Summary: This is a photograph of the historical marker that was originally located on highway 160, 10 miles west of Parsons in Labette County, Kansas, near the site of the Bender family's cabin. David McCormick writes from Springfield, Mass. by Unbelievable Facts Dec 28, 2016, 7:08 am 1k Views Comments Off on The 1800s serial killer family of Kansas: “Bloody Benders”, notorious for murdering travelers and whose fate is unknown to this day The Longcors lived half a mile from Laura Ingalls Wilder, and are now buried on the Little House on the Prairie Museum property since 1873. (620) 891-0072. They are displayed in the Museum along with a certified Notary by Cornelius P. Dick, son of LeRoy Dick. LeRoy Dick intercepted Peckham and Beers (Marshal Snoddy could not afford any more time away from his duties and had already returned to Fort Scott) in Vinita with this new intelligence. Outside, they planted a vegetable garden and an apple orchard. Over a century later, you can still find them in books, TV, and on the big screen – people never get tired of their story! Present-day Cherryvale Museum, which has limited visiting hours from April to October, displays the murder hammers and other memorabilia of the Bloody Benders. The infamous Kansas homestead of America’s first serial killer family known as the “Bloody Benders” is now up for sale. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by Historynet LLC, the world's largest publisher of history magazines. “Last Sunday it was estimated there were 3,000 people on the grounds at one time.” Fortunately, LeRoy Dick had preserved some of the evidence, including three hammers thought to be the Benders’ murder weapons. Ivan III (the Great), grand prince of Russia. In late March or early April, while investigating Dr. York’s disappearance, his brothers showed up at the Bender homestead. One poor calf, its body held fast to a post in the stable, unable to free itself, had died of thirst, its mother nearby with her udders burst. History of the Bender saga at Cherryvale Library. $31.00 Charlotte's Chocolate Macadamia Gourmet Coffee 12oz. “Stories have popped up all over the country of people who think they saw the Benders.” Sign up for our monthly newsletter to stay up-to-date on upcoming events and special offers! In the spring of 1873 a community of southeastern Kansans descended on the Bender homestead with all the tools necessary for planting. Thomas A. Osborn followed this up in mid-May 1873 with a $2,000 reward for the apprehension of the foursome. Ed York, finding little credence in John’s tale, continued his search. He further sought to throw the brothers off the scent, hinting at highwaymen in the area who possibly accounted for the doctor’s disappearance. Some accounts say the Benders did reach the outlaw hideout, but there is no real proof. Fred Vinson, Thirteenth Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Lonchers weren’t the only travelers to have turned up missing in the prior few months. See more ideas about bloody benders, bender, bloody. Nothing ever came of that or several other supposed sightings. Over the years various newspapers reported sightings of Bender family members. The family lived in the back of their cabin. At the same time the residents of Harmony Grove assembled in the weathered clapboard school building for the annual school board election, held each year on the second Tuesday in April. Marker Name: The Bloody Benders Marker Type: Rest Area Marker text: Near here are the Bender Mounds, named for the infamous Bender family--John, his wife, son, and daughter Kate--who settled here in 1871. Information and brochures at Chamber of Commerce. The unsettling true story of America's first serial killing family. And it ends in a way that'll have you clammy because it doesn't end at all. Much of the Parsons Historical Museum will be of primary interest to people who live in or near Parsons, but there is MKT Railroad memorabilia and a sandstone paving rock which was the stepping stone into the cabin of the Bloody Benders. They repeated the painful procedure several times without any luck. Today, the “Bloody Benders” endure as a notorious serial killing family of the Old West. 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 tall young one had reportedly suggested all four of them join an outlaw hideout along the Texas–New Mexico border. Some began to dig feverishly, their shovels and spades clanging against one another. Her skull was intact, but she had a broken arm, among other injuries, and a scarf tied tightly around her neck, suggesting she may have been buried alive. It seems the doctor had sold the Lonchers a wagon and team that soon turned up deserted, with no sign of or word from father or daughter. While some of these Kansans feared the worst, none was prepared for what they were about to discover. The infamous Kansas homestead of America’s first serial killer family known as the “Bloody Benders” is now up for sale. Though stories abound, to this day no one knows for certain what became of the "bloody Benders." Ed York offered a $1,000 reward for information that would lead to the arrest of the Benders. Exactly how many people the Bloody Benders killed between 1871 and 1873 remains unknown, but some estimates range over 20. Ma Bender, the heavyset woman said to be his wife, looked all of her 50-plus years and was as unfriendly as Pa. John Bender Jr., about 25, was somewhat more neighborly, but something about him, perhaps his inappropriate laughter, suggested he was simpleminded. Kate Bender, two years younger than her brother, seemed cut from a different cloth. How much money they made by emptying the pockets of their victims is also uncertain, though a quick tally set the amount at about $5,000. Currently, there's not any kind