Kate Bender Murder

This paper will provide information about the Bender’s family, cabin, killing process and the search and discoveries of people that went missing. The paper will also explain how they arrived in Labette County, Kansas and why they left.
One of the most outstanding member’s of the Benders family was Kate Bender. Kate was 23 years old, the youngest of the family; she was the charming person and would lure residents or travelers into the cabin. Some people would seek Kate since she claimed she had the power to cure diseases. There are some instances were Kate would attempt to murder her clients. For example, when Kate was performing a séance with a visitor Kate wanted to attack the visitor claiming the spirits commanded Kate to kill the visitor.

The bodies had different markings hinting that a sledgehammer was used to kill them or had their throat slit. Most of the bodies had their skulls crushed from the back except for the Longcor child who was suffocated. People think the child was thrown alive into the grave and dropped her father on top of her. Another body was identified as Henry McKenzie, who was the cousin of LeRoy Dick’s wife. He stopped to visit the Benders and while eating supper got hit with a sledgehammer, had his throat cut and was stabbed several times. Ben Brown, WF. McCrotty and John Geary were found, but many bodies were unidentifiable. Johnny Boyle was found sitting in an old shallow well. The people killed by the Benders between 1871 and 1873 are unknown, and the money gathered from the victims is also unknown. Although people reported on how much money each person had been carrying and the total summed up to about 5,000 dollars. People are uncertain if the Benders killed people for their money or not. The killings made people seek vengeance and decided someone had to pay the consequences. Since the Benders fled the only person to suspect was Rudolph Brockton, who was involved with Kate Bender. The thought of the people was that Rudolph knew what the Benders were doing and warned them ahead of time. The angry mob insisted Rudolph to confess about his involvement with the Benders crimes. The mob later attempted to lynch him four times. Relic hunters soon arrived at the Benders house and started taking everything. An estimated amount of 3,000 people were at the Benders land at once. Once word got out about the Bloody Benders people formed groups to search for any trace of the family, even authorities searched for more than fifty years and did not find anything leading to the Benders. Eventually, Ed York set a 1,000-dollar reward for any information leading to the arrest Benders. Thomas Osborn,