Bloody Benders
Encyclopedia
The Bloody Benders were a family of serial killer
s who owned a small general store
and inn in Osage township, Labette County, Kansas
from 1872 to 1873. The inn was a dingy place called the Wayside Inn. The alleged family consisted of John Bender, his wife Kate, son John Jr. and daughter Kate. While most people believe John and Kate were brother and sister, the two were believed to have had a more intimate relationship and some people said that they claimed to be man and wife.
, the United States government moved the Osage Indians
from Labette County to a new Indian Territory
located in what would eventually be Oklahoma
. The "vacant" land was then made available to homesteaders. In October 1870, five families of spiritualists
settled in western Labette County, around 7 mi (11.3 km) northeast of where Cherryvale
would be established seven months later and 17 mi (27.4 km) from Independence
. One of the families was John Bender Sr. and John Bender Jr. who registered 160 acres (64.7 ha) of land located adjacent the Great Osage Trail
, which was then the only open road for travelling further west. After building a cabin, a barn with corral and a well, in the fall
of 1871, Kate (Ma) Bender and her daughter Kate arrived and the cabin was divided into two rooms by a canvas wagon-cover
. The Benders used the smaller room at the rear for living quarters, while the front room was converted into a "general store
" known as the Wayside Inn. Ma and Kate Bender also planted a 2 acre (0.809372 ha) vegetable garden and apple tree orchard north of the cabin.
s and gave lectures on spiritualism, for which she gained notoriety for advocating free love. Kate's popularity became a large attraction for the Benders' inn. Although the elder Benders kept to themselves, Kate and her brother regularly attended Sunday school in nearby Harmony Grove.
The Benders were widely believed to be German
immigrants; only the male Benders, however, were born overseas and they were not actually a family. Pa Bender was from either Germany or Holland and had been born John Flickinger. Ma Bender was born Almira Meik in the Adirondack Mountains
and had married George Griffith, with whom she had 12 children. Ma allegedly married several times, each time following the death of her previous husband from head injuries. Kate was the fifth child of Ma Bender and was born as Eliza Griffith. Following her marriage, Eliza went by the name of Sara Eliza Davis. It is believed that John Jr. was born John Gebhardt. Some of the Benders' neighbors claimed that John and Kate were not brother and sister, but actually husband and wife.
committees often "arrested" some for the disappearances, only for them to be later released by the authorities. Many "honest" men under suspicion were also run out of the country by these committees.
to resettle in Iowa, but were never seen again. In the spring of 1873, a neighbor, Dr William York went looking for them, questioning homesteads along the trail. He reached Fort Scott
and on March 9 began the return journey to Independence but never arrived home. Dr York had two brothers, Colonel
Ed York living in Fort Scott, and Kansas State Senator Alexander M. York who lived in Independence. State Senator Alexander M. York had been instrumental (in November 1872) in exposing United States Senator Samuel C. Pomeroy
of corruption in seeking re-election by bribing state legisilators (who then elected U. S. Senators) for their votes. Both knew of his travel plans and when he failed to return home an all out search began for the missing doctor. Colonel York, leading a company of some 50 men, questioned every traveler along the trail and visited all the area homesteads. On March 28, 1873, Colonel York arrived at the Bender inn with a Mr Johnson, explaining to the Benders that his brother had gone missing and asked if they had seen him. They admitted Dr York had stayed with them and suggested the possibility that he had run into trouble with Native Americans
after leaving. Colonel York agreed that this was possible and remained for dinner. On April 3, Colonel York returned to the inn with armed men after being informed that a woman had fled from the inn after being threatened with knives by Ma Bender. Ma allegedly could not understand English while the younger Benders denied the claim. When York repeated the claim, Ma became enraged and said the woman was a witch who had cursed her coffee and ordered the men to leave her house, revealing for the first time that "her sense of the English language" was much better than had been thought. Before York left Kate asked him to return alone the following Friday night and she would use her clairvoyant
abilities to help him find his brother. The men with York were convinced the Benders, and a neighboring family the Roaches, were guilty and wanted to hang them all but York insisted that evidence must be found.
Around the same time, neighboring communities began to make accusations that the Osage community was responsible for the disappearances and a meeting was arranged by the Osage township in the Harmony Grove schoolhouse. The meeting was attended by 75 locals, including Colonel York and both Pa and John Bender. After discussing the disappearances including that of William York who was a prominent doctor for whom a search had recently been completed, it was agreed that a search warrant would be obtained to search every homestead between Big Hill Creek and Drum Creek. Despite York's strong suspicions regarding the Benders since his visit several weeks earlier, no one had watched them and it was not noticed for several days that they had fled.
