El Paso Herald
El Paso, Texas
September 15, 1910
pg 3

MAN STABBED BY NEGRO
AT SHERMAN MAY LIVE

Sherman, Tex., Sept 15 - M. P. Crane, who was stabbed by a negro, today, is alive, but in critical condition. Ben Thomas has been placed in jail charged with assault to murder. Rev. and Mrs. J. L. Crane, of Fort Worth, parents
of the injured man, are with him. He was stabbed Tuesday  night.


The Sunday Gazetteer
Denison, Texas
Sunday, September 18, 1910
pg 4

Jack Crane, a Frisco boiler maker, was seriously stabbed at Sherman the past week by Ben Thomas, a negro, who claims self-defense. Crane is just alive.


Palestine Daily Herald
Palestine, Texas
September 20, 1910 Tuesday
pg 4

M. P. CRANE DIES OF WOUNDS

Negro Who Stabbed Young Man
Is Charged With Murder

Sherman, Texas, Sept. 19. - M. P. Crane, a young boilermaker who was stabbed by Ben Thomas, a negro, on Tuesday night, died this morning at 6 o'clock. He parents, who reside at Fort Worth, were at his bedside when death occurred. The body will be taken to Fort Worth for burial.

A warrant charging murder has been issued against the negro, who was taken to Dallas last night and placed in jail.


El Paso Herald
El Paso, Texas
September 27, 1910
pg 9

SHERMANITES ASK SPEEDY TRIAL FOR NEGRO PRISONER
Sherman, Tex., Sept. 27. - A petition signed by about 1000 was take to Judge Pearson here today requesting that
a special grand jury investigate the killing of M. P. Crane, a young boilermaker, here recently and give the negro, Ben Thomas, who it is charged stabbed Crane fatally, a speedy trial.


The Houston Post
Houston, Texas
October 18, 1910 Tuesday
pg 10

ERNEST JOHNSON KILLED
Charged Shooting at Sherman Was Done by Negro.
(Houston Post Special)

Sherman, Texas, October 17. - The second white man to be killed by a negro in Sherman within the last thirty days forfeited his life to an assassin last night when Ernest Johnson, 22 years of age, cashier at the Crystal cafe, 200 South Travis street, was shot in the head and neck by a negro, who stood behind an iron post in front of the cafe and killed his victim with a shotgun as he sat at his post of duty. Wood Maxey, a negro, was captured in an outhouse, where he had taken refuge. He was placed in the county jail.

The other killing of a white man by a negro in Sherman occurred Tuesday night, September 13, when M. P. Crane,
a young boilermaker, was stabbed in the abdomen, from the effects of which he died a few days later.


Sherman Daily Democrat
Thursday, January 5, 1911
pg 1

BEN THOMAS ON TRIAL

CHARGED WITH THE MURDER
OF M. P. (JACK) CRANE
LAST SEPTEMBER

FULL JURY HAS BEEN GOTTEN

The Taking of Testimony Has Consumed All the Morning and Has
Been as to the Details of the Fatal Stabbing Affray.

In the Fifteenth district court yesterday afternoon the task of selecting a jury in the case of the State vs. Ben Thomas in which the defendant is charged with the killing of M. P. Crane, was completed and the trial began. The case was called by Judge Pearson and motions for a continuance overruled after which the work of procuring a jury was begun and not completed until the time stated above.

The first witness in the case introduced by the state was C. W. Holt. The witness testified that he was a boiler maker in the Frisco shops at Sherman and that he was present when M. P. Crane was stabbed in this city last September. He testified further that he was in the company with M. P. Crane, Bob Ford and C. C. King that night
and that they had been to a meeting of the boilermakers union at the Union labor hall and were returning home when the occurrence took place. He testified that the party went north on the east side of Travis street to the north side of Pecan street, thence east to the corner of Walnut and Pecan streets and there they stopped to talk for a few moments before he (Holt) went diagonally across Walnut street to his room. While there talking four negroes approached, three of them stopping some twenty or thirty feet away from the four white men, the other negro, whom he did not identify as the defendant, approached and said: "What in the ____ are you doing here." To this Crane replied: "It is none of your ___ businesses." The negro then said: "You are trying to start something." Crane remarked that they would if they wanted to. With this response the witness testified that the negro advanced and did the cutting. The witness also testified that Crane held in his hand a stick about sixteen inches long and about one-half of an inch in diameter but did not strike until the negro was in the act of doing the cutting and then only raised the stick.

