Saturday, November 6, 2010

The Bloody Benders



In the early 1870s the counties of Labette and Montgomery in Kansas were experiencing an alarming number of missing persons. The investigation passed several times through the cabin of the Benders, a family of German immigrants who ran a small grocery store and restaurant outside of Cherryvale, Kansas, but the Benders appeared completely innocent. When authorities found the cabin abandoned one day the picture changed. A closer look revealed nine murdered corpses, the handiwork of the Bloody Benders.

Date: 1870 - 1873

Location: Cherryvale, Kansas

Victim: Dr. William York & nine others

Cause of Death: Blows from a hammer, suffocation

Accused: The Bender Family


Synopsis:
Around 1870 the Bender family built a small cabin outside of Cherryvale, Kansas, about fifty miles north of the Oklahoma border. William Bender and his wife (sometimes referred to as “Ma” Bender) were in their sixties; Thomas and Joanna—better known as Kate—were in their twenties. They were German immigrants; all spoke with accents and the elder Benders spoke little English. It is unclear exactly how these four were related. Most accounts say that Thomas and Kate were the son and daughter of William Bender and his wife, but Thomas was also known as John Gebhardt and is sometimes referred to as Kate’s husband. Other accounts say that none of them were actually named Bender and that only the mother and daughter were related. The men are described as “large, coarse appearing men.” The description of Kate ranges from “a large, masculine, red-faced woman” to “good looking, well formed, rather bold in appearance.” A number of sources agree that she had a ruddy complexion and she may have been a redhead.


These rather idealized portraits appeared in the book The Benders of Kansas by John Towner


The Bender’s kept a small grocery store in the front of the cabin, selling staples such as tobacco, crackers, sardines, candles, powder and shot. They also provided meals for travelers. Though they kept to themselves, the Benders attended church and town meetings and seemed to be an ordinary rural family. The only exception was Kate who professed to being clairvoyant, giving public lectures on spiritualism and advertising in local newspapers her ability to “heal disease, cure blindness, fits and deafness.”

Missing Persons

In 1873, citizens of Labette County became concerned over the inordinate number missing persons in their community. Neighboring counties were experiencing losses as well. In March 1973, Dr. William York from Onion Creek, Montgomery County, came in search of a man named Loucher and his infant daughter, who had travelled in the region the previous winter and were never heard from again. Dr. York never made it home either.

Dr. York was from a very prominent family and in April his brother, Col. A. M. York came to Labette County leading a party of fifty citizens of Montgomery County. They searched unsuccessfully for the missing doctor, stopping several times at the Benders' cabin. On one occasion they asked Kate to use her clairvoyant powers to help with the search, but she had no information for them.

The Slaughter-Pen

The next time someone stopped at the Bender’s cabin it appeared to be deserted. Their wagon was missing and a calf they were raising had died of neglect. The authorities in Cherryvale were notified and went back to check on the house. Everything seemed to be in order, nothing was missing but clothes and bedding. But a thorough search of the house began to reveal the Benders’ horrible secret. Near the table where guests were served was a trap door and the foul smelling hole beneath the door was clotted with blood.

The ground in an orchard near the house had been carefully plowed but one small section was noticeably indented. The ground was dug up revealing the decomposed body of Dr. York. His skull had been crushed and his throat had been cut. Before nightfall seven more bodies were extracted and another was found the next day. Most were badly decomposed but were identified by clothing and jewelry. They were:

• W. F. McCrotty of Cedarville.
• D. Brown of Cederville.
• Henry F. McKenzie of Hamilton County, Indiana.
• Mr. Loucher and his baby daughter from Independence.
• Two unidentified men.
• One child believed to be an eight year old girl.

Another body previously found in Drum Creek was also attributed to the Benders. All but the baby had fractured skulls and slit throats. It was believed that the baby was suffocated when buried alive with her father. The eight year old girl’s body had been badly mutilated.

The travelers were murdered for their money. The amounts stolen by the Benders ranged from 40 cents to $2600 along with horses and wagons.

From the condition of the bodies and the arrangement of the house, the authorities were able to surmise how the killings were done. The table where customers took their meals was in a small booth formed by cloth partitions on both sides. The partitions were close enough to the back of the chairs that, when sitting upright, the heads of the diners would indent the cloth. The male Benders would wait behind the cloth partitions and when the opportunity presented itself would smash their victims’ skulls with stone-breaker’s hammers. The bodies were thrown through the trapdoor—into what one book called the “slaughter-pen”— where the throats were cut to guarantee death. After dark the bodies were removed and buried in the orchard.

