The mayor of Thomson, Georgia, was arrested for doing something really bizarre. He swears up and down that he didn’t do it but he’s charged with “providing alcohol to inmates by putting gin in a ditch near where the inmates were working.”
Mayor under arrest
Mayor Benjamin Cranford, or “Benji” to the down-home residents of Thomson, Georgia, was placed under arrest August 14.
The 52-year-old administrator is charged with “furnishing prohibited items to inmates.” They also hit him with “criminal attempt to commit a felony.”
According to a statement from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Mayor Cranford “drove to Rimpy’s Store and purchased a 750-milliliter bottle of Seagram’s Extra Dry Gin.”
Thomson Mayor Benjamin "Benji" Cary Cranford, 52, was indicted on Wednesday and arrested by Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents on felony charges of furnishing prohibited items to inmates and attempt to commit a felony, WRDW-TV reported.https://t.co/xK35qMuQmQ
— MAZE (@Mngk) August 20, 2024
Since they know the store, size and brand, they probably have him on security video buying it. That evidence will give the jury something interesting to watch at the trial.
After he left the store, police allege, the mayor “then put the bottle in a ditch along Cobbham Road.” He was thoughtfully placing it where a prison work detail could find it.
Nobody knows exactly why and Cranford isn’t talking. A fifth of any sort of alcohol is worth a whole lot in trade behind bars.

Investigation from June
The arrest happened recently but Mayor Cranford has been under investigation since June.
That’s when Thomson Police Department caught wind of the contraband drop and “requested that GBI conduct an investigation.” After they collected sufficient evidence, they handed it over to a grand jury.
As soon as the grand jury handed prosecutors an indictment, they rushed to the judge for an arrest warrant.
ICYMI—The mayor of a small town in Georgia, Benjamin "Benji" Cary Cranford, faces felony charges for allegedly leaving a bottle of gin in a ditch for state prison inmates to access.
He was indicted for furnishing prohibited items to inmates and attempting to commit a felony.… pic.twitter.com/fbUTs3XqW4
— Woods Denise”Andrea” (@dandreawc) August 21, 2024
Next, they sauntered over to the Thomson City Administration Office and slapped the Mayor in handcuffs. From there, they hauled him to the McDuffie County Jail.
He’s not a dangerous criminal and not much of a flight risk so the court set Cranford’s bail at $5,000. By 6 p.m. that evening, he was free on bond. He hasn’t entered a plea yet, pending advice from legal counsel. Since his release, he told the press “he intends to continue serving as mayor” because he did nothing wrong.
“I don’t know no prisoner in Jefferson County. Didn’t know of no detail that day. That was months and months ago. I don’t even remember that day. Who remembers what they doing every day?” It’s not hard to imagine that the mayor owes a favor to someone who owed a favor to an inmate and this was the way of paying it off. We’ll soon find out. Stay tuned.