"'Kate proclaimed herself responsible to no one save herself.' She professed to be a medium of spiritualism and delivered lectures on that subject. "Young Bender, seen when excited, recalled the grave-robbing hyena at once to mind.".Her face was a fit picture of the midnight hag that wove the spell murderous ambition about the soul of Macbeth." "The old man was a repulsive, hideous brute, without a redeeming trait, dirty, profane, and ill-tempered.".Some of the Benders' neighbors claimed that John and Kate were not brother and sister, but husband and wife.įrom those who knew them and have written about the Benders: Kate was purportedly Elvira's fifth daughter. Elvira was rumored to have murdered several husbands, but none of these rumors were ever proven. Later she married William Stephen Griffith. According to contemporary newspapers, Elvira was born Almira Hill Mark (often misreported as "Meik") in the Adirondack Mountains she married Simon Mark, with whom she claimed to have had 12 children. was from either Germany, Norway, or the Netherlands and may have been born John Flickinger. No documentation or definitive proof of their relationships to one another, or where they were born, has ever been found. The Benders were widely believed to be German immigrants. Although the elder Benders kept to themselves, Kate and her brother regularly attended Sunday school in nearby Harmony Grove. Kate's popularity became a large attraction for the Benders' inn. She also conducted séances and gave lectures on spiritualism, for which she gained notoriety for advocating free love. A self-proclaimed healer and psychic, she distributed flyers advertising her supernatural powers and her ability to cure illnesses. Kate Bender, who was around 23, was cultivated and attractive and spoke English well, with little accent. He was prone to laughing aimlessly, which led many to consider him a "half-wit." He spoke English fluently with a German accent. was around 25 years old and handsome, with auburn hair and a mustache. She allegedly spoke little English and was so unfriendly that her neighbors called her a "she-devil." According to the edition of The Emporia News, he was identified with the name William Bender.Įlvira Bender was 55 years old. was around sixty years old and spoke little English the English he did speak was guttural and usually unintelligible. ( May 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Elvira and Kate also planted a 2-acre (0.81 ha) vegetable garden and apple orchard north of the cabin. The front section also contained the kitchen and dining table, where travelers could stop for a meal or spend the night. They used the smaller room at the rear for living quarters and the front room as a " general store" where they sold dry goods. The Benders divided their cabin into two rooms with a canvas wagon cover. After a cabin, a barn with a corral, and a well were built, Elvira Bender and her daughter Kate arrived in the fall of 1871. One of these families was John Bender and John Bender Jr., who registered 160 acres (65 ha) of land located adjacent to the Great Osage Trail, the only open road for traveling farther west. In October 1870, five families of spiritualists homesteaded in and around the township of Osage in northwestern Labette County, approximately 7 mi (11 km) northeast of where Cherryvale was established seven months later. Much folklore and legend surround the Benders, making it difficult to separate fact from fiction. The family's fate remains unknown, with theories ranging from a lynching of the family to a successful escape. While there is no definitive number, estimates report that the Benders killed at least a dozen travelers or as many as twenty before their crimes were discovered. and Kate were siblings, contemporary newspapers reported that the Benders' neighbors had stated that they claimed to be married, possibly in a common law marriage. While popular retelling of the story holds that John Jr. The family consisted of John Bender, his wife Elvira, their son John Jr., and their daughter Kate. 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.
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