Three days after the township meeting, Billy Tole was driving cattle past the Bender property when he noticed that the Inn was abandoned and the farm animals were unfed. Tole reported the fact to the Township Trustee, but due to bad weather it was several days before the abandonment could be investigated. The Township Trustee called for volunteers and several hundred turned out to form a search party that included Dr York’s brother, Colonel York. When the party arrived at the Bender inn they found the cabin empty of food, clothing and personal possessions. A bad odor was noticed and traced to a trap door underneath a bed, nailed shut. After opening the trap, the empty room beneath, 6 feet (1.8 m) deep and 7 feet (2.1 m) square at the top by 3 foot (0.9144 m) square at the bottom, was found to have clotted blood on the floor. The stone slab floor was broken up with sledgehammers but no bodies were found and it was determined that the smell was from blood that had soaked into the soil. The men then physically lifted the cabin and moved it to the side so they could dig under it but no bodies were found. They then began to probe the ground around the cabin with a metal rod, especially in the disturbed soil of the vegetable garden and orchard where the first body was found later that evening, that of Dr York, buried face downwards with his feet barely below the surface. The probing continued until midnight with another nine suspected grave sites marked before the men were satisfied they had found them all and retired for the night. Digging resumed the following morning with another eight bodies being found in seven of the nine suspected graves while another was found in the well, along with a number of body parts. All but one had had their heads bashed with a hammer and their throats cut, and it was reported in newspapers that all had been "indecently mutilated." The body of a young girl was found with no injuries sufficient to cause death and it was speculated that she had been strangled or buried alive. A Kansas newspaper reported that the crowd was so incensed after finding the bodies, that a friend of the Benders named Brockman, who was among the onlookers, was hung from a beam in the Bender inn until unconscious, revived and interrogated as to what he knew then hung again. After the third hanging, they released him and he staggered home "as one who was drunken or deranged." A Catholic prayer book was found in the house with notes inside written in German, which were later translated. The text read "Johannah Bender. Born July 30, 1848" and "John Gebhardt came to America on July 1 18xx."
Word of the murders spread quickly and more than 3,000 people, including reporters from as far away as New York
and Chicago
visited the site. The Bender cabin was destroyed by souvenir hunters who took everything, including the bricks that lined the cellar and the stones lining the well.
One of Dr York’s brothers, Kansas Senator Alexander York, offered a $1,000 reward for the Bender family's arrest. On May 17, Governor Thomas A. Osborn
offered a $2,000 reward for the apprehension of all four.
. Brockman would be arrested again 23 years later, for the rape and murder of his 18 year old daughter.
. With the victim's back to the curtain Kate would distract the guest, while John Bender or his son would come from behind the curtain and strike the guest on the right hand side of the skull
with a hammer
. The victim's throat
was then cut by one of the women to ensure his death
. The body was then dropped through the trap door. Once in the cellar, the body would be stripped and later buried somewhere on the property, often in the orchard
. More than a dozen bullet holes were found in the roof and sides of the room and the media speculated that some of the victims had attempted to fight back after being hit with the hammer.
, 12 mi (19.3 km) north of the inn. It was confirmed that in Thayer the family bought tickets on the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad for Humboldt
. At Chanute
, John Jr. and Kate left the train and caught the MK&T train south to the terminus in Red River County near Denison, Texas
. From there they traveled to an outlaw colony thought to be in the border region between Texas and New Mexico. They were not pursued as lawmen following outlaws into this region often never returned. One detective did claim later that he had traced the pair to the border where he had found that John Jr. had died of apoplexy
. Ma and Pa Bender did not leave the train at Humboldt, but instead continued north to Kansas City
where it is believed they purchased tickets for St. Louis, Missouri
.
Several groups of vigilante
s were formed to search for the Benders. Many stories say that one vigilante group actually caught the Benders and shot all of them but Kate, whom they burned alive. Another group claimed they had caught the Benders and lynched them before throwing their bodies into the Verdigris River
. Yet another claimed to have killed the Benders during a gunfight and buried their bodies on the prairie. However, no one ever claimed the $3,000 (2009: $53,000) reward.
The story of their escape spread, and the search continued on and off for the next fifty years. Often, groups of two traveling women were accused of being Kate Bender and her mother.
