Bennett The Notorious

One day in 1876, a Ridgefielder was having breakfast at a Philadelphia hotel. As he picked up a silver spoon to stir his coffee, he did a doubletake: His name was on the handle!

Under questioning, the manager said he’d just purchased new spoons from a Philadelphia man. That evening the traveler received correspondence from Ridgefield, saying his home had been burglarized. The arrested suspects possessed a letter from Philadelphia, reporting “Goods received all right and disposed of.” The traveler was among many victims of “the notorious Bennett family,” who stole from houses and businesses, generating “terror” in townspeople while amassing a trove of loot in their Silver Spring Road compound — bold crimes and strange events unheard of in Ridgefield.

Descended from early Ridgefield settlers, Jeremiah Bennett was a farmer and shoemaker who seemed a conscientious citizen. His wife, Adeline, won awards in flower shows. However, during a spate of burglaries, townspeople detected something amiss. “Everyone looked with suspicion toward a certain family, but none dared to accuse,” The Ridgefield Press noted. A new