Ben Golden McCollum was an outlaw

Outlaw

In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...

 in Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

 during the 1920s who was nicknamed the "Sheik of Boynton." McCollum robbed banks in both Prague, Oklahoma

Prague, Oklahoma

Prague is a city in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,138 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Prague is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land....

 (where he got away with US$3400) and Checotah, Oklahoma

Checotah, Oklahoma

Checotah is a city in McIntosh County, Oklahoma, United States. It was named for Samuel Checote, the first chief of the Creek Nation elected after the Civil War. The population was 3,481 at the 2000 census....

 ($4700) in 1929. He was captured on the streets of Boynton, Oklahoma

Boynton, Oklahoma

Boynton is a town in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 274 at the 2000 census.-History:Boynton was built in 1903 with the coming of the St. Louis – San Francisco Railway to the Muscogee Nation. Boosted by an oil refinery and a brick factory, the town reached a peak...

 shortly after the Checotah heist.

McCollum was convicted of both bank robberies and sentenced to a forty year term at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary

Oklahoma State Penitentiary

The Oklahoma State Penitentiary is located in McAlester, Oklahoma, on . It is a prison of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. Opened in 1908 with 50 inmates in makeshift facilities, today the prison holds more than 1,200 male offenders, the vast majority of which are maximum-security inmates...

 in McAlester, Oklahoma

McAlester, Oklahoma

McAlester is a city in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 17,783 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Pittsburg County. It is currently the largest city in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, followed by Durant....

. On April 15, 1934, McCollum knifed two fellow inmates to death in a dispute over a card game. He was originally sentenced to death for the murders, but the sentence was later reduced to a life term. McCollum escaped prison in 1954 and was added to the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives

FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives

The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, and William Kinsey Hutchinson, International News Service Editor-in-Chief, who were discussing ways to promote capture of the...

 list soon afterwards. He was captured in 1958 at an Indianapolis

Indianapolis

Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...

 boarding house and returned to McAlester. McCollum was parole

Parole

Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...

d in 1961, at which time he relocated to Marcum, Kentucky.

McCollum was shotgunned to death at his home by a pair of youthful burglars on the night of August 12, 1963.