Outlaw. He received notoriety as a Bushranger, which were British-Australian outlaws in the 19th century, who found refuge from law enforcement in the bush. Born near Maitland, New South Wales, in 1837, the fourth of eight children, his parents were Benjamin and Eliza Somers Hall. At that time, his father was an overseer on the Doona run, located on the Liverpool Plains north of where the village of Murrurundi would later be founded. Severe drought forced his father to leave Doona, and in 1839 he moved his family north from Maitland to live in a small, isolated valley high in the Liverpool Ranges, a place still known in the 21st century as Ben Halls Gap. He spent his early childhood in the Australian frontier. In 1842 he purchased a block of land near Murrurundi, where he operated a butcher shop and sold fresh produce. Over the years, he developed something of a reputation as a horse and cattle thief, but was never convicted. In the early 1850s, he accompanied his father to the Lachlan, where he soon found work as a stockman. He was an excellent horseman and gained a reputation as a reliable and hard-working young man, well-regarded by his peers and the neighboring squatters. In February of 1856, he married a 16-year-old bride Bridget "Biddy" Walsh in the Church of St. Michael at Bathurst. In August of 1859 a son, Henry, was born. In 1860, in partnership with his brother-in-law, John McGuire, he leased 10,000 acres of Crown land, which became known as Sandy Creek Station. The partners made a steady income from breeding cattle and horses, and when gold was discovered at nearby Lambing Flat in mid-1860, they sold their cattle to the butchers on the diggings. By early 1862, his marriage was in trouble, and his wife left him to live with a flash young stockman named James Taylor. They moved Humbug Creek, near Lake Cowal, well away from Ben Hall. He soon began a disastrous association with the notorious bushranger Frank Christie, alias "Gardiner." In April of 1862, he was arrested by Police Inspector Sir Frederick Pottinger for participating in the armed robbery of Bill Bacon's drays near Forbes. He was identified as having been in the company of Gardiner during the robbery, and two other men, names unknown. The charge was dismissed when one of the Crown witnesses changed his evidence. Shortly afterwards, on June 15, 1862, Gardiner led a gang of eight men, including Ben Hall, in robbing the gold escort coach near Eugowra in New South Wales of banknotes and 2700 ounces of gold worth more than 14,000 pounds. Ben Hall and several others were arrested in July, but once again the police were unable to gain enough evidence to formally charge him. He was released about the end of August. However, he and his partner at Sandy Creek faced mounting legal costs and were forced to transfer the lease of the property to John Wilson, a Forbes publican. Estranged from his wife and young son, and with the property gone, Hall drifted around the Weddin-Wheogo, associating with numerous undesirable characters, including Jack O'Meally, Johnny Gilbert, Patsy Daley, among others. After several confrontations with the police, culminating in Insp Pottinger's decision to burn down Hall's hut at Sandy Creek, Ben Hall gradually drifted into a life of crime. In early 1863 Ben Hall became involved with a gang of bushrangers, which included Johnny Gilbert and John O'Meally. For the next two and a half years, the police unsuccessfully pursued the gang, and during that time, they were involved in a large number of robberies of coaches, inns and travelers. There were some sensational episodes; in 1863 they bailed up the village of Canowindra for three days, having captured and locked up the local police. Then, in October, the gang carried out what became known as "The Raid on Bathurst," when they rode into town on a Saturday night, bailed up the Sportsman's Arms hotel, then escaped unharmed into the night, robbing a series of inns and stores along the way, with the police trailing behind. Soon after, two members of the gang were killed in shootouts with settlers, Mickey Burke died at Rockley and John O'Meally was killed at Goimbla, near Eugowra. There were a number of gunfights between the gang and the police, during which men on both sides, including Ben Hall, were wounded, and two police died. In late 1864, John Gilbert killed Sgt. Parry during an unsuccessful attack on the Gundagai mail coach and in January of 1865 Const. Nelson was shot by John Dunn at Collector. From that point, the police were able to mount more pressure on the gang as their tactics and weapons improved, and the gang's supporters drifted away. In early 1865, the authorities finally determined on radical legislation to bring an end to the careers of Ben Hall, John Gilbert and John Dunn. The Felons Apprehension Act was pushed through the Parliament of New South Wales for the specific purpose of declaring Hall and his comrade outlaws, meaning that they would be "outside the law" and could be killed by anyone at any time without warning. From 1863 to 1865, Ben Hall and his various associates conducted one of the most prolific periods of bushranging in the colony. Over 100 robberies are attributed to them in this time, including the holding up of several villages, dozens of mail coach robberies and the regular theft of prized racehorses. At dawn on May 5th, an unsuspecting Ben Hall walked from the scrub into a clearing to collect his horses. Eight police opened fire in an ambush, and when he fell to the ground, he had more than 30 wounds from rifle and shotgun fire. At the inquest held in Forbes the next day, the verdict of the Police Magistrate was that his death was "justifiable homicide" and ending his life of crime.