Morbid - Listener Tales 53

Episode Date: October 14, 2022

It is Listener Tales up in here, up in here! Do the monster mash my dudes because this is a SPOOKY HALLOWEEN edition. We’ve got tales of accidental stabbings at a Halloween birthday party, an unplanned Michael Myers Halloween meetup and a lighthouse prank caller. Oh and Ash sings Britney Spears, you’re welcome :) Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey weirdos, I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is morbid. It's still wicked morbid. It's super morbid. It's creepy. This one's pretty morbid. This one is super morbid.

I mean, I know they all are, but. But it's also just like, it's like good old fashion fun. It's, it is. It's like old-timey. It is. It's old-timey. It's western. It's going to make you want to dress up in that, like, in those old newspaper.

You know what? and take those old-timey photos. That's what I was trying to say. Thank you. Where you all hold fake, like, rifles. Yes. And you wear the feather boas, even though I'm sure that nobody typically wore those back then, like, as regular fashion.

But do it. But do it. Do you? So, yeah, today we're going to be covering the bloody benders. The bloody benders. Bad name I call it. Again, this is a really fun one, guys. Of course, it's awful because people die.

but it's also really fun. Before we jump into the fun, though, we have some bidness. Bidness. Some bidness to take care of. It's our bidness. It is our bidness. And we're making it your bidness.

Because you're here. So we just wanted to quickly update you on that case we mentioned last week from Amesbury, Massachusetts. A 13-year-old girl named Chloe Ricard was dropped off. She's from Amesbury, Massachusetts. She was dropped off at Lawrence. General Hospital already dead and just dropped off and left. And it was this big mystery, what happened.

It's still kind of a mystery what happened. But the update on this is that a 47-year-old man has been arrested. And he has been charged with something along the lines of distributing drugs to a minor and also assault. Oh. So no full details have been released yet. but he also apparently had a 16 year olds in the car as well and he's charged with two counts of both of those things and these girls were in his apartment for at least the night before and the whole day.

Okay, that is very strange. So it's really scary. It's getting creepier by the moment and hopefully we get more details soon. But when we do, we'll tell you as soon as we find out. Wow. There's a lot of questions I have in my mind right now. Right. So that's kind of a spooky, awful update. But do you know what else is spooky and awful? What else is spooky and awful? It's actually spooky and awesome.

Spooky and awesome. What could it be? It's our shirts on murder apparel. Our shirts on murder apparel. Mm-hmm. So, guys, if you didn't already know, we have paired up with murder apparel, and they made us a shirt. They did. And it's so fucking rad, and you should go check it out on their Instagram.

You really should. Their Instagram handle is Murder Apparel, which is M-U-R-E-R. D-E-R-A-P-P-A-R-E-L, and that's on Instagram. And if you click the little link in their bio, it will take you to their shop where you can find our shirt and other wicked cool shirts that they have. I literally have like three of them. And if you use our code morbid,

M-O-R-B-I-D at checkout, you can get 25% off. Is it good that I never know how much percent off you get? I believe it's 25. I think it's 25. 29. Also, I don't know if they're still doing this, but the other day, if you use the code kill 30, you could get 30% off of everything. Whoa.

They always do stuff like that too. Yeah, they have, go follow them. They have cool incentives. Yeah. And it's worth it because they are rad to the extreme. So go check them out and get our shirt. Do it. And yeah.

So I think the last tiny bit of business is just that our mini-stranded. will be released this Saturday. So look out for that. And we are going to be on a new recording schedule. So now you're getting an episode. Your full length is probably going to be coming in the beginning of the week from now on. And your mini will be towards the end of the week. So you'll get, you know, the week will be nice and fleshed out with morbid.

And we're still going to try to give you extra episodes when we are able to. Absolutely. Because it's just like really fun to be like, here you go, guys. Just like a quick little like, woo, here you go. And we love you. I love all of you. It's true. We do.

Every single one of you. I love every last one of you. You're the best. So I think we should just jump into the Bloody Benders. One, two, three. Let's do it. Totally on the same page. So the Bloody Benders were a family who in 1870 moved out to what is now Cherryvale.

Sounds good. Cool. Kansas. To follow the spiritualist. religion. John Bender, Sr. was the father. The mother was called Ma. Her name was Elvira. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Literally. And then there was a son and a daughter named John, sometimes called Thomas, because why the fuck not? Because that's the same. John Thomas. Yeah. It's very similar names. Thomas. You know. I sometimes call my husband Thomas. That's weird.

And then there was Kate. Just Kate. Just Kate. Kate Bender. No one knows for sure whether or not and John slash Thomas were brother or sister or if they were married. And if they were married, nobody really knows which one of them is Ma and Pa's kid. That's often confusion. Yeah, totally. Like, are you guys brother and sister or are you husband and wife? You guys married? Like, what's going on here?

It kind of seems like it could be. It's weird. So Ma and Pa spoke mostly German is like the... Yeah, that's what I went to. That's what people thought, but then other people were like, was that German? Yeah, and some said like Holland, you know. So like a Germanish language. But the younger bender's knew English and spoke it fluently.

