Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 218 - The Bloody Benders

Episode Date: November 16, 2020

Life was NOT easy on the American frontier for European and American settlers in the 19th century. You lived off the land or you died trying. You were always one wrong move from freezing or starving to death. You had to defend your property from horse thieves, bandits, and American Indian tribes understandably pissed off that you’d just settled on land they still felt belonged to them. And if you lived in or traveled around Cherryvale or the Osage Township in rural southeastern Kansas, you had another thing to worry about: being literally hammered to death by the Bloody Benders - a family of four killers. The Benders, sometimes called “America’s first serial killer family,” killed travelers that were unlucky enough to stop for the night at their tiny inn. As settlers swung through on their way to make a new life for themselves in the wild west, maybe carve out a small fortune, they were seated at a table, and the head of the murderous family, ol’ Pa Bender would beat their skulls in. Then daughter Kate would slit their throats, and then either Ma or John Junior would drop their body into the cellar via a trap door. And later, one of the members of the Bender brood would bury the body in the orchard or vegetable garden out back.This tale is a straight up real life horror movie in this week's, is this a new Rob Zombie movie? or an actual historical examination? episode, of Timesuck. In honor of Veteran’s Day, we made a Bad Magic Productions donation of $10,000 to https://veteransfoodpantry.org/. Thank you Space Lizards! Also, through November 23rd, we are accepting Giving Tree applications to help give numerous Cult of the Curious families a holiday Bojangles would be proud of. If you have children, and due to financial hardships, are worried there will no gifts to open this holiday season, we want to help! Please - copy and paste the following email: (copy & paste address) [e-mail] You can remain anonymous if you wish. You can also email us here to donate yourself. We will match! Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4ecBOw2rZdU Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions: https://badmagicmerch.com/pages/contact Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 9500 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.Royalty free Music by Giorgio Di Campo for @FreeSound Musichttp://freesoundmusic.euhttps://www.facebook.com/freemusicfor...https://youtube.com/freesoundmusicoriginal video: (link to original clip in our channel)

Life was not easy on the American frontier for European and American settlers in the 19th century. You lived off the land or you died trying. You're always one wrong move from freezing or starving to death. You had to defend your property from horse thieves, bandits, and American Indian tribes, understandably pissed off that you just settled on land, they still felt belonged to them. And if you lived in or traveled around Cherryvale or the Osage township in rural southeastern Kansas, yet another thing to worry about being literally hammered to death by the bloody benders, a family of four, a family of four killers. The benders sometimes

called America's first serial killer family killed travelers that were unlucky enough to stop for the night at their tiny in as settlers swung through on their way to make a new life for themselves in the wild west, maybe carve out a small fortune. They were seated at a table and the head of the murderers family, old pop bender, would beat their skulls in. Then daughter Kate would slit their throats and then either Ma or John Jr. would drop their body into the cellar via a trap door. And later, one of the members of the bender brood would bury the body in the orchard or

vegetable garden out back. Today's tale is straight up a real life horror movie. They rinse and repeated this murder method over and over again, enough times to briefly give the whole area around them a bad reputation as a place where folks just vanished. And then a group of vigilantes found the bodies. What happened next?

Did this psycho family get caught, hang from a tree, or did they escape justice? All this and more on a bloody, yeah, yeah! Is this a new Rob Zombie movie or an actual historical examination episode of Time Suck? This is Michael McDonald and you're listening to Time Suck, your mistake to Time S son. You're listening to Top Sun. Happy Monday. Hail Nimrod, meat sacks. A Hail Luciferna, praise both jangles glory be to triple M. Welcome or welcome back to

the Cult of the Curious. Get on in here. I'm Dan Cummins, a Suck Master, the Master Sucker, professional air banjo restringer, and you are listing the time suck. More historical escapeism today. I have a whopper of a tale to tell you once again. Sweet meat sack holiday stocky now in the store, badmagicmarch.com. Love it. Hail Nimrod and a quick announcement for the sucks giving ticket buyers your emails with tour times show time zoom links and more were sent last week. Check that spam folder if you haven't seen them.

The emails came from Kate at the spicy club.com bingo bingo getting ready for a fun virtual hang. Last thing before the show, I want to talk about how great all of you meat sacks are. You're something else. Since announcing our annual time suck giving back, giving tree a few weeks ago, we have received far more emails than we anticipated. With every email, I see the Queen sobbing over her computer, not even kidding. She's a, she's a very sensitive Polish monster with the biggest of hearts. While it's been tough to sort through the emails, it has also been

inspiring of the emails received today. About 20% of them have been meat sacks who have gotten through 2020 better than others and they want to help hail Nimrod. As of writing this announcement, our community, excuse me, has donated 3000 bucks on top of what our bad magic donation will be, which will be over $10,000. So we're now over $13,000, hail Nimrod. Truly amazing to see you guys pull together to help each other out. And the best part of seeing this happen is that we know that those in the receiving end will do their best to pay it forward whenever they can. That's what all of your emails say.

It's heartwarming. My eyes get a little allergy-ish. Sometimes the queen and I have talked it over and we decided that for every dollar donated the community above and beyond your incredible Patreon donation, we will personally match it dollar for dollar. So you heard right. So now we're picking, we're up to over, excuse me, $16,000 to make the holidays better for families who 2020 kicked in the fucking nuts, fuck you, COVID. We will match whatever you suckers give. The more money we have, the more people we can help.

Lindsey and I generally like to be very quiet about donations. We make personally, but this one we decided to tell you guys in hopes that it may inspire you to throw in a few extra bucks. No pressure. If you don't, we are already in the bonus round. We are already beyond thrilled. We simply did not want you to find out about our dollar matching later and regret not having gotten involved. So if you're able, want to donate email giving tree at badmagic

productions.com and put, I want to donate in the subject line and then Lindsey will find it and then cry. So good on you, meat sex. Good on you. And now switching from benevolent, what is it? I want people to donate. I'm totally blanking on the word now. It's not humanitarianism. There's a word that I don't have in my notes for people who donate and it completely escaped me. You don't need to write any emails. I will find it.

It'll pop in, I guarantee, like right after the show, but oh yeah, fucking, that's what I wanted to say. But we're gonna segue from all that goodness to to horror, to straight up horror. Now for the bloody benders, catchy name, nothing like some of a warrant-literation to create a memorable and murderous moniker to capture the general public's collectively morbid

and macabre mind. [♪ INTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Philanthropy, got it! As soon as I moved on, it was like, yeah, that's so weird how our brains work sometimes. You know where your brain's like, mm-hmm, not giving it up. No, you're not getting out of here. It's locked in the back. No, it's in the storage room. There's deadbolt. You know, I find brain. And you move on. It's like, ha, that's the word you wanted. Ah, you son of a bitch brain. All right, today's suck in the Bender family will be composed, composed mainly of a kind of straightforward march down their cruel and crazy timeline.

I say kind of straightforward and not totally straightforward because, well, this all happened in a small Wild West Kansas town in the 1870s. When and where there was not a lot of thorough reporting or police work or historical archiving being done. There was not a lot of thorough reporting or police work or historical archiving being done. The Bender story breaking didn't involve police sirens and, you know, today's reporters involved farmers saloon and shopkeeper saying stuff like the Bender do what? That never ever guns us.

I'm real. We're going to get them. Don't get them. String them up. Yeah. Go get them. It was that kind of a lot of legends have sprung up since the bloody benders murders happened and it gets tricky here and there to separate documented facts from rumor and speculation.

People have continued to be fascinated with the benders for a century and a half and decades of the old telephone game has certainly sensationalized and distorted their story to some degree. How much is hard to say? We'll do our best to tell you when there's a conflicting version of events and when we're not real confident in the truthfulness of certain claims and real quick, before we really get into the store, I'd like to take a few minutes, if you don't mind, gauging your interest in bowing down to the good God amway, Lord of the most inexpensive high quality flavor coconut water on the market, with 50% less sugar than leading competitors and not only can you enjoy it yourself, but also you can become wildly financially

successful sharing this gift and so many others with your friends, family, co-workers. People wish they could just go back to reading their book on the plane. People trapped you, trapped next to you on a train, bus and more. Hail, Amoy, bless and be the savings. Sorry. Next year, I'm Colt S suck, flashback from a few weeks ago. What I meant to say was I was not, I was not intending to try and indoctrinate you into a MLM. What I meant to say was before we get into the bloody

Bender's tale, we'll first set the backdrop as we like to do here. What was life like in Kansas in the 1870s? In short, it was bloody, very violent. We'll also get into how America's newfound interest in occult spiritual beliefs may have soured public opinion against the benders long before they were ever wanted for multiple murders. Did that cause reports to exaggerate the details of their heinous crimes? Maybe. Had they not been associated with non Judeo-Christian spiritual beliefs, their story probably wouldn't have got as much attention as it did. They weren't portrayed as simply depraved murderers, but as demonic monsters and witches. Let's get started familiarize

ourselves what life was like in the state of Kansas, as well as the country as a whole during the days of the bloody benders. Our story takes place in the late 19th century in southeastern Kansas, where the benders showed up just five years after the end of the Civil War, which had nearly torn the young country into. Kansas was especially divided, support for either the Union or the Confederacy divided up towns, neighborhoods, and even households. I know 2020 in America feels divisive and it is. Political tribalism is currently the worst in my opinion. It's never been in my lifetime by far,

but it is not nearly as bad as things were in Kansas during the years leading up to the Civil War, the days obviously during the Civil War and also in the years that followed, the time of the bloody banners. So I feel it's good. Kansas had become a state right before the Civil War, less than four months before the Civil War kicked off.

It was admitted as a free state on the side of the Union, and while most Kansans were anti-slavery, they also shared a border with many very pro-slavery masurians. And violent clashes between pro and anti-slavery proponents and Kansas between the years of 1854 and 1859 came to be known collectively as bleeding Kansas. These clashes left around 200 wounded, 20 to 30 dead.

Kansas was no stranger to bloodshed before the bloody benders. But you wouldn't think a Kansas is being bloody based on its other nicknames. The official nickname of America's 36 most populated state is the sunflower state. Sounds pretty peaceful. Don't hear a lot of murder stories,

then involve sunflowers. I googled the sunflower killer just to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Nope. No stories I can find that start with Kavadin blood, hatchet in hand, his wild eyes could barely be spotted, peaking out from the sunflowers

as he planned his next kill. Kansas also unofficially known as the Wheat State, the Free State, and the J-hawker state. Do you know what a J-hawker is? I thought I did, but I was way off. It's a chimera with a traditional head of a lion, body of a goat, and serpents tail. But instead of breathing fire, it's really good with nunchucks and highly skilled and brazilian juditsu, maybe.

I don't know. Saying all that out loud, it doesn't quite feel right. I showed this close that all the J-hawker information was given to me by renowned cryptologist, David Childress, who I probably should have never allowed to become a time-suck research consultant. Yeah. Hi, Dan. David Childress here. The J-Hawker is but one of many cryptids, rumored to be living in the Kansas area, sinkhole sand, the beam and monster,

modern terror source, there are a wide and rich variety of David started to cut you off, but this isn't that kind of episode. Do you mind waiting on the hall until I'm done recording? Okay, yeah, sure. Happy to wait outside. Thank you, David. Jayhawker is not a cryptid.

Today, Jayhawker is a University of Kansas student or alumnus. The Jay Hawker is the mascot of the University of Kansas. Back in the time of the bloody benders and the bleeding Kansas days, the term was used to describe militant bands of pro-freedom guerrilla fighters who often clash with pro-slavery groups from Missouri. More violence. Kansas's official state motto is add astra, perispera, which is Latin for two

the stars through difficulties, telling, I think, the difficulties referenced in the state motto. There were a lot of difficulties early on in Kansas. Settlement was bloody. In 1827, Fort Levinworth was established just 20 miles from Kansas City, Missouri, and it was the first permanent US government-backed settlement in the Kansas territory four, it was just a bit south of where an earlier French fort, Fort De Kevin Yall, have been built in 1744. That fort had been entirely

abandoned by 1764 and left to rot. So much so that no one today knows exactly where the ruins even are. After four, 11 words construction, there would be very little additional white European American activity in the area for the next couple decades. Mostly just fur trappers and a few odd pioneers living amongst a variety of planes, American Indian tribes. Some settlers that are arriving Kansas shortly after the construction of 411 words, but they weren't.

Settlers happy to be heading to Kansas to start a new life. They were people angry and rightfully so that they had been forced to move to Kansas. Between 1813 and 1890, over 10,000 American Indians from the Great Lakes area were moved to Kansas and forced migrations, 11 untold number of men, women, and children dead. Members of these tribes would end up clashing with existing Kansas tribes and later with white settlers. The white settlers didn't show up in mass until after Kansas was incorporated into a territory and officially opened for settlement on 1854 and most of them were

of poor farmers looking to weed and seed themselves at a dire economic straits. More than 70% of the white settlers who moved into the Kansas between 1854 and 1874 moved to work in agriculture and their numbers really picked up after the passage of the Homestead Act in 1862. Lots and lots of farmers pouring into Kansas and other states that were then part of the West to claim they're 160 acres. Unfortunately, a lot of those acres had already been claimed by various tribes. Claims just weren't recognized. Q more bloodshed.