In 1884, it was reported that John Flickinger had committed suicide in Lake Michigan
. Also in 1884 an elderly man matching Pa Benders description was arrested in Montana
for a murder where the victim had been killed by a hammer blow to the head committed near Salmon, Idaho
. A message requesting positive identification was sent to Cherryvale but the suspect severed his foot to escape his leg irons and bled to death. By the time a deputy from Cherryvale arrived, identification was impossible due to decomposition. Despite the lack of identification, the man's skull was displayed as that of "Pa Bender" in a Salmon saloon until prohibition
forced its closure in 1920 and the skull disappeared.
On October 31, 1889 it was reported that a Mrs Almira Monroe and Mrs Sarah Eliza Davis had been arrested in Niles, Michigan
(often misreported as Detroit) several weeks earlier for larceny. They were released after being found not guilty but were then immediately re-arrested for the Bender murders. According to the Pittsburgh Dispatch
, the daughter of one of the Benders victims Mrs Frances E. McCaun, had reported the pair to authorities in early October after tracking them down. Their identities were later confirmed by two Osage township witnesses from a tintype
photograph. In mid October, Deputy Sherriff LeRoy Dick, the Osage Township Trustee who had headed the search of the Bender property, arrived in Michigan and arrested the couple on October 30 following their release on the larceny charges. Mrs Monroe resisted, declaring that she would not be taken alive but was subdued by local deputies. Mrs Davis admitted that Mrs Monroe was Ma Bender but claimed that she herself was not Kate but her sister Sarah, she later signed an affidavit
to that effect while Monroe continued to deny the identification. Deputy Sherriff Dick, along with Mrs McCaun, escorted the pair to Oswego, Kansas
where seven members of a 13 member panel confirmed the identification and committed them for trial. Originally scheduled for February 1890, the trial was held over to May and the county subsequently dropped the charges and released both after their attorney produced a marriage certificate indicating that Mrs Davis had been married in Michigan in 1872, the time when several of the murders were committed. A number of researchers question the ready acceptance of the certificates authenticity and suggest that the county was unwilling to accept the expense of boarding the two women for an extended period.
With the exception of McKenzie, York and the Lonchers who were buried in Independence, none of the other bodies were claimed and they were reburied at the base of a mound 1 mi (1.6 km) south-east of the Benders orchard. {McCrotty is buried in Parsons Kansas}
The search of the cabin resulted in the recovery of three hammers that had been used as murder
weapons. These hammers were given to the Bender museum in 1967 by the son of LeRoy Dick, the Osage Township Trustee who headed the search of the Bender property. The hammers were displayed at the Bender Museum in Cherryvale, Kansas
from 1967 to 1978 when the site was acquired for a fire station. When attempts were made to relocate the museum it became a point of controversy with locals objecting to the town being known for the Bender murders. The Bender artifacts were eventually given to the Cherryvale Museum.
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
s who owned a small general store
General store
A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
and inn in Osage township, Labette County, Kansas
Labette County, Kansas
Labette County is a county located in southeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the county population was 21,607. Its county seat is Oswego, and its most populous city is Parsons...
from 1872 to 1873. The inn was a dingy place called the Wayside Inn. The alleged family consisted of John Bender, his wife Kate, son John Jr. and daughter Kate. While most people believe John and Kate were brother and sister, the two were believed to have had a more intimate relationship and some people said that they claimed to be man and wife.
Background
Following the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, the United States government moved the Osage Indians
Osage Nation
The Osage Nation is a Native American Siouan-language tribe in the United States that originated in the Ohio River valley in present-day Kentucky. After years of war with invading Iroquois, the Osage migrated west of the Mississippi River to their historic lands in present-day Arkansas, Missouri,...
from Labette County to a new Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
located in what would eventually be Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
. The "vacant" land was then made available to homesteaders. In October 1870, five families of spiritualists
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...
settled in western Labette County, around 7 mi (11.3 km) northeast of where Cherryvale
Cherryvale, Kansas
Cherryvale is a city in Montgomery County, Kansas, United States. The population was 2,386 at the 2000 census.-History:Cherryvale was founded on the land of the Osage Indians who were pushed out by veterans of the American Civil War looking for land. The first white man to purchase property and...
would be established seven months later and 17 mi (27.4 km) from Independence
Independence, Kansas
Independence is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 9,483.-Geography:...
. One of the families was John Bender Sr. and John Bender Jr. who registered 160 acres (64.7 ha) of land located adjacent the Great Osage Trail
Great Osage Trail
The Great Osage Trail, also known as the Osage Trace or the Kaw Trace was one of the more well-known Native American trails through the countryside of what are today called the Midwest and Plains States of the U.S., pathways originally created by herds of Buffalo or other migrating wildlife .The...
