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Joseph Gary (July 9, 1821 - October 31, 1906) was best known as the judge who presided over the trial of eight anarchists tried for their alleged role in the Haymarket Riot. Born in Potsdam, New York, USA, he worked as a carpenter, then moved to St. Louis in 1843 to study law, where he practiced for five years. In 1849 he moved to Las Vegas, which was then part of the New Mexico territory, then moved after three years to San Francisco, California, then to Berlin, Wisconsin, before moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1856.
He became a judge in 1863. He presided over the Haymarket Square case in 1886, sentencing anarchists August Spies, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fielden, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, and Louis Lingg to death and Oscar W. Neebe to fifteen years.
There was no evidence that any of the defendants had any connection with the bombing. Gary allowed them to be convicted on the theory that their speeches had encouraged the unknown bomber to commit the act.
In 1888 he was appointed by the Supreme Court to the Appellate Court for the First District of Illinois; he returned to the Cook County Superior Court in 1897. He was still active as a judge at the time of his death.
He has no connection to the city of Gary, Indiana, which was named after Judge Elbert Gary, a business associate of J.P. Morgan, and the first president of U.S. Steel Corp.
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