KS KS - The Bloody Benders, ghouls who killed for profit on the 1870s prairie

[wfgodot]

Many areas have historical road markers; mine had the only one, as far as is known, devoted to a band of serial murderers.

Good recent article, quite thorough, from kansas.com/Wichita Eagle:

The Bloody Benders: 140-year-old crime scene still fascinates today

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The field looks unremarkable now.

But in the spring of 1873, on the frontier prairie where the field is now, the Benders lived in a little wood-sided house that doubled as a general store near the Osage Trail. When travelers arrived, someone in the house smashed their skulls from behind, slit their throats and took their money and possessions.

The consensus was that the killer or killers used a canvas partition to hide behind and a trapdoor to help remove the bodies until they could be buried in what was supposed to be a vegetable plot and apple orchard.

The investigators found eight or so bodies in the garden area, including that of a 7- or 8-year-old girl. By some accounts, bodies were found on the surrounding prairie. Some bodies couldn’t be identified. Most accounts put the number of victims at around a dozen, although some suspected the Benders of killing up to 21.
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much more at the link

 

[wfgodot]

Good account:

The Bloody Benders, America's First Serial Killers (Mental Floss)

 

[STANDREID]

Interesting that it's rumored the posse actually caught up with the clan and secretly lynched them.

 

[Trident]

Interesting that it's rumored the posse actually caught up with the clan and secretly lynched them.

This is one of my favorite cases, I have 4 or 5 books on them. I don't believe they were lynched 'cause there would be no real reason to keep it secret. I think John and Kate killed Ma and Pa, stuck them on the buckboard, shot it up so the horses ran and lost the bodies along the way, then they moved on to the "territory". 'Course I could be wrong.

 

[wfgodot]

Yeah, this was my first true crime serial killer "crush," lol. It was just a few miles from my house.

When I was a boy, at the crest of the steep rise up the cut between the mounds, a head-on collision killed eight people, all young; add those to the Benders' suspected 21 victims barely a quarter-mile away, and that's a spooky site in my home county.

There was for years a Bender Museum, a recreation of their cabin/inn done to scale. It was a done thing to take the kiddies out to see the serial killers' stomping grounds!

 

[Donamena]

There was a group like that in southwest Louisiana near the Sabine. Allegedly kept a basin to catch blood from slit throats. Near a major wagon train / horse trail route.

 

[wfgodot]

There was a group like that in southwest Louisiana near the Sabine. Allegedly kept a basin to catch blood from slit throats. Near a major wagon train / horse trail route.

I couldn't find that one but did come across this little item from Louisiana's sordid past!

 

[Trident]

There was a group like that in southwest Louisiana near the Sabine. Allegedly kept a basin to catch blood from slit throats. Near a major wagon train / horse trail route.

Do you have a link, or a name? I just love stuff like this.

 

[wfgodot]

Bender entry on Murderpedia, plus pictures, same site:

http://murderpedia.org/male.B/b/bender-family.htm

http://murderpedia.org/male.B/b/bender-family-photos.htm

More Bloody Benders:

http://www.prairieghosts.com/bender.html

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ks-benders.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Benders

 

[wfgodot]

cultofweird.com:

The Bloody Benders

old, weird America

 

[Hope4More]

cultofweird.com:

The Bloody Benders

old, weird America

The only linked article including a reference to "accomplices."

 

[wfgodot]

Close to home:

Parsons (KS) Sun: Bender museum in Cherryvale to show ‘Bender’ -- new feature film about the local family of murderers

 

[wfgodot]

Close to home:

Parsons (KS) Sun: Bender museum in Cherryvale to show ‘Bender’ -- new feature film about the local family of murderers

Here, incidentally, is the Wiki page for Cherryvale; while articles related to the Bloody Benders are housed at a museum there, the cabin site was actually as close or closer to the very small towns of Thayer, to the northwest, Galesburg, to the northeast, and my hometown of Parsons, the only city of the three, to the east. (But little Cherryvale produced a huge silent film star, an important one, and a beloved comic actress from the early days of television. They're listed at the link above, as well.)

 

[Indy Anna]

wfgodot, I was reading about the bloody Benders just today, mostly on the Kansas Historical Society website. The articles you've linked add some interesting details.

https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/bender-knife/10106

snipped

"It was as if the men had been snatched off the earth. A terror slowly descended on the countryside. It seemed that Death stalked the highway, and men began to fear darkness and night."—J.E. McDowell, Bender historian

Nice family. Uhhh. NOT.

 

[Schifferbrainz]

Another town actually served the area of the Bender's but is all but deserted now. Moorehead, ks. Local heresay Legend has it a Brothel was located there.

https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/ghost-town-artifacts/10131

 

[wfgodot]

Another town actually served the area of the Bender's but is all but deserted now. Moorehead, ks. Local heresay Legend has it a Brothel was located there.

https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/ghost-town-artifacts/10131

Like Morehead, Ladore, Kansas, was also a going concern -- now gone -- in Neosho County at that time. It too had a rough reputation.

 

[Itsmevkb]

When I was growing up, way back in the 70s and 80s, I remember my parents having a book entitled "The Bloody Benders". One day when I was dusting the bookshelves I started reading it, got to a murder and thought, I'm not sure I'm old enough to be reading this!

 

[Sailor Haumea]

This case has always puzzled me.

Nowhere to be found in census records.

They disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.

Fifteen years later, another family (the Kellys) tried the same thing (killing visitors to their home)...and were rounded up and lynched. Kansas wasn't going to let another family get away with this type of serial murder!

 

[Jewels53]

Kansas, in its earliest history, was a haven for violence and bloodshed. Intense rivalry between abolitionist and pro-slavery forces earned the then territory the nickname “Bleeding Kansas.”

Years after slavery ended, southeast Kansas still maintained a reputation as a violent and distressing place to live. One early case of deception has remained unsolved.

The murdering “Bender Family of Cherryvale” consisted of a mother, a father, a son and a daughter who settled into the infinitesimal prairie community back in 1870. They’re considered America’s first family of serial killers.

They also are infamous for disappearing into thin air.

Unsolved mysteries in Kansas: the bloodbath Bender family escapes into thin air

 

[TootsieFootsie]

A mysterious murder site has a new owner. He's looking for answers about the Bloody Benders. - Kansas Reflector