Volume 14 , Issue 9

Charlie Bias Sentenced to Hang 1899

An online southern historian sent me a copy of some history that I had sent him a few years (2004) back that I had found in the source index in the back of a book by Howard K. Berry, Sr., who wrote about Moman Pruiett - He Made It Safe To Murder. "Charlie Bias' Death Sentence was commuted to Life (See attached DOC file) Charlie Bias case was one of those cases that Moman Pruiett defended back in 1899, going all the way to the US Supreme Court, January 1900.

As the story goes, Charlie Bias was in the Federal prison at Ardmore, I. T. - sentenced to be hanged, January 19, 1900. The scaffold was built -- the inhabitants of the countryside, white, black & Indian, were straining the accommodations of the settlements, hotels and rooms as they came to town for the execution.

The Daily Ardmoreite announced: "People of the Indian Territory should not fail to be at Ardmore on the 19th January 1900, for there the great government of US, represented by deputy US Marshal John Hammer, will provide a festival which will bring to the mind tender suggestions of ancient Israel and Rome. Take your children with you and wait with them, exposed to the elements, as the people of Jerusalem were wont to wait outside the gates for the coming of their victims. Of course, the sport will be less exciting than in the days of Moses, when every body who could throw a stone was allowed to take part in the execution, or in Nero's time when the victims of the law were torn by wild beasts "to make a Roman Holiday," or in the Later days of our own Anglo-Saxon race, when ignorant negroes were artistically tortured to death by refined and civilized men."

The condemned Charlie Bias, pauper, had the same kind of representation at south McAlester where the Territorial court of Criminal Appeals was in session. Pruiett duplicated, embellished fierce forensics of trial court -- the results were the same. Pruiett was drooped, dejected when he returned to the valley. He told his troubles to the Cruce brothers (Andrew "AC" and Will), attorney in Ardmore. They advised Pruiett to make a trip to Washington for a reprieve from President McKinley. Andrew Cruce told Pruiett to get a lot of pull of a few senators, representative to put pressure on. Big time politics wasn't much of a difference from backwoods politics - Its pull and fix that gets results. Attorney Andrew Cravitt "AC" Cruce was a prominent Ardmore attorney, friend, confidante to Moman Pruiett. Their friendship dated to Moman's arrival in Pauls Valley in 1897 and for the next two decades. They shared the defense table, and opposing counsel in murder trials.

Pruiett left the valley the day after Christmas, 1899 for Washington, DC. The Attorney General (Griggs) finally gave Pruiett a hearing, 2:30pm, mid-January 1900. It was transferred to the Solicitor General J. K. Richards (whom was directly opposed to capital punishment). Attorney General Griggs had a death in the family.

January 17, 1900, - Pruiett spent the day in the waiting room of the Solicitor General Richards office pacing the floor while waiting for the decision. Back in Ardmore under a "Death Watch Set," the Daily Ardmoreite carried the related Pruiett news: "negro Chas. Bias was taken from fellow prisoners in US jail and furnished more comfortable quarters to spend the few remaining days of his existence. During his removal today Marshal Hammer notified prisoner of nearness of death, advised him to employ time making peace with his maker. In his cell Bias seems content, nothing to say, wholly in different to his fate on next Friday when he will hang by neck until dead: unless perchance the President's clemency intervenes."

January 18, 1900, 4:00pm: Solicitor General, acting Attorney General, completed, forwarded his report, recommendation to President McKinley. The Times Herald special article, late edition made public the text of the report: "Fight to save human life ended successfully January 18, 1900, when Solicitor General Richards acting Attorney General recommended commutation of sentence for colored Chas. S. Bias [incarcerated at Ardmore, I. T. ] to be hanged next Friday. Pruiett sought many senators and they became interested, chiefly because his mission was purely charitable, because they were told Bias had really killed Wright in fair fight, self-defense. Pruiett (age 27 years) defended 20 murder cases in the country and acquitted all but Bias - had now saved Bias' neck by a miracle." The Washington news write-ups defined Pruiett as a typical southerner, slouch hat -- top boots -- heart full of charity -- head full of brains. The Daily Ardmoreite that had previously decried the contemplating hanging and Roman Holidays - gave this more descriptive than exultant version: "Seated in death cell, with 2 guards, never speaking one word and evidently suffering no mental anguish, when informed last evening that president McKinley commuted his sentence to Life imprisonment and not be hanged, with muscles unmoved and without any apparent effort from gladness or joy, Charlie's only answer was �«All right.'"

The Chickasaw Weekly Enterprise, in Pauls Valley (Moman Pruiett's hometown back then) wrote the following: "Word was received in Ardmore Monday, January 18, 1900, from Washington that sentence of Chas. Bias had been commuted to Life imprisonment. Bias would have been hanged tomorrow. Attorney Moman Pruiett of this city has been in Washington the last 2 weeks working on this case."

Thanks to the Southern Oklahoma Historian of Southern Oklahoma History for reminding me about the Charles Bias case of 1899.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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