So shortly after moving out to Kansas, they built a home that they used as a general store, an inn and their house. As we all do. Multi-purpose. Yeah, that's smart. Yeah. So the grocery store slash inn was in the front of the family house. And then the living quarters, like for them, were in the back. And they used canvas curtains to separate everything.

So I'm trying to like picture in my head because I haven't seen a picture of the house before of like how big it was. I saw actually I have the dimensions of it and I'll mention it at some point because it's very tiny. Yeah. Because I'm like how was it an in a store and your house? It's literally just like a box. It's like it's very small. In fact, we'll post pictures. I posted one picture on the Instagram today.

They have a lot from this crime scene. Interesting. Which is odd for the 1800s, but it's great. And they do have a lot of pictures of the house, and it's just this little shack. So it's not actually an inn. It's just somewhere where, like, one person could spend the night. It's like one person will roll through and they could spend the night there and maybe get like a meal. Okay.

Yeah. So back to the family. Kate was the one in the family who really stuck out to people. Oh, Kate. So like we said, there was always people like traveling, staying at the house, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, travelers be traveling. And Kate was the one that they were super interested in. She was tall and beautiful.

It's believed that she had red hair. Yeah. And an outgoing personality, much like yourself. Yeah. So outgoing. So outgoing. The life of the party everywhere I go. Like, duh.

It's my hair. And the other benders didn't really talk as much as she did. And like not only was she beautiful, She was also gifted with the ability to communicate with the other side. Wow. Yeah. That's quite a gift. I mean, I wish sometimes that I had that, but then I'm like, do I want that?

I want it, but it feels like it would be great responsibility. I feel like it would also be moderately burdensome. And like a dash of terrifying. 100%. Just a dash. Like just didn't I bring up Ghost Whisperer last week? Yes, you did. Yeah.

Like I used to think. connecting at all. When I was little, like, that'd be so cool. But then I was like, well, I wouldn't want to wake up at night with like a ghosty in my face. Yeah, you don't want a sixth sense it. No, I don't. That was hard to say. I've heard ghosts in the house before, though.

Yeah. But anyways. Kate was beautiful and gifted like me. Just kidding. Like Elena. She had red hair. She was beautiful, gifted, and outgoing like Elena. You know.

And she was well known by the townspeople as a psychic medium. And she even had her own spiritualistic traveling. show where she would go from like little town to town in Kansas doing seances, healing people's illnesses, and contacting people's dead loved ones. Look at Kate go. But she was charging a hefty fine to do this for people. I mean, if you're going to communicate with dead people. Which it's like, are you communicating with them or is this a scheme?

She is definitely not. I can guarantee you. I feel as though you're lying Kate. Feel slightly schemy, Kate. Slightly schemy. Now, just to go into how this crazy bunch of weirdos got their own house way back in the 1800s. So in the mid to late 1800s, the U.S. government was like all of a sudden lousy with land

out in the western part of our newish country at that point. So to help fill this land up, the Homestead Act was put into motion and signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln. You might know him. No, I've never heard of that. I know. You have to be really into history to know who that is.

Yeah, yeah. It was signed into law by him during the Civil War in 1862. So basically this act stated that any adult citizen or intended citizen who had never borne arms against the United States government

could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land. That's a hefty-ass acre. I'm saying. You couldn't just move on to this land and squat or just like contemplate the vastness of the universe in a big open space. Why? Like they wouldn't let you just do that. You had to, quote, improve upon that land given to you.

You had to do this by building a dwelling and also by farming on this land. Like make your lazy ass useful. Yeah, that seems fair though. Yeah, they're just like, be useful. Right. We're going to give you this land. Just be useful. Do something with it.

Yeah. So after five years on the land, the original filer would be. be entitled to the property and you really only had to pay like a small fee to do that. I wish that was still a thing. The title could also be acquired after only six months if you wanted to just pay the government $1.25 per acre, which back then. That was a lot of money back then I feel. It was more than what it is now, obviously.

Now after the Civil War, Union soldiers kind of got like a special thing where they could deduct the time they had served from those requirements. Right. So that's kind of cool. Unfortunately, this act wasn't super, like, it wasn't the great thing it seemed to be completely because very few farmers and, like, laborers and people of that elk could afford to build a farm or get, you know, the tools to farm. They couldn't afford a seed or livestock or anything that you needed to actually make a running

farm. Yeah, because it's not like you can just plant things and be like, well, hope that works out. Guess we're farming. It's like it's a big to do. And not a lot of people could afford that. So it's like it did kind of limit a lot of people. Most of the land went to cattlemen, miners, lumbermen and railroads, which is not what they were looking for. They wanted homesteaders. Right. People to do farming. Of the 500 million acres that were given by the general land office between 1862 and 1904, only 80 million acres actually went to homesteaders. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah.

So it didn't do exactly what it was supposed to do, but, you know, it wasn't awful. It just wasn't perfect. It was like a solid idea. Now, like we said, one of the families who took them up on this offer was the benders. That's how they got their home. Okay. In 1870, John and Alvira built their small house on the Osage Trail in Labette County, Kansas, which like Ash mentioned is now Cherryville, Kansas currently.

