The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1873-06-07
The Kansas Horror.

- oe!lS prosecuted Tor more. Among
the victims found is Dr.. William York
brother OF State Senator York (wlu
gained such extended notriety during
the late Senatorial electionl. The
scene OF these wholesale murders lies
one and half miles southeast of More
mead Station, on the road leading from
Usage Mission to Independence. The
bodies were found undera frame house
recently occupied by German family
named Bender, who left the place
some two or three weeks since. This
family consisted of four adults, Bender
and his wife, and son and daughter.
they had settled upon a railroad claim
ten years ago, and although they were
not regarded tavorably BY their neigh
bors, no suspicion existed that they
We're engaged in criminal practices.
lhe daughter professed to be IL spir-
ltual physician, and claimed the art
OF healing all the ills that flesh is heir
TO-. Her mode Of cure is now found
to have been etfectual. The following
Is copy OF her, advertisement pub
llshed in the Independence (Kas.)
Journal:
'Prot. Miss Katie Bender can heal
all sorts OF diseases; can cure blind
| ness, hts, deafness, and all such dis
eases, also, deaf and dumbness. Resi-
dence IA miles east of independence,
on the road from Independence to
Usage Mission,l4 miles southeast of
Morehead Station"
June Is, 1879. KATE BENDER.
The history of the terrible tragedy
is full of interest. Persons had been
mysteriously disappearing for some
time, but as they had no friends to
prosecute an earnest search, but little
attention waspaid to the matter. Some
time in March, while DR.. York was
Oh i visit to Fort Scott, partially
consumed wagon was brought into
the city which the doctor recognized
as the remains OF vehicle he had
sold to Il German in independence.
The parties who broug ght in explained
that they had found it just off the
road between Ladore and Morehead,
and it was supposed to have belonged
to i German who, with his daughter,
had started out few days previously.
DR.. York expressed great interest in
the discovery, and when he started
out on his return home, declared his
intention Of hunting up the details Of
the supposed crime. About March 10
he left Fort Scott, mounted on q val
liable horse, but never reached his
home; his family becoming alarmed ut
his absence his brother, the Senator,
proceeded to Fort Scott to inquire
after him. Learning the facts of the
case, he returned over the road, ac-
compained by another brother who
lived in that city and some other per-
SONS and they traced the missing man
to Usage Mission and thence to Drum
Creek, and here all trace OF him was
lost. 1t was at once supposed that
the doctor had been waylaid and mur-
dered, the recent disappearance Of
other persons in the same locality Civ
ing color to the suspicion. Officers
were set to work to ferret out the
murderers, and Governor Osborne
offered a reward OF $500 for the lp-
prehension of every person concerned
in the crime. This stimulated inquiry,
and on the 9th inst. the body OF the
murdered man was discovered by his
brother Edward in a plowed field
about an acre in extent, and ten rods
from the house. He had been stripped
naked and thrown face downward into
a hole four feet deep. The head was
found to be badly broken both temples
crushed in, and an indentation OH the
back of the skull. A shoe hammer
was found in the house fitting the
fracture in the skull, and the suppo-
sition is that the murdered victim was
struck down from behind, and then
his temples broken in by the same
weapon. The face, hair, and whiskers
were in a good state OF preservation,
and the remains were readily identified
by his brother.
This successful issue Of the search
led to closer scrutiny, and, on the
house being entered, an effluyium arc /,
which instantly led to the suspicion
that more bodies We're concealed be-
meath. The building was removed
without delay, and, on the earth being
removed, the gaze Of the beholders
was Mortified by the discovery of eight |
more bodies. All these victims had
been killed by Il blow on the back of |
the head with hammer, and their
throats then cut. The following are
the names Of the persons thus far dis
covered and identified: B. f. Nc
kenzie, identified by his brotherin
law II. Longchor and child eighteen
months old, identified by his fatherin-
law; w. F. Mccarthy, formerly Il
of the l23rd Illinois infantry;
d. Brown identified by some Howard
County man, and John Geary also OF |
County, identified by his wife.
The names of the other two bodies |
have not learned.
Intense excitement prevails, and |
the determination is general to bring
the guilty parties to justice. The
Bender family are supposed to have
gone north. as the agent at Thayer,