The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1911-03-23
SAYS BEN CRAVENS IS IN MIS-
SOURI, PRISON. y
Ohacer from Lansing Identifies Con.
Wet IS Lucky Outlaw for Whose
Capture Big Reward IL or
fered. Once Pursued
I'm this County.

In this County.
A press dispatch from Leaven-
worth, Kansas, Saturday. says:
THAT Ben Cravens. the desperate
who escaped from the Kansas peni-
Tertiary November Is, 1900, Is serv-
| ing a sentence for grand larcency in
| the Missouri penitentiary under the
name of Charles Moss, was the pos
Iitive statement of VIM. Duckett,
Bertillion clerk in the Kansas peni-
Itentiary. Duckett, who had just re-
turned from Jefferson City, identi-
fed Cravens by numerous peculiar
scars on his body"
Rewards offered for Cravens' ar
rest once aggregated $4,000, OF
(which $4,000 was differed by the
IOkalahoma Anti-Horsethief. Associa-
ton.
Cravens had just begun to serve
q twenty-year sentence for murder
in Oklahoma, when, with two other
prisoners, he escaped from the Kan
sas prison. Cravens and his COM
panions had manufactured dummy
revolvers from wood and tinfoil with
which they surprised their guards.
They were pursued by a posse which
I killed one of the three fugitiveS.
Cravens escaped and was never To-
Gated until his Identification today.
| The clew to Cravens' whereabouts
was given to the Kansas prison off,
Gals through an anonymous letter
from an Illinois town. 1t Is believed
the letter was written by a man who
ILox1 coruoI oontonro IN tho Mic.
souri, penitentiary.
Cravens, E. E. Estell and Samuel
Smith escaped from the Kansas pen
itentiary November 1, 1900, by
using dummy revolvers made OF
wood. They were at work in the
bottom of a coal shaft when they
suddenly flashed the wooden revolv-
ers upon the guard. He was bound
and gagged and the hoist signal was
given. At the top of the shaft they
showed their dummy revolvers at the
guards whom they marched to a
gate which the tower man opened
at the order of the guard. Outside
the walls they took rifle from the
guard. Smith was killed and the
others escaped.
l
but officers never got near Cravens.
Cravens was an outlaw with a long
record of crime in Oklahoma.
! Ben Cravens is son of Aaron
Cravens living north of Lineville,
and a brother of VIM. Cravens, liv-
ing north of Mercer. The discovery
of him in the Jefferson City peniten-
tiary recalls the story of his alleged
visit to this county in October 1907,
and an attempt made to capture him.
| Mercer county officials got a tip
that Cravens was here. The news
came through a man residing in the
neighborhood north of Mercer, who,
while intoxicated, made the remark,
that the outlaw was visiting at the
home of his brother. An investi-
cation by officials found several men
who declared they had met him. 1t
is also said that he visited a store
in mercer and made himself known
to the proprietor who knew Cravens
in his boyhood days.
Frank " Minter, then sheriff OF
this county, made an attempt to cap
ture Cravens. He deputized H. T.
Moore, John T. Cook and DR.. E. w.
Stacy to assist him. Heavily armed,
they drove to the home of VIM. GRAY
ems one dark night and surrounding
the house, concealed themselves un-
tn daylight. They then searched the
house and premises but did not find
their man. VIM. Cravens declared
that his brother had not been there
VIM. Cravens is an honored resi-
ndet of that neighborhood and is q
good law-abiding citizen. The off,
GERS could not doubt his word. Many
believed, however, that while the
outlaw may not have been at the
home of his brother, he was possibly
in the neighborhood and knowing OF
the officers coming, gave them the
slip.
Cravens has charmed life
Among many crimes, he is wanted
for the murder of Alvin Bateman
at Red Rock, Okla, March 10, 1901,
and for the killing of Tom Johnson,
at Pawnee, March 10, of the same
year Both Of these murders were
committed after Cravens had es-
capped from tho Kansas penitentiary
at Lansing.
Cravens and E. S. Estell, both
serving life sentences in the peni-
Tertiary at Lansing, escaped from
the guards November II, 1900. 1t
was thought that Estell was wound
ed in the fight that took place at
the time. The fate of the two out
laws and the injuries of Estell re-
manned secret until March 18, 1901,
when one of the most remarkable
crimes in the history of Oklahoma
was committed at Red Rock.
In Red Rock B. F. Swortz con-
Quoted a typical country store. In
the back of the one large room a
banking concern and Office were con-
Quoted behind a partition. Nine
men were congregated around the
big box stove when two bandits en-
tered the store one from the front
door and one by way of the back
door.
The one entering the front door
was Ben Cravens and he was armed
with a Winchester rifle. The other
man was his pal, Bert Welty, and he
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