A number of violent conflicts were provoked by settlements such as 1857's Battle of Solomon Fork when Fort Levenworth commander Edwin V. Sumner pursued a large body of Cheyenne warriors with a force of about 500 men. Two of his men were killed in eight wounded in battle. And at least nine Cheyenne died and untold number were wounded. Their village burned to the ground. And there were so many other battles like this one. Some bloodier, some less so. And so many additional clashes between small bands of American Indians and just small groups of homesteaders. There were also a bunch of rough and rugged fortune seekers, Port and Indicansis in the

mid 19th century between 1859 and 1861, over a hundred thousand gold prospectors. Port and Indicansis head and west for the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. Later known as the Colorado Gold Rush. Most of the gold was mine in present day Colorado, some in Nebraska, but some mining was done in Kansas and nearly all those miners traveled through Kansas to get to those mines. Between 1865 and 1890 more than a million people poured into Kansas seeking life on the new frontier, a wild frontier. Back in the time of the bloody benders, Kansas was not part of the Midwest. It was a big part of the Wild West.

Fame Wild West law man, Wyatt Earp began to make his name in Dodge City, Kansas in 1876. Two years prior in 1874, he'd helped run a brothel in Wichita, Kansas. 120 miles where the bloody benders were still killing in 1873. Wyatt Earp certainly had heard about the bloody benders. Which a ta was one of many rough western towns back then in the 1870s. It was a popular cattle drive destination for the cowboys, brothels, saloons, gambling halls and gunslingers, wild bill, hiccocs, bent considerable time in Kansas. Doc Holiday and bat masterson did as well.

It's actually a statue of Doc Holiday in Dodged City today. He's sitting at 488 west Wyatt, Ert Boulevard near the Booth Hill Museum. If you want to pull a Johnny Ringo and challenge him to a blood match. Why Johnny Ringo? You look like someone just walked over your grave. There were many, many other gunfighters and outlaws whose names are far less known today who made Kansas their home in the 1870s, or at least swung through for some poker and whiskey and some shenanigans. And then there were the bandits,

can't forget about the bandits, bandits, horse thieves, stage coach robbers, no good cattle rustlers and all manner of other hustlers and vagabonds. The infamous James Younger gang, subject of suck 154 from August the last year, roamed the plains of Kansas from time to time. Kansas was one of several states that were,

they were active in during the early and mid 1870s. They were out of train on the Kansas specific railroad near Muncie, Kansas in 1874 for one of their bigger scores. And there were so many other lesser known villains, roamed in the area. After the Civil War, as pioneers began to head westward along the many trails through Kansas, murder and other violent crimes followed. All that's hard to know statistically how many people

were killed or had other violent encounters. We do know thanks to various historians that numerous hardened men, veterans of the battlefields familiar with the type of violence that characterized bleeding Kansas continued their violent ways. Most of the many Americans who settled in Kansas were not criminals or violent ruffians though. But they also weren't genteel members of polite society. Many were recent European immigrants who have been priced out of land on the east coast. They were described as pretty rugged, hardworking folks who were trying to make a living out of the droughty wind swept planes. And it would prove to be a constant struggle to get food and shelter off of the land for those who first arrived long before the days of modern irrigation made farming much more possible and profitable

and less than ideal agricultural conditions. And when faced with financial hardship in a time long before America's modern social programs like welfare helped those going through a tough stretch back when not making enough money could genuinely lead to starvation if your neighbors or the local church didn't take it upon themselves to provide for you. There was a lot of incentive to turn to crime and it was much easier to get away with

crime back then. In a day and age, you know, cell phones, GPS or even reliable maps, you didn't have to be some kind of criminal mastermind to get away with robbing someone of all their worldly possessions and leaving them penniless. You just had to be ruthless. We'll willing to shoot first and without provocation. You're ready to outrun the Lynch mob that might be coming for you. And the benders were willing to be ruthless and they were ready to outrun the Lynch mob. The American Wild West generally characterized a start in 1865 and lasting until 1895

really was fucking wild. Yeah, yeah. Now before we take a look at where in Kansas, the bloody benders crimes went down, let's peek in on that other aspect of Kansas Frontier life. I teased that plays into the benders tale, the rise of spiritualism in America.

Kansas was, as I've made it abundantly clear, pretty chaotic and tumultuous place. People were literally at each other's throats over slavery and politics. It was a territory so divided to end it up with two governments, warring for supremacy. Yes, two governments. Years before the Civil War kicked off, 1855, an election dispute led to Kansas having two separate governments operating at the same time in the same area, one that was pro-slavery, one that was anti-slavery.

How fucking confusing would that be? This what gets your hands off me? I paid my fines. Well, you must have paid your fines to the enemy government. We don't recognize them, so you have to pay your fine again. Kansas was so divided, it had the highest rate of casualties of any union state that fought in the Civil War because lots of Kansas ended up fighting on the other side of the war as well.

There were other beliefs besides slavery that also put people at odds with one another, the religious diversity of the area. And anything goes mentality of many settlers towards spirituality and the dead would end up influencing the legend of the benders. The benders seemingly practiced a kind of spiritualism described by many as witchcraft, which at first flew under the local radar, but would later take over as the dominant narrative surrounding the benders. The benders weren't the only group of spiritualists in the area.

The 19th century, America, new ideas were on the rise all over the place. The political tumultuous of the American Revolution, followed by the French Revolution, led a lot of people to rethink old ways of doing things as the 18th century rolled over into the 19th century. All around, people were reconsidering how they lived their lives, which led a lot of people to embrace new forms of faith, spirituality and worship, and different ways of living in communities. Spiritualism was, and is not a one-size-fits-all religious belief, but rather many practices built on doctrines from Eastern theology, Christianity, pseudoscience, occult practices, and more.

And modern spiritualism traces beginnings to a series of apparently supernatural events at a farmhouse in Hyde'sville, New York, and 1848. If you have a really good memory, you may remember me talking about the burned-over district and the suck on Mormonism. The burned-over district refers to the Western and Central regions of New York State in the early and mid 19th century

where religious revivalists and the formation of new religious movements referred to as the second great awakening took place burned over that term comes from the intense spiritual fervor that seemed to set the area on fire Mormonism Jehovah's Witnesses seven-st Adventists, all were born from the burned over district. And so was spiritualism, born in Hydeville, New York. If you don't know where Hydeville is, today it's known as Arcadia, a township that absorbed Hyde's film many years ago. In 1848, the owner of Hydeville home and his family were allegedly disturbed by unexplained

wraps at night. They asserted we're paranormal in origin. As though a spirit was trying to contact them in the barn. This family, the foxes claimed that the previous occupants of the house and land was had been disturbed by the same strange sounds of this ghost as well. And after one particular supposedly paranormal disturbance, the owner's youngest daughter, Kate Fox, was said to have successfully challenged the supposed spirit to repeat in wraps the number of times she flipped her fingers. This was proof to many that the ghost was real.

She repeated the spiritual communication demonstration over and over again for a growing number of witnesses. And these events that became widely reported in newspapers across America and then the practice of having sittings for communication with the dead with spirits spread rapidly. In the coming years, sayances became quite common across America, clairvoyance, mediums, others who claimed to be able to speak to the dead, started popping up all over the place. Many were now gravitating towards spiritualism

because like the Abrahamic religions already common in America, spiritualists believed in the immortality of the soul. This made it easier for early Christians to make this mental leap of faith to spiritualism. Unlike Christianity and other traditional religion, spiritualism did not call for blind faith. Skeptics could see or hear concrete,

quote unquote proof of the afterlife. These can bince themselves, they could, by attending a seance or hearing a message through a clairvoyant. This made it that much more appealing. Spiritualism also incorporated new, not yet fully understood. Scientific ideas to some degree, like electricity and

electromagnetism, newly unearthed fossils and analysis of the geological record were shaking people's faith and traditional religion, many found that leaning on spiritualism allowed them to maintain some sense of faith of their previous faith while also aligning their spiritual beliefs with the science of the day. Spiritualism was touted as the scientific religion, asking participants to observe spiritualistic demonstrations produced under test conditions, supposedly in the seon room. The merging of spiritualism and science led to a whole bunch of wackadunery. A variety of

spiritualist healers sprung up, people claiming to be able to cure ailments with their mystical powers. A variety of spiritualists, healers sprung up, people claiming to be able to cure ailments with their mystical powers. Many of these healers subscribed to the teachings of Anton Mesmer, an 18th century physician who believed that the body was governed by a magnetic field, excuse me, a magnetic fluid. And when an imbalance occurred in this fluid, it caused all manner of ailments. And practitioners of Mesmerism simply had to wave their hands over the bodies of their patients, mesmerizing them, and the physician's own animal magnetism would then realign the patient's magnetic fluid and restore their health. Damn. How great and convenient would it be if that should

actually work, right? Suck a bag of dicks, pharma. Evolving replaced by magic. How fun would it be if we didn't have to rely on science to be healed? This pandemic will be done. Thank replaced by magic. How fun would it be if we didn't have to rely on science to be healed? This pandemic will be done. Thank you, magic. Forget developing a vaccine, social distancing, wearing masks, we just need a bunch of people with the right amount of animal magnetism.

We could have so many magic doctors if this worked because you wouldn't need to study much of anything to become a doctor. Getting the doctorate would just mean having enough animal magnetism. What do you got going on today, Dale? Not a lot. We grab a late breakfast, run to the post office, do a quick animal magnetism check.

Hopefully get a medical doctorate and then probably drop off a few doctor applications at some of our local clinics. Spiritualism, given people false hope that his mystics could magically cure you, cure you with their woo-woo hoax focus, also allowed spiritual folks to relax a bit when he came to religion. Don't worry about that fire and brimstone anymore. Just grab a spirit board, talk to your dead grandma about what the afterlife is like if you're curious. Spiritualism rebelled against traditional religious authority and instead emphasized radical

individualism. This individualistic outlook meant that spiritualism was the only spiritual belief system of its time that saw, for example, women is equals and the time of the benders discussing spiritualism was the only way a lot of women were allowed to occupy positions of public authority, including giving public speaking engagements lectures, female mediums, including Kate Bender, the bloody bender's daughter, used this as a way to champion ideas of women's suffrage, equal rights, abolition of slavery, claiming that these ideas weren't theirs. They're just messages from the spirit realm. This loophole of, it's not my word, it's the spirits don't shoot the messenger.

It did not however stop many from criticizing and condemning female spiritualists. One example of this was Victoria Woodhall, a vocal spiritualist and the first woman to run for U.S. President, he was dubbed Mrs. Satan for her belief in spiritualism, suffrage, and the ideas of free love, all of which were seen as a threat to traditional morality. Hey, Olucefina, a war also grew the country's interest in spiritualism with the onslaught of the civil war and the growing number of men who would never return home more and more people turned to spiritualist mediums, hoping for some proof that their loved ones immortal soul was at peace. The number of spiritualists in the US blossomed by the end of the war in 1865, less than a decade

before the Bender's murder spree reported 11 million people subscribed to some form of spiritualist of America. 35,000 were practicing mediums. And the whole movement had begun only 17 years earlier in 1848. America back in the 1870s was a lot like Russia back in the right now. Come on, gosh dang.

Not into the granny ripper suck. If you heard that suck, you get it. It's rising in spiritualism and freaked a lot of people out. People who thought it was basically satanic. People who saw spiritualists as literal witches in the late 1860s and early 1870s, you know, the US wasn't that far removed from its era of hanging witches. It wasn't all that far from when witches, that is, heretics were being burned at the stake. Practice of witch burning in Europe began at least as far back as the 15th century, around 1450. Supposedly

ended 300 years later, around 1750. Some people were burned, I'm sure before that, but this is when it really got going. And while European settlers during the Bender's time weren't openly burning witches, many faithful, we're still being taught by their moral authorities, other pastors and whatnot, that if you discovered someone who was a witch, you should have them killed, or you should kill them yourself.

And the King James version of the Bible, thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Appears in Exodus 22 18. Some think this is a mis-translation, but nevertheless, lot of people have taken that verse to heart over the years and killed some witches. It's been estimated that tens of thousands of people were executed for witchcraft in Europe

and the American colonies over several hundred years, are those not possible to ascertain the exact figure, modern scholars estimate around 40,000, 50,000. The most famous American witch trials, the infamous Salem witch trials and the Substitutime Suk bonus nine, began in 8, 1692, sorry, and ended in 1693, almost 200 years before the Benders.

But that doesn't mean America was done with witch hunts by the time of the Benders. The last ever recognized witch trial in the US went down in 1878, figures after the benders wreaked havoc in Kansas. The 1878 trial also just happened to be in Salem, Massachusetts, which is still on people's minds, still feared. The 1878 case, pretty interesting. We're about to get into the benders story.

