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The 4th United States Colored Infantry, 1863-1866, A History of the Ninth New Jersey Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War, How . Secretly, the four made a living through murder and robbery. Johnny Boyles body was found in the well. On March 28, 1873, Colonel York arrived at the Benders' inn with a Mr. Johnson, explaining to them that his brother had gone missing and asked if they had seen him. From these depths allegedly came the souls of those murdered on the site, wandering about the property and making moaning sounds that passersby could hear. If not accosted by road agents, travelers also had to be concerned about Indian attacks. By 1873, reports of missing people who had passed through the area had become so common that travelers began to avoid the trail. Kate soon gained notoriety as a self proclaimed healer and . All four had crushed skulls and throats cut. ", "Old Mrs. Bender was a dirty old Dutch crone. Find links to our programs, locations, partners, staff members, and communications. Colonel York agreed that this was possible and remained for dinner. A crude sign was hung above the front door that advertised Groceries to the many travelers along the Osage Trail. In The Wizard of Oz, things are in black and white in Kansas and turn color after the Cyclone drops Dorothy and Toto in Oz. No one ever claimed the $3,000 reward ($67,858 as of 2023), however. mellon mounds kansas murdersduskull evolution arceus. The for the guy who discovered Pluto? Some believe justice came to them in the end. She soon found the lecture circuit profitable by distributing circulars that proclaimed her skills, including supernatural powers and the ability to cure illnesses and infirmities. Bloody Benders - The Forgotten Story of a Family of Pioneer Kansas Serial Killers By: Justin Nobel | Date: Sat, November 16th, 2013 The Bender family lived in southeastern Kansas and murdered pioneers headed west during the late 1800s. The search of the cabin resulted in the recovery of three hammers: a shoe hammer, a claw hammer, and a sledgehammer that appeared to match indentations in some of the skulls. Yet another group claimed to have killed the Benders during a gunfight and buried their bodies on the prairie. , Fedmyster Google Doc , Gladiator Lucilla Character Analysis , Fran Mccaffery Daughter , The Ranches At Royal Pines Livingston Tx , Crooked Stick Golf Club Membership Cost , Mart Bus Fitchburg To Gardner . Bender Property Digging, sketch in Harpers Weekly, June 7, 1873. All of the bizarre characters in the house sit around the table, except the hospital man and his companion, and the table (like the whole house) is split into two meals, two styles of dcor and two serving staffs in accordance with the sisters feud. Also in residence on the east is a hero of Wounded Knee (as if there was such a thing) and his niece, a minor girl whos relationship to the old man is likely not familial. 37 20.932 N, 95 31.668 W. Marker is in Morehead, Kansas, in Montgomery County. As Active Shooter incidents have increased, employers are tasked with training employees on how to escape, hide, or fight. It says this home used to be run by the infamous Mellon Family, who lured travelers in before killing them with a hammer. In the end, the artifacts, including the hammers, photos, and newspaper clippings, were placed in the Cherryvale Museum and can still be seen today at 215 East 4th Street. When he refused to sit with his back to the canvas because of its disgusting stains, Pickering said that Kate Bender threatened him with a knife, so he fled the premises. However, some of those men, who frequently carried large sums of cash with the intention of settling, buying stock, or purchasing a claim, began to go missing. flower arranging classes northern virginia. A message requesting positive identification was sent to Cherryvale, but the suspect severed his foot to escape his leg irons and bled to death. She learns something new about herself every time she watches an episode of Wonder Woman. Their story is unresolved and remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of the old west. Before York left, Kate asked him to return alone the following Friday night, and she would use her clairvoyant abilities to help him find his brother. When he pulls into the drive, he spots Calamitas empty car at the pump immediately. Near here are the Bender Mounds, named for the infamous Bender family ~~ John, his wife, son, and daughter Kate ~~ who settled here in 1871. [1][2] Although some of the victims were wealthy, others carried little of value on them, and it was surmised that the Benders had killed them simply for the sheer thrill. It is in Morehead in Montgomery County Kansas. They were never found and later I formed my own conclusions why. Instead, we downshift hard into the side story ofSatchel (Rodney L Jones III) andRabbi (Ben Whishaw) on the lam, withConstant Calamita (Gaetano Bruno) on their tail. As word of the grisly murders spread, more and more travelers came forward to tell their own stories of a narrow escape, including one gentleman named William Pickering. In October 1870, five families of spiritualists homesteaded in and around the township of Osage in northwestern Labette County, approximately 7mi (11km) northeast of where Cherryvale was established seven months later. "The Bender Family Some New Light on Their Mysterious