WEBVTT - The Tale of the Bloody Benders 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.120 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:15.840 and there's Chuck and Jerry's here too, So this is 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:22.040 Stuff you should Know, the Murder Family edition. Yeah, Halloween 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:24.759 right around the corner. I've always liked to think of you, 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:29.280 me and Jerry is a kind of murder family. Uh, 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:32.479 as in you and in Jerry. Right. We always have 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:34.839 to correct that because people think you're talking about you 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:39.920 and your wife. Right, Okay, you me comma you comma 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:42.920 me comma? No, No, I mean me my wife, you, 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:45.320 me and Jerry. I've always thought about it, you know, 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:49.160 I'm kidding. I miss what you said though you thought 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.520 it was. Is what a murder from murder family? Yeah? Sure, 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:57.639 in the kindest possible way, exactly exactly. Um No, we're 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.360 in a murder family. And after everybody learned about the 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.160 Bloody Benders, they'll be like, yeah, Josh and Chuck and 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:06.120 Jerry or no murder family. Um and we wouldn't want 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:08.160 to be either, because it turns out murder families are 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:12.120 not so great. Chuck, right, And can we shout out 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:15.600 a listener who submitted this topic? Oh yeah, definitely that's 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:17.399 I feel like it's happening more and more like a lot. 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:21.000 As our world gets smaller, our listeners are reminding us 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:23.760 that it is quite large. Uh. And we got this 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:28.000 one from a Kanson that's very appropriate. Is that how 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:31.840 you say it? Kansa? I think it's Kansinian night, Okay, 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:37.360 Kanzinia nighte uh named Star White. And apparently Starr was 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:42.720 traveling UH with the family through Kansas and saw signs 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:46.800 in Montgomery County for the Benders, the Bloody Benders and 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:51.840 things commemorating this and said, I'm a Kanson, a Kansania Nite, 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:54.440 and I had no idea that this was a thing. 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:57.680 I gotta learn more about this, So we're doing one. 0:01:58.000 --> 0:01:59.560 You know, we like to keep it spooky in October 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:02.480 where we can't sure for sure, and there's nothing spookier 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:07.720 than a serial killing family. Interestingly, to um this past, 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:11.000 I think march Um. What I'm taking to be is 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:14.959 one of the definitive books on the Benders came out. 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.720 It's called Hell's half Acre uh, and it is by 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:26.520 an author named named a drum Roll named Susan Joe Nousus. 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:28.760 That's how I'm going with her last name but it 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:31.359 came out in March called Hell's Health Acre, and um, 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:33.880 it does look pretty awesome, so I figured that had 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:36.280 to do with this, But no, it's just completely off 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:40.000 the cuff from a listener from Kansas. Huh, just driving through. 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:42.240 Great name too, by the way, Star White, what a 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:46.760 great name. It's almost like star wipe. No one, do 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:51.320 you like it? It's your favorite transition that I do 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:53.640 know what bender actually, but this is I don't think 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:57.480 there's any relation. Yeah, because it's not entirely clear that 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:00.120 that was even their names too, so we should talk it. 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:02.880 We're talking about a family that lived in Kansas in 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:06.280 the eighteen seventies at a time when Kansas was like 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:10.840 the front tier, maybe even maybe even beyond the frontier um. 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:14.120 The Trail of Tears had happened by this time, so 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:17.919 the o Sage people who had lived there previously have 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:21.600 been forced off their land and moved further west to Oklahoma, 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:25.160 and the federal government said, come anybody, all you criminals, 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:28.920 you unsavory characters, people escaping your past, come and settle 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:32.239 here in Kansas. It's like Australia but in the center 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:35.160 of the United States. That's right, Did you do bad 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:38.240 things back east, right, just pick up your bags and 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:41.000 head west. That's precisely right. And so a lot of 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:43.040 them stopped in Kansas. Again, this was the frontier, but 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:45.960 people were still going west too. So um, as we'll 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:48.600 find out this this family, the Bender family kind of 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:51.480 put up a claim or set down a claim. They 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:53.680 did something with the claim. I'm not not quite up 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:57.840 on my like, um old prospect or terminology claim something Yeah, 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:00.800 on this road that kind of kept leading west, and 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.920 they they set up a tavern in for people to 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:06.440 stop in, which is neither here nor there quite yet, 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:08.880 but I just kind of wanted to foreshadow that there's 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:12.200 going to be a tavern coming in the future. That's right, 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:15.600 And that's probably a generous term for what they set up. Uh. 