of alert system regarding potential coronavirus exposure that would … She didn’t act much like a farm girl. They slayed at least 11 people and buried their bodies in the 1870s before going on the run when their crimes were exposed. The Bender museum was a popular tourist spot until it closed in 1978. Bloody Benders History. They even took A.M. King, the preacher from Parsons, Kan., into custody for a while. But the killings also stoked a thirst for vengeance. In 1961, Cherryvale, Kansas opened up the Bender Museum. The diggers found the bodies of Ben Brown, W.F. The spring harvest was on. Much remains mysterious about the Benders. Suggested for further reading: The Benders in Kansas, by John Towner James; The Benders: Keepers of the Devil’s Inn, by Fern Morrow Wood; and The Saga of the Bloody Benders, by Rick Geary. This is the story of the Bloody Benders, America’s first family of serial killers. A determined clamor, each voice rising over another, called for action; in a disordered uproar, those gathered pledged punishment for those responsible for the missing residents. through October. The darker side of the human psyche: Serial killers 10 – The Bloody Benders The Bender family killed at least a dozen travellers before their heinous crimes were discovered. One voice called out above the others, “What we need to do is search every foot of each of our farms!” A cold sweat must have gripped the two Bender men. Visit Website. A sign that had once hung over the inn’s front door—John Jr. had scrawled GROCRY on one side, and Kate had printed GROCERIES on the reverse—had been incorporated as a repair into the bed of the Benders’ wagon. The search continued outside. See more ideas about bloody benders, bender, bloody. “Thousands of people daily visit the grounds,” the Thayer, Kan., Head Light reported a week after the discovery of the bodies. The 1800s serial killer family of Kansas: “Bloody Benders”, notorious for murdering travelers and whose fate is unknown to this day. Located in Labette County, Kansas, the land was once owned by the notorious Bender family and is being auctioned off by the Schrader Real Estate and Auction Co. A number of animals were tethered and unable to fend for themselves. The Bloody Benders Mystery In Kansas Still Baffles People Today. By the end of the 1940s, about 60,000 of the 100,000 French artworks looted by Nazis during World War II had been returned to France, but not all … The Benders family were infamous serial An older couple visited them from time to time. The men severed the head in order to wash the face clean. But they found no bodies beneath the stone basement slab. Using Fort Smith as a starting point, Ed and Alexander traced William’s movements along the Osage Mission Road. Though he allegedly committed suicide in 1884 in Lake Michigan, others believed that Ma and Kate murdered him because he had fled Cherryvale with all the cash and valuables they had taken from their victims. Others have suggested John Jr. was Ma’s son from a previous marriage and that his actual surname was Gebhardt. (Some sources claim that Kate was actually John Jr.’s common-law wife.) Little House on the Prairie Museum 2507 CR 3000 Independence, KS 67301 (620) 289-4238 Lhopmuseumks@gmail.com littlehouseontheprairiemuseum.com Facebook: Little House on the Prairie Museum The Bender buckboard was about all that turned up. Changing direction, the two Kansans traveled to Texas and picked up the Benders’ trail, first 200 miles west of Denison and then again in El Paso and into the Chihuahua Desert, before giving up the chase. The Bloody Benders, however, used Spiritualism to commit mass murder. That done and the dead man’s hair parted, York had his worst fears realized. Kansas Gov. They continued digging, more carefully now, until a body lay exposed. The Bloody Benders is a horror story, told elsewhere with far more blood and gore. Description. The cold-blooded Benders, with the brutal efficiency of predatory animals, claimed many victims in the early 1870s in Osage Township, Labette County, Kan. Kansas Historical Society. By continuing to use our site you are agreeing to our privacy policy. A couple of weeks after the meeting, Bender neighbor Billy Tole was driving his cattle past their meager farm and saw no sign of the family. PARSONS, Ks. The ghastly discovery of Dr. York’s body was just the tip of the iceberg. The unsettling true story of America's first serial killing family. Between 1871 and 1873, the Benders murdered at least eleven travelers who stopped at their house. He was last seen on March 9. “While the posses were racing about the country, the Benders were on the way to Europe,” Ransom suggested. In 1978, the museum was closed and a fire station was built on the land. The inn was a dingy place called the Wayside Inn. Bloody Benders Historical Marker Of the “family,” Pa Bender was actually found to have been a man named John Flickinger, from either Germany or Holland. Pa, Ma, John Bender, Jr., and Kate moved in and opened an inn and store in the front room of their home. A troubled doctor searches for patients swallowed by the prairie and encounters the Benders, homesteaders trapped by a life of unspeakable sin. From $8.00 Cat's Meow Ingalls' Family Cabin. Surely, he must have known what was going on and had forewarned the Benders. Psychotic killers like John Wesley Hardin and Jim Miller roamed the post–Civil War West, but few of these warped individuals could hold a candle to the greed and dirty deeds of the family of serial killers that operated from their Kansas homestead. The story of Tole’s findings spread throughout the region. See more ideas about bloody benders, bender, bloody. Although authorities never proved the two were Ma and Kate Bender, Dick said he felt sure he had located the right women. ‘I see graves!’