Bennett, Colorado

Edward Davidson, known also as the "Colorado Spam King", operated an illegal spamming company, Power promotions, from July 2002 through April 2007 from a home near Bennett where he had a large network of computers and servers, according to federal authorities. The spam contained false header information, concealing the actual sender from the recipient of the e-mail. Davidson provided spammed messages for about 19 different companies, prosecutors said. Some of the e-mailed pitches were used to dupe stock investors and manipulate the market, federal authorities said. Davidson was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $714,139 to the Internal Revenue Service. On July 20, 2008, he escaped from a minimum-security prison. Four days later, he was found dead with his wife and a child, both also dead, in an apparent murder-suicide near Bennett.[12]

Until 1878, the town was known as Kiowa Crossing. On May 21 of that year, a heavy rainstorm washed out the railroad bridge to the east of town. A Kansas Pacific Railway train of 25 cars loaded with scrap iron was washed into the stream with engineers Frank Seldon, George Piatt, and John Bacon on board. Most of the wrecked train was recovered, but the locomotive #51 was never officially found. In 1989, archivist Loyd Glasier at Union Pacific found that the railroad had found the locomotive, secretly dug it up, put it back into service, and collected the insurance money in a complex insurance scam.[13] The story of the lost locomotive inspired Clive Cussler to write Night Probe!; his nonprofit NUMA later searched for the locomotive.

The town achieved national notoriety in February 2006 when a number of parents of elementary schoolchildren criticized a local teacher for showing in class a video of Gounod's classic opera Faust, featuring world renowned and critically acclaimed soprano Dame Joan Sutherland. Parents said their children were traumatized by the appearance of a leering devil in the video, a man appearing to be killed by a sword in silhouette, and an allusion to suicide.[14] Tresa Waggoner, the teacher who showed the video, was required to send a letter of apology for her actions to parents.[15]

Back in 1998 the high school was broken into and vandalized. The next day students came to school and noticed what had happened. Two students, Daniel Kritner and Jason Rinke, wanted to help put their school back together. They had decided to put together a talent show that the audience would pay to get into, the proceeds went to putting the high school back together. Jason and Daniel were given awards for their efforts by Bennett's town officials. Many people from the town thanked them for their efforts, both of their names will forever be etched in Bennett's history. (Source?)