No need to go into great detail in this, but let me share a little bit about this with you. LaCretia Brown, who suffered a spinal injury as a child, was an invalid. But then in the mid-1870s, she converted to Christian science and claimed that its teachings healed her injury. But then, of course, since, you know, that actually didn't happen, the pain quickly came back. And after suffering, relapse in 1875, she became convinced that an excommunicated former Christian

science adherent was now psychically attacking her. She accused and then sued Daniel Spofford, a publisher and quote unquote doctor. It wasn't really a doctor. It's adopted that title without going to medical school and claiming to be able to heal people with his mental psychic abilities. She accused this guy of using his basically witch skills to negatively impact her health. He filed a lawsuit. The lawsuit stated that Daniel H. Spoffert of Newberry Port

is a mesmerist and practices the art of mesmerism. And that's that woo woo animal magnetism bullshit. We just went over. And by his said art and power of his mind, influences and controls the minds and bodies of other persons. And uses his said power and art for the purposes of injuring the persons and property and social relations of others. And does by said means so injure them. And plaintiff further showeth

that the said Daniel H. Spofford has it diverse times and places since the 8th, the year 1800 and 75 wrongfully and maliciously and with intent to injure the plaintiff, cause the plaintiff by means of his said power and art, great suffering of body and mind, and spinal pains, and neurology, and in temporary suspension of mind, and still continues to cause the plaintiff the same. And the plaintiff has reason to fear and does fear that he will continue in the future to cause the same. And the plaintiff says that the said injuries are great and of irreparable nature and that

she is wholly unable to escape from the control and influence he so exercises upon her. And from the aforesaid effects of said control and influence. This is fucking crazy. Your honor, the witchery of the smile has caused my client great pain. Please, dearest magistrate, please punish this witch for hovering the power of Bielzebub and unleashing his dark arts upon her fragile spine. That actually was fucking being said. The same message.

Unsurprisingly, the trial drew a lot of media attention. It was dismissed by the judge, though, for lacking legal grounds. Thank you, Nimrod. Additionally, and I love this, it was ruled that even if it could be proven, the Spawford was using mesmerism to cause harm to the plaintiff, the court had no way to stop him if he was put in prison, right? Because it's fine magic. I love that.

They were like, if Mr. Spawford really is a witch, how we're putting him in prison, stop his use of psycho-canetic powers of animal magnetism. Unfortunately, we cannot just legally burn these vile witch folk any longer. We can only put them in prison where they can and undoubtedly will still use their witch powers. We cannot risk with this man who could and would do to the gods and other inmates. If we put the accused behind bars within a week, everyone working that prison will have damage spines. Or even worse, from what I've heard at some of the pubs I am bob at from time to time, he could change the gods to cats or perhaps bats or other animals. He could even use his witch powers to hypnotize the gods

and let him out of prison with him. He would fly off on his witch broom. He could, he could witch up my spine for sentencing him. No, you are on your own. Just pray and hope for the best. I know all this doesn't seem to directly relate to life in Kansas during the time of the Benders, but it does partially illustrate the mindset

of Americans at that time. Some Americans. While the great deal of superstition does still exist in America, at least we, we no longer have cases of witchcraft being brought to court. That's good. Okay, so back to 19th century Eastern Kansas, late 19th century Eastern Kansas, as we've laid out Kansas in the 1860s, 1870s, rough and rugged place. In an additional all the Wild West shit going on, a number of progressive and spiritualist communities were popping up on the plains communities of full of people embracing new radical ideas,

scaring the shit out of the other much more conservative locals. As utopian communities were centered not just around spiritualism and sayances, but also around other radical for the time ideas like vegetarianism, yikes! Burn those fake meat rejecting witches. Burdened tofu witches.

Maybe cook up some bacon, fry some fish and they're witchy death flames. Other radical ideas were anarchy, communal living, feminism, socialism, polyamorous relationships, Hiluxaphena, an atheist or polytheistic religious beliefs, all of which intersected at various points with Quaker beliefs and various other Christian denominations and abolitionism. In Eastern Kansas alone, there existed approximately 10 centers of various utopian communities and even a free thought university that sought to teach science without superstition, supposedly run by atheists.

Whoa, easy heretics. Atheist teaching science without superstition. What could come from that? Solid skeptical minds relying on human ingenuity and not celestial assistance to push medicine and technology forward and get the fuck out of here! Someone stop it immediately, it's gonna mess up the magic. All these new thoughts, further divided Kansas sellers. It isn't known definitively if any of these beliefs influenced the benders, but they were thought to be educated, able to speak French, English, German, Kate, the benders daughter was a practicing spiritualist and medium.

They were different for a lot of the other settlers, even if they didn't have any these beliefs, suspicion around these strange new ways of thinking combined with the values of frontier justice would create a paranoid atmosphere that existed in Kansas during the benders time. Interesting witchcraft and radical ideas would also go into spark legends after the bodies were found on the Bender's farm. Public across the nation became fascinated by the witchcraft elements of their story.

Reiterated there were supernatural fears that Satan's minions are killing us. Strengths in their faith and it fueled sensationalized and faulty journalism. Almost to the timeline, not promise. Just gonna spend a second on the town closest to where all the bloody Bender murders went down. Cherryvale, Kansas. Actually, the Osage township was closer to the benders technically. Does come up in this story, but it was more of a community than

a proper town. Cherryville. It was a little hustling bustling heart of the area. The town most associated with the benders. The bloody bender murders took place seven miles northeast of Cherryville. Whole area was is pretty rural. Cherryville located about 11 miles northeast of Independence, Kansas, which in 1870s had a population of around only 435 people. It has about 8600 now. Cherryville, smaller. It was first homesteaded in 1870 and then had about 200 people living there by 1874.

It has a little over 2100 people living there currently down from a peak population in nearly 7,000 in 1906. That was back when when shit was popping in Cherryville. Pun not intended but also not removed. When the benders were still living just outside of town in 1873, the first flower mill was established. The Harold newspaper published its first paper in town. Uh, Cherryville had 40 different businesses, 40 businesses, and just three years of existence. Uh, Cherryville had a glass factory, shovel and barrel factories, marble works, cigar factory, iron works, bicycle factory, two grain factories, and a busy train service took all these goods

out of town into the rest of the world. Cole, lead, zinc, salt also mined in the area. And where was all this rapid growth coming from? The railroad. Choo-choo, motherfuckers! It's time for some train talk! The first locomotives ran across Kansas soil in 1860 and by 1870 the railroad cut through Cherryville. The southern Kansas railroad connected Cherryville

to independence from there to most of the US and North America. Final note about hustling bustling Cherryville, the from there to most of the US North America. Final note about Hustle and bustle in Cherryville, the police. Actual law enforcement did not arrive into Cherryville until a couple years after the Bender murders until 1880. Marshall J. C. Cunningham was appointed on April 5th that year prior to that appointment. Literally no law enforcement officers anywhere near the Benders. No real law enforcement officers, just like some volunteer, you know, magistrates, like very part time.

So much easier to keep getting away with murder when there are literally no police from ours around. So now, I hopefully I've properly set the stage for the benders tail, a lot of shit going on at Kansas in the early 1870s. And a ton going on in the cherry, cherry veil area, people pouring into town and the state as a whole, lots of new people busy, starting new businesses, shit was bustling, lots of new people, uh, pouring into a violent, rugged, wild west area. People pouring into an area where they didn't know anyone, didn't know each other, didn't always get along

with each other, no law enforcement, uh, no good way to report crimes. And this all made for an excellent situation for a family of killers to kill and keep killing and keep getting away with it. Alright, me, Zach. Today's timeline will begin after a few brief sponsor messages. Thank you for listening, and now it a time-sub-time line. October of 1870, five families of spiritualist settled in LeBette County, seven miles northeast of what later became the township of Cherryville. One of these families was the Benders, though just two members of the Bender family, John

Senior and John Junior came out in October. The rest would follow in early 1871. The year they'd finished building a small house, John senior's wife and daughter stayed behind until the house was ready. And the Bender seemingly came to this territory from nowhere. This came out of thin air. No documentation. We are aware of tracing their origins before they settled in Lebette County, which add greatly to the Bender mystery. Where did they come from? They came straight from the Bowls of Hell. Monsters in which is don't have birth certificates?

Excuse me, yeah, David Children's here. I don't know that the Bender were associated with Hell in any way, but there are a variety of cryptids associated with hell or heydys such as the hellhound also known as the bearer of death, the black dog of Buley. And David, I'm going to need you to shut the fuck up and go back outside. Okay, no problem, sure. Sorry about the interruption. As I was saying, the bender seemed to come from

nowhere. There's been a lot of speculation is their origins. Most popular theories that they came from Germany, other reports claimed the Netherlands, based on their accents, seems very doubtful. They were born in the US. Now let's meet the benders. John senior AKA Pa, Elvira, AKA Ma, Kate, and then John junior AKA Timmy Jimmy Mudflap.

I wish, I wish that was John junior's nickname. Name's John, but most folks call me Timmy Jimmy Mudflap. I wish I wish that was John Jr.'s nickname. Name's John, but most folks call me Timmy Jimmy Mudflap. It'd be fantastic. I'm going to start with Paul. John Bender, senior was an older man when he decided to settle in Cherryville. Thought to be between 55 and 60 years old, plays in his birth some around 1815. And he had the frame of a Sasquatch. It brought shoulders.

Narled hands set on big powerful arms, big bones, described to have enormous strength, which might have come from his profession. Historians believe that POSPIT most of his life work in fishing nets, lugging around heavy crates on the docs of New York. He would have stood, so I guess, there was speculation about where at least he came from.

He would have stood at over six feet in heights, had it not been for his habitual stoop. Paul had a reddish complexion, heavy jaw, high cheekbones, low forehead. Eyes were said to be black and piercing, set deeply under bushy brows, which earned him the nickname of old beetle brow, John. He wore a sandy hair long and his face was covered by a dark bushy beard. All accounts given of John's senior's appearance while he lived in the Cherryvale area compared him to a lot of accounts, compared him to a gorilla. Vocal described him as a wild, wooly man. Also seemed to have the disposition of a gorilla. He supposedly carried a soul in expression and never looked a feller in the eye. He talked

very little to strangers and only spoke with people believed to be German. When John did speak, he was described as being mostly guttural and unintelligible. And the only understandable words were a few profanities. What the fuck? This is the kind of shit I'm talking about. When I say that the benders being linked to occult spiritualism in addition to multiple murders may have greatly affected the way they were written about. I mean, this is how John Bender is described But is that how he really looked?

I mean this is so ghoulish it is described a in actual monster some giant stooped over super strong gruff Profane Frankenstein without the neck bolts Hey, look at there. That was John Bender. Hey John. Hey, do you anybody? Fucking shit Pussycock John, hey, do you, buddy? Good, uh, fucking shit. Ah, bitches. Ah, pussy cock. Ah. Okay, buddy.

I get to see you, John. Oh, man, it's the most I've ever heard him speak. He seems to be in a good mood today. John Bender, not thought by some to be monster John's real name. Many speculated his real name was John Flickinger. According to the Empory News, John also went by the name of William, so much mystery around these credence. His wife, Mobbender, described as an equally strange

and horrific figure. Mobbender's real name thought to be Elvira Bender, some sources listed as Almyra, we're gonna go with Elvira. Elvira is described as being anywhere from 42 to 55 in 1870. Now I got that old country song. So I'm going to head over. Most sources lean towards 55. She was slow moving, had a thick German accent. She spoke broken English and probably German. Not talkative. She was stooped in heavy

set so much that she looked unhealthy. According to historians, mob and her had iron gray hair that was ragged at the ends. Thin over her temples, her heavy, litted eyes were still gray and cold. It was apparently very unfriendly, could be vicious so much so that one of her, or some of her neighbors called her a she devil. One neighbor apparently said to someone, if we thought Mr. Bender was an ugly cuss,

she is no improvement. All right. Despite this description, her physical form seemed to lift itself up when she claimed that spiritual influences had taken possession of her body. Like her daughter, she has described in many sources as also being a spiritualist medium. And again, just like with her husband, I have to wonder if her interest in spiritualism greatly affected the way contemporaries described her.

Additional details or descriptions paint her as being very witch-like. Like, like, check this out. At times, she experimented with incantations and boiled herbs that were believed to have supernatural properties. She was a scary woman with what one author described as indomitable will. So basically, the men of the household, oh, and sorry, and basically, the men of the household were scared shitless of her. They dreaded her, but also obeyed her. And perhaps even did the devils work for her. So she's a she's Bobby Yaga. After we go over her crime, she is going to make Russia's granny ripper and Bobby Yaga actually look tame. Before she was mob bender, she may have

married a man named George Griffith and became Elvira Griffith when she was barely a teenager, back when child brides with the norm, back when this is always so ridiculous to me, back when with parental consent, while it wasn't common, girls were getting married at like 11, 12 years old, weak. And Bob Bender is rumored to have had a dozen children with George Griffith. Some sources say she had some of these kids with a man named Simon Mark, and then the rest with George Griffith, most sources cite Griffiths being the dad of all the kids. And George allegedly dropped dead on the day

that the youngest child was born, the 12th kid. And according to records, George had a bad place on his head. That's how it's written, a bad place on his head. And many speculate that this bad place Was a dent from a fucking hammer not kidding a wielded biovira I love that it's referred to a bad place and not a wound or injury or scar Just whoa good gracious George what happened to your head? All right. What are you talking about now big wound? How do you get that the bleeding wound? Oh?

All right, what are you talking about? Now, big wound. How'd you get that? The bleeding wound? Oh, hey, what is this? Oh, this isn't a bloody wound, it won't heal. This is just a bad place. I just got a little bad place, that's all. Nothing to be concerned about.

