Source Information
Defendant Jacket Files for U.S. District Court Western Division of Arkansas, Fort Smith Division, 1866 - 1900. Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685 - 2004. NAID: 201532. Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group Number 21. The National Archives at Fort Worth. Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.A.
About Fort Smith, Arkansas, U.S., Criminal Case Files, 1866-1900
This database consists of criminal court cases of such famous outlaws as Wyatt Earp and "Cherokee Bill" Goldsby. Many of these 50,000 cases were heard by the famous "hanging" Judge Isaac C. Parker, appointed by President Grant to bring law and order to the territory of Arkansas. The descriptions provide the first and last name of the defendant, the type of crime, the year, the jacket number, and other information. When using the browse feature, Jacket Number will put the user at the beginning of a Jacket number section. Records in a Jacket Number section share the same jacket number, and are then organized (roughly) alphabetically by last name of the primary defendant.