The spot is about a two-hour drive southeast of Wichita along U.S. 400 in LeBet County. You know where that is, right? Yeah, exactly. You pinpointed it, right? I did. I did. I googled it in my brain. Yeah, you just dropped a pin.

Bing. So the family, like Ash said, the family decided to turn the new home into a general store, an inn, and also their living quarters. Overachievers. They really are. And the general store sold things like liquor, tobacco, gunpowder, food to travelers, horse feed. And then that inn was just for not a ton of people as they had. It was really like one to two people at a time to just kind of rest for a little while before they moved on. Like renting a room. Exactly. It was just like a quick little hostel stay. The community they settled in was founded by that that spiritualist group like that that religion was was kind of a thing in that area

so that's that spiritualist religion is what kate was doing it's the these people believe they can speak with the spirits of the dead they're super into seances and mediums you know they do all that stuff and that's why kate bender was super into it they're in the perfect spot for it right right in the hub of that like i was saying before the bender home door in, you know, all around, everything, was just one room. That's so crazy to me. And it was actually 16 by 24 feet in size. I'm really bad at measurements, to be honest with you.

Not a lot. No. No. How much is this room that we're in right now? I have no idea. Cool. Whatever. Keep going.

Basically, there was a counter in the front, like you said, that was the selling area. There was just one counter. That's it in the front. And then in the back where you said the living area was, there was some, there was just a, quote, rude bed. A rude bed. That's what I read. That's amazing. What about it was so rude?

It was super rude. You walked into the room and it was like, don't sleep here. It only tipped like 5%. Insulted you every morning when you woke up. You look like shit today. It didn't get up for elderly people in those. It was a rude bed. There was also a table, a stove, and three chairs back there.

So one person had to stand up for dinner. I was going to say so not even enough for the whole table. Wow. Ma or Pa or John Thomas? Or John Thomas. According to a really fascinating article, which I'm going to read a couple of excerpts from like here and there. Y'all's. In the weekly Kansas Chief from May 22nd, 1870.

the canvas cover was white and this is important later. I know it seems like a very trivial detail. But the article was titled, quote, the devil's kitchen, exclamation point. Further particulars of the butcher bender's den, exclamation point. I just like that old-timey newspapers were like, they weren't like, here's the headline. They were like, headline, exclamation point.

I love that. And they got really like hyperbolic about it and great. I wish they were still like that. I know I love it. Like the butcher bender's den. The devil's kitchen. The devil. Like if I saw, I'd buy a newspaper.

Yeah, that's what you, I would pick up that paper and be like, what's that about? Yeah. So like we said, this house was along the Osage Trail. So it's important to know why this was like a great place for them to set up shop for what they were ending up doing. Because there was like a lot of travelers for one. Yeah. Well, the Osage Trail was very well traveled route back then. It was originally a Native American trail and is now where the Midwest is in the Midwest is.

the United States. It was later called the Santa Fe Trail. The trails were originally created with the migrations of buffalo herds, which is interesting. And these trails were traveled initially by Osage Indians. Now, back in the day, this trail was a dangerous place. Because, like, just, like, on its own. Why?

Not just because of the vendors. Spoiler alert. Travelers went missing all the time, mostly due to disease, like the Oregon Trail. I was just going to say. Like people die in a dysentery and like, you know. Flat tire wagon. Having to forge rivers and all that. So there was also bandits.

Because remember this is like the old west. I love it. Native Americans. There was run-ins where they're Native Americans who were rightfully pissed. They were like, why the fuck are you still here? Yeah, lots of robbery and the like. It just wasn't a very easy place to. So the bender set up shop at the right place for what they wanted to do.

Exactly. Because they knew a lot of people were going to be. going down this trail. It's kind of like, you know, setting up shop in the middle of Times Square. It's like, makes sense. You're, you have a lot. You're going to get something. Yeah, somebody's going to roll by. So in 1873, citizens of LeBette County became concerned all of a sudden, because although a lot of people do go missing on that trail, there was like kind of an inordinate amount of missing persons in that community. Okay.

So in the neighboring counties, we're also starting to experience a lot of losses. And they were like, huh, where are these people going? Like, they can't all be just dying on the trail of dysentery. Yeah. Disentary only claims so many lives per year. It does. It does. It really does.

And this was all kind of a slow build over a few years of missing people. And then a couple of cases shook people up a bit and started this whole ball ruin. The first was the disappearance of a man named George W. Lunker, who went missing while traveling from Independence on his way to Iowa. He was traveling with his infant daughter. Oh. So she also went missing. Hate it.

Next, a prominent name went missing. In March 1873, Dr. William York, who was a well-known and well-respected physician from Independence, Kansas, went missing after getting off a train in the area, and was last seen near the Bender House of Hors. Hey. Yeah. He was there because he was George Lanker's neighbor and was investigating he and his infant daughter's disappearance.

So he was that guy's, that first guy's neighbor and he was like, where did he go? And then he went missing. He heard he was around there. He went to go look for him. Now he's missing. Shit. Yeah. No coincidence there.