, which was then the only open road for travelling further west. After building a cabin, a barn with corral and a well, in the fall
Autumn
Autumn is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter usually in September or March when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier....
of 1871, Kate (Ma) Bender and her daughter Kate arrived and the cabin was divided into two rooms by a canvas wagon-cover
Curtain
A curtain is a piece of cloth intended to block or obscure light, or drafts, or water in the case of a shower curtain. Curtains hung over a doorway are known as portières...
. The Benders used the smaller room at the rear for living quarters, while the front room was converted into a "general store
General store
A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
" known as the Wayside Inn. Ma and Kate Bender also planted a 2 acre (0.809372 ha) vegetable garden and apple tree orchard north of the cabin.
Bender family
John (Pa) Bender Sr. was around sixty years old and spoke very little English. When he did speak it, it was so guttural that it was usually unintelligible. Ma Bender, who also allegedly spoke very little English, was 55 years of age and was so unfriendly that her neighbors took to calling her a "she-devil". Shortly before the Benders fled, it was discovered that Ma spoke English fluently. John Bender Jr. was around 25 years old, handsome with auburn hair and moustache and spoke English fluently, but with a German accent. John was prone to laughing aimlessly, which led many to consider him a "half-wit". Kate Bender, who was around 23, was cultivated and attractive and she spoke English well with very little accent. A self-proclaimed healer and psychic, she distributed flyers advertising her supernatural powers and her ability to cure illnesses. She also conducted séanceSéance
A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...
s and gave lectures on spiritualism, for which she gained notoriety for advocating free love. Kate's popularity became a large attraction for the Benders' inn. Although the elder Benders kept to themselves, Kate and her brother regularly attended Sunday school in nearby Harmony Grove.
The Benders were widely believed to be German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
immigrants; only the male Benders, however, were born overseas and they were not actually a family. Pa Bender was from either Germany or Holland and had been born John Flickinger. Ma Bender was born Almira Meik in the Adirondack Mountains
Adirondack Mountains
The Adirondack Mountains are a mountain range located in the northeastern part of New York, that runs through Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties....
and had married George Griffith, with whom she had 12 children. Ma allegedly married several times, each time following the death of her previous husband from head injuries. Kate was the fifth child of Ma Bender and was born as Eliza Griffith. Following her marriage, Eliza went by the name of Sara Eliza Davis. It is believed that John Jr. was born John Gebhardt. Some of the Benders' neighbors claimed that John and Kate were not brother and sister, but actually husband and wife.
Deaths and disappearances
In May 1871, the body of a man named Jones, who had had his skull crushed and his throat cut, was discovered in Drum Creek. The owner of the Drum Creek claim was suspected but no action was taken. In February 1872, the bodies of two men were found who had the same injuries as Jones. By 1873, reports of missing people who had passed through the area had became so common that travelers began to avoid the trail. The area was already widely known for horse thieves and "villains" and vigilanceVigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
committees often "arrested" some for the disappearances, only for them to be later released by the authorities. Many "honest" men under suspicion were also run out of the country by these committees.
Downfall
In the winter of 1872, following the funeral of his wife, George Loncher and his daughter left IndependenceIndependence, Kansas
Independence is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 9,483.-Geography:...
to resettle in Iowa, but were never seen again. In the spring of 1873, a neighbor, Dr William York went looking for them, questioning homesteads along the trail. He reached Fort Scott
Fort Scott, Kansas
Fort Scott is a city in and the county seat of Bourbon County, Kansas, United States, south of Kansas City, on the Marmaton River. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 8,087. It is the home of the Fort Scott National Historic Site and the Fort Scott National...
and on March 9 began the return journey to Independence but never arrived home. Dr York had two brothers, Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Ed York living in Fort Scott, and Kansas State Senator Alexander M. York who lived in Independence. State Senator Alexander M. York had been instrumental (in November 1872) in exposing United States Senator Samuel C. Pomeroy
Samuel C. Pomeroy
Samuel Clarke Pomeroy was an American Republican Senator from Kansas in the mid-19th century, serving in the United States Senate during the American Civil War. Pomeroy served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives...