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:17.480 It was a pretty remote well, I guess, you know, 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:20.480 not to make too many Kansas jokes, but it was 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:25.760 a pretty remote part of Kansas, in southeastern Kansas invent Uh. 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:28.239 It was not Cherry Vell yet, but it would eventually 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:33.760 become Cherry Veil. And at first the two uh gentlemen 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:37.520 arrived John Bender, Sr. He was around sixty years old. 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.440 People called him Paw. He didn't talk a lot when 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.080 he did talk. It was mostly in German. Uh. And 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:46.760 then he was with a younger guy in his twenties. 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:49.920 And you know, we're gonna say things like identified as 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:52.200 his son or you know, may or may not have 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:55.240 been the daughter. Like this is because of a lot 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:58.360 of things, partially just you know, a lot of record 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:01.719 keeping back then wasn't super solid. It, especially when it 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:04.720 turns out you may be using aliases and he may 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:07.520 be faking that you're a family or you may actually 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:10.760 be a family. Like no one really knows for sure, uh, 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:14.240 the facts of this, but John Bender Jr. Was with 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:17.480 him uh and he also occasionally went by an alias. 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:21.320 Uh put a pin in this one named John Gebhart 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:28.400 Chris get Heart. He's a comedian, he's great. But apparently 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:32.360 John Gebhart or John Bender Jr. Um was a bit 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:37.640 of a comedian's himself. But some reports he was his 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:40.880 own audience and no one else was. So to put 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:44.480 in another way, he apparently laughed at stuff like inappropriately 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:49.200 like Dr hibbert um and also at times when exactly 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:52.240 that was a great John Bender Junior impression by the 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.839 r but um at times where people were like this, 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:58.599 this guy ain't quite right and he also talked a lot, 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:01.600 so he was kind of an odd fixture as well 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:04.800 as we'll find out the whole family was. Yeah, he 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.839 had a German accent, but did speak fluent English. Uh. 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:12.800 And some people think he may have been intellectually disabled. Um, 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:14.599 looking at kind of some of the things that happened, 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:18.159 it seems like I don't know about clear, but you know, 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:21.320 at a time in eighteen seventy, they wouldn't have been 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.720 categorizing people as such anyway, you know, no for sure, 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:28.160 but from the articles of the time, That's what I'm 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.880 going with from now on. Um, they they they nobody 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.640 said anything even remotely like that. I saw it on 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.479 one I think the Crime Reads article, and that was 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:40.800 about it. I just got the impression that was really 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:44.919 kind of weird and almost like a Jethro clamp It type. 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:48.120 That's who he reminds me of. Okay. Uh So what 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:52.320 they built on their hundred and sixty acres was uh 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:54.159 you called it a tavern. I call it just a 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:57.000 big room kind of like a bunk a bunk house. 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:59.760 And maybe they called it or Olivia, who helped us 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:02.719 with this, called it a foothouse. But it was sixt 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:06.039 ft wide, twenty four ft long. So what they eventually 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:10.040 did was they would put up a canvas sheet kind 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:12.760 of splitting it into They lived in the back and 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:14.720 then they called you know, they called it an inn, 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:17.120 you called it the tavern. It was really just a 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:20.880 room with some canned goods and supplies and I think 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.640 a couple of beds, sort of like a bunk house. 