No, this is like something's going on. Mm-hmm. Something stinky. Something peculiar. The weekly Kansas chief called Dr. York. quote, a man of family, friends, and reputation. And that's why people suddenly were like, wait a second. The issue for the benders later became that Dr. York was not only prominent himself,

but he also has two well-known and respected brothers as well. Colonel Edward York and Kansas Senator Alexander York. Oh, shit, they mess with the wrong fam. Yeah, they always, and you know what? Serial killers and, like, dumbasses of the like always end up doing that one. that you're like, like, really? That was a bad move.

Yeah, like that was a bad move. Well, and it's always good because they get caught. It is. But you're just like, you're dumb. Yeah. So when Dr. York went missing, Colonel York was like, oh, hell no. He immediately led an investigation into LeBet County

upon hearing of his brother's disappearance. He was like, no, we're not just letting this go. No. So the benders were one of the families questioned about this case. When questioned, they said they had no idea anything about this, and in the words of the weekly Kansas chief at the time, quote, The old hag sat mum and gloomy pretending she could not understand or speak English.

Old Bender said nothing. Kate, she of the evil eye, denied all knowledge of the lost, and the younger male villain fooled them with a well-made up story. He said that about that time Dr. York went missed, he, Bender, had been shot at in a lonesome place near Drum Creek one evening, and it must have been by those that killed the doctor. That would make a good romance novel book, shot at in a lonesome place with Fabio on the cover.

And Drum Creek. I do like that. It has a nice flow. It's very poetic. It is. It does. And you know what? It's a very good cover-up story to be like, weird.

I was shot at. The day that dude went missing, I got shot at down in this lonesome place. where no one knew. So maybe it was by the same people that clearly shot that doctor, even though we don't have his body. That doctor may have also been in a lonesome place. He was, and he was gone now. Well, now the townspeople became so concerned that they had a town meeting at the Harmony Grove Schoolhouse about this whole shit bang. Both male benders were at these meetings.

They were the fucking Golden State killers of their time. Yes. Yep, they attended the meeting. At this meeting, the townspeople decided that they would form like a coalition and search every single home in the area to find these missing travelers. Apparently weather conditions or something super old-timey stopped them from immediately beginning this. Dysentery. Dysentary weather. Smallpox.

Yeah, just like an oxen died or something. Something stopped them. I believe what I read was weather. that they couldn't immediately start this search. So when Colonel York, Dr. York's brother, and the rest of the search volunteers arrived again to get more information from the vendors, they immediately noticed upon walking up to this farm

that the animals left on the farm were all wandering around starving, and some of them were dead. And they were like, hmm. And they were like, clearly these animals have been neglected, which is weird. And awful. So the wagon was also missing,

And it appeared that no one had been on the farm for a while, three weeks to be exact. Oh, shit. You can get pretty far in three weeks. Yeah. And what they did was they left the second that Colonel York left. They packed up at peace. Because they were like, they're going to come check our house and we got to get the fuck out of here. They knew.

They were like where it caught. Right. So they busted open the door to the house slash door slash in. Slash butcher bar. Butcher baker, candlestick maker. and were knocked on their asses immediately by a super gnarly smell. Oh. They said it was like you could like touch the air.

Gross, gross, gross. Like when your dog farted earlier in my face? A Bailey fart. So the rest of the place seemed like it looked pretty normal inside. They said nothing was missing except for some food, clothing, some bedding. And they were like, why the fuck does it smell so bad in here? And they were like when they, so when they finally tracked down the location of where the smell was emitting, it was coming from a trap door in the floor of the cabin beneath one of the chairs seated at the table.

When they opened the trap door, they found that the cellar beneath was the source of the smell. Oh, no. And it was because it was covered in congealed blood. Ew. Like a thick layer on the floor of just straight up, clotted, congealed, funky-ass smell and blood. like Elizabeth Bautry's house. Exactly. Did I say that right? Yeah, Boutree, good job. Yes. Nailed it.

Thank you. So they were like, huh, that's sticky, literally. That's strange, guys. I will say that is strange. So obviously they were like, what the fuck? And the group immediately got a ton of people together to lift up the cabin from its foundations and dig into the ground. Oh, God. They found nothing. So the searchers went searching in the surrounding land,

and they started focusing in on the orchard, which was freshly plowed, but uneven. Uh-huh. Neighbors were saying, huh, that orchard always seemed freshly plowed. They were always plowing that damn orchard. Which is weird. And they were like, I know that they are farmers,

but like, that's a lot of plowing. Right. That orchard does not eat that. Like it could take a day off. Yeah, they were like, you didn't chill. So they went to town digging. and the volunteers first unearthed Dr. York's body face down in a pretty shallow grave.

The back of his head had been smashed and his throat had been slit. Soon they found seven more bodies that night. Shared in that orchard. And one more the following day with similar injuries and it became pretty clear that the benders were a serial killing Texas chainsaw Massacre style clan of heathens. Very casual.