Can you imagine a hitting your partner in the head with a fucking hammer and then be somehow staying together after said hammer attack? Does that bad place ever stop being a sore spot in your relationship? Sweetie, how long are you going to be mad at me? It's been three years. You can barely even tell your head has a dent in it. I'm, I'm human.

I'm not perfect. I'm neither of anyone else. Well, I'll make mistakes and I for sure made one. As I have said, when I bastion the head with a hammer for burning some eggs, for these thousands of time, I'm sorry. Uh, we're not sure how many husbands or kids mobbender had before she settled with popbender, but she's been said to have had several husbands

and it's been speculated that all met their deaths by her hand and by hand, I mean hammer. Also remember that she killed at least three of her children with a hammer. So they, that's not funny, I know. But it's so ridiculous, it's so ghoulish, all this. She killed at least three of her children,

so they wouldn't testify against her about the deaths of the husbands. And maybe, you know what, maybe this stuff was true. It just feels heavily sensationalized. Now, she's a witch. A real life witch. Your beats her own kids' deaths with a hammer. Beats her husband's deaths with a hammer.

An old woman, not in good health, slow-moving until their devil gets hold of her, till she drinks a witch's brew, then she becomes full of evil hammer power. I don't know. Maybe this lady was exactly this bad. Maybe she really was hammer happy and evil. I have to entertain that possibility. Can now let's meet their daughter Kate.

Kate, the bender's only daughter who made the trip was around 21 when she headed west with her family. Rest the kids. I don't know. Those other kids must have gotten hammered. Okay, it was unmarried. She was an old maid at 21. She had much more of a personality than either of her parents with various sources calling her the inspiration of the crimes, the tireless one, the main killer. She was the one who many thought took a butcher knife and sliced victims' throats from ear to ear. Some sources related that it's much not a butcher knife and sliced victims' throats from ear to ear. Some sources have relayed that it's much, not a butcher knife, smaller knife, whatever, knife.

She's written, sorry about this little moments of pause into there, just so many conflicting accounts. So I'm constantly having other accounts that I didn't put in the notes, pop up my head like, well, some say that. She's written in some sources as not the child of pod and mobbender, but as the fifth child of mobbender and George Griffith or Simon Mark beater dad and these sources her name Kate is an alias and again so much mystery surrounding these people and all that mystery does make me wonder

Did they commit other murders before moving to just outside Cherryville, Kansas? Right where they feeding the locals a bunch of bullshit because they were already on the run for other heinous crimes Kate was about five foot six slender and apparently Bucksum, she held herself with her shoulders back in her head high. She had deep hazel eyes. She was proud of her Auburn colored, flowing hair. The men of her time called her a mighty good looker. Others described her as beautiful, voluptuous, with tigerish grace, strikingly beautiful,

but satanic. Hey, Luciferina, uh, some say what she wanted more than anything else in life was notoriety. Oh, she certainly got that. She supposedly dreamed of becoming a famous lecturer, some with wealth, power and status. She was said to be an excellent horseback rider, skilled at dancing, only member of her family

who had any social skills. This whole fucking family started, they're starting to feel like the Adam family, like a Wild West Adams family. Kate spoke English well, people found her slight, probably German accent charming, she was both friendly and glib, could joke around and tease people, and she was the one bender who seemed well liked in the area, especially by the dudes. She occasionally attended a little church, saying, Nelt to pray with local congregation. Kate also attended meetings at the Harmony Grove Schoolhouse

and took singing lessons with one, Leroy F. Dick. F stood for Franklin, which is stood for fucking. Names Leroy F. Dick, bitches, noise. Mr. Dick, the township trustee, lived four miles southeast of the Benders, was an occasional visitor to their farm, eventually meeting the entire Bender family. Young Kate worked for a while as a waitress at a hotel in Cherryville.

Soon realized it was much more profitable to give lectures on spiritualism, to conduct sayances. She also used her spiritual powers to be a doctorous or a female healer, although she apparently didn't charge her neighbors for her services unless her powers actually appeared to help. How nice of her. In her lectures, she boldly advocated for free love, even seemingly in the case of incest. Uh-huh. One quote from her lecture when it follows,

shall we confine ourselves to a single love and deny on natures their proper sway, even though it be a brother's passion for his own sister. I say it should not be smothered. Creepy? Especially creepy considering she lived outside of town in a very small house with only her parents and her older brother.

If she really did give that speech and many sources that she did, they were for sure fucking. All these old accounts really paint quite the picture, don't they? Data is some kind of Sasquatch Frankenstein. Mom is a murderous hammer happy witch. The daughter is some kind of brother fucking say aunt's holding tempers and murder.

All murders. Some rumors held that she gave a justification for murder in one of her lectures, given long before people knew she was a murderer, Balzi. To attract work, she advertised in circulars throughout the neighboring counties, proclaiming her abilities as a medium in healer, soon gained some local notoriety as a self-proclaimed

expert of the supernatural. Some of those she worked for claim that she really did have supernatural powers, that she could cure diseases and illnesses, locate lost items, even see into the future. She claimed to understand astrology, numerology. She read poems, told fortunes by means of sticks and buttons, because that's how you do it. That's how you see the future, sticks and buttons. She would work spells against supposedly evil women. It's really pains quite the picture

of what was going on around this place. Also sold in fallible luck charms and love potions. Oh boy, let us naked oil. She claimed to be able to see into the future, visit people in the past, said she knew Napoleon. Died 30 years before she was born. She also apparently at one point claimed to be the female incarnation of Jesus Christ. What the fuck is going on in this family? One more bender, John Bender Jr. John Bender Jr. was thought to be between 25, 27th at the

time of the murders. He was tall and slim with a ruddy complexion and Auburn hair or a mustache. It was otherwise clean, shaving. He was handsome in a way that has been described as an awkward country boy way. His eyes gray with the brownish tints were set close together and were so wide that looked like he was always staring intensely. Fun. Of course, he just could just look normal, right?

Not a bender. These people again, like a real life Adam's family. John Jr. acted like any other country boy but had a habit of laughing aimlessly at almost everything he said. Locals who observed this thought he may have been a quote half-wit or developmentally delayed, but after the murders they thought that that might have been a ruse. He might have been disguising as smarter nature. He spoke English fluently with a strong German accent. He was a good listener like Kate, young John, more socially inclined than either of his parents, but not as socially inclined as Kate.

Some think that John Jr. not related by blood to the others, that he joined up with the family because of his romantic involvement with Kate, and that his real name was John Gibhart. And he may have been Kate's common law husband, but then if it was, like, why are they presenting themselves as siblings? I'm gonna go with his name was really John Bender, and I'm gonna assume that he really was a sister fucker.

We also found one article that said, whenever Kate had a baby, they, as in John and Kate, young John, just knocked it in the head. But like, mother like daughter, the Bender girls, ah, they loved a good hammer. Before we move on, with this timeline, I could not stop thinking as I mentioned a few times about the Adams family while going over all this. And the Adams family song got stuck in my head. So took it by myself to write a little parody called the Bender family. And I'd like to share a part of it with you now. The quite fun of the hammer, they should be in the slammer. They cause quite the clamor, the bender family.

A monster, a mother, the father is another. The sister fucks the brother, the bender family. Ah! Now I can move on. I had to get that out. Feel good. I wasn't too painful for you. Now that we've met the benders, let's jump back into the timeline. In late 1870, a couple of weeks after arriving in Kansas, the bender boys, monster John and junior sister fucker, travel along the popular wagon trail known as the Ostage Trail, one of the main highways, quote unquote, to the

Western U.S. at the time, looking for land to purchase near Cherryville. They arrived at a little store called the Earn Brockman Trading Post tied their horses up and spent the night. Next morning, all big earn, took the Bender Boys to see what local land was available, what was left, was a bunch of treeless and wind swept prairie. By nightfall, the benders had chosen their two plots, filed some papers with local government to work to land that would then become, you know, legally theirs if they stayed on it long enough via the homestead act.

Plading records show that the two settled on the western slopes of some mound, some little hills. These mounds would later become known as the Bender Mounds. Paw Bender chose 160 acres in the Northeast quarter of section 13 township 31 range 17 in the Osage township. Earn Brockman's claim was the Southwest quarter of section 13 and touched John senior's claim with the corners. John junior chose a long narrow piece of ground just north of Paw on the southeast quarter of section 12 in the same township and range. This property was in the western part of Lebette County. Only water supply came

from a place called Big Hill Creek two miles or so away and then the Bender Boyz got to work. They bought a load of rocks from their neighbor, man listed as Mr. Heronymous only shows up one time and in Bender's sources. According to the main source of listing Mr. Heronymous, they bought a huge rock that was seven feet square and three inches thick. This stone slab would be used as the floor for the seller under their house, seven by seven feet. That's a tiny ass seller. Actually, sometimes listed as six by seven feet. They bought hay from another neighbor to thats their barn, bought enough lumber from nearby Fort Scott to build a one-room cabin. Fort Scott had been built 15 years after Fort Leavenworth in 1842 to protect U.S. settlers. The government knew would be coming into

Southern, South Eastern, Kansas. John, senior and junior both seemed to be hard workers and in short time they'd built a 16 by 24 foot shell of a one-story cabin. Also built a three-sided stone and saw a barn and dug the first of two wells. Sixteen by twenty four feet is where they would live. That's three hundred and eighty four square feet. Four people living in a room, not much bigger than the size of an average master bedroom today, according to numerous real estate sites. Sounds lovely. Time traveling caring from the Alexander the Great Suck would not stand for that.

Are you serious? Oh my God. I am not living in this dump. I have a closet bigger and nicer than this shithole. No running water, no electricity, no toilets. Well then you get no care and you can fuck off, Bender Freaks. Hey, what do you do with that hammer? Hey, get your hands off me.

Early 1871. Two other families that arrived into the area at the same time as the vendors moved away, homesteading and Kansas proved to be too much for them, but the bender boys, maybe seen the value of the lands location, which was that highway to the west. Could someday be a valuable trading post. They decided to stay. In the fall of 1871, when the house was almost finished, word was sent to mob bender and their daughter Kate to head to LeBette County by train bring your hammers girls. We found a new murder home.

Bender girls will stop over in Ottawa 108 miles north of their new homestead. Ottawa was quite a bit bigger than Cherryville with over 3000 people. Ottawa named after the Ottawa tribe of American Indians because the town was built smack dab in the middle of the reservation after a settler stole it from them in a treaty in 1864. I'm sure the tribe members love that gesture. Thank you for naming the town after us. Ah, we would have preferred to keep it and just keep living there in such,

but no heart feelings. Currently over 12,000 people live in Ottawa and less than 1% of them identify since it's wise as American Indians. In Ottawa, the Bender Ladies bought household furniture and supplies which were loaded into a heavy army surplus lumber wagon. They arrived in LeBette County, used their wagons canvas cover to divide their house into

two rooms, smaller of the two rooms. Remember, this is 384 square feet and they divide it in half, but not even totally in half. They divide it in two. And the smaller of the two sides is going to be the bender's living quarters and then the larger side is going to be a storefront. My god Four of them are going to live in less than half of 384 square feet For another point of reference as to how fucking small this is the average size of a studio apartment in Manhattan

notoriously small compared to the rest of the United States 550 square feet and they're going to be like living in you know less than 190 square feet. And they're gonna be like living in, you know, less than 190 square feet. That's tight quarters. Tight quarters with no AC, no stove for heat. Or just a stove, excuse me for heat. No drywall or carpet or flushing toilet or running water like Tristia or much of anything else good. I'm with Time Traveling Karen,

Fuck Life on the Prairie in 1871. Above the front door, Kate places a misspelled sign that is supposed to regrow trees, but is spelled GROCRY. So while she was better with the English center, folks, wasn't that great with English. Just north of the house, Kate and Ma planned on a garden, vegetable garden, a bunch of fruit trees, a start of an orchard that would soon grow into two acres in size. This would later give the benders a perfect excuse for doing lots of digging. Lots of grave digging. Almost immediately the prime location of the benders new farm proves it's worth it's only a hundred yard south of the

Osage Trail which makes it a great place for customers to stop, restock on supplies and spend the night. Yes, spend the night. The well-traveled Osage Trail came from Fort Scott through the Osage mission mission via St. Paul, which was 12 miles west of the Bender Farm, down to the Mounts of Cherryville, onto Independence. According to government records, the Bender's operated this little isolated in and store along with a makeshift saloon between the winter of 1871 and spring of 1873. They had a fucking saloon also in this tiny ass cabin.

What was the seating capacity of their saloon? Three? This cabin started reminding me of like a clown car. How many different things and people, could they stuff into this place? McNeil's party of four, gonna be a bit of a weight. You're looking at around six months to a year. That might give us enough time to build extra space so that four people can sit in this shithole.

Guessing their saloon was sitting at the dinner table and having a drink of either whiskey or whiskey. What kind of whiskey? Just whiskey whiskey. Way easier to open up a saloon back then, I'm guessing, when you didn't need a liquor license and when you didn't have a building or health inspector. During this period, between the winter of 1871 and spring 1873, lone travelers, most of them from the east traveled as far as the mountains near Cherryville and then several just disappeared along with their horses, wagons, and personal property. Many of these men go in west with the intention

of settling in buying machinery, cattle, horses, property, carried large sums of money with them. Some of them expected to trade horses for their new land in the west, but just never made it. Reminds me a bit of the bell gunness suck. Bell gunness killing dudes out in rural Indiana. 25 or so years after the benders, except she was inviting her murder victims to come to stay with her before taking all their valuables and killing and burying them.

