Benjamin Franklin Stapleton (12 November 1869 – 23 May 1950) was Mayor of Denver from 1923 to 1931 (succeeding Dewey C. Bailey and preceding George D. Begole) and from 1935 to 1947 (succeeding Begole and preceding J. Quigg Newton).
Biography[]
Benjamin Franklin Stapleton was born in Paintsville, Kentucky, and he went on to become a lawyer in Denver, Colorado in 1899. He served in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War before serving as police magistrate of Denver from 1904 to 1915, Postmaster from 1915 to 1923, and Mayor from 1923 to 1931 and from 1935 to 1947. In March 1923, he became the 1,128th member of the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado, and he was close friends with Grand Dragon John Galen Locke; however, he publicly declined Klan membership to appease his Catholic and Jewish voters. He allowed for the Klan to infiltrate city politics, leading to a 1924 recall election, which he won with Klan support. However, he was forced to crack down on the Klan's illegal activities on 10 April 1925, leading to the Klan banishing him. From 1932 to 1935, he served as state auditor, and he returned to serve as Mayor from 1935 to 1947. He died in 1950.