Even though none of that stuff had been invented yet, they were all thinking that. It was based on that. They were all thinking that. It appears that at least from everything I read, all the sources I found, at least 12 bodies were officially found in graves in the Bender's Orchards. But because of the complete lack of forensics back then, there could be as many as 21. That's what they're considering. Like looking off of missing persons reports and stuff. The bodies were in various states of decomp and were able to be identified mainly.

from clothing, jewelry, and other, like, you know, certain markings. The orchards and gardens where the murder victims were found were known immediately after that as Hell's Half Acre. Oh, okay. And it's still known that. I just want to quickly read a couple of excerpts from the Kansas Chief. Oh, I'm going to go to the weekly Kansas Chief. I feel like this is going to be fun.

Because these, first of all, I love how they speak. Like the old timey speak. Yeah, it's just really cool. So first I'm going to tell you a couple of the bodies that they were able to identify and how they described them. So they did find Dr. York, like we said. They also found George W. Longkor. I think Longkor.

Is that why I said how I said it? It's hard to say. I've seen it spelled like seven different ways. And they also found his infant daughter. Oh. It says, Mr. Longer was a neighbor of Dr. York's from, whom he had purchased a team just before he started to Iowa last December. I don't know what that means.

He and his infant child were buried in one grave. He, as all the other men, had the back of the skull crushed in and broken and his throat cut, and the body stripped of nearly all its clothing. The child was placed at the father's feet without a bruiser mark of violence and with all its clothes on, even the hood and mittens, and many judge that the infant had been buried alive. Oh my God. Yes. That is so fucking horrific. I'm really hoping that that's just like...

Not true. Speculation. It's in the newspaper. It was reported widely. And it's true that they found that, I mean, that infant had no markings or bruises. I can't... The other thing that could have happened is maybe suffocated, which is still not awesome at all. I'm just saying better than buried alive. Yeah, I hate the thought of anything buried alive.

There was also somebody named L.G. Brown, who was from Cedar. Howard County. He had recently traded horses near Lador and was supposed to have had about $60 with him. He was recognized by a silver ring on his finger, which was identified by his friend Johnson, with whom he had traded horses. Oh. This is all just so pure. It is.

These people are just pure. They're like, we just traded horses once. Yeah. I know that guy. The next one is W.F. McRoddy lived near Cedarville. He was en route to independence to contest. a land claim, one report says that he had a large sum of money on his person and another judged to be more reliable that he had a small sum. And that's it for him. Like somebody was

like he had so much. He was rolling in cash when he went up there and then another one was like he's just comfortable. I think he's had like a couple dollars. I don't know. Everybody chill. You know when people say that about money, they're like we're not rich, we're comfortable. We're just comfortable. Only rich people say that. It's true. Those are the only people that are comfortable. Yeah. The next person is Henry F. McKenny from Hamilton County, Indiana, was on the road to locate at Independence where his sister, Mrs. J. Thompson, resides.

He had but little money and was on foot and had been missing since December. Wow. Sorry, Henry. Sorry, Henry. That's my favorite name. That is a great name. Next one is Peter Boyle. He resided in Howard County.

His body was so mutilated as to. be hardly recognizable. But his poor widow identified him by his peculiar shirt, which her own hands had made for him. Oh, God. He had started on foot for Osage sometime last December. That hurts my soul. So those are the ones that were able to be identified. But it also has a, I just want to read one more little snippet that was of interest to me.

Here says, where the murdered now sleep? and it says with the exception of Dr. York and Henry F. McKenzie, G.W. Lanker and daughter, whose families took charge of their remains and buried them at independence. The bodies of those found in the garden graves were quietly taken by silent men who knew them not, yet longed for vengeance on their assassins to the base of a high mound, about a mile to the southeast of the devil's kitchen, and there a second time returned to the earth to sleep until the final run. resurrection.

Wow. That is beautiful. Isn't that just like... That was like the end of a fucking Harry Potter novel. Because you're just like, wow, what about all these people that nobody knew who they were? And then it's like, let me tell you very poetically what we did with them. And it's like men who knew them not brought them and they're like, wow. And then it said to sleep until the...

Until the final resurrection, which I don't know what that means. But like... Like when God comes back, I'm into it. I'm into it. I'm into the whole thing. I love it. I think it's beautiful. So I just wanted to put that out there because I think it was really interesting.

Now, the benders buried their dead pretty far into the earth, some seven feet in. Oh, wow. That's even more than like fucking professional. You think like six feet under. And it's really hard. Like seven feet, that's a basketball player. That's a deep pole. That's a basketball player into the earth.

That's a large man. An anthropologists, forensic anthropologists are pretty certain that there are definitely more bodies buried. there even today. Even deeper, I bet, than seven. And just even today, that simply have just not been exhumed. Oh, God. This is why their body count is definitely more than 12 bodies that they were able to originally dig up. Because remember, they weren't professional crime scene investigators or forensic anthropologists. We were just volunteers. You know, people skilled in locating and removing human remains at that crime scene. They were just stunned dudes that arrived on like horseback and lent a hand to dig up whatever graves they could. Right. And at one point,

They said they were just sticking metal rods into the ground to try to see if they hit anything. Right. So there's for sure. There's no way they got everybody out of there. So. Fus show. Right? So you're probably wondering, what the hell happened in that house?

