Police Officer Ben C. Collins
United States Department of the Interior - Bureau of Indian Affairs
U.S. Government

End of Watch: Wednesday, August 1, 1906
Cause: Gunfire

Biographical Info
Age: Not available
Tour of Duty: Not available
Badge Number: Not available

Officer Collins was shot and killed in Oklahoma by a hitman in retribution for the shooting of an armed fugitive. Officer Collins' murder happened in front of his home and witnessed by his wife.

The suspect was arrested in 1909 for another murder and hung by a lynch mob, along with three other men. The mob had broken into the jail to lynch the murderer of Marshal Zeke Putnam, of the Allen, Oklahoma, Police Department. The suspect was a cousin by marriage of the suspect that killed Deputy Sheriff John Turman in 1898.

Two of Officer Collins' nephews were also shot and killed in the line of duty while serving as police officers in Oklahoma. Patrolman Jim Keirsey, of the Seminole Police Department, was shot and killed on November 7, 1929, and Deputy William Keirsey, of the Carter County Sheriff's Department, was shot and killed on December 10, 1930.

 
Photograph: Police Officer Ben C. Collins

Patch image: United States Department of the Interior - Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Government

Visit Police Officer Collins's memorial at www.ODMP.org