True Crime Sunday: The Bender Family

As I was doing research for this week’s post, I came across a name I’d come across in other books and knew would make a fine True Crime Sunday topic.  Today I’m going to tell you about a nineteenth century family of serial killers, the Bender family.

Before cell phones and social media, before things were established, things were quite unfettered. After the Civil War, settlers headed west in the hopes of claiming some of the land that they’d heard was so plentiful. In 1870, the Benders were one of several families who settled in the Kansas territory.

It is believed that the Benders divided their house with a canvas sheet—one side was a general store and they made their home on the other side. It wasn’t long before they figured out they could also make a nice living providing food and rest to fellow settlers. Between 1871 and 1873, they did just that. Sort of.

In May 1871, a man was found near, but not too near, the Benders’ homestead. His skull had been broken and his throat was slashed. It wasn’t long before a couple more men were found in the same area with the same injuries. There are theories that the travelers were seated at the end of the table, conveniently in front of the canvas sheet. One of the Benders would hit him with a rock or a hammer, and another one would slit his throat. When rumors and reports of missing travelers began to swirl around the area, a group of vigilantes (unsuccessfully) searched for the responsible parties.

The person who would bring about the end of the Benders’ crime spree was George Longcor. Following the death of his wife, he packed a few things, purchased a wagon and horses from his neighbor, Dr. William Henry York, and set off for Iowa with his small daughter. He never made it, and his former neighbor was eventually alerted that the team of horses was found abandoned near Fort Scott, Kansas. Dr. York set out in early 1873 to find out what happened to his friend and his daughter. He wouldn’t find his answer.

He also disappeared. However, Dr. York’s family was not willing to chalk his disappearance up to the unpredictability and dangers of frontier life. His brothers, a colonel and a senator, assembled a party and set out to see what happened. They tracked their brother to the Bender farm where, of course, the family claimed to have no idea who the men were asking after. The men returned later with evidence against them, and the Benders knew they were in trouble.

It wasn’t long before it became clear the family fled the area. Their wagon and horses were soon found abandoned roughly twelve miles from their house.

When the brothers’ party and a number of locals arrived at the Bender home to search the area, they were assaulted with a truly horrific discovery. In the family’s orchard, they found their brother’s remains. They also found several more bodies who had been killed the same way as the men above—skull crushed and throat slit.

Rewards were offered, but the mystery of the Benders would go unsolved. The last development that can be proven is them fleeing in their wagon. From there, there’s only conjecture. Some say the family split up, with the men heading south and the women going north. Years later, two women were arrested for larceny in Michigan. They were accused of being the ladies from the Bender family and sent back to Kansas. There wasn’t enough evidence to prove their identities, so they were released to go back to Michigan.

In the years after the Bender family killings, there were a number of supposed sightings, people who claimed to have apprehended and/or killed one or more members of the family, and other theories about the family’s whereabouts. There was also a theory that the family wasn’t related at all, and were a group of immigrants who found each other and decided to pose as a family.

The horrible crimes and the questions following them made this a mystery to capture the imagination. At the time, people were obsessed with the case to the point of traveling to the family’s home and taking any souvenirs they could, including pieces of the house. The same thing happened after the Belle Gunness story. People seemed to be attracted by the horror of it all.  

We’ve all heard and read stories about the dangers of westward expansion. Here we have a family who wasn’t repelled or alarmed by the danger. Rather they decided to make themselves all nice and cozy in it. 

Looking for more?

Hell’s Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier by Susan Jonusas

Saga of the Bloody Benders: The Infamous Homicidal Family of Labette County, Kansas by Rick Geary (fiction)