The Bloody Benders of Labette County, Kansas

The Bloody Benders - Page 3

Dr. York had two brothers, one living in Fort Scott, and the other in Independence. Both knew of his travel plans and when he failed to return home, an all out search began for the missing doctor. Colonel A.M. York, leading a contingency of some 50 men began to question every traveler along the trail and to stop at the area homesteads. One of those places was the Bender Inn. The Benders tried to "help” by admitting that Dr. York had stopped at their place but convinced the search party that he had left and was probably waylaid by Indians. Even, Kate, with her clairvoyant abilities, attempted to "search” for the missing doctor to throw any suspicion off herself.

After Colonel York’s visit and the meeting at the Harmony Grove schoolhouse, the Bender family fled. It was only a few days later that the homestead was found abandoned and the search party began to discover the grisly remains of the bodies.

A historical marker sits a mile northwest of Bender Mounds at the US-400 and US-169 interchange north of Cherryvale.

The diggers were astounded to find what would become known as one of America’s first mass murder burial grounds as body after body was uncovered. Ten bodies were found in the Bender's apple orchard, including Dr. York and the people he had been searching for – Mr. Loncher and his daughter, just seven or eight years old. More gruesomely, though the little girl’s 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. Of the discovery of her remains, the Kansas City Times reported:

"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 were those of Henry McKenzie’s mutilated remains, three men by the names of Ben Brown, W.F. McCrotty, and John Geary, as well as an unidentified male and female. Johnny Boyle’s body was found in the well. Dismembered parts of several other victims were also discovered, but could never be identified. Four other bodies with crushed skulls and slit throats were also found outside the property in Drum Creek and on the surrounding prairie.

For all these deaths the Benders gained only about $4,600, two teams of horses and wagons, and a pony and a saddle. Because some of the travelers were carrying nothing of value, it was widely speculated that the Benders killed simply for the bloody thrill of it.

As word of the grisly murders spread, more and more travelers came forward to tell their own stories of narrow escape, including one gentleman by the name of William Pickering. 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, at which point he fled the premises. A Catholic priest said that he too fled when he saw one of the Bender men concealing a large hammer.

After following a fresh trail of wagon tracks, a search party found that the Benders had gone to the town of nearby Thayer, some twelve miles to the north. There, they purchased tickets on the northbound Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Train to Humboldt. Several days later the Benders’ team and wagon were found a short distance away, the horses nearly starved.

Upon further investigation, Captain James B. Ransom, the train’s conductor, said that John, Jr. and Kate disembarked at Chanute and took the Missouri, Kansas & Texas train south to the Red River country near Dennison, Texas, which was then the terminus of the railroad.

Graves of the many who the Benders killed.

Allegedly, the pair then fled to a tough outlaw colony along the border of Texas and New Mexico. Meanwhile, Ma and Pa Bender continued on the train north to Kansas City where it was believed they transferred to a train headed to St. Louis.

Attempts to capture the bloodthirsty family were immediately made by both law officers and vigilantes alike. Though no one ever collected on the rewards offered, rumors began to fly of several parties who had captured and killed the Benders. 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 while escaping to the south and lynched them before throwing their bodies into the Verdigris River. Yet another group claimed to have killed the Benders during a gunfight and buried their bodies on the prairie.

However, none of these tales were ever confirmed, nor bodies found, so most thought that the Benders had managed to escape. For years, sightings of Ma Bender and Kate were reported and in 1889, two women were actually extradited from Detroit on the charge. Though the pair was jailed, the case was eventually dropped for lack of evidence.

Of the "family,” Pa Bender was actually found to have been a man named John Flickinger, from either Germany or Holland. 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.

Ma Bender was born Almira Meik in the Adirondacks and married as a teenager to a man named George Griffith. 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. Afterwards, she reportedly remarried several times, killing those husbands too, as well as three of her older children so they could not testify against her.

John, Jr. was actually found to have been a man named John Gebhardt. His habit of laughing aimlessly was what led to him being described as a "half-wit,” though many afterwards believed this was simply a ruse to disguise his clever nature. Though most were led to believe John and Kate were sister and brother, others said that they sometimes passed as man and wife. The two were known to have had a relationship and further tales abounded that when Kate became pregnant, they would simply bash in the baby’s head once it was born. After the Benders escape, one detective, who had closely followed all the leads, said that he had traced Gebhardt to the outlaw country along the Texas/New Mexico border where he had found that the criminal had died of apoplexy.

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