The Bloody Benders – Serial Killers of Kansas
The windswept prairies and softly rolling hills of 19th-century Kansas concealed more than just the dreams of westward-bound pioneers. Before the Civil War, the territory was a battleground, fiercely contested between "Free-Soilers" and pro-slavery factions. This violent struggle continued even after Kansas joined the Union, with hardened veterans carrying their battlefield experiences onto the overland trails. Travelers faced threats from road agents, Native American attacks, and, unbeknownst to many, a far more sinister danger lurking in the southeastern part of the state.
While the notorious gunfights of Dodge City, the Dalton gang’s deadly raid in Coffeyville, and the exploits of various outlaws and gunfighters are well-documented chapters of Kansas history, the story of a family of mass murderers, the Benders, remains a chilling enigma. Their quiet existence near the burgeoning town of Cherryvale belied a gruesome secret that would forever stain the landscape of southeast Kansas.
Following the Civil War, the U.S. government relocated the Osage Indians from Labette County to the "new" Indian Territory, which would later become Oklahoma. This opened up vast tracts of land for homesteaders, who arrived seeking new opportunities in the fertile, yet untamed, territory. Among these settlers were five families of "spiritualists" who chose claims in western Labette County, approximately seven miles northeast of the future site of Cherryvale. One of these families was the Bloody Benders.
The Bloody Benders consisted of John Bender, Sr., his wife, Almira, their son, John, Jr., and their daughter, Kate. This peculiar group, drawn together by shared beliefs, selected their land claims and began constructing their homes. John Bender, Sr., staked his claim on a 160-acre section situated on the western slopes of the mounds that still bear their infamous name. Critically, the property was strategically positioned directly along the Osage Mission-Independence Trail, a vital route connecting Independence to Fort Scott. John Jr. claimed a narrow strip of land just north of his father’s, but he never resided there nor improved the land.
The Benders wasted no time in establishing their homestead. They erected a small, one-room framed cabin, a barn, and a corral, and dug a well for water. Inside the cabin, a large canvas was used to partition the space, creating living quarters in the back and a makeshift inn and store in the front. Above the entrance, a crudely fashioned sign proclaimed "Groceries," beckoning travelers along the Osage Trail. This humble establishment offered a limited selection of supplies, including powder, shot, groceries, liquor, and tobacco. More importantly, it promised meals and a "safe" overnight resting place for weary and often vulnerable strangers.
On the surface, the Bloody Benders appeared to be hardworking homesteaders struggling to make a living like their neighbors. However, beneath this veneer of normalcy lurked a darkness that would soon be revealed in the most horrific way.
Immigrants from Germany, John Bender, Sr., was around 60 years old upon arriving in Labette County, while his wife was approximately 55. John, a physically imposing figure, stood over six feet tall. His piercing black eyes, set deep beneath heavy, bushy brows, earned him the nickname "old beetle-browed John." His ruddy face, mostly obscured by a thick beard, combined with a perpetually sullen expression and long, unkempt hair, often led to descriptions of him as a "wild and wooly-looking man."
John and Almira communicated in a guttural German dialect that few of their neighbors could understand. Almira, a heavyset woman, was known for her unfriendly demeanor and sinister eyes, prompting some to label her a "she-devil." Adding to her intimidating persona, "Ma" Bender professed to be a "medium" capable of communicating with the "dead." She also concocted herbal remedies, claiming they possessed the power to cast charms or malevolent spells. It was said that her husband and son lived in fear of her, as she ruled the household with an iron fist.
John Bender, Jr., was a stark contrast to his parents. A tall, slender man of about 25, he possessed a handsome appearance with auburn hair and a mustache. He spoke fluent English, albeit with a German accent, and was described as social. However, his tendency to laugh aimlessly led many to believe he was intellectually deficient.
Kate Bender, the daughter, was generally considered the most approachable of the family. She spoke fluent English with only a slight accent and possessed cultivated social skills. A beautiful young woman of about 23, she was quick to laugh and engage in conversation with strangers. Kate and her brother John often attended Sunday School near Harmony Grove and were readily accepted within the local community.