of corruption in seeking re-election by bribing state legisilators (who then elected U. S. Senators) for their votes. Both knew of his travel plans and when he failed to return home an all out search began for the missing doctor. Colonel York, leading a company of some 50 men, questioned every traveler along the trail and visited all the area homesteads. On March 28, 1873, Colonel York arrived at the Bender inn with a Mr Johnson, explaining to the Benders that his brother had gone missing and asked if they had seen him. They admitted Dr York had stayed with them and suggested the possibility that he had run into trouble with Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
after leaving. Colonel York agreed that this was possible and remained for dinner. On April 3, Colonel York returned to the inn with armed men after being informed that a woman had fled from the inn after being threatened with knives by Ma Bender. Ma allegedly could not understand English while the younger Benders denied the claim. When York repeated the claim, Ma became enraged and said the woman was a witch who had cursed her coffee and ordered the men to leave her house, revealing for the first time that "her sense of the English language" was much better than had been thought. Before York left Kate asked him to return alone the following Friday night and she would use her clairvoyant
Clairvoyance
The term clairvoyance is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception...
abilities to help him find his brother. The men with York were convinced the Benders, and a neighboring family the Roaches, were guilty and wanted to hang them all but York insisted that evidence must be found.
Around the same time, neighboring communities began to make accusations that the Osage community was responsible for the disappearances and a meeting was arranged by the Osage township in the Harmony Grove schoolhouse. The meeting was attended by 75 locals, including Colonel York and both Pa and John Bender. After discussing the disappearances including that of William York who was a prominent doctor for whom a search had recently been completed, it was agreed that a search warrant would be obtained to search every homestead between Big Hill Creek and Drum Creek. Despite York's strong suspicions regarding the Benders since his visit several weeks earlier, no one had watched them and it was not noticed for several days that they had fled.
Three days after the township meeting, Billy Tole was driving cattle past the Bender property when he noticed that the Inn was abandoned and the farm animals were unfed. Tole reported the fact to the Township Trustee, but due to bad weather it was several days before the abandonment could be investigated. The Township Trustee called for volunteers and several hundred turned out to form a search party that included Dr York’s brother, Colonel York. When the party arrived at the Bender inn they found the cabin empty of food, clothing and personal possessions. A bad odor was noticed and traced to a trap door underneath a bed, nailed shut. After opening the trap, the empty room beneath, 6 feet (1.8 m) deep and 7 feet (2.1 m) square at the top by 3 foot (0.9144 m) square at the bottom, was found to have clotted blood on the floor. The stone slab floor was broken up with sledgehammers but no bodies were found and it was determined that the smell was from blood that had soaked into the soil. The men then physically lifted the cabin and moved it to the side so they could dig under it but no bodies were found. They then began to probe the ground around the cabin with a metal rod, especially in the disturbed soil of the vegetable garden and orchard where the first body was found later that evening, that of Dr York, buried face downwards with his feet barely below the surface. The probing continued until midnight with another nine suspected grave sites marked before the men were satisfied they had found them all and retired for the night. Digging resumed the following morning with another eight bodies being found in seven of the nine suspected graves while another was found in the well, along with a number of body parts. All but one had had their heads bashed with a hammer and their throats cut, and it was reported in newspapers that all had been "indecently mutilated." The body of a young girl was found with no injuries sufficient to cause death and it was speculated that she had been strangled or buried alive. A Kansas newspaper reported that the crowd was so incensed after finding the bodies, that a friend of the Benders named Brockman, who was among the onlookers, was hung from a beam in the Bender inn until unconscious, revived and interrogated as to what he knew then hung again. After the third hanging, they released him and he staggered home "as one who was drunken or deranged." A Catholic prayer book was found in the house with notes inside written in German, which were later translated. The text read "Johannah Bender. Born July 30, 1848" and "John Gebhardt came to America on July 1 18xx."
Word of the murders spread quickly and more than 3,000 people, including reporters from as far away as New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
visited the site. The Bender cabin was destroyed by souvenir hunters who took everything, including the bricks that lined the cellar and the stones lining the well.
One of Dr York’s brothers, Kansas Senator Alexander York, offered a $1,000 reward for the Bender family's arrest. On May 17, Governor Thomas A. Osborn
Thomas A. Osborn
Thomas Andrew Osborn was the sixth Governor of Kansas.-Early life:Osborn was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania. As a young man, he was apprenticed as a printer, from which he supported himself through Allegheny College. In 1856 he began to study law under a Meadville judge and was admitted to the...
offered a $2,000 reward for the apprehension of all four.
