Murder of Oklahoma City Detective Benjamin Franklin “Benny” Cravatt. – NEED TO VISIT

On July 16, 1954, Oklahoma City Detective Benjamin Franklin “Benny” Cravatt walked into what looked like a grocery store robbery in progress. The store was Jones Boys Grocery Store No. 6, located at SE 44th and Shields in Oklahoma City. It was supposed to be a robbery. Instead, it became the murder of a police officer.

The plan started before the shooting. Court records say Hurbie Franklin Fairris, James Edward Skinner, Raymond Carroll Price, and Peggy Fry were charged in connection with Cravatt’s murder. Fairris, Skinner, and Price had driven from Dallas to Oklahoma City in a green Pontiac. Fry was described in the court record as Fairris’ sweetheart, and she was left near the area while the men carried out the robbery plan.

The robbers targeted the store after closing. They confronted assistant manager A.W. Truman and wanted access to the safes. Truman told them the bookkeeper, Fannie Ransom, knew the combinations. That led the men to Ransom’s nearby home, where some people were tied up and held while Ransom was forced back to the store.

But police had already been called. Detective Cravatt and Officer Rackly were inside or near the store when Fairris and Price returned with Ransom. As they entered, Cravatt identified himself and ordered them to put their hands up. The shooting started almost immediately. Cravatt was hit by a bullet that went through his heart. He died there near the meat counter.

Price was shot in the leg by Officer Rackly. Fairris was shot in the stomach but escaped the scene for a short time. He was later found near Shawnee, wounded and calling for help. Court records say Fairris admitted that night that he had been part of the attempted robbery.

The trial centered on who fired the shot that killed Detective Cravatt. Price claimed a hidden third officer had fired the fatal shot, but the court rejected that version. A ballistics expert testified that the bullet taken from Cravatt’s body did not come from the officers’ guns or Price’s gun. The court said the evidence was “overwhelming and convincing” that Fairris fired the shot that killed Cravatt.

Fairris was convicted of murder and sentenced to die in Oklahoma’s electric chair. His appeal failed, and the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the death sentence. He was executed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester on January 18, 1956.

Raymond Carroll Price and James Edward Skinner were also convicted and received life sentences, according to Oklahoma law enforcement memorial sources. I found Peggy Fry listed in court records as charged in the case, but I did not find a solid official source confirming a conviction or final sentence for her.

It is one of those Oklahoma cases that has almost faded into the background, but it shouldn’t. A robbery crew came up from Dallas looking for money. A grocery store became a crime scene. A bookkeeper was forced into the middle of it. And Detective Benny Cravatt, doing his job, never made it home.