John Bender, Sr., and his family settled in Kansas in 1870, near the Great Osage Trail through which innumerable travelers passed on their way to settle the in the West. The older Bender, called "Pa, there is also a "Ma" and a daughter named Kate. Ma and Pa spoke mostly German, and their English was so heavily accented that no one understood them. The younger Benders spoke fluent English.
The family built a one-room house near the Osage Trail, with a curtain that divided the home into two areas. The front area was a public inn and store, and the family quarters were in the back. Travelers on the trail were welcome to refresh themselves with a meal and resupply their wagons with liquor, tobacco, horse feed, black powder, and food from the Bender home. And they often spent the night.
The stunningly attractive Kate was the most outgoing Bender. Calling herself a psychic and spiritual healer, she gave lectures on spiritualism and conducted séances. The Benders distributed notices advertising her supposed supernatural talents. She sometimes lectured on spiritualism. Although she was popular, some viewed her occult interests as “satanic.”
Hundreds of men passed through Kansas on their way to seek their fortune in the West, and some were never heard from again. It took time for such disappearances to draw attention, as there were many reasons for travelers, adventurers, and settlers to be out of touch or even dead. But over the course of a couple of years, more and more missing persons appeared to have dropped off the face of the earth about the time they passed through Labette County. Several bodies were even found in the area, murdered, but no one knew who did it.
In 1872, George Loncher and his infant daughter left Independence, Kansas, to settle in Iowa after the death of his wife. They never arrived. Dr. William York went looking for them, following the Osage Trail. He questioned people all the way to Fort Scott, but then Dr. York himself disappeared on his way back to Independence. And that was the turning point in the story. Dr. York had two powerful brothers who were determined to find out what happened: Colonel Ed York and Kansas Senator Alexander York.
Colonel York led an investigation into Labette County. They questioned the Benders about a woman who claimed Ma had threatened her with a knife. The township held a meeting in which it was decided to search every homestead for evidence of the murders. Colonel York attended the meeting, as well as both male Benders. But the weather turned bad, and it was several days before such a search could begin.
Within three days, Bender neighbor Billy Tole was driving his cows past Bender Inn and noticed that the Bender farm animals appeared unfed and the property abandoned.
Tole reported this to Township Trustee Leroy F. Dick who formed a search party. Dr. York’s brother, Colonel A. M. York, joined the search party. Searching was delayed for several days due to bad weather. When the search party went to the Bender property, they found the Bender cabin emptied of food, clothes, and other personal possessions. They were shocked by the terrible smell inside the former inn and home. The discovered a trap door that was nailed shut. After prying it open, they found a hole that had clotted blood but no bodies.
The entire search party worked to physically move the cabin to one side so they could search underneath. No bodies were found there either.
A man noticed an area around the garden on which the dirt appeared disturbed. Almost as soon as they began digging, they found the body of Dr. William H. York because the grave was so shallow it barely concealed his feet. He had been buried face down. Upon examining the corpse, the search party found that his skull had been bludgeoned and throat slit. Seven more bodies were found that night, and another the next day. The throats had been cut, and the skulls were bashed in. The exception was Mr. Loucher's infant daughter, who was buried under her father. One of the bodies was that of a girl estimated to be about eight years old, whose body was badly mutilated. Ten bodies were ultimately found at the Bender farm, but 21 murders are attributed to the family.
Investigators pieced together what happened. Guests at the inn were urged to sit in the place of honor, which was against the separating curtain. While dining, the guest of honor would be hit in the head with a hammer from behind the curtain, his throat would be slit, and then his body dropped into the trap door to the cellar. One man, Mr. Wetzell, heard the story and remembered when he was at the inn and declined to sit in the designated spot. His decision caused Ma Bender to become angry and abusive toward him, and when he saw the male Benders emerge from behind the curtain, he and his companion decided to leave. William Pickering told an almost identical story.
The Benders' wagon was eventually found some miles away from the homestead. Twelve men were arrested as accessories to the murders, mostly for receiving stolen goods. Senator York offered a $1,000 reward for the Benders, and the governor chipped in another $2,000, but the reward was never claimed. In the years following the sensational crimes, several women were arrested as Ma or Kate, but none were positively identified by evidence. Several vigilante groups claimed to have found the Benders and murdered them, but none brought back proof. The official investigation notes that testimony from railroad employees placed the Benders boarding a train for Humboldt, and traced the younger Benders to trains going to Texas or New Mexico. The older Benders were allegedly seen on their way to St. Louis by way of Kansas City. No one knows what ultimately became of them. The house in which the murders took place was disassembled and carried away piece by piece by souvenir seekers. Today, nothing remains to even indicate the exact location where the Bender house stood, although the property is said to be haunted by the victims.
However, these ghastly crimes did not make the Benders wealthy. The total take from their victims was estimated to be $4,600, a pony, a saddle, and two teams of horses and wagons.
Those are the facts as known. Rumors that surrounded the case were legion. Some said that John Gebhart was a "half-wit," while others said his behavior was a ruse. Others say that Kate was a prostitute as well as a psychic and murderer. Ma supposedly killed three of her older children because they were witnesses to the murders of her husbands (Kate was her fifth child). And another rumor says that Ma murdered Pa over stolen property soon after they fled. It was also reported that Pa committed suicide in Lake Michigan in 1884.
The tale of the Bloody Benders remains one of the most horrifying stories of the Old West. It is also one of the most haunting because the ultimate fate of these terrible murderers is likely to be forever cloaked in mystery.
Actual photos of the Bender's Investigation.
