They Welcomed Weary Travelers with Kindness — Then Butchered Them: The Twisted Tale of America’s Serial Killer Family

It was one of the first mass murder cases in United States history — and more than 150 years later, there are still few answers about what happened at the “Bloody Benders’” cabin — and why.

Between 1870 and 1873, a Kansas family now known as the “Bloody Benders” terrorized travelers who stopped at their cabin looking for rest along the Osage Trail, killing their victims one-by-one after offering them a place to recoup and heal before heading back out in their search for land. At the time, the Homestead Act of 1862 promised settlers 160 acres, sparking a mass migration across the Midwestern state. According to the Library of Congress’ records, the Osage Trail “was an easy place to disappear.” And it didn’t help that along the Osage Trail, there lived a murderous family: John Sr., his wife Elvira, their son John Jr., and daughter Kate.

It’s believed between eight and 11 victims died at the hands of the family. According to local KCTV, the Kansas Reflector, and A&E, eight bodies were discovered on the family’s property while three more nearby were suspected to have been murdered by the Benders.

It wasn’t until the brother of a Kansas state senator went missing on the trail, and the lawmaker set out with a posse to go find him, that the Benders’ killing spree was uncovered, according to the Reflector. The state senator, Col. Alexander York, questioned the Benders and grew suspicious of their answers, the outlet reported. But by the time he came back, the family had suddenly picked up and left, leaving more than a century-and-a-half of mystery to follow.

The Bender Family Murders

Located along the Osage Trail, the Bender family appeared, by all accounts, to prey on travelers looking for food and shelter, according to local KCTV. Historians believe daughter Kate, who was a Spiritualist in her early 20s at the time, would distract travelers by offering spiritual healing services, according to the outlet. Kate would have the family’s victims sit with their backs to a canvas curtain, according to the Reflector, while another family member hid and would bludgeon the victim over the head with a hammer. Then, the family members would drag their victim to a hidden cellar on the property and slit the victim’s throat, leaving them there to die.

“It may have started in pure robbery and morphed into something a bit more twisted,” Lee Ralph, the author of Hell Comes to Play, a book about the Bender family, told KCTV last year.

Nobody knows how many people the Bender family actually murdered, according to the Reflector, but at least eight bodies were discovered in a hidden cellar on the property in May 1873, including that of an infant. However, according to the outlet, by the time local investigators came knocking at the Benders’ door, the family had vanished, sparking what the Reflector described as an “enduring mystery” that is uniquely American.

An ‘American’ Horror Story

While the Bender family was never found, their brutal acts — and their vanishing act that followed — have inspired movies, books, television shows and more in the century-plus since their murders were committed. From the 2016 film Bender to episodes of Supernatural and The Librarians, the Bender family mystery has gone from local folklore to national entertainment. For a period of time, the local Cherryvale community even commemorated the twisted tale with an annual festival “Bender Days,” according to the Reflector. Still in Cherryvale today, the town’s historical museum features a section dedicated to the Benders – including photographs, replicas of wanted posters, and even a set of three hammers believed to have been used by the family in their three-year murder spree. 

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“The whole thing is just so bizarre, and one of America’s first documented mass murders,” Bob Miller, who now owns the land where the Benders’ cabin is believed to have stood, told the Reflector. Miller purchased the land after years of interest in the case, hoping to one day be able to suss out some of the mystery for himself. “Somewhere, somehow, some way, I’m going to get some kind of expert investigation going there,” he said.

Renewed Interest

Miller is far from alone in his interest in the local murder mystery. In addition to books and interest from amateur investigators like Miller, one professor at the University of Kansas has even put her anthropological students to the hunt with a two-week field study in the summers that involve digging for artifacts, or clues, that could lead to new answers about what took place at the Benders’ cabin. “It’s never been looked at through a scientific lens, the material culture of the things left behind,” Dr. Laura Norman told KCTV. “So, we’re hoping to add a little to the story.”

As for Miller, he says Dr. Norman’s efforts highlight a “huge intrigue” that still remains around the case more than 150 years later.

“We’re just getting a lot of interest from different sources. What the Benders did, how they did it and what happened to them. Where did they go?” he told KCTV, adding, “There’s so much more about them that we don’t know.”