What's going on? That's exactly what I was wondering. Let me tell you. Please do. So what would happen is when one came to stay with the bloody benders is that guests were urged to sit at the table for a male. No thanks. This table sat the victim right against the separating curtain, which, like we said, was white. Hmm.

The reason it's important that it was white was this made it easy for someone standing behind that curtain to make out the victim's shape, especially their head. Okay. Now, because light would shine through the curtain and make the shadow of the person's form, one or more of the benders, usually the male benders, were behind that curtain and then would take a. sledgehammer or a regular hammer to beat the victim's scull in from behind the partition. They would then drop the person through that trapdoor in the floor that was located directly under the table they had sat them at. And now that they had been dropped down in the cellar, the female benders were there to pick the stunned and bleeding person up off the ground whose head was now crushed and slit their neck for good measure. This is like very Sweeney Todd. Very Sweeney Todd. And just very like

efficient. Super efficient. They were like a well-oiled machine. Their body was then stripped of anything valuable, and then they were the left crumpled on the cellar floor bleeding profusely. Until they took them out to bury them in the garden. So that's why there was all that kindgilled blood. Exactly.

Because that's where they would just bleed out. According to the article I mentioned earlier, there was evidence that some of their victims actually fought back, even though they were taken completely by surprise. they found no less than a dozen bullet holes in the sides of the home and the roof that led investigators to believe that some men or women had shot furiously to stop the torture. Yeah. Because they were clearly like mis-aimed shots.

Like they were just shooting everywhere, which is even sadder. Like I said, there are a lot of photographs from the scene, like not obviously crime scene photos because nobody, no bodies were left where they were. But it's kind of like rare and awesome because there's a lot of photos of the grave sites and the, Like there's these hills in the distance. And the hills were barren prairie basically back then. But now they have like now if you go today, they're filled with trees. Right.

The hills came to be known as the Bender Mounds because some speculated that the killers may have actually stood on those mounds as lookouts to like to like lure in travelers. Yeah. Which is even creepier. So all of these claims were backed up by a couple of living witnesses as well. Oh, shit. One man whose name was Mr. Wetzel heard this whole thing. And he said there was a time where he had been at the inn. He stopped there.

He declined to sit in the designated spot near the curtain. But he said they really wanted him to sit at that spot. And he was like, no. Like, he just got a really weird feeling. Why do you want me to sit there so bad? He said him saying no to this made Ma Bender so fucking angry and abusive towards him. and he said that he saw the male benders come from behind the cloth while she was getting pissed and like a hurling abuse at him.

Jesus. And he and whoever he was with, because he said he was with someone else, he said they immediately were like, we're fucking leaving. Like they left immediately. Yeah. That gives me the spooks.

And another traveler named William Pickering told almost the same exact story. He was like, I'm not sitting there. Yeah, he was like, I said I wasn't sitting there. My bender got real pissed. and then I saw the other two come from behind that curtain like they were standing there. What do you think their motive was with all this? Well, that's what's really scary because it's kind of half robbery, half they just like to.

Yeah. Which, so it was calculated that the bender stole $2,600 from one of the victims. Oh, wow. That's a lot of money. 1,900 from another. Why did these people have all this money? Well, they're traveling like long distance. That's a lot of money.

money from back then. And usually they're going to like buy land or do something else. Damn. $37 from another person. 40 cents from another. $38 in a quote good team and wagon from one man. Wow. And from Dr. York, they only got $10

a pony and a saddle. Well, and then it's like where, like you would think that people would be like, where are all these animals coming from? Well, that's the thing. But it, but it was a farm. So they had animals anyways. So nobody was really. Oh, shit. But because they weren't getting, I mean, they got 40 cents off of one person.

Yeah, like, come on. So it kind of appears that they just liked doing this, which is so much scarier, that they just liked being a family of serial killers, like Texas chains on asker. So what happened to the benders? Well, the bloody benders. Let me tell you. So like you said before, Colonel York did all this investigating to find out where his brother was, and they found all the shit.

and a manhunt was launched to find the whereabouts of the Bender family and a $500 reward was offered by the sheriff to anyone who apprehended them. Damn. So their wagon was found soon after this manhunt happened, Erlich was going down, only a few miles from their house. But the family was never found. Like they weren't in the wagon. That's so creepy.

So some people think that maybe they were killed by like, townspeople who knew of all the awful crimes that they'd committed. It wouldn't be surprising. No. But other people have a theory that they like escaped the country somehow, but no one has ever found them. So like, they could be alive right now. No.

I know I'm kidding. That was a joke. For a second, I was like, no. I was like, I don't really know what to say. I've said some dumb things, but that was a joke. That would have taken the cake. That would have absolutely taken the cake. I thought the sarcasm was like heavy in my voice.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just tired and I was like, whoa. I know you look. Immediately I saw your eyes and I was like, dude, I'm kidding. You're like, no, I'm really kidding. I'm like, ugh. Well, there's like a couple, like you said, like there's a couple of theories and like legends have come out of it now where they are, what they did, like what happened

afterwards. So it was determined in some way that they might have taken a train from Thayer to Shanoot. Now, I don't know where these people Shanoot. Shanoot. And that Kate and John Jr. got off in Shanoot and traveled by train south to Red River.