This speculation was verified to an extent by a Mr. Wetzell of Independence, Kansas who had read Kate’s advertisement and travelled to the Benders’ with his friend Mr. Gordan, seeking a cure for neuralgia. Kate examined Wetzel and expressed confidence in her ability to effect a permanent cure, but invited them to dine first. For some reason the two men rose from the table and decided to eat their dinners at the counter instead. This caused a change in Kate’s behavior; she became caustic and abusive toward them. They saw the two Bender men emerge from behind the partitions. Wetzell and Gordan became suspicious then and decided to leave—a decision that probably saved their lives.

Vengeance

When the news of the murders spread through Labette County, it whipped the citizens into a frenzy. They demanded vengeance and formed vigilance committees to hunt down the Benders. The vigilantes went first to the home of a man named Brockman, another German immigrant who had briefly been a partner of Mr. Bender’s. They put a rope around his neck and threatened to hang him if he would not confess. When Brockman swore he knew nothing they hanged him from a tree but when he was at the point of death they lowered him down and questioned him again. When he still had nothing to tell him they hung him again. This torture was repeated three times before the posse left him semi-conscious, lying on the ground.

Aftermath

The search for the Benders continued, but though the Governor of Kansas offered a $2000 reward for their capture, the Benders were never brought to justice. One investigation determined that they took a train from Thayer to Chanute where John and Kate got off and took the M. K. & T. train south to Red River in Indian Territory. Here they met up with the elder Benders and travelled through Texas and New Mexico.

Other residents of Labette County told a different story. While researching the Benders' story for his 1910 book, Celebrated Criminal Cases of America , San Francisco Captain of Police, Thomas S. Duke, contacted police chiefs of Cherryvale and Independence, Kansas. This is how they responded:

Cherryvale, Kansas
June 14, 1910

Dear Sir:

Yours just received. It so happened that my father-in-law’s farm joins the Bender farm and he helped locate the bodies of the victims. I often tried to find out from him what became of the Benders, but he only gave me a knowing look and said he guessed they would not bother anyone else.

There was a vigilance committee organized to locate the Benders, and shortly afterward old man Bender’s wagon was found by the roadside riddled with bullets. You will have to guess the rest. I am respectfully yours,

J. N. Kramer
Chief of Police




Independence, Kansas
June 14, 1910

Dear Sir:

In regard to the Bender family I will say that I have lived here forty years, and it is my opinion that they never got away.

A vigilance committee was formed and some of them are still here, but will not talk except to say that it would be useless to look for them, and they smile at the reports of some of the family having been located.

The family nearly got my father. He intended to stay there one night, but he became suspicious, and although they tried to coax him to stay he hitched up his team and left.

Regretting that I cannot give you more information, I am yours respectfully,

D.M. Van Cleve
Chief of Police


Several times suspected members of the Bender family were arrested in other parts of the country and brought back to Kansas to be tried. Most notably, in 1890 two women were arrested in Michigan and alleged to be Ma Bender and Kate. There attorney had affidavits proving they were Mrs. Almira Griffith and Mrs. Sarah E. Davis and were in Michigan between 1870 and 1874. After a habeas corpus hearing they were released from the Labette County jail.

The true fate of the Bender family remains a mystery.

More pictures of the Bender Family here: A Bender Family Album.


This is one of 50 stories featured in the new book
The Bloody Century
Sources:
Books:

Duke, Thomas Samuel,Celebrated Criminal Cases of America, San Francisco, The James H. Barry company, 1910.
Case, Nelson, History of Labette County, Kansas: From the First Settlement to the Close of 1892, Kansas, Topeka, Crane & Company, 1893.
James, John T.. The Benders in Kansas. Washington, D.C.: Photoduplication Service, Library of Congress,1913.

Newspapers:

The Kansas Murders - New York TImes, May 13, 1873
Says They're Not the Benders - New York Times, January 11, 1890

Website:

The Bloody Benders of Labett County
Poem:

"Murder" by Thomas Bower Peacock 
"Composed at Independence, Kansas, when first hearing of the horrible murders by the fiendish Bender family."

20 comments :

Tracy says:
August 12, 2011 at 3:41 PM

Thanks for using my site; KANSAS MEDIOCRITY. Much of my info was from the Kansas Historical Society. I live just a few miles from Bender's Mound.

