The history of the Bender family dates back to the period after the Civil War, when the government decided to settle the lands in Kansas, which belonged to the Osage Indian tribe.
John Bender Sr. and his family settled in Kansas in 1870, near the Great Osage Trail (later known as the Santa Fe Trail), along which countless settlers traveled westward. Bender Sr., named Pa, claimed 65 hectares of land that is now Labette County.
His son John demanded a smaller piece of land adjacent to Bender Sr.'s possessions, but never lived or worked there. The Bender family also included Ma and a daughter named Kate. Ma and Pa mostly spoke German because their English was poor. The younger Benders spoke fluent English.
The family built a house near the Osage Trail. The dwelling consisted of one room, divided into two halves by a canvas curtain. The front part was a hotel and a shop, and the family lived in the back half. The settlers, whose path led past the Bender house, they offered food and lodging, as well as stalls and grain for their horses.
Bender Sr. was 60 and his wife 55. At over 6 feet (1.82 m) he looked like a giant. Because of his thick beard and long hair, deep-set black eyes and shaggy eyebrows hanging over them, eyewitnesses described him as a "wild furry man." Mrs. Bender looked just as unfriendly and had such a hard look that she was nicknamed "devil" among the people who knew her.
John Bender, Jr. was a tall, slender man of about 25 with brown hair and a mustache. He spoke with a strong German accent, often laughed for no reason, which led to the thought that he was abnormal.
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Kate, 24, was the most outgoing of all family members and described herself as a healer, seer and medium. It was rumored that she and her mother practiced witchcraft. Kate was pretty, and her psychic abilities attracted even more guests to the hotel, wishing to be cured or to communicate with the spirits of the dead.
She gave lectures on spiritualism, conducted healing sessions, and also claimed to have paranormal powers. In her lectures, she often advocated free love and justified the right to kill. Along with her desire for fame, she craved wealth and high position.
In the Kansas newspapers on June 18, 1872, there was an announcement: “Professor Keith Bender cures diseases, also cures blindness and deafness. Lives 14 miles east of Independence, on the road to the Osage Mission"
Later, during the investigation, it was established that from the whole family, only Ma and her daughter Kate were related to the name Bender. Pa was actually called John Flickinger, who was born around 1810 in either Germany or the Netherlands.
Ma Bender, née Almira Make, has been married several times. From her first marriage with a man named Griffith, she left 12 children. All of her husbands, with whom she lived before meeting Pa, died from head wounds. Her daughter Kate was née Eliza Griffith. John Bender Jr. was actually called John Gebhart, and many who knew him in Kansas argued that he was not Kate's brother, but her husband.
Hundreds of people traveled through Kansas to the West in search of happiness and many of them often went missing. It took a while for these disappearances to gain attention, as there were a myriad of reasons why settlers, travelers and adventurers alike did not contact or were even dead. However, as time went on, more and more people began to disappear on the way through Labette County.
In 1872, after the death of his wife, George Launcher and his young daughter left Independence, Kansas, for Iowa. They never got there. Dr. William York went to look for them, following the Osage Trail. He questioned all the people almost to Fort Scott, but on the way back to Independence, he suddenly disappeared himself.
William York was a wealthy man who led the small community in which he lived. The family and fellow citizens, knowing his cheerful character and kind disposition, excluded the possibility of flight or suicide, and therefore suspected something unkind.
Search parties combed the entire district to no avail. Dr. York's brother, Senator Alexander York, hired detectives to search the entire country if necessary. During the search, the detectives appeared in the vicinity of the town of Cherryvale, five miles from the Bender tavern, where they learned something about the missing doctor.
In Cherryvale, everyone claimed that he ran into bandits at the border. Not a shadow of suspicion fell on Bendery. A group of riders visited the tavern only to ask if they had seen the doctor. Benders provided assistance, answered all the questions, and Kate even volunteered to conduct a session in order to find out, thanks to her gift, what happened to the missing doctor.
Meanwhile, the authorities decided to convene a community gathering to discuss the disappearances. At the training camp, a warrant was given to search every estate between the headwaters of Big Hill Creek and Drum Creek. Old Man Bender was at that meeting with his son John.