Beyond her charm, Kate was a self-proclaimed healer and psychic. She delivered lectures on spiritualism and conducted séances, claiming to possess psychic powers, including the ability to communicate with the deceased. Kate skillfully marketed her "skills," distributing circulars that touted her supernatural abilities and her capacity to cure illnesses and infirmities.
The petite, auburn-haired beauty craved notoriety and often espoused radical ideas in her lectures, including free love and the justification of murder. Her desire for fame was matched only by her ambition for wealth and social standing. While her beauty and social graces garnered popularity, her actions also led some locals to believe she was "satanic." In the end, it was this diminutive member of the Bloody Benders who would bear the brunt of the blame for the family’s horrific crimes.
The Benders’ store and inn opened in 1871, attracting numerous travelers seeking meals and supplies. However, a disturbing pattern soon emerged: some of these men, often carrying significant sums of cash to settle, buy livestock, or purchase land claims, began to vanish without a trace. When their friends and families launched searches, the trails led to the Big Hill Country of southeast Kansas, where all traces of the missing travelers disappeared.
Initially, these disappearances did not trigger widespread alarm, as it was not uncommon for men to continue their journeys westward. However, as the disappearances became more frequent, rumors began to circulate, and by the spring of 1873, travelers started avoiding the trail, fearing the worst. The legend of the Bloody Benders was born.
The growing unease within neighboring communities prompted the Osage Township to convene a meeting at the Harmony Grove schoolhouse in March to address the mounting concerns. Approximately 75 people attended, including both Bender men.
The discussion centered on the ten reported missing individuals, including Dr. William H. York, a respected physician from Independence. Recognizing the gravity of the situation, the group resolved to search every farmstead between Big Hill Creek and Drum Creek. The Benders remained silent while most attendees volunteered to have their properties searched.
Shortly afterward, Billy Tole, a neighbor of the Benders, noticed that the Bender Inn appeared abandoned and their livestock unfed. Tole reported this to Leroy F. Dick, the Township Trustee, and a search party was swiftly organized, including Dr. York’s brother, Colonel A.M. York, from Fort Scott. Arriving at the property, the men found the cabin devoid of food, clothing, and personal belongings. A foul odor permeated the air inside the abandoned inn. A trap door, nailed shut, was discovered on the cabin floor.
Prying open the trap door, the men uncovered a six-foot-deep hole filled with clotted blood, emitting a repulsive stench. However, no bodies were present in the hole. The search party then physically moved the entire cabin to the side and meticulously searched beneath it, but again, no bodies were found. Undeterred, they began to dig around the cabin, focusing on an area that the Benders had used as a vegetable garden and orchard. At the site of a freshly disturbed patch of earth, they unearthed the first body, buried head downward with its feet barely covered. The corpse was identified as Dr. William H. York, his skull brutally bludgeoned and his throat slashed from ear to ear.
The digging continued the following day, revealing nine more bodies and numerous dismembered body parts, including those of a woman and a young girl. The burial site was dubbed "Hell’s Half-Acre," and Dr. York’s brother, a lawyer and State Senator residing in Independence, offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the Bender family. On May 17, Governor Thomas Osborn augmented the reward by offering an additional $2,000 for the apprehension of all four members of the Bloody Benders.
News of the gruesome murders spread like wildfire, attracting thousands of onlookers, including news reporters from as far away as New York and Chicago. The Bender cabin was ransacked by souvenir hunters seeking macabre mementos, even going so far as to remove the bloody bricks lining the cellar. Piece by piece, the horrifying story of the Benders was pieced together.
The Benders’ meticulously crafted façade concealed a shocking reality. They were not a true "family" in the traditional sense; Ma and Kate Bender were the only blood relatives.
Visitors stopping for a meal were strategically seated at a table with their backs to the canvas partition separating the "inn" from the living quarters. Kate would then employ her charm and social skills to captivate the men, engaging in flirtation or revealing her purported psychic "gifts." As the unsuspecting travelers focused their attention on the alluring Kate, Pa and John Bender, concealed behind the canvas, would strike them in the skull with a hammer. Ma Bender and Kate would then rifle the body for money before pushing it through the trap door into the hole beneath the cabin, where Kate would slit the victim’s throat. The body would be buried in the garden behind the house under the cover of darkness.
