Kansas’ Bloody Benders: Digging for clues in century-old murders
It’s believed the Benders would have continued their twisted reign of terror had they not killed a prominent doctor and brother of a Kansas state senator.
LABETTE COUNTY, Kan. (KCTV) - An archeological dig in southeastern Kansas and a Topeka-based author have uncovered new clues in a century-old murder mystery that rocked the Kansas frontier in the 1800s.
Kansas native Lee Ralph first learned of The Bender Family in school, but only recently started digging into the family’s history. His new book, Hell Comes to Play, reveals new secrets about the family of four, including tracing their lineage back to Germany before their devilish spree in Labette County in the early 1870s.
“We really don’t know why they came to Kansas,” Ralph said.
It was inside a 24x16 cabin, along the Osage Mission Trail in southeastern Kansas, John Bender Sr., his wife, their son, John Jr. and daughter, Kate are said to have carried out their devious acts.
“I think something happened while they were out there on the prairie,” Lee said
“You think that’s what triggered their murderous deeds?” KCTV5 anchor Zac Summers asked.
“I think something triggered it,” Lee replied.
Kate, a spiritualist, would distract guests stopping in for a meal or goods. The family ran a little store out of their cabin. Waiting behind a curtain inside, another family member would bludgeon the victim across the head with a hammer, ultimately slitting their throat for the victim to bleed out in the cellar below.
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“It may have started in pure robbery and morphed into something a bit more twisted,” Lee said.
It’s believed the Benders would have continued their twisted reign of terror had they not killed a prominent doctor and brother of a Kansas state senator.
“When Dr. York went missing, he was somebody to be missed,” Lee explained. “His brother — the Senator — he had the wherewithal to perform a thorough search.”
The extensive search wouldn’t lead to justice. The Benders were long gone before a search of their property uncovered up to eight bodies: All men buried naked, mostly face-down -- one with an infant daughter who was likely buried alive.
Up to three more men found in the area are believed to have also been killed by the family.
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Dr. Laura Norman, an assistant teaching professor at the University of Kansas, recently led a group of KU archaeology and anthropology students, to excavate a site believed to be the Bender homestead. They’re trying to find evidence of where the house was and other materials that might fact-check some of the myths surrounding the elusive family.
“It’s never been looked at through a scientific lens, the material culture of the things left behind,” Norman said. “So, we’re hoping to add a little to the story.”
This year marked the second year for a dig. The team has already found pieces of pottery, glass, a horseshoe and parts of a tin can. Norman said it’s a slow process.
“Ten days of digging is going to give us 10 months of analysis work,” she explained. “We won’t really get a good understanding of them until we take them back to our lab.”
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It’s an understanding Bob Miller has a vested interest in. He bought the 160-acre property in 2020 with the sole purpose of learning more about the benders and their victims.
“It satisfies my curiosity to find out where all this stuff happened,” Miller said. “Are there even other bodies out here? There’s just this huge intrigue.”
He’s hoping the mystery might also spur more tourism to southeastern Kansas.
“We’re just getting a lot of interest from different sources,” he said. “What the Benders did, how they did it and what happened to them. Where did they go?”
While we may never know the end of the infamous Bloody Benders, Lee said it’s the mystery that has kept their story alive well over a century – and counting.
“There’s so much more about them that we don’t know,” Lee added. The archaeological dig out there, I think it is just the stepping stone for further research.”
Since KCTV5′s visit to the Bender site, researchers have conducted more geophysical surveys to detect differences in the ground surface for future dig sites. The goal is to continue to dig at the property over the next several years.
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