. Kate soon gained notoriety as a self-proclaimed healer and spiritualist. He had a claim just to the north of Pa Bender’s but never lived on it or built any structures on it. Much remains mysterious about the Benders. It is unknown if any of the Benders were in fact related. Three of the Bender hammers, remaining artifacts from the Bloody Bender Inn, were gifted to the Cherryvale museum by the Dick family in 1967. Here in Kansas, we don’t often get a great mystery or murder spree, and we’re glad of that. Between 1871 and 1873, the Benders murdered at least eleven travelers who stopped at their house. What exactly happened when Dr. York paid the Benders a visit is uncertain. Nearly a dozen travelers who stopped at their small inn were murdered, and their bodies later found buried on the Benders’ property. (Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka). During the 1870s, Kansas was still a developing area. 329 Main and 200 E 4th, Cherryvale, KS 67335. The men could clearly see that someone had bashed in the skull. Elizabeth York, wife of Edward York, donated the knife shown here to the Kansas Museum of History (view a close-up of the knife blade). More than 140 years ago, one family committed such evil that they became known as the Bloody Benders. Once authorities had relocated the Osage Indians to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) after the Civil War, homesteaders descended on Kansas’ Labette County. The hunt for the Benders took on a life of its own. In the 19th-century, however, that wasn’t always the case. The family would become known as the Bloody Benders, and with good reason. Inside the house Ed York found a pair of spectacles and recognized a solder repair to the silver frame. Following that lead, the three-man posse boarded a train to Vinita. With hand to forehead, Ed York shaded his eyes, scanning the Benders’ orchard. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 5,000 articles originally published in our various magazines. After all this time, we’ll probably never know with any certainty who the Bloody … This was no spring planting, though. The grisly finds shook those who lived in and around Harmony Grove and Cherryvale. Today the Cherryvale Museum still showcases a few of the Bender’s belongings, including the hammers they used to bash in their victim’s heads. One man even recalled that Dr. York had mentioned his intention to go to the Benders’ inn, nearly 80 miles southwest of Fort Scott. She was reportedly both beautiful and outgoing. Jul 31, 2015 - Explore Libby Youtcheff's board "The Bloody Benders" on Pinterest. The Bloody Benders were a family of serial killers who owned an inn and small general store in Labette County of southeastern Kansas from 1871 to 1873. The diggers would harvest the bodies of other unwary travelers who had fallen prey. The Benders had fled to parts unknown, so residents singled out Rudolph Brockman, who had courted Kate Bender, for vilification. Before long their tools made contact with something hard—not a rock or a root, but something that didn’t belong there. It is a wreath of woven, golden hair taken from the body of a little girl who--most probably--was befriended by Kate and then brutally murdered by her when her back was turned. The danger of dining with the Bender’s came when seated with your back to the canvas wall. The hammers were displayed at the Bender Museum in Cherryvale, Kansas from 1967 to 1978 when the site was acquired for a fire station. It was the 1870s. The tale of the Bloody Benders remains one … Sir Francis Bacon, English philosopher, statesman, essayist (The Advancement of Learning). One of the victims was Henry McKenzie, cousin to LeRoy Dick’s wife; he had stopped to visit the Benders on November 6, 1872 (or perhaps the next day), on his way to see his sister in Independence. On that day, April 8, 1873, residents hurried the election; there was a more pressing agenda—missing people. Following up on the discovery of the Benders’ buckboard, Marshal Jim Snoddy from Fort Scott and posse members Colonel C.J. The marker is a … Where were the Benders? The Cherryvale Bender Museum opened in May 1961. Map. The Benders’ story begins, like many from this time period, thanks to the Homestead Act of 1862. Still, the true nature of the relationship between the Benders has always been uncertain. By afternoon the crowd of diggers and morbidly curious onlookers had swelled to several hundred. A number of people living along the road told the pair they had seen the doctor. When it comes to the Benders, there are more questions 7. than answers. Sep 8, 2020 - Explore Clknightokc's board "Bloody Benders" on Pinterest. Dick called for a meeting of residents at the Benders’ the next morning, May 6, and men duly came armed with plows, teams and shovels. The Bloody Benders: 140-year-old crime scene still fascinates today | The Wichita Eagle ... independent filmmakers working on “The Bender Claim” shot scenes at Old Cowtown Museum … In this case, a family of murderers nicknamed the “Bloody Benders” escaped capture, never to be found again. Cookies are used for measurement, ads, & optimization. When Kansas was opened up for settlers by the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, easterners flocked to the west to stake their claims to cheap and sometimes even free land. Picture of a bloody knife found on the Bender family property. The men exhumed Dr. York’s body from the apple orchard and continued the harvest of bodies the next morning. The Benders might not have been the friendliest folks around, but they welcomed visitors with money in their pockets. Homestead of bloody benders museum 's first family of serial killers Jr., and Kate. 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