Hingy bangy, uff, uff, uff, uff, uff, uff, uff, uff, uff, uff, uff, uff, uff, uff, uff, the benders just took advantage, whoever happened to be swinging through. Just like Bell, the benders got away with it for quite some time. Not nearly as long as Bell did, her murders went on for over two decades, but the Benders, they did seem to kill much more frequently. For the less than two years, they were active. They just crammed all their killing in a tighter span of time. They mostly got away with what they did for as long as they did because of how limited

technology was in the 1870s. Travelers swinging through their roadside in never had the chance to tell anyone, oftentimes, where they were gonna be heading, that they were gonna be stopping there. And weren't sending multiple text messages, you know, updates, or getting email itineraries for their stays. And then the new and still mostly unsettled state, the mail was infrequent, unreliable.

So they weren't sending too many letters. People were just not easy to track down. But as time passed and reports of missing people in LeBette County became more and more frequent, eventually suspicion did start to grow. And May of 1871, the first of many bodies that would soon be attributed to the benders was discovered. The body of a man known as Mr. Jones was found with his skull crushed in, most likely by a good old reliable bender hammer. And his throat was cut, his corpse was laying in nearby drum creek. Initially, people suspected the owner of the land where the creek was, but nothing came out of that investigation.

The following year in February of 1872, two more bodies of unidentified men found on a prairie with nearly identical wounds not far from the bender place. Their heads bashed in their throats slit. Look who just got benderended. Based on the injuries, it was thought that the benders would trick their victims into sitting in their sketchy, tiny ass in above a trap door. They'd built over the little seven foot by seven foot seller. Maybe not these first couple of victims I mentioned, but this would become their M.O. going forward.

The bodies that were buried. This is crazy, what was put together. So this unsuspecting, soon to be victim would be seated with her back to that canvas that separated the end from the living area. Old monster, John was hiding behind that canvas. He would strike them in the skull with a hammer. And then one of the women, people often say he was cate, would then slit their throat to ensure that the person died. And then not done the trap door underneath them would be opened up down

into the cellar. Their body would go until it was a good discrete time, transport their corpse out into the orchard or vegetable garden to be buried. I have a very similar setup on my property. Wait, what? And you forget about it. 1872, a man named Ben, or according to some sources, D Brown, he goes missing in the Cherryvale area.

He was a resident of Cedarville, Kansas, about 64 miles away. He had been trading horses with a man named Johnson, lived not far from the Benders. And then he totally flaked. He let himself get distracted by getting smashed in his head with a hammer and having his throat slit and being dumped in the cellar and then buried in the orchard.

And after all that, he's like completely forgot about his horse trading. What a selfish man. He wore silver ring and his horse trading buddy Johnson would later recognize that ring on Ben's decomposed remains when they were dug up. All the victims going forward now buried on the property not just found scattered near the vendors.

So it seems as if they first few people they killed left out in the open and then they're like, ah, this probably is the best policy. Let's start burying them. Also in 1872, a man named WF McCrady went missing along with his $2,600 is wagon and his horses. $2,600 in 1872. That's around 60K today. Macrady was a resident of Cedarville, Kansas, a little town about 60 miles to the west,

and he'd come to the area to contest a case at the land office and independence. And he made the mistake of stopping in at the benders in for little groceries and he ended up with a wopper of a bad place on his head. The kind that makes you die right away. On December 5th, 1872, Henry McKenzie of Hamilton County, Indiana goes missing with his horses near the benders, like McCrady in route to independence, looking to live there. At same month, man named Johnny Boyle also reported missing his horse and expensive wagon go missing to in December of 1872, also in December, or at least within a month of December, in either direction, two travelers,

George Newton, Longcore, and his 18-month-old infant daughter, Mary Ann, leave the town of Independence, and head to the down the O Sage Trail. George had buried his wife earlier in the year, and their goal was to move to Iowa and start a new life, to visit the Bender Farm, and were never seen, or heard from again. Bender's killing a baby, especially though,

I guess maybe they killed their own baby sometimes too. How did that baby die? I'm going to guess and say it involved a hammer. By 1873, reports of missing people who have been traveling through the little bit county area become so common that many people were beginning to avoid the trail entirely. The benders are getting greedy. You can't kill someone new every few weeks.

You got space that shit out. You bloodthirsty psychopaths. And it's almost like a family who loved to smash strangers in the head with a hammer and maybe some of their own kin with hammers and maybe fuck some of their own kin. It's almost like they weren't thinking super clearly or rational. And the spring of 1873, the esteemed doctor, local doctor William Henry York, who've been a neighbor of the long course, poor father and baby daughter who lived in independence. This guy gets a letter from Fort Scott, notifying Dr. William Henry York, who've been a neighbor of the long course, poor father and baby, a daughter who lived in independence. This guy gets a letter from Fort Scott, notifying him that some horses he'd sold to George

Longcore, horses never made it to independence. They've been found abandoned in Fort Scott. Since Erie had no law enforcement at the time, the closest thing would be the military officer at Fort Scott. Dr. York decides to take matters into his own hands, starts questioning hom stethers along the trail as he makes his way to Fort Scott. At Fort Scott, he finds the wagon in the Hortses as well as clothes that belong to the father and daughter. All looks pretty damn suspicious.

So on March 9th, 1873, Dr. York begins his journey back home on the way back home he decides to spend a night at the Bender Farm. That's right, spend the night. I did mention earlier that people could say they're, yeah, apparently the Bender and the fucking Ben breakfast as well. How many different things can you cram into one 384 square foot clown car house? Maybe Kate Noviro really did have some magic witch powers. They could transform the interior into a much bigger space. I was going to show up next in this shack of bowling alley indoor swimming pool. They're going to show up next in this shack, Bowen Alley, indoor swimming pool.

They're going to run out a couple offices to some local nearby businessmen. The benders fucked up when they killed Dr. York. And they do kill him now. First off, he's telling people he thought something nefarious. It happened to his neighbors that it happened either in or not too far from Cherryville. And second, he is a well-known doctor in the area, not some settler traveling from who knows where to go settle further out west. People are going to come looking for Dr. York.

People, you know, who knew he had been looking for his neighbors who he was worried. He also had friends in high places. He had blood, he had kin in high places. The benders either didn't know about all this with Dr. York or just didn't care to their detriment. He had two brothers, both of whom were influential in their areas. Alexander York, known primarily as AM York, a member of the Kansas State Senate, and then his brother Colonel Edward York was an esteemed Civil War military officer.

And both the Dr. York's brothers were aware of Williams travel plans. And we failed to return home. They started a search for their missing brother. Ed York would lead a search party of somewhere between 50 and 75 men. This is the dude who doesn't fuck around. This is a civil war hero. And these men question every traveler they come across in the trail. They visit every homestead.

They can locate. And these search party men, not gentle law abiding dudes who believed in due process. If they thought someone had information about the missing doctor York and that person wasn't giving up that information voluntarily, they just beat the shit out of them. They beat the shit out of a lot of people in the area, apparently. People who they thought had information, people who just had bad reputations, people they believed to be part of spiritualist cult, people that just didn't like. And through the various beatings, these vigilantes dished out, they eventually traced Dr. York's trail to Ma and Pa Bender. March 28th, 1973.

What a fun way, I mean, to investigate. If somebody did something to your family and there wasn't a law enforcement and you've got a big posse of dudes, you're like, we're going to fucking beat the shit out of everybody we come across who doesn't give us the information we want until we find my brother. I mean, the cycle part of me is like, that would be a great expedition. March 20, 1973, Ed York and his big search party arrived with the Bender family in. And there are two versions of what happened next. And version number one, Ed explains to the Benders that his brother had gone missing

early that month and asked them if they had seen anything. And the Benders not surprisingly deny any knowledge of Dr. York. They suggest that he might have been killed by vagrants or bandit's, excuse me near drum creek. I told you bandits were a real problem in Kansas. John Jr. even claimed he'd been shot at a couple weeks earlier around the time of Dr. York's disappearance. Damn, bandits, why won't they just let us hammer?

I mean, live in peace. Without any proof that they were involved in his brother's disappearance, Colonel York has no choice but to leave the bender in. That's version number one. In version number two, the benders hammer every last one of those motherfuckers. The benders had built up an arsenal of over a hundred hammers, specially weighted hammers, throwing hammers, poison hammers, war hammers, flame hammers, exploding hammers, even hammer ranks, which are a special type of hammer boomerang

and they went full mc fucking hammer to the head place uh... time on these fools and all that hammer talk leads us right in to our next important sponsor hello they've time so it's brought to you by the bender one-stop hammer shot located downtown chair go can't just the five thousand square feet recently remodeled an the Bender One-Stop Hammer Shop. Located in downtown Chergo, Kansas, the 5,000 square feet recently remodeled and updated

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And inside that golf course is a go-kart track. We also just added a small rodeo grounds in the back of the shop into the restrooms. Inside one of the men's room stalls, we also just had a food court installed. Taco Bell KFC, Arby, Starbucks, McDonald's, Penaer Bread, some kind of Philly Cheese Spout and a Basking Robbins. Inside one of the women's stalls, we just built an iMacs movie theater. And still not done.

We just partnered with the A-hole Air Banjo Academy and built a state-of-the-art Air Banjo Recording Studio near our employee break room. Banka, tinka, tinka, tinka, tinka, tinka, tinka, tinka, tinka, tinka, tinka, tinka, tinka, tinka, tinka, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, The Bender One-Stop Hammer Shop, honoring the bloody Bender's cherry-villal legacy by going all in on hammers and fitting in impossible amount of things into a relatively small space. Get on in here and get hammered at the bender one stop hammer shop. I'm not even going to try to deconstruct what just happened over the past few minutes.

Let's move on. On the real version, uh, two of what Eddie Ork's vigilante search party did after showing up at the benders in, the benders admit to seeing Ed's brother, Dr. York. Some even think they admit that he stayed with him. In this version, the benders tell Ed York that Dr. Bender, or excuse me, Dr. York left the end in good shape, but may have had troubles with, you know, some American Indians down the road.

We don't know what happened. Ed agrees that this could be a possible explanation for Dr. York disappearance. And according to some, Ed then stays at the benders for dinner. Either way, this all makes the benders a might-bit nervous. Suspicion around them is mounting. It's the first time they've, you know, really been investigated.

And then five days later, Thursday, April 3rd, 1873, Ed York returns to the bender in with more armed men. Because he just heard a story about a woman fleeing from the benders in, and this woman claimed Elvira Bender had threatened her mobbender with knives and pistols. So, Ed York confronts them again, accuses them now directly, sternly, of killing his brother. Elvira pretends not to speak English. I guess you must have said quiet, pretend not to speak English the last time. He'd visited as well.

John Jr. and Kate and I, of course, that any murder took place, they do their best to explain why some woman claimed to have been threatened with knives and pistols by mobbender. Ed York doesn't buy their bullshit. He presses them harder about killing his brother. And then the benders, they get offended. They demand that he leave. He refuses. Eventually, Elvira becomes so angry. She'd be in shouting that the woman, Ed York, who Ed York had talked to, who'd left the bender in claiming that she had been threatened. That woman was a witch who had tried to get this to curse Elvira's coffee. What am I supposed to do?

Not chase her out with a knife. She cursed my fucking coffee. Nice witch deflection by the way. The woman that many in the area think is witch. She blames another witch for everything going on. Mobbender now makes them and leave and in doing so shows that she had a much better grasp on the English language that she claimed moments earlier. Very suspicious.

As York leaves, Kate goes up to him and asks him to come back alone the following Friday night. She says she will use her clairvoyant abilities to help find his brother, Dr. York, or another account she tells him that she will take him to Dr. York's graves because she'll use her abilities to define it. At York, to his credit, does not take the witch bait and end up in the cellar with the bad place on his noggin. York and the men in the search party are entirely convinced that the benders may be working

with the family close by called the roaches are guilty of Dr. York's murder. The party wants to hang them all regulators. Mount up. But at York consists that they have to find evidence first. Regulators calm down. At the same time, families around the area begin to point fingers at each other over the missing travelers, volunteer officials from the little Osage township, fairing some sort of insurrection or vigilante justice decide to call a meeting about 75 people from the surrounding areas attend the meeting at the Harmony Grove Schoolhouse in district number 30, including

Ed York, Pobbender, John Jr. at the meeting, the community agrees that search warrants should be obtained for every homestead between big hill Creek and drum Creek. And this is going to take a second. So, right up to independence on horseback and speak with the area

judge. Then about three days after the township meeting, around April 6, while everyone's waiting to hear back from the judge, a man named Billy Toll is moving some cattle past the vendor property. When he notices that their in looks pretty dark.

He walks over onto the property, opens the barn, finds the Bender's livestock abandoned, and a half starved calf, alone in a pen. Billy also finds the abandoned wagon and the misspelled grocery side of the floor, inside the wagon is a shotgun and an affectionate little terrier dog. It appeared that the Bender's had gotten the hell out of dodge and done so in a hurry. Billy notifies the township trustee and word soon reaches ed york who would not have the chance to investigate the property for a few days due to poor weather. Guessing he was thinking should have killed him when I had the chance.