The Benders’ undoing stemmed from the murder of Mr. Loncher and his daughter, along with Dr. William York, who had been searching for the missing pair. In the winter of 1872, Mr. Loncher and his daughter had departed Independence for Iowa but were never heard from again. In the spring of 1873, Dr. York embarked on a search for the Lonchers, stopping at homesteads along the trail to inquire about their whereabouts. He reached Fort Scott safely and began his return journey to Independence on March 8, but he never arrived home.
Dr. York’s brothers, one residing in Fort Scott and the other in Independence, knew his travel plans. When he failed to return, they launched a comprehensive search. Colonel A.M. York led a contingent of approximately 50 men, questioning travelers and stopping at area homesteads. One of these stops was the Bender Inn. The Benders attempted to deflect suspicion by admitting that Dr. York had stopped at their establishment but convinced the search party that he had left and was likely waylaid by Native Americans. Even with her purported clairvoyant abilities, Kate feigned an attempt to "search" for the missing doctor to further dispel any suspicion.
The Bender family fled after Colonel York’s visit and the meeting at the Harmony Grove schoolhouse. Just days later, their homestead was discovered abandoned, and the search party began to unearth the grisly remains of their victims.
The diggers were stunned to discover what would become known as one of America’s first mass murder burial grounds, as body after body was unearthed. Ten bodies were discovered in the Benders’ apple orchard, including Dr. York and the people he had been searching for – Mr. Loncher and his young daughter, approximately seven or eight years old.
The discovery of the little girl’s remains was particularly gruesome. While her body exhibited multiple injuries, none of them would have caused death, leading to the speculation that the poor child may have been buried alive. The Kansas City Times reported the discovery of her remains with chilling detail:
"The little girl was probably eight years of age and had long, sunny hair and some traces of beauty on a countenance that was not yet entirely disfigured by decay. One arm was broken. The breastbone had been driven in. The right knee had been wrenched from its socket, and the leg doubled up under the body. Nothing like this sickening series of crimes had ever been recorded in the whole history of the country."
Other bodies found in the garden included the mutilated remains of Henry McKenzie, three men named Ben Brown, W.F. McCrotty, and John Geary, as well as an unidentified male and female. Johnny Boyle’s body was discovered in the well. Dismembered parts of several other victims were also found but could never be identified. Four additional bodies with crushed skulls and slit throats were discovered outside the property in Drum Creek and on the surrounding prairie.
The Benders reportedly gained only approximately $4,600 for all these deaths, along with two teams of horses and wagons, a pony, and a saddle. Given that some of the travelers carried nothing of value, it was widely speculated that the Bloody Benders killed simply for the sheer, bloody thrill of it.
As news of the gruesome murders spread, more and more travelers came forward with accounts of narrow escapes. One gentleman, William Pickering, recounted how Kate Bender threatened him with a knife after he refused to sit with his back to the canvas due to the disgusting stains. A Catholic priest claimed he fled the premises after witnessing one of the Bender men concealing a large hammer.
Following a fresh trail of wagon tracks, a search party determined that the Benders had traveled to the town of Thayer, approximately twelve miles to the north. They purchased tickets to Humboldt on the northbound Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Train. Several days later, the Benders’ team and wagon were found a short distance away, with the horses near starvation.
Further investigation revealed that John, Jr., and Kate had disembarked at Chanute and boarded the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad train south to the Red River country near Denison, Texas, then the railroad’s terminus.
Reportedly, the pair then fled to a lawless outlaw colony along the border of Texas and New Mexico. Meanwhile, Ma and Pa Bender continued on the train north to Kansas City, where they were believed to have transferred to a train headed to St. Louis.
Law enforcement officers and vigilantes alike immediately launched efforts to capture the bloodthirsty family. Although no one ever claimed the offered rewards, rumors of several groups capturing and killing the Benders began to circulate. One vigilante group claimed to have shot down the men and Ma Bender and burned Kate alive as the witch they believed her to be. Another group claimed they had caught the Benders attempting to escape south and lynched them before dumping their bodies into the Verdigris River. Still another group claimed to have killed the Benders during a gunfight and buried their bodies on the prairie.