There is where it is said that they joined Ma and, you know. Ma and Pa and all them. Tom. Who had apparently gone through St. Louis. Now, detectives

thought that they traced the benders through Texas and New Mexico. That's the last kind of thing. But there was, in 1890, two women who were thought to be fugitives were arrested in Michigan. They were brought back to Kansas, but they were released after it was said they were not the Bender Women, because originally they thought they were. But others people believe they were definitely the two Bender women. Wow.

So it's just one of these things where it's like, it's almost like the Whitey Boulger thing, like the sightings of Whitey Boulger everywhere that were happening. And so it's just kind of become like a legend. Well, because I bet people want so badly for like just to know. And they want to be the person that's like, I saw her. Oh, yeah. Like I know I did. You wanted to be, you know, before Whitey Bulger was caught and then murdered in prison.

You wanted to be like, I saw Whitey Bulger. I know it was him. You know what I mean? Like it's just one of those things. No matter if you did or not. It's like a sensation. So obviously these crimes at the time, they would now. and they definitely at the time created like just insanity and sensationalism

and all the newspapers at the time. And I just wanted to say a couple of like the headlines and like quotes from a couple of the newspapers back then because it's interesting. Hit me with it. One of them said quote, altogether the murders are without a parallel. That was in the Chicago Tribune. The Minneapolis Star Tribune said there were over 3,000 people at the crime scene with more trains arriving. Wow. And there was a book published in Philadelphia pretty soon after the murders happened called the Bender Hotel Horror in Kansas.

And they described, quote, large numbers of people arrived upon the scene who had heard of the diabolical acts of bloody murder and rapacious robbery. Hardened men were moved to tears. Rapacious robbery. I know. So much alliteration. For real. A Lebet County history published in 1901, like some 28, I think it was years after the crimes, actually had a section that was titled The Bender Slaughter Pen. Wow.

And just going back, like just to point out a couple of things, if John and Kate plus eight. Oh my God. Yes. I do those comments. If John and Kate Bender. Mm-hmm. It also just occurred to me that that was the same, so that's good. If they were actually husband and wife and not brother and sister,

like they were passing themselves off to be, it seemed strange to a lot of people. It might seem strange that they didn't have kids because at that time, you would have kids. Yeah. You didn't do anything else. So according to legends, the couple did have at least one child, but shortly after birth,

Kate and John Jr. murdered the infant with a blow to the head. But why? That's a legend. I just don't understand what the point of that would have been. Because why do you want to take care of a baby when you're busy murdering people? But then you could raise another murderer and have like extra hands on deck. But that takes a long time. I just don't think that they were like,

ain't nobody got time for that. What's creepier than a kid murderer? But I think they were such a well-oiled machine that they were like, we don't need to add. We have this down to a science. Yeah, we don't need to add like a, weird little like cog in here. That's what they thought. I know that's what I thought. I like that I'm arguing the point of raising

a child murderer. You're like, I'll leave now. It seems like it would be a great idea. I'm like, I'm just saying like, you should just train that little thing to murder people. It's fine. I'll see myself out now. Yeah, it's fine. So that would suck if that was real. And according to the serial killers in psychopedia by R.J. Parker, before marrying John, Alvira Bender, allegedly had several other husbands who all weirdly died of mysterious head injuries. I'm just saying.

I mean, who knows? This podcast should just be called. I'm just saying. I'm just saying and who knows. That's bananas. So, and it's just like, that's just a legend. Just like the two, you know, women who they thought were the Bender women. Right, right, right.

turned out not to be. That's a legend too. It's like rumor has it. You gotta put it out there. So the house that these martyrs took place, the Bender House, was pulled apart by people who wanted to take parts of the house as souvenir. Damn. I feel like were you there? Like I totally would have been. I would have been like pulling away like the table. No, no, no, no. I just said I would have been, but I meant to say I wouldn't have been.

You're like, wait a second. I'm like, I would have been not there. I would have been anywhere else. I just feel as though things have energy attached to them, and I do not want the bad juju of the bender house in my house. See, I'd be like lugging that table on my back. I'd be like, see you later, guys. I would never stay in your house.

Or I would take that, like, trap door door off the hinges and take that. That would be a good one. I wouldn't do any of that. That would stay away from that. Well, some people even took rocks from a well where one, corpse of a victim was discovered on the property. No, thank you. Which I think that's pretty cool.

I'm busy that day. You can just be like, this is a rock. Nope. No, I'm busy that day. A set of three hammers from their home is actually right now part of a bender exhibit at the Cherryvale Museum about eight miles from the site of their home. See, I would go to the museum and like see it. Oh, for sure.

