The Bender family, more well known as the Bloody Benders, were a family of serial killers in Labette County, Kansas, United States, from May 1871 to December 1872. The family supposedly consisted of John Bender, his wife Kate Sr. (or Almira), their son John Jr. and their daughter Kate Jr.. Contemporary newspaper accounts reported that the Benders' neighbors claimed John Jr. and Kate were actually husband and wife, possibly via a common-law marriage.
Estimates report that the Benders killed at least a dozen travelers and perhaps as many as 20 before they were discovered. The family's fate remains unknown, with theories ranging from a lynching to an escape. Much folklore and legend surround the Benders, making it difficult to separate fact from fiction.
It was one of the first murder cases in United States history — and more than 150 years later, there are still few answers about what happened at the “Bloody Benders'” cabin — and why.
Between 1870 and 1873, a Kansas family now known as the “Bloody Benders” terrorized travelers who stopped at their cabin looking for rest along the Osage Trail, killing their victims one-by-one after offering them a place to recoup and heal before heading back out in their search for land. At the time, the Homestead Act of 1862 promised settlers 160 acres, sparking a mass migration across the Midwestern state. According to the Library of Congress’ records, the Osage Trail “was an easy place to disappear.” And it didn’t help that along the Osage Trail, there lived a murderous family: John Sr., his wife Elvira, their son John Jr., and daughter Kate.
Killing Method[]
It is conjectured that when a guest stayed at the Benders' bed and breakfast inn, the hosts would give the guest a seat of honor at the table that was positioned over a trap door into the cellar. With the victim's back to the curtain, Kate would distract the guest while John Bender or his son came from behind the curtain and struck the guest on the right side of the skull with a hammer. One of the women would cut the victim's throat to ensure death, and the body was then dropped through the trap door. Once in the cellar, the body would be stripped and later buried somewhere on the property, often in the orchard. Although some of the victims were wealthy, others carried little of value, and it was surmised that the Benders had killed them simply for the sheer thrill.
Nobody knows how many people the Bender family actually murdered, according to the Reflector, but at least eight bodies were discovered in a hidden cellar on the property in May 1873, including that of an infant. However, according to the outlet, by the time local investigators came knocking at the Benders’ door, the family had vanished.