Arrests
Several weeks after the discovery of the bodies, Addison Roach and his son in law William Buxton were arrested as accessories. In total 12 men "of bad repute in general" would be arrested including Brockman. All had been involved in disposing of the victims' stolen goods with Mit Cherry, a member of the vigilance committee, implicated for forging a letter from one of the victims, informing the man's wife that he had arrived safely at his destination in IllinoisIllinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. Brockman would be arrested again 23 years later, for the rape and murder of his 18 year old daughter.
Killing method
When a guest would stay at the Benders' bed and breakfast inn, the hosts would give the guest a seat of honor at the table which was positioned over a trap door that led down into the cellarBasement
__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...
. With the victim's back to the curtain Kate would distract the guest, while John Bender or his son would come from behind the curtain and strike the guest on the right hand side of the skull
Human skull
The human skull is a bony structure, skeleton, that is in the human head and which supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.In humans, the adult skull is normally made up of 22 bones...
with a hammer
Hammer
A hammer is a tool meant to deliver an impact to an object. The most common uses are for driving nails, fitting parts, forging metal and breaking up objects. Hammers are often designed for a specific purpose, and vary widely in their shape and structure. The usual features are a handle and a head,...
. The victim's throat
Throat
In vertebrate anatomy, the throat is the anterior part of the neck, in front of the vertebral column. It consists of the pharynx and larynx...
was then cut by one of the women to ensure his death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
. The body was then dropped through the trap door. Once in the cellar, the body would be stripped and later buried somewhere on the property, often in the orchard
Orchard
An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive...
. More than a dozen bullet holes were found in the roof and sides of the room and the media speculated that some of the victims had attempted to fight back after being hit with the hammer.
Escape
Detectives following wagon tracks discovered the Benders' wagon, abandoned with a starving team of horses with one of the mares lame, just outside the city limits of ThayerThayer, Kansas
Thayer is a city in Neosho County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 497.-Geography:Thayer is located at...
, 12 mi (19.3 km) north of the inn. It was confirmed that in Thayer the family bought tickets on the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad for Humboldt
Humboldt, Kansas
Humboldt is a city situated along the Neosho River in the southwest part of Allen County, located in southeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,953.-History:...
. At Chanute
Chanute, Kansas
Chanute is a city in Neosho County, Kansas, United States. Founded on January 1, 1873, it was named after railroad engineer and aviation pioneer Octave Chanute. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 9,119...
, John Jr. and Kate left the train and caught the MK&T train south to the terminus in Red River County near Denison, Texas
Denison, Texas
Denison is a city in Grayson County, Texas, United States. The population was 22,773 at the 2000 census; it is estimated to have grown to 24,127 in 2009. Denison is one of two principal cities in the Sherman-Denison Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
. From there they traveled to an outlaw colony thought to be in the border region between Texas and New Mexico. They were not pursued as lawmen following outlaws into this region often never returned. One detective did claim later that he had traced the pair to the border where he had found that John Jr. had died of apoplexy
Apoplexy
Apoplexy is a medical term, which can be used to describe 'bleeding' in a stroke . Without further specification, it is rather outdated in use. Today it is used only for specific conditions, such as pituitary apoplexy and ovarian apoplexy. In common speech, it is used non-medically to mean a state...
. Ma and Pa Bender did not leave the train at Humboldt, but instead continued north to Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
where it is believed they purchased tickets for St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
.
Several groups of vigilante
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
s were formed to search for the Benders. Many stories say that one vigilante group actually caught the Benders and shot all of them but Kate, whom they burned alive. Another group claimed they had caught the Benders and lynched them before throwing their bodies into the Verdigris River
Verdigris River
The Verdigris River is a tributary of the Arkansas River in southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma in the United States. It is about long...
. Yet another claimed to have killed the Benders during a gunfight and buried their bodies on the prairie. However, no one ever claimed the $3,000 (2009: $53,000) reward.
The story of their escape spread, and the search continued on and off for the next fifty years. Often, groups of two traveling women were accused of being Kate Bender and her mother.
In 1884, it was reported that John Flickinger had committed suicide in Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
. Also in 1884 an elderly man matching Pa Benders description was arrested in Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
for a murder where the victim had been killed by a hammer blow to the head committed near Salmon, Idaho
Salmon, Idaho
Salmon is a city in Lemhi County, Idaho, United States. The population was 3,122 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Lemhi County...
