The murderous saga of the Bender family in Southeast Kansas was one of the first true crime stories to capture the nation’s attention.
Dubbed the “Bloody Benders,” the family left behind at least 11 known victims.
Recently, Bob Miller, owner of the Benders’ land in Labette County, Kansas, has partnered with archaeologists from the University of Kansas to try and uncover any secrets still buried there.
Bender family
The Bender family consisted of John; his wife, Anna Maria; and their two adult children, Kate and John Jr. Of German descent, John Sr. was gruff and spoke little English.
Kate was known as the shining star of the family, attractive and flirtatious. She also was into spiritualism, offering to connect families with their loved ones beyond the grave.
The Benders moved to Kansas in early 1871 and set up a cabin on the Osage Trail, near what today is Cherryvale, Kansas. The Homestead Act of 1862 had fueled migration to Southeast Kansas, so the once rugged trail became well traveled. Miller describes it as the interstate highway of its time.
Over time, people went missing along the Osage Trail. That wasn’t uncommon, because of the dangerous weather and criminals in Kansas. But in this area, the number of missing stood out.
In March 1873, William York, brother of prominent state Sen. Alexander York, also went missing. York raised a posse to find his brother.
William York’s trail went cold after Fort Scott. With talk of the investigation traveling from door to door, the Bender family mysteriously disappeared into the night. Neighbors noticed the family’s abrupt departure, leaving their livestock tied up with no food.
When a group went in to inspect the Benders’ cabin, Civil War veterans among the investigators immediately recognized the smell of dead bodies, Miller said. They opened a small trap door in the cabin floor and noticed a horrible odor. Investigators initially thought something had happened to the Benders, but then made a grisly discovery in the orchard, uncovering eight bodies. The first body unearthed was that of William York. They ultimately found 11 victims, including a small girl buried with her father.
Law enforcement pieced together what happened. The Benders would invite travelers in for a meal or a place to stay. The visitor would be seated at the head of the table, right in front of a canvas curtain. Around the table, the family would size up the visitor, how much money they had, where they were going, if anyone would miss them. Their motivation was robbery.
“This was a busy site, a lot of people were traveling with a lot of money to buy land at the time,” Miller said. “Their goal was to lure people into their cabin with meals or a place to stay for the night.”
Kate would distract the visitor, usually in a flirtatious manner. Meanwhile, one of the men would come around the canvas curtain and hit the victim with a hammer, crushing their skull.
The visitor’s chair was positioned on a small trap door leading to the cellar. The Benders would lay the body on the floor, with the head falling through the trap door. Then they cut the body’s neck, letting them bleed out into the cellar. Bodies were buried at night in their orchard.
With a head start on the authorities, the Benders made a clean escape. Some thought the family was caught by a vigilante posse and buried in an unmarked grave. The Benders’ wagon was found by Thayer, so they could have boarded a train for Humboldt and fled for parts unknown.
Regardless of their fate, by escaping capture the Benders left behind more questions than bodies.
‘Part of the mystery’
“That’s part of the mystery of this,” Miller said. “You can write your own ending for it. We don’t even know what they looked like.”
Miller’s interest in the story started in the 1970s when he visited a replica cabin of the Benders in Cherryvale. In early 2020, he saw a notice that the Bender property was going up for auction, one parcel of several that had been with a family for 70 years.
“I thought I would drive over and see who buys the Bender property,” Miller said. “Then, on the way, I thought that I might just throw in a bid and see what happens. I ended up buying the land.”
Walking the property, Miller has found pieces of pottery, metal and glass. No one else built on the land because of its reputation, so it was only used for farming. He believed the items belonged to the Benders.
Miller hopes to find something to add to the story, something the ground may have been hiding for 150 years. He’s now fulfilling a goal he had when he bought the property, an archaeological investigation.
Miller made calls and tried to generate interest in doing a survey since finding the small items, but found little interest.
“I got a lot of doors slammed in my face, like who’s this crazy guy calling wanting us to help him on this Bender deal,” Miller said.
After a Kansas Reflector article about Miller and the property, he started fielding calls. He realized there’s interest and finally connected with the University of Kansas.
Archaeology on-site
The university set up a field school at the property, bringing students down to get hands-on experience in archaeology on-site. Last year, a team from the Kansas Geological Society began underground sensing, examining differences in the soil for clues to where buildings might have been located.
Using those findings, Lauren Norman, assistant teaching professor at the University of Kansas, and her students started excavation this summer. Starting with six students, this is the first of three years of hands-on archaeology training.
“You can really only learn archaeology, at least learn it better, through the practical application of what you’re learning,” Norman said. “We can also focus on Kansas history, which is something that’s really interesting as the flagship university for the state.”
Students started with shovels, excavating one meter square patches of dirt. Once they reached below the plow zone, they carefully began using mason trowels and brushes to search for items. In addition to the glass, metal and pottery, they’re finding material that’s not natural to the site, such as limestone, Norman said. These materials were brought to the site for building, and offer a clue about the structures that were on the site.
Norman’s team will record everything in detail, and then take the items up to their lab at KU. Students will clean, measure and examine artifacts. It’s a process that will take the next 10 months.
“We often say a month of field work gives you 10 months of lab work, if not more,” Norman said.
Miller said there’s a possibility of remains to be analyzed still on-site, bones or teeth. For him, these remains will help tell the story of the land, not focusing on the Benders but the victims. He hopes to tell the stories of all the lives affected by the Benders.
Beyond discovery, Miller doesn’t plan to turn the property into a museum or tourist attraction. He’s had calls from around the world about the case, and knows the interest is out there. But he’s focused on how the archaeological discovery tells the story and honors the victims.
“We want to learn a little bit more about the victims and give them a voice, too,” Miller said. “Right now, they’re just a name, but they all had a story. They all were somebody’s brother or father or son.”
