuances, three on witnesses at government expense, four on the admission or rejection of testimony and five on the jury charge. The appeal suspended the June 25 date.
The Court decided the case on December 2, 1895, in an opinion by Justice White. It held that rulings on continuances and on summoning witnesses at government expense were within the trial court's discretion, that the testimony challenged by the defense had been properly admitted or excluded, and that the objections to the jury charge failed because the defense had asked for no specific instructions. The judgment was affirmed.
While the appeal was pending, Goldsby remained in the federal jail at Fort Smith. On the evening of July 26, 1895, Lawrence Keating, a guard, died during an escape attempt there.
The trial for the Keating murder took place in August 1895 before the same court. The jury took about thirteen minutes to find him guilty, and the judge sentenced him to death. Goldsby's lawyers appealed this verdict as well.
On January 13, 1896, the court was told that the Supreme Court had affirmed the Melton conviction. That decision made the pending Keating appeal moot in the court's view, and the judge set March 17, 1896, for the execution. Goldsby was executed in Fort Smith on that date, with the Keating appeal still undecided. Seven weeks later, on May 9, 1896, the Solicitor General of the Department of Justice wrote to the United States Attorney at Fort Smith to ask whether the judgment in the first case had been carried out and whether Goldsby was dead.
Goldsby was tried in federal court because the offenses were committed in Indian Territory, outside the jurisdiction of any state. The indictment for the Melton murder placed the crime in the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian country, and described the victim as a white man and not an Indian, which was the basis on which a United States court, and not a tribal court, could try the case. The Circuit Court of the United States for the Western District of Arkansas sat at Fort Smith, and appeals in capital cases went directly to the Supreme Court. That route is why the Melton conviction reached the Supreme Court within eight months of the verdict.
A further killing has been attributed to Goldsby, with no date, place or charge on record. It was never tried and is not counted among his victims.
The Melton killing is dated November 9, 1894, in most histories, while the indictment as quoted in the Supreme Court's opinion places it on November 18.
February 1876: Goldsby is born at Fort Concho, Texas.
November 9, 1894: Ernest Melton dies at Lenapah, Cherokee Nation.
Late January 1895: Goldsby is taken into custody and held at the federal jail at Fort Smith.
February 8, 1895: indicted for the murder of Ernest Melton.
Late February 1895: verdict "Guilty as charged in the indictment."
April 13, 1895: sentenced to death.
April 29, 1895: appeal to the Supreme Court.
July 26, 1895: Lawrence Keating dies at the federal jail at Fort Smith.
August 1895: convicted of the murder of Lawrence Keating and sentenced to death.
December 2, 1895: the Supreme Court affirms the Melton conviction.
January 13, 1896: the court sets March 17 for the execution.
March 17, 1896: executed in Fort Smith.