Among the earliest known usage of the term was for
Welsh judge
George Jeffreys, who was notorious for his rulings during the
Bloody Assizes. Hanging judges have become a fixture of American
Wild West folklore, with
Isaac C. Parker and
Roy Bean among those most consistently cited. Parker sentenced 160 defendants to death during his 21 years at the federal bench, largely due to having jurisdiction over fugitives in the
Indian Territory. Bean, although famously irregular in his administration of law, never had anyone hanged. ==References==