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.560 It was not fancy at all. No, but I'm guessing 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:29.640 like as you were passing through Kansas back then and 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:36.120 maybe even today, it was pretty appealing. Do you think, Well, 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:37.680 I mean it was better than sleeping out on the 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.000 open prairie with the bedroll, right, you know, there's a 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:43.400 hot meal. You know, they probably had tobacco, and yeah, 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:45.560 I mean, it was better than nothing. And I think 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:47.560 I get the impression. Also. One of the things that 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.600 made it better than nothing was um the daughter who 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:53.120 I say, we meet right now. Her name was Kate, 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:55.840 and she showed up after this this tavern, this house 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:59.640 had been built. That's right. The two ladies were sent 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:03.160 for after everything was done, and it was Ma Bender, 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:07.040 who everyone just sort of assumed was the wife and 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:10.680 the the matriarch of the family. She went by Elvira 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:16.480 sometimes she was maybe in her fifties and let on 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:19.560 like she didn't speak any if very little, if any 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.080 English at all, but I had like a terrible temper. 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:25.560 She was widely reputed about from anybody that met her 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.440 that she was just a terrible cuss of a person 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:32.000 from what I gather. Yeah, in fact, I think she 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:35.040 may have been the one sort of leading this whole charge. 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:37.680 I've seen both. I've seen her or I've seen Kate, 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:41.160 and Kate Kate was the daughter. She was UM in 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:44.640 her twenties. But I think more than anything, Um she 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:49.160 uh kind of attracted passers by with flyers um advertising 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:53.840 her mediumship like she was into spiritualism and free love 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:58.080 apparently too, and who knows what that means. In eighteen 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.680 seventies Kansas, she was shown a little ankle. I don't know, 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:03.720 like I have no idea what free love means in 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:08.240 that context, but it was unusual at least and got attention. Um. 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:10.760 Some people thought she may have been the daughter. Other 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:14.120 people thought that they presented she and John Jr. As 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:17.440 Um a couple. So it's just sort of one of 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:21.680 those things. It's it's it's loose out there in eighteen seventies, Kansas. Right. 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:24.240 So one other thing I read Chuck that Levy didn't 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:28.040 quite hit on, um was that this family, they weren't 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:31.040 like exactly you know, fading into the woodwork or the 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:33.920 prairie like. They were well known in their little community, 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.400 mainly because they were only like eight or ten other 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:39.840 settlements around them at the time, but also because I 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.079 think they were the only ones running a tavern, and 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.000 they had an orchard. That will factor in later, but 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:48.680 apparently their cherries and apples and peaches were like really 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:51.600 prized out there at the time. So they were part 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:54.040 of the community, but they were known to be weird. 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:56.720 In Ma in particular. You just kind of avoided her 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:00.040 as best as you could. Right. So they have of 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:02.200 things set up. It's on the edge of the Great 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:05.480 oh Sage Trail, which is, like you mentioned earlier, where 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:07.880 a lot of people continued westward, and it was a 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:10.480 good place to have a little bunk house that that 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.600 you know, sold a few things. Uh, what's the word, 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:18.960 I'm looking for a general store? No? Um, all these 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:24.199 bargain house rations okay, yeah, selling rations and things like that. 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:27.840 They sell rations at Ali's. What is allis it's like 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:32.360 a deep discount liquidary. Like if you stole a truck, 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:34.560 you just drive it over there and they'll buy everything 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:35.959 and then turn around and sell it. I don't think 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:38.280 they actually do that, but it's the appearance of that 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:42.760 kind of thing. Uh. Yeah, we should be clear. I 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:45.520 think I've never heard of ALI, so I'm I'm innocent 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:47.520 of this. You should go wander around one and you'd 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:50.480 be like, Okay, I got you. Here's an oriental rug, 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:53.880 here's um some off brand bleach on the next stile. 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:56.440 Like it's just just that yeah, oh yeah. It's like 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:02.800 all over the place, in every strip mall, in every city, 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:06.040 in every in every country in the world. It may 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:08.000 be one of those things that's so ubiquitous. I've just 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:11.800 never noticed it right under my nose. All right. So 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:13.720 they set up in Allies right there on the great 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:17.120 out stage trail, and maybe this is a good place 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:20.120 to take our first break. Oh I wasn't expecting that. 