During the time he served on the bench in Indian Territory, Judge Isaac Parker's court was famous throughout the world. Known as "the hanging judge," Parker was not the stereotype of the rough, fire-breathing frontier judge. He was articulate and impassioned about the rule of law. But he served at a time that epitomized the lawless Old West. With non-tribal whites pouring into the territory, a vicious crime wave swept the region. For two decades, Judge Parker's mission was to establish law and order. He did that in part by hanging eighty-eight men who appeared before his bench.