The state then introduced Bob Ford, who also testified that he was with Crane on the night of the cutting and was
a boiler-maker in the Frisco shops at Sherman and substantially the same that Holt had testified. In addition he said that none of the men were intoxicated.

Dr. E. J. Neathery was next introduced by the state and described the wound as being a stab in the left side and to the front of the body and that the wound was the cause of his (Crane's) death.

The last witness to testify for the state in the forenoon was Commissioner Frank C. Short, who merely testified to the location of Walnut and Pecan streets.


The Whitewright Sun
Whitewright, Texas
November 1, 1912 Friday
pg 1

BEN THOMAS GETS DEATH PENALTY
Jury Was out One Hour Before Returning
Verdict of Guilty. Defendant Surprised.

Sherman, Tex. Oct. 25 - After deliberating an hour, this morning at 9:30 o'clock the jury in the Ben Thomas murder case filed into the court room of the Fifteenth District Court and submitted their verdict. W. T. Burke of Howe was foreman of the jury and presented the verdict, which was that Thomas was found guilty of murder in the first degree and his punishment assessed at death by hanging.

Ben Thomas was convicted of the murder of Jack Crane on the night of September 13, 1910, in this city at the corner of  Walnut and Pecan streets. He is a negro, 37 years of age, and has a wife and two children. He is a native of  Sherman.

Thomas sees very much surprised at the jury giving a death penalty, and he admits that he is. It is a marked difference the way he received the verdict to the manner of Sam Jones, the negro who murdered his wife, and then requested to be hanged.

Ben Thomas was tried In January, 1911 and the jury gave a verdict of a life term in the penitentiary. A new trial
was granted and was finished this morning.

Jack Crank was a boilermaker working here at the time of the crime. That night the boilermakers held a meeting in the interest of their businesses and as a party of them were returning home they stopped on the street corner and were talking. Thomas and several other negroes came up; but Thomas and Mr. Crane exchanged a few words, following which the negro lunged at him and stabbed him with a knife, from which his death resulted.

Mrs. J. L. Crane and W. A. Crane of Fort Worth, mother and brother of the dead man, were present at the trial just closed. Mr. Crane is a fireman on the T. & P. out of Fort Worth.

The verdict secured this morning is the sixth for the death penalty that has been given in cases where Cal T. Freeman, county attorney, has been prosecutor. Five verdicts for the death penalty have been rendered during
the last two years of his term of office. They were Wood Maxey, Sellers Vines, Sam Jones, Carl Oliver and Ben Thomas, all of whom were negroes. The three first mentioned have been hanged in the count jail in the last two months and a half. The Carl Oliver and Ben Thomas cases will be appealed. Mr. Freeman prosecuted a white man by the name of Black for the murder of City Marshal Jordan of Howe and the death penalty was given, but the sentence was commuted by the Governor.

Mr. Freeman said that a jury has never given a death sentence when he himself did not sincerely think it was just. County Attorney Freeman was not a candidate for re-election this year and in November he will retire from the State's side of the bar in favor of Assistant County Attorney B. F. Gafford, who has been elected his successor.


Dallas Morning News
June 19, 1913

2 DEATH PENALTIES AFFIRMED
There Will Be Legal Hangings in Sherman and Fort Worth Unless Governor Interferes
Special to The News

Austin, Tex., June 18 - Two death penalty cases were affirmed in the Court of Criminal Appeals today, and incidentally the court affirmed twenty-three cases and reversed thirteen, besides writing opinions overruling five motions for re-hearing.  Unless the Governor interferes there will be two more legal hangings.

The case of Ben Thomas, given the death penalty in Grayson County for the murder of M. P. Crane, was affirmed.  On a former trial he was given life imprisonment, but secured a reversal, and now, on second trial, a death sentence was returned and is affirmed.


The Houston Post
Houston, Texas
June 19, 1913 Thursday
pg 3

Two murder cases with death penalties assessed were affirmed today. Ben Thomas, from Grayson, charged with the murder of M. P. Crane, was before the court once before on appeal and reversed. a second trial resulted in conviction with the death penalty and again appealed, but the statement of facts as well as the bills of exception were not filed in time, therefore the court stated it could not review the questions presented.


Dallas Morning News
November 16, 1913

DEATH PENALTY COMMUTED
Special to The News

Austin, Tex., Nov 15 - The death penalty of Ben Thomas of Grayson County was today commuted to life imprisonment by Gov. Colquitt.  Thomas was convicted in the July term of court and sentenced to death on
Dec. 12.  He was convicted of murder in the first degree and commutation was granted upon the recommendation of the District Attorney and Judge of the court in which he was tried.