Boys

“Anti-Thieving Association” offered a $50 reward, inspiring a private detective to spy on the Bennetts and on July 21, 1876, Jerry Bennett, 47, Adeline, 48, and sons Mortimer, 18, and Frank, 16, were arrested. A search of their house and barn uncovered stolen accordions, fiddles, watches, fingerrings, bracelets, diamond pins, perfume, guns, gold and silver thimbles, watch-chains, and other plunder.

The day after the arrests, “nearly every able-bodied man” in town responded to a call to search Silver Spring Swamp for George, 23, and Arthur, 20, Bennett sons believed to be hiding there. “Guns were aplenty, pistols numerous,” The Press said. “It was a motley but courageous crowd.” The “chosen brave” entered the swamp. “At every sound, each one grasped his fire piece more firmly and peered into the bushes,” The Press said. By sunset, nothing was found. “Our ‘chosen brave’ were in a pitiful plight.” Some “had been immersed in slough holes, others had been lacerated by briars and thorns.”

Meanwhile, the four arrested Bennetts were jailed under bonds totaling $4,800 — $120,000 today. All pleaded not guilty. Then Jerry and Mortimer proposed “whistling” to capture George and Arthur, figuring the fugitives could clear them of any crimes. A constable took Mortimer to the swamp’s edge, where he tried “to whistle them out.” For an hour, Mortimer whistled, but no one came.

National newspapers carried colorful accounts. The Washington (D.C.) Evening Star told of “two more sons still at large, but a force of men is looking for them, and have driven them into an almost impenetrable swamp southwest of the village where it is believed the brothers have a burrow.”

As farmers along the swamp’s fringes reported chickens stolen, potatoes dug and even cows milked by unknown hands, another more massive hunt was organized. Around 350 men — some from Wilton and South Salem — gathered at the West Lane schoolhouse. “Each man carried at least one fire-piece — and such a variety!” The Press exclaimed. “Some were armed with weapons that did service — and from their appearance, plenty of it — during the Revolutionary War!”

Searchers four feet apart entered the swamp’s north end and moved south.

Almost immediately, “Constable Gilbert sunk into the mud so deep that the top button of his vest only was visible,” The Press said. Others had similar problems but pressed on. Three caves showed signs of use and “a place where the fugitives had done their cooking” was found — but no brothers.

On Aug. 10, the two were spotted with stolen butter and a kettle near the Cannon Station in Wilton. They dropped the goods and fled, but soon broke into a Wilton shirt factory, stealing all the cash. The owner “pursued them, armed with a seven-shooter, and they dropped their plunder,” reported The Hartford Courant. “On Tuesday night, they visited a hotel in Danbury and called for Schenck beer. They were recognized but allowed to depart in peace.”

The brothers next broke into Bailey and Gage’s Store (today, Aldrich Museum offices) stealing guns, ammunition, knives, and cigars. They fled toward the Hudson, but on Monday, Aug. 21, a strange thing happened. Tired of being on the run, Arthur surrendered to older brother Henry Bennett, who lived in Peekskill. Henry handed him over to police, aiming to claim a $100 reward offered by Ridgefield’s selectmen. Arthur knew his family was in trouble, and probably wanted to help financially by letting Henry collect the reward for his capture.

The following day, George Bennett was spotted across the Hudson, and local officers grabbed him. Six Bennetts were now behind bars in Bridgeport.

In September, a jury found half the clan guilty of burglary and theft. Jerry got five years imprisonment, and George and Arthur, 15 years each. Adeline was found not guilty because “she acted … under the influence of her husband [and] criminal intent was lacking.” Mortimer was guilty on one count, but since the goods were valued under $15, he escaped prison. Frank was not prosecuted, perhaps because he was only 16.

The three convicts were sent to the state prison at Wethersfield where both Jerry and George worked in the prison’s shoe shop.

The selectmen gave Henry the $100 reward — $2,500 today. He probably used it to help his impoverished mother. A court declared Jerry an “insolvent and assigned debtor,” and sold his property to pay debts.

In 1886, the New Haven Register reported George had undergone treatment in prison for “very peculiar delusions,” including that “at night he could pass through the keyhole in his cell and go anywhere in the state, but that the moment anyone to whom he appeared touched his body, he would disappear and instantly be back in his cell.”

Arthur, a model prisoner, was paroled in July 1888.

Jerry, released around 1881, moved to Syracuse, N.Y. to live with another son, John, and work as a shoemaker. He died, aged 80, in 1901.

Whatever happened to Adeline and her sons has not been discovered. All quickly left Ridgefield — either as prisoners or as debtors — and probably would have liked to forget their old hometown and what happened here in 1876.

The townspeople likely felt the same way about them. •

Have You Met?

by Carin Weisman