Benjamin W Richson: Murder 2nd Degree

Benjamin W Richson was born About 1864 in Georgia. He abandoned a wife and headed to California.



Inmate #14298 Folsom Prison then transferred to San Quentin Prison
Rec: 7 Oct 1890
Crime: Murder 2nd Degree
Term: 25 years
Age: 26
Discharged: 6 Feb 1905






I found no genealogy information on Benjamin. I did however find two interesting newspaper articles:

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34309267/benjamin_richson/

He was pursuing a 14 year old girl and her father who was a widow raising her and two sons, did not appreciate his advances toward his daughter Maggie Netherland. She also was not interested in Benjamin, knowing he had a wife he had abandoned. 

While Benjamin was in prison his cell mate Peter Brown was cold and started a fire in their cell #47 in San Quentin. The fire was made from a board and the cell filled with smoke and alerted the guards. Once the fire was out and "Lights Out" was called Brown started to make another fire and Benjamin told him not to and a fight ensued and both inmates had knives and a nasty knife fight ensued and Brown being stabbed 22 times from his skull to his ankles. After Brown fell to the floor Benjamin and the third cell mate Cotes laid down rolled up in their blankets and went to sleep without calling a guard to help the man. Here's the article.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34309779/benjamin_richson/

Benjamin was a hard man, who most likely had a hard life. I want to know more about him and who was his wife? How did she survive without him, did he leave kids behind? 

I made Benjamin a tree on Ancestry and I will continue to work on it, hoping to find more information.


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