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Ben Cravens Ferrotype- Outlaw No Jail Could Hold Ben Cravens Ferrotype- the Outlaw No Jail Could Hol

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Photographic Images Start Price:1.00 USD Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,000.00 USD
Ben Cravens Ferrotype- Outlaw No Jail Could Hold Ben Cravens Ferrotype- the Outlaw No Jail Could Hol
<B>Ben Cravens Ferrotype- the Outlaw No Jail Could Hold.</B></I> Benjamin Crede Cravens was born in the 1860s to hard-working farming parents. He was uncontrollable as a child and was arrested the first time for vandalizing his Missouri schoolhouse in retaliation for being disciplined. He was jailed and soon escaped (pay attention, there's a pattern here). In 1890 he drifted to Chataqua County, Kansas where he worked as a cowboy, though he soon found horse-thieving to be more profitable. He built strong associations with a number of the Indian nations in the area during this time and sold them bootlegged liquor for which he was arrested and jailed. He escaped. He then added "cattle thief" to his resume and was arrested for that. He was jailed. He escaped- this time taking most of the other prisoners with him. Next up was robbery- banks, post offices, and stores. He was really good at this profession and always seemed to escape capture by some pretty fancy (and fast) shooting. It was during this period that he was shot by a posse while planning a bank job, landing him a sentence of 20 years hard time to be spent on a prison coal-mining work detail in Kansas. He escaped by wrapping a gun-shaped piece of wood with tin foil. In 1901, Cravens and a partner held up the post office at Red Rock, Oklahoma. They shot and killed the postmaster. Cravens escaped once again in a shootout that left a Deputy Sheriff dead. The reward on his head was upped to $10,000 but he had disappeared from sight. He continued his criminal activities but his luck was running out. Under the alias of Charles Maust, he received a prison term in 1908 for stealing a horse in Missouri. The prison barber there recognized him as Cravens and he then was sent to Leavenworth in 1912 for the postmaster's murder. This time he didn't escape and he spent most of the rest of his days in prison. <BR><BR>This exceedingly rare 1/6th plate tintype is of a respectable-looking Cravens in his well-known wide-brimmed hat. It was likely taken during a short period where he earned an honest living as a farmer in Kansas. It is 2.5" x 3.75" in size and in very fine condition with the left corners clipped off. A binder containing biographical information and comparable photos on Ben Cravens will be included with the lot.