Robert Wilhelm says:
August 13, 2011 at 11:23 AM

Thank you Tracy. I like to use as many sources as possible in a case like this - with a lot of legends that don't always agree with each other.

Anonymous says:
October 28, 2012 at 11:55 PM

Aren't the two letters from the chiefs of police uncannily similar? The wording of both seem out of character for the time and entirely too much alike.

Robert Wilhelm says:
October 29, 2012 at 12:59 PM

The letters were printed in the book _Celebrated Criminal Cases of America_ by Thomas S. Duke, published in 1910. Duke, himself, was a former police captain in San Francisco. Though it is possible that they were edited, I don't believe he made them up out of whole cloth.

Briana Lynn says:
February 1, 2013 at 9:52 PM

That was an inspiring bit of information I did not know, so thank you for that, and that is very eeiry. Uhm and it is a little weird being so close to the mound, do you hear noises and things like that?? Do you hear screams or whatnot, or in fact see the ghosts of them??

Bacall says:
June 2, 2013 at 2:19 PM

Really love your blog! I am a history buff, and a wannabe sleuth :D and have always had an interest in old crime cases in America. I have read many books on several famous cases, but have never heard of this one. Almost sounds like a classic movie I've seen, "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." I do believe this family did not get away. The town seemed at ease too soon after the crime. Scary story indeed. I will add your link on my blog http://historyconfidential.com as I think many of my visitors will find your blog quite interesting.

Robert Wilhelm says:
June 6, 2013 at 7:35 AM

Thank you Bacall, I appreciate it. I have added historycnfidential.com to my blogroll as well.

Unknown says:
August 4, 2013 at 7:42 PM

In your honest opinion do u feel that they were captured or did they get away? I am interested because I am apart of a Bender family that was raised in central Missouri. I am interested in knowing if its a possibility that we are related to them. I am going to do some more research but i am very interested in this possibility.

Robert Wilhelm says:
August 6, 2013 at 12:02 PM

In spite of what those police chiefs said, I think they probably got away. Research might be difficult because they would have changed their name. There were a number of unsubstantiated rumors that will probably add more mystery than clarity.

Grandma Walks! says:
November 11, 2013 at 4:06 PM

I realize this was posted a while ago but had to comment. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote an interesting account of the Benders. Her father, Charles Ingalls was a member of the vigilante group.

Robert Wilhelm says:
November 12, 2013 at 1:11 PM

That is interesting. Is her account available on-line?

Anonymous says:
April 29, 2015 at 9:15 PM

Um... When the letters are dated the same DATE, does that mean they live in the same town? It does look like fakes because of the EXACT same date. Its a good website here, but that little bit of info is kind of worrying..... :I #confuzzled

Robert Wilhelm says:
April 30, 2015 at 7:42 AM

The letters are taken verbatim from a well-known book written in 1910 by Samuel Duke, former San Francisco police captain. I obviously have no way to verify their authenticity. The fact that they were in response to letters that were probably written on the same day increases the likelihood that they would be answered on the same day - I don't see any special significance here. Having read the whole book, I am satisfied with Mr. Duke's honesty. The letters may have been edited, but they were not created out of whole cloth.

Anonymous says:
May 5, 2015 at 9:10 PM

I really don't care about the book. Samuel Duke may as well just made up those letters, Robert. And yes you COULD id their authenticity, first, you cite through every god damn place that Mr. Duke could've gotten them from, possibly got to the museum in Cherryvale??? The fact that the letters were written on the same day, tells me that they are fakes. For your information, buddie, IF they were actually real, the distance between Independance and Cherryvale is so great, it would take one or two days to be delivered. The only reason I can come up with is that Mr. Kramer wrote his in the morning, it was delivered the same day and the response was written very late at night, and delivered the very next morning, they are fakes. And there is a huge differance if someone wants it to be really correct cuz some kids at school are calling her/him a total idiot who can't cite info correctly! Also they probably want an A because there presentation is worth a 100 points. (No joke) So, I would suggest having solid information, not a type of information that has a possibility of being a fake! Your just satisfied with having "solid" information, wrote back in 1910. People never got the real facts in the early 1900's... >:( By the way, stop repeating yourself, thats freaking annoying.

Robert Wilhelm says:
May 6, 2015 at 2:15 PM

Yikes, I've angered you.