Three days later on May 9th, township calls for volunteers to investigate the bender farm several hundred people from Montgomery County and LeBette County turn up including Ed York. Lee Roy fucking dick. The elected township officer leads the investigation. Lee Roy, not a sheriff, not trained law enforcement, more like a volunteer firefighter in a real small fire department, one that doesn't have a fire truck or even a hose. When the party arrives at the end, they find the cabin is indeed abandoned. Notably, at least in some sources, the group finds a dozen bullet holes

in the side of the house, some evidence that papers and clothes have been burned. Not sure where to make those bullet holes. Maybe, maybe, all pop bender missed a few times with a hammer. And a gunfighter too broke out before some feisty victims ended up in the cellar. On one of the beds, the headboard is found to be stained with blood. Some of the benders clothing is found hanging on a line out inside the house, inside the house. They had a laundry room in their little houses. Well, the best dress clothes are gone, right? They left fast, their food and other supplies are in the house, but their personal possessions, buggy wagon, wagon, best horses, vanished with them. Immediately, the investigating

group noticed that the inn smells terrible. Smell seems to be coming from under the floorboards. Then after moving to bed, they find the trap door. It's nailed shut, so they pry it open, lift it up by its leather hinges. The hatch conceals a cellar room, seven feet by seven feet in size. They see that the stone slab floor has been apparently bashed by a sledgehammer,

smells like death, bloodstaining the whole cellar. They assume dead bodies must be close by. The group then literally picks up the house and moves it so they can dig. That's a fucking small this house was this house slash grocery store slash bed and breakfast slash saloon. They just picked it up. Still no bodies are found. The effort it took to move the house and dig numerous holes where it's set. Only to find nothing takes the wind out of the search party sales.

Thinking this is a mystery that might never be solved. A lot of the people present are ready to give up looking for bodies head home. But then this legend has it just as the search is about to be called off. Ed York sitting in his buggy looks out of the sunset. Seize the outline of something strange in the bender's vegetable garden. And some account he yells to the other men. I see graves. And the garden, the men find that the soil has been recently disturbed.

They start digging again. And in a bizarre coincidence, they soon realized that York had pointed at the exact spot where his brother had recently been buried. That's according to one version of events, and another version of the group had damn near search the entire property before finally coming across the outline of a shallow grave in the garden, and that grave had yorks. I like the first version, more dramatic. Either way, they find Dr. York buried face down with his feet barely under the dirt and now noticing what seemed to be other fresh graves in the area.

They start digging for more remains. The search for the bodies continues into the night by the next day with an army of spades, shovels and plows digging up the farm upwards of nine more graves, complete with mangled remains are found. Most had smashed in skulls, hammer time, slip throats. Several of them were missing body parts, which made arriving at a firm number of victims impossible in the days before skilled forensic investigators and crime scene specialists. One body, the body of Jimmy Boyle, found in a well along with some missing limbs from

other bodies. There are so many severed parts in this well, some speculate they could be assembled into another three victims. So, that's why they had two wells, one for drinking water, one for body disposal. Man, you don't want to mix up those wells. Oh, what the hell, Kate? This water tastes rotten. Why is there a rotten eyeball in my cup? Sadly, buried in one of the graves was a man with his little daughter. Almost certainly George Longcore and his baby girl, according to the newspapers of time, she was the only body found that had not been brutally mutilated.

In fact, she had no marks on her body and it was determined that the child had most likely been buried alive. My God, Hammer would have been kinder. Ultimately, the death toll ended up too by most accounts, 20 or 21 victims according to some reports, 10 were found in the Apple orchard alone.

Later investigators would tack on even more possible victims to the benders as there were a number of other nearby unsolved murders. Sadly, since most of the people were from out of the area, from who knows where, they were just passing through, headed to who knows where. No identifying papers were found. Locals had no way of figuring out who these bodies belonged to.

Let alone any way to track down and contact next to Ken. So most of the remains went unclaimed and were re-barried at the bottom of the hill roughly a mile away. This area where these bodies were re-barried, now known as the Bender Mounds. You can visit the Bender Mounds today. Most bodies were identified with his phrases like, had a bushy beard, was fat, a similar shirt, socks. So really thorough reporting.

I've researched in the cabin further further investigators found three hammers. Of course they did found a shoe hammer, a claw hammer and a sledgehammer. All of which match wounds found on some of the victims. A knife was found as well hidden inside a clock on the mantle. The four inch blades still had blood on it. They also found strangely Roman Catholic prayer book with various weird notes written inside said stuff like Johanna Bender born July 30 1848. John Gebhardt came to America on July 1st, 18 something. They couldn't read it. October 6th Henry born in Haver died December 4th, 1860.

No one knows for sure what the hell they were talking about these notes. Other notes scribbled in the margins read big slaughter day, hell departed. So that's not terrifying. Most are still unsure with these men as well. They could be some kind of ciphers, some kind of schedules, some kind of satanic jargon. Who knows? The day most of the bodies were dug up,

one of the men named the orchard where the bodies were found, hell's half acre. I mean, what a crazy thing to find, especially back then when life was rough, but people weren't watching documentaries or listen to podcasts about serial killers all the time. That body dump site would have blown people's minds. Still went from any today, but maybe more shocking in 1873. Or maybe not. I mean, I guess if you've fought to the Civil War, you know, you probably seen worse. Dr. York's other

brother, a.m. York offers a thousand dollar reward from formation leading to the Bender family's arrest. That's equivalent to about 25K today. Media frenzy quickly ensues. On May 12, 1873, the Associated Press sends out bulletins describing the scene found at the Bender Farm. Thousands of people inspired to make the trek to South Eastern Kansas. Check out the Bender House themselves. Three days later on May 15th, South Eastern Kansas's Wilson County Free Press prints a story with the headline, The Cherry Vale Tragedy, the most diabolical on record. It was a Sunday and thanks to the fascinating bulletins and the promise of reward money, thousands more visited the Bender Farm and

in. These relic hunters ended up dismantling and carrying off the entire in and stable. Thousands of people daily visit the grounds, the Thayer, Kansas paper, the headlight reported a week after the discovery of the bodies. Last Sunday, it was estimated that there were 3,000 people on the grounds at one time. Fortunately, Lee Roy fucking dick had thought to preserve some of the evidence, including the three hammers thought to be the Bender's murder weapons. A special seven car passenger train brought even more people to the crowd. So weird that this is what people did back then. We've come across this and other sucks.

In the absence of proper law enforcement, right, there was no crime scene preservation. And visiting a notorious crime scene at the end of the 19th century was a common activity. People got dressed up. They brought snacks like picnic baskets literally scoured the area from a cob souvenir made a whole day out of it sometimes brought the kids Uh, I guess in the days before YouTube and TV news coverage and crime documentaries this was the only way you were gonna You were gonna see and satisfy your morbid curiosity Uh, the media sensation grew and grew sensational as journalists flocked into hell's half acre from as far as New York City, Chicago There are stories ended up differing tremendously dammit.

They all describe what the vendors look like, their relationships, even their actual names, in a wide variety of ways. Everyone did seem to agree that the vendors ran a prairie slaughterhouse for travelers, and that they were America's first recorded serial killers, or at least serial killing family, and that they were probably still at large. May 17th, 1873. Kansas governor Thomas Osborne now puts up a $2,000 reward for the apprehension of all four vendors. You can find this a photo of this wanted poster online. Pretty cool.

No one jumps forward to collect that reward. No one can find them to punish them. Someone else got punished though. Sometimes later in 1873 in the aftermath of the multi-murder discovery, a friend and immediate neighbor of the vendor family, Big Earn, Earn Brockman, the dude who'd helped John and John Jr. find the land for their new inn a few months or a few years prior, he's accused of knowing more than he claimed about the murders. And about the current whereabouts of the Benders and this poor son of a bitch, when he didn't cough up the answers, the angry mob wanted who confronted him, they threw a rope around his neck, hung him from a beam in the barn until he was unconscious.

And they let him down and they revived him. Then they interrogated him some more. When he still didn't tell them what they wanted to hear, they hung him up again until he passed out again and then let him down again, revived him and interrogated him another time. Still didn't tell him what they wanted to hear. So they hung him a third fucking time. He passed out again, let him go, and then they finally let this poor, nearly dead son of a bitch just, they leave him alone. But they don't even bother like helping him home.

Doesn't seem to be any apology, no like, hey man, sorry about, sorry about hanging you three times today. It seems like he really didn't know anything. Sucks, I'm mad. You apparently staggered towards home and we don't know anything. Sucks, I've had. You apparently staggered towards home and we don't know what happened next. You guessing the, you know, after that incident, probably got a little tense and jumpy around angry mobs.

I'm guessing it wasn't a real big fan of rope after that. So what became of the bloody benders? Did they really escape and get away with their crimes? Not surprisingly, different reports, say different things. There are sources that say private detectives, fruitlessly search for the benders as far away as France and Germany without even an accurate name, age or description of the suspects and question to go by. Highly doubt that happened.

That's crazy talk. Right investigators just wandered around Europe with a poorly drawn sketch. Excuse me. Have you come across this giant hammer happy dude who speaks only in grunts and profanities and walks around like an evil henchman. Have you perhaps seen this Baba Yaga witch lady? Have you heard of any landlords renting a large closet to a family of four who then turn said closet into a hotel grocery store, murder salon, gymnasium. Other detectives supposedly followed tracks from the bender's wagon found that it was abandoned outside the city of Thayer. That sounds far more likely. They're about 12 miles away. that it was abandoned outside the city of Thayer. That sounds far more likely. They are about 12 miles away.

And there in the town of less than 300 at the time, the tracks go cold. Later on, another detective would claim he tracked the siblings to the Mexico border where he claims John Jr. died of apoplexy or commonly known as a stroke. I might not be pronouncing apoplexy correctly. He couldn't find Kate.

This next story seems the most credible to me. Group of detectives, and while there was no sheriff in the area, you know, there were detectives floating around America. Former suck subject, the pinker tends to been around since 1850. Well, some detectives attempted to follow the benders trail to the railroad, where the passenger, train conductor, Captain James B. Ransom on the Levenworth, Lawrence, and Galveston railroad verified the descriptions of the family and stated that they had bought tickets for a northbound train to Humboldt. At a stopoff in Chinute, John Jr. and Kate disembarked, took the MK and T train south end to

the Red River area of Texas, which is the end of the railroad line from there. The young vendors traveled to an outlaw colony, supposedly thought to be either in Texas or New Mexico. The area was well known for being violent and lawless, many law man pursuing outlaws into that region, supposedly never returned. Meanwhile, Ma'am Pa did not detrain at Humboldt, but continued north to Kansas City. The Texas believes they then purchased tickets to St. Louis and their trail goes cold. And there are all kinds of, maybe this is what happened to the benders, all kinds of

other ones. Incentivized by Governor Osborne's reward money, people across America report and see the benders and all kinds of maybe this is what happened to the vendors, all kinds of other ones incentivized by governor Osborne's reward money, people across America report and seeing the vendors and all kinds of places. And when government officials would show up, they found over and over that the people who have been identified as the vendors did not bear any resemblance to the suspects. A band of vigilantes claimed that they ran into the vendors, killed them, burned their bodies, took their wagon a thayer for some reason, doubtful. Why wouldn't they try and get that reward money?

Other claims of vigilante mobs having killed the benders, as well as supposed sightings of the benders. One group of travelers claimed to have caught the bender family and then hang them later discarding their bodies in southeastern Kansases for Daeghrus River, a different group claimed that they had a shootout with the bender family, buried their bodies in a prairie, vertegris, I think actually how he said it, River. Hopefully all a prairie, vertigrees, I think I should have actually had a river.

Hopefully all these stories aren't true. So, I mean, if one of them is, that means that a family who definitely wasn't the Bender's got murdered for no damn reason. How much of that suck? You finally throw your shit in a wagon, head west for a new start, then you get killed along the way by fellow settlers,

the thing that you and your family are the murderous Bender brood. No one ever came forward to claim that $2,000 reward. No one got it. The story of just where the benders ended up remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the of the old West, at least eight people would be arrested as accomplices of the benders, but none of them seemed to have likely had anything to do with their crimes. And none of the charges stuck. It seems that most of them were arrested because of their association with spiritualism,

not because of any relationship with the benders. February 13th, 1875, a dispatch from Florence, Arizona is picked up by the New York Times and details. The supposed capture of a man reported to be John Bender Jr. after being tracked to West Texas. But again, no reward money collected. And it doesn't seem that this was actually one of the benders. We don't know what happened to this guy after the rest on July 7th. That same year, the San Antonio daily express reports that two bender women were under arrest in winter set Iowa. And again, nothing comes of this nearly a decade later in 1884.