Disappearance". Afterward, she reportedly remarried several times, killing those husbands and three of her older children so they could not testify against her. Allegedly, while working at the Bender Inn, she earned her keep as a prostitute, adding an additional amount to the travelers bill for the privilege of laying with her. The victim was then dispatched from behind with a hammer, the body was dropped into a basement pit, later to be buried in an orchard. Dr. York had two brothers, one living in Fort Scott and the other in Independence. If the terrible story of the Bender murders was not legend enough, another tale began to circulate regarding the property upon which the Benders had once lived. (In case you wondered after reading that, like I did, what year The Mulligan Concern arrived in Kansas City, it was 1920. Donald's family owns successful McDonald's franchises in their home town of Phoenix, Arizona. The property was located directly on the Osage Mission-Independence Trail that operated from Independence to Fort Scott. Premium Powerups . Last night, I listened to a story from my grandfather, Emerson Smalley, about the Benders and their supposed end. Season 4 Episode 22 (1961) of the TV series, Season 1, episode 15 (2006) of the TV series, The "Hitchcock's Birds, Hope Diamond, Phineas Gang" episode of the Travel Channel's show, The Bender Family is mentioned in episode 94 of the podcast, The story was recounted on Investigation Discovery's, The metal pioneers Macabre have a song about the Benders, who are said to be of Norwegian ancestry -. 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. Sometime later, Billy Tole, a neighbor of the Benders, noticed that the Bender Inn was abandoned and their farm animals unfed. Yet another claimed to have killed the Benders during a gunfight and buried their bodies on the prairie. Though many wanted to relocate the building, it had become a controversy in Cherryvale, with locals objecting to the town being known for the Bender atrocities. [2] The elder Benders did not leave the train at Humboldt, but instead continued north to Kansas City, where it is believed they purchased tickets for St. Louis, Missouri.[1]. This one would make a great show/movie, but we keep seeing remakes and reboots. He does not deliver his usual parting words to Satchel. A number of researchers question the ready acceptance of the affidavit's authenticity and suggest that the county was unwilling to accept the expense of boarding the two women for an extended period. Cherryvale, Kansas Museum by Kathy Alexander. Today, Smalley descendants continue to live in the Neodosha and Cherryvale area. Several groups of vigilantes were formed to search for the Benders. Although stories abound, the ultimate fate of the murderous Bender family is uncertain. Immigrating from Germany, John Bender, Sr. was 60 years old when he arrived in the area; his wife was about 55. It was a story about the infamous Benders and about one man who got away. Word of the gruesome murders spread fast, and thousands of people flocked to the site, including news reporters from as far away as New York and Chicago. In 1937 she gave a speech at a book fair which was later transcribed and printed in the September 1978 Saturday Evening Post and in the 1988 book A Little House Sampler. Across the hall from them, on the east side of the building, is an Old Testament preacher and his mother (whom the resident gabby salesman- west- mistakes for the preachers wife). The victim was then dispatched from behind with a hammer, and the body was dropped into a basement pit, later to be buried in an orchard., As more and more travelers disappeared, suspicion began to center on the Benders. The Benders used the smaller room at the rear for living quarters, while the front room was converted into a "general store" where a few dry goods were sold. They disappeared in the spring of 1873, shortly before inquisitive neighbors discovered the victims' bodies. Telling the story of his near-death, Jesse quickly retold it to a nearby doctor and judge, who formed a vigilante group to go after the Benders. When friends and family began to look for them, they could trace them as far as the Big Hill Country of southeast Kansas before finding no trace of the lost traveler. Their murders were carried out by use of a canvas curtain that divided the house into two rooms. On May 17, Kansas Governor Thomas A. Osborn offered a $2,000 ($45,239 as of 2023) reward for the apprehension of all four. But if your not from Kansas it's a fairly obscure story. East/West is a cunningly timed bottle episode. Though he reached Fort Scott unscathed and started to return to Independence on March 8, he never reached home. . Yes it was. "[8] A Roman Catholic prayer book was found in the house with notes inside written in German, which were later translated. According to the Pittsburgh Dispatch, the daughter of one of the Benders' victims, Mrs. Frances E. McCann, had reported the pair to authorities in early October after tracking them down. Advertisement Coins. We are, in fact, in Kansas. York had two brothers: Ed York living in Fort Scott, and Colonel Alexander M. York, a Civil War veteran, lawyer, and member of the Kansas State Senate from Independence who, in November 1872, had been instrumental in exposing U.S. [1][2] A knife with a four-inch tapered blade was reportedly found hidden in a mantel clock in the Bender house by Colonel York. In 1923 it was