Three days after the meeting, Bender's neighbor Billy Tell, while driving past their farm, noticed hungry animals belonging to the Benders. They wandered around the pen in search of food. Some were already dead, spreading a fetid odor around the area.
The cart belonging to the Bender family disappeared with them, but they took few things with them, not counting food and clothing. But what the residents found in their house was really shivering. A trapdoor in the floor behind a dividing curtain led into a fetid basement soaked in blood.
Excavation of the graves of the victims of the Bender family
The dwelling was moved to another place, the ground was dug, but no bodies were found. Then they began to search the garden, in which the earth looked as if it had recently been dug up. Working at night, volunteers were the first to find Dr. York's body. Seven other corpses were found the same night, one more the next day. Their throats were slit and their skulls shattered.
The exception was Mr. Launcher's little daughter, buried right under her father. One of the bodies found near the house belonged to an eight-year-old girl and was badly mutilated: almost all of her bones were broken, and her legs were torn from the joints and bent under the body. Ultimately, ten corpses were found at the Bender farm, but only 21 murders are attributed to the family.
Excavation of the graves of the victims of the Bender family
While the detectives were looking for them, the mob in Cherryvale was lynching in a rage. Mr. Brockmann, who was at one time assistant to old Bender, was captured. Both of them were Germans, once they were close friends. The crowd led him into the forest. They tried to get him to tell him where the terrible family was. He did not know, in any case, he was hanged three times and brought to his senses, and then released. They say he finally came to his senses.
Senator Alexander York announced a $ 1,000 bounty for the capture of criminals. On May 17, 1873, Kansas Governor Thomas A. Osborne raised the sum to $ 2,000 for the arrest of all four. The award has never been announced.
Investigators managed to recreate a rough picture of what was happening. When the traveler was in the room, he was received and seated at the table with his back to the dividing curtain, behind which one of the Bender men was hiding. Kate distracted the guest's attention while John Bender or his son smashed his skull with a hammer from behind the curtain. To be sure that the victim was dead, they cut her throat, took all the valuables and threw the body through the hatch into the basement.
One man, Mr. Wetzel, upon hearing this story, recalled how the hotel also offered him to sit at the appointed place, but he refused. His decision caused an angry reaction and abusive behavior from Ma Bender, and when the man saw Bender's son and father emerge from behind the curtain, he and his comrade hurried to leave the unfortunate place. William Pickering told a similar story.
The fate of the Bender family is unknown. There are several versions of what happened to them after fleeing the farm. According to one of them, the van in which they fled was later found empty a few miles from the estate. It was riddled with bullets, there were traces of blood everywhere, but there was not a trace of family.
In a documentary story by William Bolito, a letter from a certain Sheriff Kramer is quoted:
Cherryvale, Kansas, 1910
Dear sir, I got your letter. It so happened that my father-in-law's farm was adjacent to the Bender farm, and he himself helped to find the bodies of the victims. I often tried to find out from him what happened to the Benders, but he only threw a meaningful look at me, saying that they would not bother anyone anymore. To find the Benders, a vigilance committee was then organized, and shortly after that old Bender's van was found by the road, pierced by bullets. You will guess the rest for yourself.
Yours faithfully
J. Kramer, Chief of Police
Twelve people were arrested as accomplices in the murders committed by the Benders, mainly for buying stolen goods. In the early years following the notorious crimes, there was a series of arrests of women who were mistaken for Ma and Kate. Several so-called "vigilance groups" claimed to have found Bendery and dealt with them, but no one ever provided evidence.
According to the official investigation, railroad workers saw Ma and Pa board the train to Humboldt, and Keith and John Bender board the train to Texas or Mexico. According to some reports, the elder Benders were allegedly seen in Kansas City on their way to St. Louis. Nobody knows what eventually became of them.
The house in which the murderers lived was dismantled and pulled apart piece by piece for souvenirs. Today not a trace of the Bender dwelling remains, but as many say, the ghosts of the victims of a bloody family now roam in its place.