But I don't want to have it. I mean, no, both. I mean, I'll respect to anybody who does. Like live your best life Take what you want Have your things I just don't want them I mean count me in

I'm in They also There's a blood-stained knife That has been part of the state's Collection for 90 years And the knife was actually Found by Dr. York's brother In the house

Yeah and his his wife gave it over to the state The knife supposedly had been hidden In a mantle clock in the house Wow That's the tale That's the legend That's the legend.

Now, there is right now at a rest area at the junction of U.S. 400 and U.S. 169 north of Cherryville. You can read a historical marker that tells you about the Bender's Crimes. Oh, that's cool. And another historical marker in the area says it best. And this is what we'll end on. Let me know. Quote, the end of the Benders is not known. The earth seemed to swallow them as it had their victims, end quote.

And that was the story. Yes. Those lie. Yes. Very slick. Very slick. So yeah, hope you enjoyed that 1800s romp. I hope you dug it.

That romp through the old west in the 1800s. Wasn't that fun? Howdy, cowboy. And cow gal. Cow gal. Cow gal. So, yeah. So hope you enjoyed that.

And next. Now we're going to thank some Patronis's. Hey. I'm going to read them today and you're going to have to come up with things. Okay. So the first one, we would like to thank, Allie, is that Mike Pence Benedict? Guess what, Ali, Benedict, it is Mike Pence. Allie, thank you so much.

Thank you, girl. And that is not Mike Pence. Don't worry. No, it's not. The next person, Patronis, we would like to thank. is Brett Green. Brett Green. The grass is always greener where you are. It's true. Thank you. Thank you, Brett.

The next person we want to thank is Chadwick Galletta. Chadwick Galletta. What the fuck? You have a cool name. That's a great name. Thank you, Chadwick Galleta. Thank you, Chadwick. Chadwick. You had a professor, Chadwick, didn't you? I did. And she was great. Yeah. Thanks, Chadwick. Thank you, thank you. The next person we're going to thank is

MJ Hart. MJ heart. Are you like the MJ in the Kardashian family? Oh, hate that you did that. I know I was waiting for you to stab me in the face. M.J. Hart. I heart you. I don't even... M.J. from the Kardashian family. MJ's the grandma. Oh. Why do you know that?

That's awful. Are you kidding me? She's on the show. I don't hate you. It's MJ. It's MJ. Thank you, MJ. Thank you so much. much, MJ. You are not affiliated with the Kardashians at all, and I know this. I know this, too. I'm just saying.

The next person we want to thank is Jade Catherine. Jade Catherine, that's a beautiful name. Isn't that really pretty? Yeah, thank you, Jade Catherine. I was writing it down and I was like, love you, girl. That flows. I bet you're cool as fuck. She is. I know it.

I just, I know. Thank you, Jade. Thank you. The next person we want to thank is Dionne La Desma. Dion Ladesma, you are a Le Diamond. Doesn't she sound like she is some old-timey psychic from like New Orleans? Dionne Ledesma. She was just like fancy.

She was like the fantastic La Desma. Oh, now that you said it like that totally, but then where I thought you were going with that originally was that she was like on an old time soap opera. That too. Dionne Ledesma. Yeah. She's starring on an old time like Spanish soap opera. Both of those work. Yes.

Thank you, Dion. Thank you, Dion. The next person we're going to thank is Mark Govani. Mark Govani. Go Ui. Govani. Yeah. Go, Mark.

Go, Vani. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. The next person we're going to thank is Mystery Barton. Whoa. Like, who, Barton? If your name is mystery. It's literally mystery.

I just, I don't even know. I want to retire. I just want to retire. I just want to retire now because that's great. That's so cool. Even if it's not, that's a great pen name. So thank you, mystery. And the last person we're going to thank this week is Shannon von Munster.

Shannon von Munster, you know how we feel about last names that have Vaughn or Vaughn. It's true. I love you, Shan. And it's Von Munster. Monster. So you belong. You're a monster. Here you are.

You've come to the right place. You have. So thank you, Shannon. Thank you. And thank you to all. our patronesses. Guys, thank you to everybody who donates, who listens, who loves us. You guys are the best. Peace, love positivity. And I don't know if you guys have noticed, but thanks to your donations, we sound a little better recently. I think we sound great. So without you guys, we couldn't have

improved to this, and we would still sound like we were podcasting underwater. Yeah, so thank you. Thank you so much. And you know what, guys? We hope that you love us enough to follow us on Instagram at morbid podcast. Follow us on Twitter at A Morbid Podcast. Join the Facebook group. Morbid colon a true crime vote. Whoa.

A true crime podcast. Send us an email. Morbid Podcast at gmail.com. Check out the lovely co-os that Elena designed if she knows how to say it without dying first. Morbidpodcast.com. And donate to the Patreon if you're feeling so inclined. Patreon. dot com slash morbid podcast.

We hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you join a family of travelers and you go to their house, but it's like not just a house. It's also like a general store and an inn and you sleep there and they're like sit in this fucking chair. And then you sit in the chair and then John Thomas Paul face bender comes around the corner and hits you in the head.

And then all of a sudden you're in a basement and now you can't get out and shit you're dead. And I just hope that you don't keep it that weird. Don't keep it that weird. Cheers. Don't do it. Bye. Bye.