It was reported that an elderly man who looked somewhat like Paul Bender was arrested in Montana for a murder committed near salmon Idaho. The victim in this attack had been killed from a blow to the head, possibly with a hammer, right? Bob Ender's M.O. A request for identification was sent to Cherryville, but while authorities in Sam and waited to hear back, this insane older man, they hadn't custody severed his foot, cut his own foot off like he was a wild animal, caught in a bear trap, attempted to escape, didn't

make it very far and blood out and died. Wild West, baby! By the time it official got to the area, the body was very far and blood out and died. Wild West, baby! By the time it official got to the area, the body was too far decomposed to be identified. As I mentioned earlier, John Pobbender may have been known as John Flickinger, and oddly enough, a man with the exact name was said to have committed suicide in their Lake Michigan in 1884. But alas, this John Flickinger cannot be positively tied to the Kansas's popender. One more claim. Last one, 1889, another report stated that Elvira and Kate Bender were

arrested in Niles, Michigan, often misreported as Detroit and articles. They were arrested for theft, but were released. But then the cops arrested them again, accused them of being members of the Bender family. According to some sources, the women denied the accusations strongly, but after being worn down by officials, they started accusing each other of being members of the Bender family. According to some sources, the women denied the accusation strongly, but after being worn down by officials, they started accusing each other of being the real Bender, claiming that they themselves were just harmless bystanders. This evidence was credible enough that Lee Rui fucking dick traveled to Niles with warrants in hand and transported these printers back to Kansas. Authorities held these women for a few months, but then a judge decided that the county had already incurred undue expenses and the evidence against one was uninsufficient for a trial and he

released them. And although authorities never proved the two were mom and Kate Bender, Leroy Dick said he felt sure he had located the right women, but I think he was wrong. Later evidence would prove that the women who had been accused of being Kate Bender and mob Bender had asked, excuse me, later evidence would prove that the woman who had been accused of being Kate Bender had actually been married and living in Michigan at the time of the murders. So dammit, Leroy Dick, you just lost your credibility. It strongly appears that the Bender's got to weigh with everything.

So much easier to get away with crimes back in the days of the Benders than it is now, right? No fingerprints, no security cameras, no internet search history to dig into, no ability to examine DNA, no federal law enforcement no internet search history to dig into, no ability to examine DNA, no federal law enforcement agency, able to track criminals from state to state, no local law enforcement in most places. Very few detectives who were actually trained in law enforcement techniques and on and on and on.

If you wanted to get away with damn near anything back in the 19th century, you just had to sneak out of town before the vigilante Lynch mob came looking for you. Leave the area fast, cut your hair, change your name, voila. Right? You're free to start your new life with the clean slate. The only real downside to being a criminal back then was that the penalty was death for a lot of crimes. From horse, savory to murder, and you often did not get a fair trial or any trial. If the mob actually did get a hold of you, you often ended upna end up hanging by your neck from a tree branch before sundown.

May 1961. The City of Cherryville establishes a special museum commemorating the Benders for the Kansas State-wide Centennial Celebration. It featured an exact reconstructed replica of the Bender Building, housed antiques, and household items from the mid-19th century. In the first three days of its opening, the museum attracted approximately 2,150 visitors from across US and Canada. 1967, the museum displays the three hammers. They were thought to be the instruments the vendors used for bashing travelers brains in. These hammers were a gift from the Leroy Dick family. They were displayed in the museum along with a certified notary by Cornelius P. Dick, son of Leroy Dick. Don't know what the P stands for. Can we pretend? Please, this pussy. Cornelius P. Dick, son of Leroy Dick. Don't know what the P stands for. Can we pretend, please, this pussy.

Cornelius Pussy Dick. We can, okay good. The knife was also there, but only available to view by request. Even almost a century later, blood still present on the blade. 1978, the museum closes when the city decides to build a fire station on the site.

It was bought by an individual who wanted to place the building on Cherryville's main street, but then that plan axed by city officials. The building code prohibited a wooden frame structure from being placed within the fire limits of main street. Some proposed that the building should be relocated behind the Cherryville Museum, but the Cherryville Museum decided it needed that area for parking. And if you're starting to think that it's starting to sound like many in Cherryville just didn't want to be associated with the bloody benders anymore.

You are correct. The Bender Museum had become a point of controversy in Cherryville. A lot of locals did not want the town to be known primarily as the scene of these brutal crimes, which I get. The museum building and its contents within Seoul to Dennis are asked to Cherryville resident operator of an auction service. He moved it seven miles west on US 160, moved it to a new site within three miles of the original Bender Killing site, only a few hundred

yards from the new Army Corps of Engineers Big Hill Lake recreational area. The lake was nearing completion, was scheduled to be filled by June of 1981, yes, making sure that data is correct, and completion, day of the project with picnic and campsites was June of 1982. And because of these picnic sites and this little area next to the lake, they decided that they couldn't have the museum there either. This plan falls through and then the museum is just done. And then the town did throw an event called the Bender Days for several years after that. And then that also went away.

So really nothing in Cherryville to, you know, other than a plaque to talk about the Benders anymore. February 11, 2020, approximately 152 acres of land that once belonged to the Bender's, go up for sale as a part of 15 tracks of land that were put up for auction by the Shredder Real Estate and Auction Company. All of the tracks of land that all appear to be farmland sold for a total of $2,215,200. And with that, let's hop out of today's time suck timeline. Good job, soldier. You've made it back. Barely.

Kansas in the 1870s. What a time in American history. So much, yeah, yeah, so much Wild West, baby. The Kansas that the vendors, you know, are the chaos, the Kansas, the chaos that the vendors caused was merely one flame of the dumpster fire that was Kansas in the middle of 19th century. The state had already seen years of bloodshed during bloody Kansas by the time the benders arrived, as fresh off the Civil War. This on top of how hard it was just to live and unsettled Western territory in the first place, living off the land, always susceptible to robbery

or violent attacks. The benders, like so many American immigrant families, staked out their little piece of land, got to work setting up a farm and small business. Unlike so many American families, they began killing lots of people. They stayed at the end and then robbing them. The Bender's home served as a general store and a roadside end during the winter of 1871 to the spring of 1873. The Benders provided travelers with provisions,

a meal to eat, a bed to sleep in, a spot to get a bad place, hammered into your head. A historical marker erected near the site says, all those stories abound, the ultimate fate of the murderous bender family is uncertain. Some say that they escaped, others that they were executed by a vengeful posse. I get why the tale of the blood benders has become a popular tale in the world of true crime and the world of the wild west. All the things we don't know just make it that much creepier. Why were they killing? Was the motive just financial?

Was it partially financial? Partially tied to some kind of a cult stuff? Were they actually a ghoulish clan fond of hammering and incest that they travel from another town? Were they done the same thing before? Did they travel on to another town? Maybe down to Mexico, where they continued to hammer and cut and bury other travelers, other sellers? Who the fuck were these people? Where were they from? Were they even related? Their story feels like a slasher flick screenplay to me. Right? The classic creepy family, backwoods, the attractive daughter, the weird son, the monstrous dad, the witch-like mom,

out there in the woods, in the boonies, butchering folks traveling through. There's the backwoods murderous Adams family. Let's finish that little song I started earlier, before we head to today's Top 5 Takeaways. We got away with Killing, their hammer sent, let's build. The story is quite chilling, the bender family. Yay! Now let's hop into those takeaways. Yeah, yeah! Time to suck, tough, right takeaway! Number one, between 1871 and 1873.

The Bender family killed God knows how many neighbors, and other sellers. Twenty-twenty-one victims listed, you know, some sources. A little in, they built in rural southeast in Kansas on the O Sage Trail, gave them the perfect opportunity to murder and rob travelers, many of whom were carrying the money and supplies they were hoping were they were going to use to start new lives out west. Number two, so much mystery, the benders may not have even been a real family. Bender may not have actually been their name.

Number three, the benders, or at least Cape Bender, involved with spiritualism, probably mob Bender 2, which was sweeping the United States of America in the decades following the Civil War when everyone wanted to contact their son's husband, friends who died in combat. Kate Bender claimed to be a clairvoyant, the female incarnation of Jesus, a spiritual healer. And according to local legend, she advocated for free love, maybe even brother sister free love. She was thought to be a witch, and if that vigilante mob would have gotten a hold of her, I have to wonder if they might have actually burned her. Number four, the benders likely never found. Many people claimed to have met them on the road, killed them in instances of frontier justice.

Well, justice many maybe in pursuit of that reward money ratted on their neighbors or people they knew, maybe people they didn't like to try and get them killed as the benders, right? Trying to get the, trying to get that money, saying these people were benders in disguise. Unless they truly were supernatural, the benders are at least certainly dead by now. Number five, something new while literal witch hunts no longer occur in the US, people

are still being accused of witchcraft and even killed in many other parts of the world. This is insane. In India, alleged witches are killed by essentially lynch mobs each and every year, including now in 2020. A 65 year old woman suspected of practicing witchcraft was beaten to death by a man who used a stick to beat her to death back in January. In Saudi Arabia, it is still illegal to practice witchcraft. A woman was executed as recently as a 2001 for being a witch.

She was beheaded for practicing quote witchcraft and sorcery. Beheaded for witchery. Scary shit. And if culturally we give into the QAnon crowd America and allow their mindless claims and conspiracies to grow eventually maybe we'll become just as backwards. Fun! Maybe we can bring back literal witch hunts and executions for witchery. Ha!

Under his eye! Time suck. Top five takeaway. The bloody benders have been sucked. Hope you enjoyed a different kind of true crime episode today. I can't stop thinking about how small their fucking house was. Right? Bed and breakfast, grocery store, saloon. Lesson 400 square feet. So happy to live in a modern house. Hail Nimrod for houses.

Thank you to the Bad Magic Productions team for all the help of Making Time Suck. Queen of Bad Magic, Lindy Cummins, Reverend Dr. Joe Paisley, the Scripps Keeper, Zach Flannery, Sophie Fax, Source for his Evans, Bitlixer, the Keith, running BadMagicMarch.com and the socials. Thanks to all those who've joined the cult

to the Curious Private Facebook group. Thanks to Liz Hernandez and are all seeing eyes running the Colt's the Curious Facebook page. Thanks also to Beefstick and the Mod Squad of Jesse, Becky and Cody running wild, buck wild on Discord. Yeah, he keeps the party moving over there. Harbingers are fun and fucked up, Mariamant. Good folks, building some fellowship. Thanks to all of you space visitors playing TimeStuck trivia on the app, Bodai, fellowship. Thanks to all of you, uh, space sisters playing time. So trivia on the app, Bodai, B-O-D-H-I, Bodie, Bodai, currently in the round five lead with 2887 points.

The Raven Queen right behind with 2864 points, Nimrod is pleased with your knowledge for tension. Next week, while the, while the West is fresh on our minds, we're going to suck on Annie Oakley, Annie get your gun. At the height of her career, the talented sharpshooter was one of the most famous people in America, dazzling audiences, setting records that she fired at clay pigeons, birds, glass balls. Her, her love of guns went way back to her childhood when she didn't use them to entertain but to survive, like literally to survive, born Phoebe Ann Mosey.

Annie started using her gun when her father died, picking up the slack, feeding the family. By the age of 16, she'd paid off her mother's mortgage with her shooting skills. By 20, she was competing in shooting competitions across Ohio. One of these shooting competitions was where she would meet and beat her future husband, another sharpshooter, Irish immigrant named Frank Butler. In a time when most women were either confined to the domestic sphere or just trying to survive, Annie Soared. She performed in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, became the star performer.

This show was a type of American variety show and circus based on the legends of the American Frontier, ran for 17 years during that time she performed for European royalty. Shootin' the end of a cigarette held in her husband's lips. That's ridiculous. Hitting the thin edge of a playing card from 30 paces and shooting distant targets while looking into a mirror. Shoot them behind her back. Damn. She met the famous American Indian leader, sitting bowl in 1884. He was so impressed. He adopted her. Be stowed upon her, the additional name of little sure shot. And the two would go on to have a lifelong friendship.

If you think you're a good shot, you're no fucking Annie Oakley. There's so much more to her story and we get to meet other colorful, Wild West characters through her. So Annie Oakley, get your gun next week here on Time Suck and now let's head on over to this week's Time Sucker Updates. Get your time, sucker updates. First update coming in, we got a Cummins law victim. We have a definite woman, not dude, Jesse Jacob, Jesse writes, Dear Supreme Dipshit Daniel, aggressive, okay, it's fair.

Hi, my name is Jesse Jacob and I'm a painter from Mizzula Montana. I might add that I am a female and I only add that because between my profession and my stupidest fuck name. No one can ever tell what gender I am. My parents really wanted a boy, so it's easy to say I've been disappointed since birth, but I digress. I am writing to you because I recently was a victim of Cummins Law at my new job, Hail Lucifina. I just moved the last week of October to Missoula Montana from Boseman. I love both those sent-towns.

Oh, with my boyfriend, while I own my painting company, my own painting company, I started a new job being a subcontractor under a company on November 2nd. On November 5th, aka, three days into my new job, I was sent to a house to fix up by myself. Assuming I would be there alone, I had your God awful three out of five stars podcast on full volume.

The volume plus my laughter was so loud, I failed to hear my new boss come in, just as I was maniacally laughing about this dumb son of a bitch thrown another person to a vat of fucking acid. I hear a slight rustling behind me and turn around to see my boss with the shoulder shrugged and all he can muster is, I don't want to know. Before it walks back upstairs, I honestly thought in that moment I was going to be fired in my first fucking week and the more and more I tried to explain myself, the more the devilish mouth came and rared his deadly head. I ended up sounding like an epileptic meth addict trying to explain basic life skills and failing.