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:53.600 Let me see. Okay, that sounds good, okay, chuck so um. 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.839 One of the things that Um made the Benders made 0:11:56.920 --> 0:11:59.160 us call the Benders and murder families that they started 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:03.040 murdering people pretty shortly after they set up this homestead 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:06.320 along the O s Age Trail. And one of the 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:09.640 things about Kansas at the time was it was really 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:14.000 really violent. Um. Not just in the wars against the 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:18.680 Native Americans there. UM, there were also um pro slavery 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:24.480 and anti slavery factions that committed atrocities against one another. Um. 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.520 The Civil War by bread kind of broke out thanks 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:29.920 to Kansas. I'm struggling which kind of state it was 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.840 going to be. UM. So it was a really violent place. 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:35.760 And it was with that kind of violent backdrop that 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:40.120 a family could just kill a bunch of travelers with 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:42.800 without anyone really taking notice. Because it was also just 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:45.560 the kind of place where people just went missing. It 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.520 just happened. It was a really dangerous place to travel. 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:51.680 So when it happened, it didn't exactly like set off 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:56.040 the media and search parties didn't usually come out for people. Yeah, 0:12:56.080 --> 0:13:00.800 absolute um. However, when they start turning up in regular 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:03.960 order around town, then you've got a problem. And that's 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:06.760 what happened. Uh. In May of eight seventy one, the 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:12.199 body of a man was found in local Drum Creek. UH. 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:16.199 This is southeast of the Benders House. And this is 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:19.080 very key here, he had his he had been brained, 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:22.400 he had his skull bashed in and had his throat cut, which, 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:26.120 as you will see, becomes the recurring m O of 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:30.520 this family. Yep uh. Two more men were found shortly after, 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:34.199 I think a few months later. A few months after that, um, 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:37.319 another body was found all in the creek and apparently 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:41.080 they all um had that same kind of a mortal 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.800 wound or that combination of injuries. And one of the 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:48.560 bodies was identified as a man named William Jones, and 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:51.040 he had been carrying known to have been carrying about 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.200 two fifty dollars, which at the time was like a 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:58.760 lot of money to today, close to it, okay, And 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.239 he was going to pay off his mortgage for his homestead, 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:03.600 which is something people did at that time too. It's 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:06.040 another thing that made it dangerous. A lot of people 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:08.000 were walking around with a lot of cash because they 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:11.320 were going to buy land, pay off mortgages, do god 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:14.360 knows what, and there weren't banks, so they were traveling 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:17.640 with cash. And this guy was exactly that. And there 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:19.800 was a farmer whose land he was found on that 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:22.640 was initially accused, but they were like, I don't think 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:24.760 it was him, so he got off, but I'm sure 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:28.040 he was like wait what what No, it wasn't me. Yeah. 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:29.760 And the way he got off too, was kind of 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:34.600 frustrating as a uh like a crime enthusiast reader, because 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:38.160 they investigated it and they found that, uh, the wagon 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:41.880 that dropped him had a very distinctive track that one 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:45.160 of the back wheels was off center, and I kept 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:49.080 waiting for that to come back as like, remember that wagon, 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:53.360 that's what eventually led to the killers. But spoiler alert, 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:56.480 that does not happen. So don't put a pin in it. 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:58.680 Take the pin out of that, Yeah, just take throw 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:03.400 that pin away, break into so. Um. The thing about 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:05.760 I think one of the reasons why people started getting 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:08.120 hot under the collar about these murders too, is that 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:11.000 this area got a really bad reputation really fast. Like 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:13.880 it was like you avoid the spot as best you can, 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:16.520 like maybe go out of your way to avoid this 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:19.920 area on the O Sage Trail because people just wind 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:23.560 up missing there. Um. And that kind of got people 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:28.000 aware of like the whole, the whole problem that the 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:30.080 area was facing, but they didn't know who it was, 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:33.600 and they certainly hadn't centered on the benders. The benders 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:37.000 just had a reputation as being odd and um, possibly 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:42.960 a little um maybe violently unusual, but not murderers by 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:46.480 any stretch. They just weren't suspected for a really long time. 