Ben Kuhl was from
Michigan. In 1903, he was jailed in
Marysville, California for
petty larceny, and had also been sentenced to 1 to 10 years in
Oregon for horse theft. Kuhl arrived in
Lander County, Nevada in 1916 and lived in a tent with two others
drifters, Ed Beck and Billy McGraw. He worked as a cook at the OK Mine for about a month before he was fired for attempting to jump another man's mining claim. He was arrested for
trespassing in Jarbidge. The
Jarbidge Stage Robbery occurred on December 5, 1916, just before 6:30 PM. The mail wagon from
Three Creek, Idaho, drawn by two horses, was
ambushed. Searcy was killed by a .44 caliber slug to the head, and about $4,000 was stolen. were caught soon after the incident occurred. Most of the evidence against Kuhl was circumstantial. However, there was a bloody
palm print on a letter from the wagon's mail pouch; and Kuhl became the first American convicted of murder based on a palm print. His death sentence was commuted to life in prison at the Nevada State Prison in
Carson City, Nevada, but he was
paroled on May 7, 1945. she divorced Kuhl after the conviction. His mother lived in
Kalamazoo, Michigan; his father in
Walla Walla, Washington. Kuhl is thought to have died of
pneumonia or
tuberculosis in
northern California, possibly
Sacramento or
San Francisco, within 6 to 12 months of his release. ==References==