Colorado Bill and the Hanging Judge

William Elliott, also known as "Colorado Bill;"
He didn't grow up a real man, just one who knew how to kill.
Four dead in four states
While Justice just waits,
And Bill stayed in the Choctaw Nation for a spell.

Then Bill killed David Brown and his soul became darker.
But the law ran him down and sent him off to Judge Parker.
Fort Smith's "Hanging Judge,"
On the law he wouldn't budge,
So Bill was hung and buried with a two-bit marker.

Thomas Thompson and James O'Holeran: whiskey runners

O'Holeran and Thompson sold whiskey to the Chickasaw
For gold dust and pelts and a romp with a squaw
Then Thompson did kill
And throw down a well
His partner for saying he wanted it all

Now Thompson was jailed on account of the grudge
And given his turn before the Hanging Judge
He told all his lies
Then said his good-byes
Til the noose round his neck left a thick bloody smudge

John Stephens: ax murderer

John Stephens left the Delaware reservation
He sought witnesses with the intent of retaliation
Annie Kerr and Dr. Pyle
Had testified at his trial
So he upped his larceny to mutilation

Into the first house Stephens did creep
He found Kerr and her son sound asleep
With an ax he did culp
Leaving both a bloody pulp
Forgetting "what you sow you shall reap."

He went on to the home of Dr. Pyle
They say what he did there took awhile
He caved in two heads
Then beat their child until dead
And when he left they say he did smile

Judge Isaac Parker handled the case
That publicized John Stephens disgrace
The testimony revived
Cause Dr. Pyle's wife survived
And a noose was quickly fastened in place

Malachi Allen: lost temper, lost arm, lost life

Have ya' heard of Malachi Allen?

He was just another foolish felon

who thought pure cussedness would serve him well.

He swore his life was goin' ta' Hades,

as a gunman in the eighteen-eighties,

but if it was... his choices paid the bill.

He quarreled with Cy an' Shadrach

over a saddle an' tack,

an' shot them both dead in the Chickasaw Nation.

It was the fifteenth of July

when he done in Shadrach an' Cy,

proven he cared not a wit fer' human relations.

A posse was assembled,

of his peers it did resemble,

an' Deputy Marshall McAlester led the way.

They cornered the desperado,

but peacefully he would not go,

so they fought a vicious gun battle that day.

Malachi came ta' harm

with a bullet in his arm,

he tried ta' fight but could not pull the trigger.

So he was apprehended,

his futile flight up-ended,

the posse saw the irony an' snickered.

To Fort Smith they all came,

where Isaac Parker gained fame,

as the judge who loved ta' hang 'um high.

Malachi's arm they did amputate,

another casualty of his hate,

but it did not stop his appointed day ta' die.

On the gallows he heard townfolk jest,

as they watched in their Sunday best,

cuz' a hangin' party was a big event.

Now too late ta' be undone,

the cruel acts he did fer' fun,

one final drop an' he would be Hell bent.