Did George Maledon really supervise over half of the executions on the gallows?
Remembered today as the “prince of Hangmen,” George Maledon’s actual work at Fort Smith is much more difficult to document. Employed as a night guard in the jail, records indicate that Maledon supervised executions from the mid-1880s until 1891, and then again in 1894. He stopped working for the federal court in 1894, and began traveling the area with a tent display showing gallows relics, including nooses and photographs of the men who died on the gallows. Maledon was not the only jailer who participated in the executions. Contemporary newspaper accounts mention other jailers as well.