donated to the Kansas Museum of History by York's wife but is not on display; still bearing reddish-brown stains on the blade, it can be seen upon request. The Lawrence Kansas Subreddit. That is a Kansas historical society sign. Resolved: Release in which this issue/RFE has been resolved. She was 20 at the time of her death. Thomas Jefferson was one of the first to excavate into a Native American burial mound, citing the disappearance of the "noble" Indianscaused by violence and the corruption of the encroaching white. I'd need to check but my gut feeling is that its real. Each season of Fargo stands alone - you can watch them all out of order and still be able to understand what's going on. One of those places was the Bender Inn. In tonight's episode, there's a plaque at the Barton Arms, the hotel Rabbi and Satchel stay at. [18] The hammers were displayed at the Bender Museum in Cherryvale, Kansas from 1967 to 1978, when the site was acquired for a fire station. Kate soon gained notoriety as a self proclaimed healer and spiritualist. When the men arrived at the property, they found the cabin empty of food, clothing, and personal possessions. Once in the cellar, the body would be stripped and later buried somewhere on the property, often in the orchard. ?," "big slaughter day, Jan eighth", and "hell departed. At her hearing, Mrs. Monroe denied any knowledge of Shearer or the manslaughter charge and remained incarcerated with her daughter. As they enter the location, named The Barton Arms, the clerk eventually gives Rabbi keys for the west side, though she lets him know that the sisters don't care much for Coloreds. It declares, THE FUTURE IS NOW.. Cherryvale, Kansas Museum In Rabbis absence, Satchel discovers a Jack Russel terrier hiding in the wardrobe in his room. Good info. More gruesomely, though the little girls body was found to have multiple injuries, none of them would have caused death, and it was speculated that the poor lass may have been buried alive. The petite auburn-haired beauty desired notoriety and often advocated free love and justification for murder in her lectures. Those most often reporting glowing apparitions on the property were those who came to the site in search of some long-lost souvenir of the grisly murders. Though the tales of what happened to the Benders can only be speculated as to their accuracy, the fact that ten bodies were found on the property is not disputed. Franks father, Jesse P. Smalley, and several men were joking with a local judge, teasing him about his missing ear. 5) December 1872: W.F. Tole reported the news to Leroy F Dick, the Township Trustee, and a search party was soon formed, which included Dr. Yorks brother, Colonel A.M. York, of Fort Scott. Despite the lack of identification, the man's skull was displayed as that of "Pa Bender" in a Salmon saloon until Prohibition forced its closure in 1920 and the skull disappeared. They killed as many as 26 people, I believe there is a museum that stills has a bloody knife they used. This unnamed man was one of the many who made the mistake of stopping at the Bender Inn. Their story is unresolved, and remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of the old West. He steps out of his car, gun drawn, and discovers the filling station attendants body in a doorway. However, as more time passed, the disappearances became more frequent, and by the spring of 1873, the region had become strife with rumors, and travelers began to avoid the trail. Kate was the fifth child of Ma Bender and was born Eliza Griffith. [18], According to a news report from contemporary media, an unnamed man from Kansas City, who had investigated the Bender Family's house and the rumors of their deaths numerous times, claimed that The Kelly Family were in fact the Benders. This is blatantly a reference to the Bender Family, a family of serial killers from late 1800s Kansas. KANSAS HISTORICAL MARKER THE MELLON MOUNDS On this spot stood the Mellon Mounds, named for the infamous Mellon family, who lured unsuspecting travelers into their home, fed them and then dispatched them with a hammer. The family includes Andrew Mellon, one of the longest-serving U.S. Treasury Secretaries, along with prominent members in the judicial, banking, financial, business, and political professions, as well as a famous recluse, Cordelia Scaife May . These first few missing travelers did not raise an overall alarm in the area as it was not uncommon for men to continue their journey westward during those days. The digging continued the next day; nine other bodies and numerous dismembered body parts were found, including a woman and a little girl. The next day, Rabbi goes back to the appliance store and recovers his remaining cash from the brothers at gunpoint. Rock Chalk! The desk clerk who shows them to their room warns them that the sisters dont care for colored people, a refrain echoed repeatedly through this episode. While popular retelling of the story holds that JohnJr. and Kate were siblings, contemporary newspapers reported that several of the Benders' neighbors had stated that they claimed to be married, possibly in a common law marriage. After the third hanging, they released him and he staggered home "as one who was drunken or deranged. I have heard my grandfather tell of this story since I was a boy and Grandpa swears that this is the real story of what happened to the Benders. Satchel tries looking for Rabbi, but a short