According to Mr. Duke, these letters were in response to letters he sent directly to these police chiefs from his home in San Francisco, so I assume they belong to his estate or have been lost to history. I am not saying that they are factual - they are hearsay two layers deep - but they were taken from a respected book that I have found to be accurate on other cases, They do not prove anything, as I say in the post "The true fate of the Bender family remains a mystery."

I think it is interesting that you attack my sources when the VAST majority of history websites do not provide any sources at all. If you are in a position to teach children, please tell them not to trust anything without documented sources and if sources are given, get the information from there. After all, this is just a blog post. Don't trust my words, look it up yourself.

I apologize if I repeat myself; please feel free do ignore my duplications.

Robert Wilhelm says:
May 6, 2015 at 6:21 PM

I finally see the source of the confusion. The address at the top of each letter is where it was mailed FROM, both letters were mailed TO Samuel Duke in San Francisco. They were never mailed to each other. That they were written on the same date is a coincidence, but not a very big one.

Unknown says:
July 7, 2015 at 1:52 AM

Just curious who currently owns the house?

~Earth Angel~ says:
December 21, 2015 at 4:46 PM

I had a cousin, Ernestine Yancey Donahue who is now deceased ," who told this to me in 1981 in a letter:
" (December, 1981) Some years back, my cousin Jack Gutherie, said that his grandfather Gutherie told him that a group of people living near the Benders lynched the Benders and weighted their bodies and threw them in the river. I had also read a story in the Houston, Texas, paper written by an old man saying that he was with the lynching party that killed the Benders and threw their bodies in the river. These two stories make me believe that is what happened to them, all other stories I had read state there was never any record as to what happened to the Benders." She had also told me that my great great grandfather, Ambrose Yancey, almost stopped to stay for the night at the Benders on his way to Independence, KS, but decided that he thought he could make it to Independence before nightfall and went on.

Tim Grillot says:
March 15, 2021 at 1:51 PM

The two letters were written but over time they were rewritten or typed rather than written. The most common belief is that they were caught and lynched soon after the discovery of the bodies. There are many different versions of this ending and even one that they killed everybody but Kate and let her loose with a warning. The fact that nobody came forward for the rewards offered casts some doubt on these versions. Also if you total up the number of versions that someone's great, great gpa was part of the posse that caught and lynched them half of Labette County was on the posse. The three best theories are: 1) A posse caught and lynched them, 2) They escaped and eventually made their way into the badlands of Western Texas and Eastern New Mexico, or 3) A more recent theory that Kate and John Jr. made their way eventually to Littleton, Colorado, buying a bar then a hotel and became wealthy citizens arguably from all the money they stole during their murdering spree. There are graves there of Katie Bender and Joseph Bender, husband and wife. This last theory was supported by some evidence from a Pinkerton detective who was following their trail. Over the years there were a number of false identifications and even one that a mother and her daughter were extradited to Labette County to be tried as Ma and Kate. The elder woman had a solid alibi because she was incarcerated in the Detroit Dept of Corrections from Dec 1871 until Feb or March of 1873 for performing illegal abortions. She also spoke perfect English and Ma Bender did not. She probably could speak and understand English better than she let on but the only one of the 4 who spoke without an accent was Kate. Joseph Bender from Colorado spoke with a slight German accent.

Tim Grillot says:
March 15, 2021 at 2:13 PM

I have done extensive research on the Benders. What really puzzles me is the total lack of artifacts. A famous magazine writer from New York traveled to Labette County to do a piece on the Benders in June 1873 (The bodies in the orchard were discovered in early May, 1873). His comment upon arrival at the site was that all that remained were a small hole for the well and a larger one for the cellar full of water. Every stick of wood, stones for the foundation, and even the barn and well were gone. Today only a few artifacts remain. The three killing hammers are in the Cherryvale Museum, one of the stones for the entryway is in the Parsons Museum, and the killing knife was donated by Ed York's wife to the Kansas State Historical Society. We know that the 8 day clock, 3 books: 2 bibles and a catechism (Catholic). A photographer took pictures of the clock and the knife and later sold these as post cards. No idea where the clock and books ended up. I haven't been able to locate even the postcard.

I forgot to respond to the post about the Bender name. After searching Ellis Island records trying to see if I could see when these Benders immigrated. Bender is a very common surname in Germany. A point of irony,when the two ladies were extradited from Michigan the Labette County Sheriff was Frank Bender, no relation.

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