. A message requesting positive identification was sent to Cherryvale but the suspect severed his foot to escape his leg irons and bled to death. By the time a deputy from Cherryvale arrived, identification was impossible due to decomposition. Despite the lack of identification, the man's skull was displayed as that of "Pa Bender" in a Salmon saloon until prohibition
Prohibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...
forced its closure in 1920 and the skull disappeared.
On October 31, 1889 it was reported that a Mrs Almira Monroe and Mrs Sarah Eliza Davis had been arrested in Niles, Michigan
Niles, Michigan
Niles is a city in Berrien and Cass counties in the U.S. state of Michigan, near South Bend, Indiana. The population was 11,600 at the 2010 census. It is the greater populated of two principal cities of and included in the Niles-Benton Harbor, Michigan Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a...
(often misreported as Detroit) several weeks earlier for larceny. They were released after being found not guilty but were then immediately re-arrested for the Bender murders. According to the Pittsburgh Dispatch
Pittsburgh Dispatch
The Pittsburgh Dispatch was a leading newspaper in Pittsburgh, PA, operating from 1846 to 1923. After being enlarged by publisher Daniel O'Neill it was reportedly one of the largest and most prosperous newspapers in the United States...
, the daughter of one of the Benders victims Mrs Frances E. McCaun, had reported the pair to authorities in early October after tracking them down. Their identities were later confirmed by two Osage township witnesses from a tintype
Tintype
Tintype, also melainotype and ferrotype, is a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a sheet of iron metal that is blackened by painting, lacquering or enamelling and is used as a support for a collodion photographic emulsion....
photograph. In mid October, Deputy Sherriff LeRoy Dick, the Osage Township Trustee who had headed the search of the Bender property, arrived in Michigan and arrested the couple on October 30 following their release on the larceny charges. Mrs Monroe resisted, declaring that she would not be taken alive but was subdued by local deputies. Mrs Davis admitted that Mrs Monroe was Ma Bender but claimed that she herself was not Kate but her sister Sarah, she later signed an affidavit
Affidavit
An affidavit is a written sworn statement of fact voluntarily made by an affiant or deponent under an oath or affirmation administered by a person authorized to do so by law. Such statement is witnessed as to the authenticity of the affiant's signature by a taker of oaths, such as a notary public...
to that effect while Monroe continued to deny the identification. Deputy Sherriff Dick, along with Mrs McCaun, escorted the pair to Oswego, Kansas
Oswego, Kansas
Oswego is a city in and the county seat of Labette County, Kansas, United States,, and situated along the Neosho River. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,829.-History:...
where seven members of a 13 member panel confirmed the identification and committed them for trial. Originally scheduled for February 1890, the trial was held over to May and the county subsequently dropped the charges and released both after their attorney produced a marriage certificate indicating that Mrs Davis had been married in Michigan in 1872, the time when several of the murders were committed. A number of researchers question the ready acceptance of the certificates authenticity and suggest that the county was unwilling to accept the expense of boarding the two women for an extended period.
Victims
- 1869: Joe Sowers. Found with a crushed skull and throat cut but not believed to be a Bender victim.
- May 1871: Mr Jones. Body found in Drum Creek with a crushed skull and throat cut.
- Winter 1871/1872: Two unidentified men found on the prairie in February 1872 with crushed skulls and throats cut.
- 1872: Ben Brown. From Howard County, Kansas. $2,600 (2009:$46,000) missing. Buried in the apple orchard.
- 1872: W.F. McCrotty. Co D 123rd Ill Infantry. $38 and a wagon with a team of horses missing.
- December, 1872: Henry McKenzie. Relocating to Independence from Hamilton County, IndianaHamilton County, IndianaHamilton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. Census 2010 recorded a population of 274,569. The county seat is Noblesville....
. $36 and a matched team of horses missing. - December, 1872: Johnny Boyle. From Howard County, Kansas. $10, a pacing mareHarness racingHarness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait . They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, although racing under saddle is also conducted in Europe.-Breeds:...
and an $850 (2009:$14,875) saddle missing. Found in the Benders well. - December, 1872: George Loncher and his daughter (contemporary newspapers variously reported her age as either eight years old or 18 months old with the younger age more likely). $1,900 (2009:$33,600) missing. Thought to have been buried alive, but not proved. Buried together in the apple orchard.
- May, 1873: Dr William York. $2,000 (2009:$35,000) missing. Buried in the apple orchard.
- ?: John Greary. Buried in the apple orchard.
- ?: Unidentified male. Buried in the apple orchard.
- ?: Unidentified female. Buried in the apple orchard.
- ?: Various body parts. The parts did not belong to any of the other victims found.