Fuck you and your great comedy you fucking bastard. I didn't end up getting fired. My boss ended up having a good heart about it, but strongly suggested that I wear headphones from that on. Fuck you headphones hurt my ears. I digress again. If I still somehow have your attention, could you please give a shout out to my old coworker, Burke and Bozeman Montana. He is the person that showed me your mildly entertaining podcast and it's also one stand up guy.

Despite me being quite liberal and he being a strong libertarian, you wish you wash your fucks. We always got along. Our political differences never made us argue, but left us a good platform for discussion and understanding as it should be. I truly believe what makes America great is the fact that people with different cultures and values can still find common ground and friendship. Even during these straight up bonkers times, oh my god, are they ever.

Anyway, I apologize for the long email, but you take up multiple hours of my week, so you can spend two minutes reading my email. Fuck you, keep on talking. They'll never not praise those of Fina and send the Queen of the Bad Magic, but you take up multiple hours of my week. So you can spend two minutes reading my email, fuck you, keep on sucking. He'll never not praise those of Fina and send the Queen of the Bad Magic, my tribute. You're serving Jesse, mother fucking Jacob. Jesse, wow, coming in hot! I like it, I love to fire.

They love his Fina to you. I love your thoughts about political discourse. Burke, thank you for turning this pistol onto time suck. It was built for her. Glad you didn't get fired, Jesse. You probably still can. Maybe you could blast some Albert Fish or y'all him crow on full volume with no headphones.

See what the neighbors think. I agree about how here in America, we should be able to discuss differences and not just yell each other. I'm hopeful that things will calm down a bit politically as we venture into 2021. Fingers fucking crossed. It would be a nice departure from the cultural angst.

A nice for everyone. Hail Nimrod to you. And I hope you are busy as fuck painting your ass off from the zoo. Next up, a bad ass Polish sucker. A Hanca wrote in. Yes, you just heard me be nice to a Polish person again. I guess I'm getting soft. Uh, Hanca wrote deer suck master greetings from the land of monsters and degenerates. Otherwise known as Poland.

First off, you did not get a single Polish name right? And you knew the suck, but I can't fault you for that. I imagine they all look like gibberish to Americanize. They really do. Our language is so difficult. I sometimes have to double check my grammar and I have a PhD in philology. It was admittedly funny to listen to you struggle. Okay, that's good.

I have to say it was really nice to hear you spread some knowledge about the fast-standing and heroic parts of our history. Aside from the math sorcerers, there were whole legions of incredibly brave people fighting against Nazis in so many ways as you seem to enjoy tales of old times, bad assery. I recommend reading up on Division 303. You're probably not aware, but Poland is not doing well right now.

And I did not know this until you wrote it. Just like many other places, the country is divided, eroded from within by ignorant, anti-science, bigoted people, who use the pandemic for their own goals, like taking away women's reproductive rights, and persecuting LGBT people. As I myself belong to both of these groups, let me tell you, living here sucks right now. Some of the World War II heroes who are still alive today are saying

this is not the country they fought for. My own grandma who lived through the horrors of war, I can't even imagine we can comprehend, is saying she's seen men like the ones currently leading this country before. How scary of a day job who is that? Whew, anyway, thanks for continually spreading knowledge. Give me the chills a little bit.

Helping us to remember history that hopefully will not repeat itself, bringing stories of kindness and bravery to light and mercilessly making fun of horrible people. Time suck is my little reprieve from the shittiness of this year. Oh boy, I'm gonna, you know, you know, you knew I was gonna have trouble with this name, because you're, yeah, name Hanca, but also your name. Puzzrawium, Puzz, Puzzrawium Hancaweem, Puzzraweem, Hanca. PS, I'm including a super basic little pronunciation guide in case you'd like to use it in any future episode featuring Polish monsters.

J is pronounced like Y and yes. SZ is like SH, like in shit. Speaking of my language, CZ equals CH, like in chocolate. RZ and Z equal J. Wow, it's also different in the French name like Jean. CH equals H, DZ equals J is in jam, A with a little funky thing on the bottom is like on and bond voyage, E with a little funky thing is a nasally pronounced N,

O with the accent is like, so for, that city you've been struggling with, BYD, GO, S-Z, C-Z's pronounced, big gossage, fuck, okay. All right, there's a crept in a more strange, broad monster's polo sound, maybe this little portion will help in the future. Thank you, Hanca, I did add your pronunciation guide to my notes for future episodes.

I'm gonna say it's probably not gonna help me, but I'll try, I will try. I will. Sorry things are's probably not gonna help me. But I'll try. I will try. I will. Sorry things are shitty again in your beautiful country. Some days I wish I could just take the world's anti-science, anti-LGBT, anti-minority, anti-women's rights crowd, it seems so determined to take us back to the dark ages and just dump them in a giant vat of John Hayes acid.

So frustrating. It feels so unnecessary. If more of the world could just focus less on conspiracies and scriptural interpretations as far as how they see the world and just focus more on slowly but surely pushing things ever forward to science and critical thinking, God, the world would undoubtedly be better! Rip off your CUNON shirts and get to the fucking library! I hail Nimrod Haka. I hope things turn around soon in Poland.

Now let's hear from Topsheffsack, Lynn Venhiusin, writing and asking for a birthday wish. Hello, master of the suck, caretaker of old jangles and husband of the goddess Lindsay. That's nice. I won't tell her that. I'm writing in hopes to reach you before my amazing husband's and loyal suckers birthday. Over the past year, we have been sucked, gotten and fallen in love with your podcast. We have even gone as far as using the voice of Andre Chikotilo for our cat, Blue Russian, and I've had to stop my husband from bringing that voice to bed. LOL, it creeps me out. Okay. We have our dog now nicknamed

after camper. Cat heads on a stick and I swear the voice is never stop. We kept a week we listened. My 11 year old also started getting into some of the more historical sucks. Anyway, he religiously listens. My husband on his commute to work daily and has turned on many other meat sacks to the dark side. He absolutely loves your podcast. So if you give my amazing hardworking husband Nate, Ben Hughes in a shout out for his 44th birthday in November 19th, that would make his day

and maybe his year. Since this time last year, we almost lost him to a rollover accident. Funny enough, he was listening to your podcast when it happened. So please, if he could, that would rock. Thank you from a loyal Luciferina lover and sucker addict Lynn. Well, thank you Lynn. And what is big deal, Nett?

Why you rastled your way to roll over both hands on the wheel? Mother! Happy 44th birthday, you fucking stallion. Now go tame that wild sass perilla of yours. Get it up! Hail Luciferina. Now for some acid bath killer suck related silliness, from funny sucker Ryan Foy, Ryan writes, salutations, your suckiness. Listing

to the acid bath killer episode, you said something I absolutely had to write you about. When you mentioned, hey, had been told his mother was a literal angel, you went into a bit about him being confused when she farted. I missed the next full minute, had to rewind because I was laughing too hard. When I was little, the running joke around our house was that moms specifically do not fart ever. Only my mom hated the word fart and called it fufing instead. Let me a little fuf. My dad would rip one and blame her and my little four year old ass would come running

to ardently defend her honor and sit here. Mom's don't fuf, dad. Hell, for all I can remember, she might have been the one ripping them all along, but you'd never convince me. Mom's just don't do that. She's been gone a few years, but you're a little bit reminded me of her and how funny she could be. And I had to write you and let you know how much I appreciated the memory your random tangent

brought on. I spent so much time in the road and your podcast can make the miles bearable. I've been a sucker, a creeper, a dummy. Now I hope to add spaces to my bad magic title collection soon. On the off chance you do read this on an episode please give a shout out to the coach of the curious dad's Facebook group. I'm a mod over there and there's a great bunch of dad sacks just supporting the hell out of each other keeping it curious dark and funny. We appreciate what you've built. Thanks for all you and your team do. contribute so much more than you know knowledge in Nimrod Ryan

Foy. Well, thank you Ryan glad I brought up some some fun mom memories. Glad things are going well in the cult of Curious Dad's Facebook group Love that you have a good group of dad sacks over their bonding over fatherhood. That is a beautiful thing The more good dads we have in the world the less uh, you know serial killers and shit beautiful thing. The more good dads we have in the world, the less, you know, serial killers and shit. Hey, on them, right? Keep bringing more joy, maybe a little good natured mayhem to this crazy world of ours. Now a world, a word from cold to the curious corpse examiner and top shelf forensic sack. Molly person, Molly writes, hello, sir, sucks a lot, wankington. Nice. I'm a bit delayed in writing and regarding writing in regarding the Alexander the Great

episode, but I wanted to share some fun facts about the word barbarian. I found this very interesting. There are a couple possible origins for the word. The Romans were clean shaven and the people residing in Gaul and elsewhere were not. They were referred to by their beards, barba, and Latin. That's the origin of the word barber. Like if you go to a barber to by their beards, barba and Latin. That's the origin of the word barba. Like if you go to a barber to have your beard shaped, Romans referred to outsiders as those with beards, barbarians. Did not know that.

I perhaps the word has a Greek root. I feel like I should mention I accidentally typed geek there, which I obviously am, Freudian slip. In the word barbaros, meaning to babble, in reference to the unintelligible sounds made by foreigners. A similar word exists in Sanskrit, Barbara, meaning stammering, ain't etymology fun.

I couldn't resist sharing the interesting history of this word, which I learned initially while studying Latin, my lowest grade ever. Lindsay said she hated Latin too. I strange, she was not offered Latin in Riggins, Idaho. Weird, we didn't have a strong Latin program. In preparation for medical career, if you ever have questions about autopsies, let me know. I've almost written several times about this niche field as it pertains to the show, and

I started listening to Times Look after a co-worker sent me the West Mesa Bone Collector episode. The medical examiner in that case, my boss. My co-worker also shared the episode with him, and all he said was, huh, well that's not what we called him I bet I bet he called him on kinds of things Sorry for the short email. Love the show three or three or five stars. Your faithful meat sack Molly PS We really are just sacks of meat and viscera at the end of an autopsy. We put all the dissected organs back in the body and so the The seeded clothes. I hear your voice in my head at work like too much. Happy Monday, meets X. Yikes Molly

Good on you for doing what you do Whoo if a much stronger stomach than I do. Wow Thank you for the word knowledge. I found that again very interesting I love that the first suck you heard was when I was shroomed out of my fucking mind and you still stuck around That Mesa bone collector connection is crazy. I hope some somehow we can someday know for sure who did all that. So your boss can have some investigative closure. He'll name Rod and one last message. Super random.

It just cracked me the hell up. Super sucker Elizabeth Jones writes, Hey, mother sucker, I don't care how long this email is because I'm too busy pissing my pants about Steven Segal. I just mentioned briefly in my former life, I was an elementary school teacher in Memphis, suck in my former life, I was an elementary school teacher in Memphis, Tennessee. Steven Segal's daughter was

living there while dealing with some health issues. And I happened to be her sixth grade teacher. She was one of the sweetest kids I ever taught. However, her dad, Mr. Cheater, however, her dad, Mr. Cheater McFatfuck, they came to one school function ever. When I introduced myself to him as his daughter's teacher,

he offered his hand for a handshake. He said nothing would not look me in the eye, and I'm certain there was a sweaty dead fish at the end of his arm. It was literally the worst handshake of my entire life. I wasn't expecting him to do some fancy karate and flip me over at desk or something, but God damn it, man.

Shake a fucking hand, just so you know thank you Elizabeth uh mr. cheater Mcfafuck with the dead fish shake uh why does that not surprise me about Steven Seagull he seems like the audest of odd birds uh so glad my little uh Seagull reference gave you some chuckles brought back some energy memories and thanks for teaching all the kids you taught, so much respect for teachers. Keep on sucking Elizabeth and everybody else who writes into the Time Sucker updates. Thanks, time suckers. I need a net.

We all did. And that's all for this week, Meat Sacks. More bad magic productions, content, killing the rest of the week. Thanks for all the ratings and reviews. New Spooks with scared to death on Tuesday night. Pure silliness and mayhem. With Is We Dumb Wednesdays at noon, Pacific time, please knock a bad place.

Please, please, please, do not. I was advocating that. Please do not. Let me be clear. Don't knock bad places into people's heads with hammers. At least not this week, and keep on sucking. ["Suck'n' Love Song"] ["Suck'n' Love Song"]

["Suck'n' Love Song"] Hey folks, I just wanted to pass along some updates going on with the Bender One Stop Hammer Shop located in downtown Cherryville, Kansas. We've got some new additions. We're going to be putting in over the coming months. Inside one of these storage closets, we're going to be putting in a roller coaster. We're going to be putting in a large roller coaster in the back of the store by the ball

peen hammers. In aisle 17, we are also going to be adding a zoo. We're going to have a full-size zoo, and we'll get that going here soon. And we're having an airport built inside the shop here real soon. Yeah. The Olympic size swimming pool. The Olympic size swimming pool, that's on aisle 12.

Thank you. You bet, you bet, buddy. Come on down! Come on down to the Bender, once down, Hammer Shop! Get hammered! Downtown Cherryville, Kansas. Buddy, come on down! Come on down to the Bender,

once down, Hammer Shop, get hammered! Downtown Cherryville, Kansas.