However, none of these accounts were ever confirmed, and no bodies were recovered, leading most to believe that the Benders had managed to escape. For years, sightings of Ma Bender and Kate were reported, and in 1889, two women were extradited from Michigan on the charge. The pair were jailed, but the case was ultimately dropped due to a lack of evidence.
Further investigation revealed that "Pa" Bender was actually a man named John Flickinger, from Germany or Holland. While he allegedly committed suicide in Lake Michigan in 1884, others believed that Ma and Kate murdered him after he fled Cherryvale with all the cash and valuables they had stolen from their victims.
Ma Bender was born Almira Meik in the Adirondacks and married a man named George Griffith as a teenager. After bearing him a dozen children, including Kate, Mr. Griffith died suddenly; some claimed he had a "bad place on his head," resembling a "dent" that might have been made with a hammer. Afterward, she reportedly remarried several times, killing those husbands and three of her older children to prevent them from testifying against her.
John Jr. was identified as a man named John Gebhardt. His habit of laughing aimlessly led some to dismiss him as a "half-wit," though many later believed this was a deliberate ploy to mask his cunning nature. While most believed John and Kate were siblings, others claimed they sometimes posed as husband and wife. They were known to have had a relationship, and some accounts suggest that when Kate became pregnant, they would kill the newborn babies. After the Benders’ escape, one detective who had diligently pursued all leads claimed to have traced Gebhardt to the outlaw territory along the Texas/New Mexico border, where he had learned that the criminal had died of apoplexy.
Kate was the fifth child of Ma Bender and was born Eliza Griffith. She eventually married and went by the name of Sara Eliza Davis. Allegedly, while "working" at the Bender Inn, she earned extra income as a prostitute, adding a fee to the traveler’s bill for the privilege of being with her. In the end, Kate was primarily blamed for the numerous bloody murders, as she was considered the driving force behind the crimes.
Although the specific details of what happened to the Bloody Benders remain shrouded in speculation, the discovery of ten bodies on their property is undeniable. Coupled with the other corpses found in the area and the numerous mysterious disappearances of other travelers, locals believed that the Benders were responsible for the deaths of more than 20 people.
The sensational tales and rumors surrounding the Benders persisted well into the 20th century, and their ultimate fate remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the Old West.
Beyond the horrific story of the Bender murders, another legend emerged concerning the property on which they had once lived. The old Bender property was said to be haunted, and rumors circulated among the locals. A decade after the gruesome killings, all that remained of the cabin and outbuildings was an empty hole that had once been the cellar. From these depths, it was said that the souls of those murdered on the site emerged, wandering the property and emitting moaning sounds that passersby could hear. Those who reported seeing glowing apparitions on the property were often those who came seeking long-lost souvenirs of the grisly murders. The dead souls quickly frightened away the scavengers, who then spread their ghostly tales.
As the haunting legend grew, people began to believe that Kate Bender had returned to the property, doomed to roam the very land where she had committed so many atrocities. Whether based on folklore or fact, many believe that the trapped souls of these century-old ghosts continue to linger at the site today.
The Bloody Benders tale was so provocative that the Bender Museum was established in Cherryvale in 1961. A replica of the Bender cabin, filled with antiques and household items, was constructed in honor of the Kansas state-wide Centennial Celebration. The museum attracted over 2,000 visitors during its first three days of operation. In 1967, three of the Bender hammers were donated to the museum by the Dick family. The museum remained a popular tourist destination until its closure in 1978, when a fire station was built on the site. While efforts were made to relocate the building, it became a point of controversy in Cherryvale, with some locals objecting to the town being associated with the Bender atrocities. Ultimately, the artifacts, including the hammers, photos, and newspaper clippings, were placed in the Cherryvale Museum, where they can still be viewed today.
In addition to the museum, southeast Kansas may be the only place where a state historical marker commemorates mass murder. The marker is located on the high prairie about a mile northwest of Bender Mounds at the US-400 and US-169 interchange at the Montgomery County Rest area, north of Cherryvale.
In 2020, Bob Miller of Independence, Kansas, purchased the land where the Bender home once stood and announced his intention to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding the Benders. Plans are underway to pinpoint the home’s location on the property, with an archeological dig scheduled for May 2024.