- 1873: During the search, the bodies of four unidentified males were found in Drum Creek and the surrounds. All four had crushed skulls and throats cut. One may be Jack Bogart, whose horse was purchased from a friend of the Benders after he went missing in 1872.
With the exception of McKenzie, York and the Lonchers who were buried in Independence, none of the other bodies were claimed and they were reburied at the base of a mound 1 mi (1.6 km) south-east of the Benders orchard. {McCrotty is buried in Parsons Kansas}
The search of the cabin resulted in the recovery of three hammers that had been used as murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
weapons. These hammers were given to the Bender museum in 1967 by the son of LeRoy Dick, the Osage Township Trustee who headed the search of the Bender property. The hammers were displayed at the Bender Museum in Cherryvale, Kansas
Cherryvale, Kansas
Cherryvale is a city in Montgomery County, Kansas, United States. The population was 2,386 at the 2000 census.-History:Cherryvale was founded on the land of the Osage Indians who were pushed out by veterans of the American Civil War looking for land. The first white man to purchase property and...
from 1967 to 1978 when the site was acquired for a fire station. When attempts were made to relocate the museum it became a point of controversy with locals objecting to the town being known for the Bender murders. The Bender artifacts were eventually given to the Cherryvale Museum.
Appearances in fiction
- The Bender Family is the subject of the Western novel The Hell Benders (1999) by Ken HodgsonKen HodgsonKenneth Hodgson born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, was an English professional association football player who played as a forward. Hodgson played for hometown Newcastle United, making six appearances before moving on to Scunthorpe, Bournemouth and Colchester United.-External links:**...
. - In Lyle Brandt's novel Massacre Trail (2009) the Benders are responsible for several homestead killings, and are brought down by Marshal Jack Slade.
- The novel Cottonwood (2004), by Scott PhillipsScott Phillips (writer)Scott Phillips is an American writer of crime fiction in the noir tradition. He was born in Wichita, Kansas, and lived for several years in France, working as a translator and photographer; then in California as a screenwriter, co-writing a 1996 straight-to-video thriller called Crosscut.His...
, features Kate Bender in a supporting role; the second half of the book takes place during the trial of two alleged surviving members of the Bender Family. - An episode of the 1954 television series Stories of the CenturyStories of the CenturyStories of the Century is a Western television series that ran in syndication through Republic Pictures between January 23, 1954, and March 11, 1955.-Synopsis:...
named "Kate Bender" focused on only the son and daughter. - In the first season of the television series SupernaturalSupernatural (TV series)Supernatural is an American supernatural and horror television series created by Eric Kripke, which debuted on September 13, 2005 on The WB, and is now part of The CW's lineup. Starring Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester and Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester, the series follows the brothers as they...
, there is a murderous family who are named Bender as a reference to the historical family. - A nonfiction graphic adaptation of their history is part of Rick GearyRick GearyRick Geary is an American cartoonist and illustrator.-Biography:Rick Geary was born on February 25, 1946 in Kansas City, Missouri. Geary was initially introduced to comics readers with his contributions to the Heavy Metal and National Lampoon magazines...
's Treasury of Victorian Murder series. - The Benders are also mentioned, though not by name, in Neil GaimanNeil GaimanNeil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
's 2001 novel American GodsAmerican GodsAmerican Gods is a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novel by Neil Gaiman. The novel is a blend of Americana, fantasy, and various strands of ancient and modern mythology, all centering on a mysterious and taciturn protagonist, Shadow. It is Gaiman's fourth prose novel, being preceded by Good Omens ,...
, as a cult apocryphally said to worship the Slavic god Czernobog. They are also the subject of the historical novel Candle of the Wicked (1960) by Manly Wade WellmanManly Wade WellmanManly Wade Wellman was an American writer. He is best known for his fantasy and horror stories set in the Appalachian Mountains and for drawing on the native folklore of that region, but he wrote in a wide variety of genres, including science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, detective...
, Katie (1982) by Michael McDowellMichael McDowellMichael McDowell is a Senior Counsel in the Bar Council of Ireland and a former politician. A grandson of Irish revolutionary Eoin MacNeill, McDowell was a founding member of the Progressive Democrats political party in the mid-1980s...
, and play a role in the short story "They Bite" (1943) by Anthony BoucherAnthony BoucherAnthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...
.
Further reading
- The New Encyclopedia Of Serial Killers by Brian Lane and Wilfred Gregg. Headline Book Publishing, 1996. ISBN 0-7472-5361-7