CHAPTER 1 The Beginning: The Black Cap 1
CHAPTER 2 Two Men Hanged, Both Cherokees, for Murder 9
CHAPTER 3 "The Awful Doom" 14
CHAPTER 4 "My Father…Brought Me to the Scaffold" 21
CHAPTER 5 "Eight Murderers Tried and Convicted in a U.S. Court" 24
CHAPTER 6 "The Black Cap, The Black Gown: Six Men Atone for Crime" 35
CHAPTER 7 "Doomed: Six Men Condemned to Die at One Time" 38
CHAPTER 8 Four More Executions: "Murder Cries Aloud for Vengeance" 48
CHAPTER 9 The Gallows Gets a Two-Year Hiatus 54
CHAPTER 10 "A Victim for the Gallows: Hanging Too Good for Him" 64
CHAPTER 11 "The Law Vindicated" 70
CHAPTER 12 "Five Trapdoor Angels Sent to that Bourne" 74
CHAPTER 13 Edward Fulsom, Hired Gun or Accidental Accomplice? 84
CHAPTER 14 Cattle Drives, Outlaws, and a Hanging 90
CHAPTER 15 "Three Lives for Six" 94
CHAPTER 16 Three Down, Three to Go 104
CHAPTER 17 Execution of William Phillips 113
CHAPTER 18 James Arcine and William Parchmeal 117
CHAPTER 19 A New Gallows for New Customers 121
CHAPTER 20 Sprole and James Hanged 128
CHAPTER 21 Kitt Ross Executed 133
CHAPTER 22 Lust, Revenge, and Bad Tempers Send Four to Gallows 136
CHAPTER 23 Pat McCarty's Respite Expires, And With It, Patrick McCarty 145
CHAPTER 24 The Executions of Seaborn Kalijah and Silas Hampton 149
CHAPTER 25 Seven Sentenced, Three Hang 153
CHAPTER 26 Gus Bogle 160
CHAPTER 27 His Boots Were His Downfall 164
CHAPTER 28 Three Senseless Murders, Two Hangings 167
CHAPTER 29 "Broke Their Necks: That's What Hangman Maledon Did" 173
CHAPTER 30 "Gallows Fruit" 181
CHAPTER 31 "Murdered the Fiddler" 191
CHAPTER 32 "John Stansberry Hanged for the Murder of His Wife" 194
CHAPTER 33 Boudinot Crumpton, a.k.a. Bood Burris 199
CHAPTER 34 Shepard Busby Hangs for the Murder of Deputy Connelly 203
CHAPTER 35 "Bowing and Smiling, John Thorton Marches Forth" 208
CHAPTER 36 "Lewis Holder, The Slayer of George M. Bickford" 212
CHAPTER 37 The Execution of John Pointer 214
CHAPTER 38 The Execution of Crawford Goldsby, a.k.a. Cherokee Bill 218
CHAPTER 39 Webber Isaacs, Mollie King, Berry Foreman,and George and John Pierce 228
CHAPTER 40 The Buck Gang: Ten-Day Terrors 232
CHAPTER 41 The Last Man to Go: James Calvin Casherego 236
EPILOGUE: THE END OF AN ERA 241
REFERENCES 244
INDEX 246