conversation with the hospital man and a glimpse of the preacher and his mother folding a flag in their underwear (night wear?) Later she married William Stephen Griffith. His family was from the Cherryvale, Kansas area, and the story involves a group of men that found the Benders and were in a gunfight with them, one of whom was a judge that lost part of his ear in the gun battle. Fortunately, Omie appears behind Calamita and gets him with his last bullet. In 1884, it was reported that John Flickinger had committed suicide in Lake Michigan. Ma Bender was born Almira Meik in the Adirondacks and married as a teenager to a man named George Griffith. Her tag says her name is Rabbit. The corpse was that of Dr. William H. York, his skull bludgeoned and his throat cut from ear to ear. The book "All the Blood We Share: A Novel of the Bloody Benders of Kansas", by Camilla Bruce, published in 2022. 12) December 1872: Abigail Roberts. His son chose a narrow piece of land just north of his fathers; however, he never lived on his claim nor made any improvements. Touch for map. [2], Two men who had traveled to the inn to experience Kate Bender's psychic powers stayed for dinner, but had refused to sit at the table next to the cloth, instead preferring to eat their meal at the main shop counter. They were never caugnt. It was confirmed that the family had bought tickets on the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad for Humboldt. [3] Also in 1884, an elderly man matching John Bender Sr.'s description was arrested in Montana for a murder committed near Salmon, Idaho, where the victim had been killed by a hammer blow to the head. By the time a deputy from Cherryvale arrived, identification was impossible due to decomposition. A Catholic priest claimed to have seen one of the Bender men concealing a large hammer, at which point he became uncomfortable and quickly departed. My grandfather, who is approaching 80 years old, is always full of great stories, but he assured me that his father, who passed this on to him, knew what happened. As the haunting legend continued, people began to say that Kate Bender had returned to the property, doomed to roam the very land where she had committed so many atrocities. [5], Detectives following wagon tracks discovered the Benders' wagon, abandoned with a starving team of horses with one of the mares lame, just outside the city limits of Thayer, 12mi (19km) north of the inn. She mentioned stopping at the inn, as well as recounting the rumors of the murders spreading through their community. 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. Location. Kate Bender, who was around 23, was cultivated and attractive and spoke English well, with little accent. Leona Laurie is a Senior Contributor for Geek Girl Authority and co-host of the Marvel-Us podcast. A piece of land where Kansas' first known serial killers murdered at least 11 people in the 1870s is up for auction. As more and more travelers vanished, suspicion began to circle the Mellons. The sensational tales and rumors of the Benders continued well into the 20th century, but what happened to them remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the Old West. why i quit civil engineering; goo goo gaga family net worth; how to make homemade biscuits without baking powder; From Howard County, Kansas. Hes connected to a medical machine and has a hovering attendant with goggles on, ministering to him with a hypodermic needle. And everything is in color! While not actually on the old Bender property, the marker sits 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. The family soon built a small one-room framed cabin, a barn, and a corral and dug a well. Kate was purportedly Elvira's fifth daughter. Historical Weather. However, none of these tales were confirmed, nor were bodies found, so most thought that the Benders had managed to escape. It said the plaque was erected by the Kansas City historical society. The media speculated that some of the victims had attempted to fight back after being hit with the hammer. Keeping mostly to themselves, the Benders appeared to simply be struggling homesteaders who worked hard to earn their living like the other area pioneers. Quickly, the scavengers were frightened away by the dead souls to spread their ghostly tales. After bearing him a dozen children, including Kate, Mr. Griffith suddenly died; some said of a bad place on his head, resembling a dent that might be made with a hammer. [7] Brockman would be arrested again 23 years later for the rape and murder of his own 18-year-old daughter.[8]. Somehow, he escaped, appearing naked in the middle of the night at Jesse Smalleys doorstep. When a traveler was seated at the table, his head was outlined against the curtain. Tole reported the fact to the township trustee, but due to inclement weather, several days lapsed before the abandonment could be investigated. Body found in Drum Creek with a crushed skull and throat cut. A terrible smell inside the abandoned inn also met them. 6) December 1872: Henry McKenzie. Their room is assigned based on Rabbis political and New Testament leanings, which place them in the west wing. William Pickering said that when he had refused to sit near the wagon cloth because of the stains on it, Kate Bender had threatened him with a knife, whereupon he fled the premises. The women's identities were later confirmed by two Osage township witnesses from a tintype photograph.