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:53.800 Violently unusual. Yeah, what a reputation. Yeah, that's pretty serious. Uh. 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:56.000 Here's another story too that you do need to get 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:58.000 that pin out put it back together, that you Josh 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:00.760 told you to break in and put a pin in 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:06.160 this story because this was chronologically speaking, February seventy three, 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.600 a woman who didn't really have any money apparently stopped 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:13.680 at the home, asked to rest, asked for some food, 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.720 fell asleep on a bed in the back, and then 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:22.080 when she woke up there was mob bender and she 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:26.680 pointed to a table covered in pistols and knives and said, 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:33.120 there your suppers ready. So this lady somehow apparently manages 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:37.560 to stay composed and not like react with alarm after 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:41.600 like waiting up fiddle, yeah exactly, and said I just 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:44.760 need to step outside for a minute to to do something. 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:48.080 Just apparently made a private excuse, is what the Kansas 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:52.760 City Time said, and um and ran and took off 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:56.120 running barefoot. Basically, you know, in her sleeping clothes, ran 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:59.440 for a couple of miles to find help. And it's 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:01.520 hard to parse together what this sentence from the Times 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:04.080 even means, but I'm taking it to mean that it didn't. 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:07.439 Really it still didn't set off alarm bells for this family. 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:09.680 It didn't. And that, by the way, is a classic 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:15.239 example of being violently unusual. Okay, you know they were 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:17.920 just like, if you're violently unusual, you have the kind 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:20.960 of house that people run two miles away from in 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:24.400 their bare feet wee, where guns and knives are presented 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:27.719 his supper exactly right. So this is just kind of 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.400 going along. The benders are homing along do and there 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.080 murdering thing. People don't really suspect them, but the area's 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:37.840 got a bad reputation. But there was a series of murders, 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:41.400 actually a combo one two punch of murders that finally 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:45.240 led to their discovery as a murder family. And the 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:48.240 first thing started with a guy named George Newton long Core, 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:52.520 who um left Independence, Kansas, which was just to the 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:56.159 west of Cherry Veil along the O Sage Trail, and 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:58.560 he was on his way to Iowa, so we would 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.639 have passed through Cherry veil Um along with his eighteen 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:05.439 month old daughter, mary Anne, and he never made it 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:08.399 to Iowa. And that caught the attention another man, a 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:12.000 physician named William York, who was his neighbor and was 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.439 concerned enough that he started traveling around inquiring about him 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:17.080 to see if he could figure out what happened to 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:20.760 George and his daughter mary Anne. Yeah. Good neighbor, Yeah, 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:23.159 really good neighbor, like to do such a thing to 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:27.840 take this trip. So starts investigating, finds out that the 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:32.359 the horse and wagon team was abandoned near Fort Scott, 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:36.560 Kansas and in the spring. Um, I mean, I think 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:38.760 that's what led him to go out there. So he's 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:41.240 out there in the spring, he gets to Fort Scott, 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:44.240 all that stuff is still there. Basically all other stuff 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:46.960 had been abandoned. They were nowhere to be found. So 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:49.639 he's like, something is going on. I need to go 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:54.280 back to Independence. And then he disappears. Yeah, and that 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:56.680 really caught the attention of people because it turned out 0:18:56.880 --> 0:18:59.800 Dr William York And if I said Edward the first time, 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:02.119 he's forgive me. His name was William and he was 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:04.520 a doctor, and he was a York and there were 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:06.480 two other Yorks. He had a brother named Edward, who 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:08.560 was neither here nor there, but he had a really 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:12.440 important brother named Alexander York, who was a colonel from 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:15.399 the Civil War and also a Kansas senator. So they 