A Hanging in Nacogdoches: Murder, Race, Politics, and Polemics in Texas's Oldest Town, 1870-1916

Chapter Fourteen. A Hanging in Nacogdoches

chapter fourteen A Hanging in Nacogdoches word soon spread outside the courthouse that Buchanan had pleaded guilty and been sentenced to death, but that Judge Davis had given the condemned man the required thirty days to appeal the sentence. He ordered the prisoner returned to Rusk Penitentiary. It soon became obvious that Buchanan wasn’t going anywhere. As Fuller later wrote in Spradley’s biography: There was an ominous stillness in the atmosphere as the dense crowd milled around the streets. There were no paved streets in those days. The old public well was in the center of the square. A fence was around it, and several chinaberry trees stood on the inside of the fence. Practically all business was at a standstill.1 Soon, small clusters of white men gathered and began entering local stores, bringing out empty cardboard boxes and more recruits, saying, again and again, “Men with nerve come at once to the public square.” Soon hundreds of men, nearly all of them armed, were busy piling up drygoods boxes in a corner of the square.2 The soldiers continued to protect the courthouse, but made no effort to stop the men from constructing what was intended to be Buchanan’s funeral pyre—except that the convicted murderer would be very much alive when the kindling was lighted beneath him. Couriers were sent to find Judge Davis, who was enjoying his leisurely lunch. Former district attorney I. M. Imboden and John Garrison, described as another “leading citizen” of the community, made speeches imploring the men to do nothing rash, that the “negro would be executed legally and almost at once if they would be patient.”3 The crowd, however, was in no mood for fine words and reassurances; those present were more interested in violence than verbosity. As the Shreveport Times writer put it, “They were hungry for vengeance on the A Hanging in Nacogdoches { 119 lecherous brute who had been doomed to die, and they were determined that there should be no long drawn out legal delays.”4 Davis quickly returned to the courthouse and conferred with the sheriff . Spradley told the judge that he was helpless to stop the mob, now numbering several hundred, from burning Buchanan alive, and it didn’t appear that the soldiers were going to do much to prevent it from happening , either. Davis ordered Spradley to call the court back into session and have Buchanan returned to the bar. Surely Buchanan knew by then that a far grislier—and more painful —fate awaited him if the crowd got hold of him. Despite his youth, certainly he had heard stories of other prolonged tortures, of black men who had had their genitals severed, their fingers pulled off one by one, their bodies skinned alive, all in an attempt to cause as much pain as possible before death. No doubt he realized, as he listened through the open windows of the courthouse to the shouts and curses of angry men lusting to inflict as painful and torturous a death as possible upon him, that hanging —although neither relatively quick nor painless—was preferable to being burned alive. Or worse. Davis asked Buchanan if he wished to waive his right to appeal and be hanged at once. As Fuller put it, “The trembling culprit who had so wantonly and fiendishly murdered the helpless Hicks family answered hardly above a whisper that he desired to waive the time set by the court and would be hung at once.”5 Well, not quite at once. Major Raines, commander of the five companies of soldiers charged with protecting Buchanan and ensuring justice was done, was in a quandary. He managed to get a telegram off to Governor Sayers at 10:33 a.m. (original punctuation): Nacogdoches, Texas, October 17th, 1902 Governor Sayers, Austin Texas The prisoner has waived all rights and wants to be hung at once will be done by sheriff shall I turn him over to the Sheriff the district judge and Sheriff say this is legal. I have written order from sheriff to allow him, the sheriff to hang prisoner at once telegraph in haste. G. P. Raines, Maj. Commanding6 The governor responded quickly, sending the following telegraph to Davis: As Major G. P. Raines of the Volunteer Guard has been directed to obey your orders and instructions in all matters respecting the custody 120 } A Murder, a Manhunt, a...