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.679 had murdered the brother of a Kansas senator who was 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.119 known to be out looking around the area of Cherry 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:24.280 Vale for somebody else who had gone missing. And that 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:28.240 really got people's antenta up, Yeah, big time, enough to 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:32.440 where they got a search party. Colonel Alexander I think 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:36.479 about seventy five men set off and they were, you know, 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:40.360 they were scouring around. They were, uh, they basically kind 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:42.440 of figured out at one point that they definitely went 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:44.920 by the Bender's house. So let's go by and talk 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:47.720 to these people, see what's going on. When they do 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:52.080 this mob Bender um, you know, claims to not speak English, 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:55.720 which seems like her Her main jam, her big joke 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:59.439 besides here's her supper of guns and knives, was I 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:03.439 also don't speak English. Uh, Kate Young Kate says, I 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:07.560 don't know anything about this guy, and then John Jr. Said, Hey, listen, 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:09.840 I was shot at when I was out there at 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:12.280 Drum Creek where all these like bodies have been found, 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:15.600 and I can take you out there and like maybe 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:19.040 the people that shot at me killed your friends as well. Yeah, 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:22.720 and again, just imagine jeth throw Clampitt saying this and 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:25.480 taking people out to look at a place where he 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:28.280 claims to have been shot at. Right. I just I 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:33.240 love that bit so um so. But he's also just cookie, 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:37.000 you know, Um, did you watch The Beverly hill Billies? 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:41.240 I did, like a lot. Uh, yeah, yeah, I watched 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:43.720 it a lot. So do you remember the time or 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:46.040 the period? I guess it was a phase where Jethrow 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:50.720 ended up becoming like a movie producer in Hollywood. Yeah, 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:52.840 it was got a little weird later in that show, 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:55.639 it really didn't get weird. So it's not clear whether 0:20:55.760 --> 0:20:59.760 this is that Hollywood producer of Jethrow or the original 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:04.320 uh mountaineer son of Jethro. Either way, it works pretty good. 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.240 But he takes Alexander and the search party out there. 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:10.080 I guess he gave enough of an explanation and was, 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:12.800 you know, pointing out different spots well enough that they're 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:16.440 like either they believed him or they just didn't really care, 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:20.120 and they kind of headed on Basically, Yeah, I mean 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:22.359 he showed bullet holes in a tree, or not holes 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:25.960 but bullet markings, uh, which you know Kansas in the 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:28.120 eighteen seventies, about half the tree said bullets in him. 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:31.359 So that doesn't prove anything, but like you said, it 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:34.840 was enough at least sniff them slightly off the case, 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:38.520 at least temporarily. Um. But they came back a few 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:42.440 days later. Said, listen, we heard about this lady over 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:46.080 the past few days who came here. And I don't 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:51.000 want to really start anything, but she said that you said, 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:53.320 here's your supper, and it was guns and n eyes. 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:57.880 There's something about a pistol supper or something like That's 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:01.760 that's weird. She ran away barefoot for two miles and 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:03.480 no one made a big deal out of it. But 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:06.040 now we kind of want to know. This is where 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:10.080 mob Bender all of a sudden starts speaking English. Apparently 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:13.000 the quote is she flew into a violent patch and 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:15.560 and went off saying, you know that that lady was 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:19.840 a witch and she has uh you know, cursed Kate's 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:23.359 coffee and that she was gonna drink and if she 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:25.480 ever comes back here, I'm gonna kill her. We got 0:22:25.480 --> 0:22:27.159 her out of here. She was a witch. Yeah, she 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:30.880 converted Kate's coffee into that mushroom coffee, and now Kate 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:35.359 refuses to drink it. What's mushroom coffee? It's exactly what 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:39.960 it sounds like. Don't actually have coffee. Oh, it's made 0:22:39.960 --> 0:22:43.720 out of mushrooms. Yeah, uh yeah, you should try it sometime, 0:22:43.760 --> 0:22:46.080 just to say you tried it. Now. That's what on 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:49.560 those survival shows. They get like roots and twigs and 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:53.440 boil that stuff down. They're like, here's my morning coffee. 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:57.600 Have fun with that. So um so they so again 0:22:57.840 --> 0:22:59.880 still like they were kind of like, Okay, this family's 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:02.920