Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-05-22
HI KANSAS HORROR.
The by the Bender FamiIy-A
Tale of Horror Surprising the COnjur-
ings of the Most Fervid Imagination.

1t has been left for American frontier
life to develop a story of crime more
horrible and more mysterious than any
told in the fiction of which Mr.. Thack-
eray's Catherine" was a paraphrase.
The adventures told in the biographies
of Jack Sheppard and Dick Turpin ;
the horrors that Sue and the elder Du-
mas invented to satisfy morbid appe-
titles the b~lood-curdling sketches
evolved out of Poe's abnormal imagina-
ton the staple. of the "Dime Novels"
and the weekly serials the traditions of
the sensational drama with the way-side
inn, with its trap-doors and murders,
which people have come to regard with
the disgust that attends ascertained ex-
aggeration, have all been made possible
by the systematic and prolonged butch
cry practiced by the Bender family in
Southeastern Kansas. The series of
murders in the Black Forest which
Charles Reade utilized in one of his
stories, and the slaughter which made
Troppmann's name known throughout
the world, do not compare in point
of pure and unauthorized horror with
this case. Troppmann enticed way a
single family on the pretext of discover
ing an Inheritance, and murders all the
members of it, but the Benders and
their confederates lay in wait for all
people who happened to come their way,
and slaughtered them with the prospects
of small gain. The Chamber of Hor-
rors " In Madame Tusseaud's London
collection of wax figures does not, with
all It's hldeOus caricatures, present so
complete a picture of human depravity
as has been tracedto an isolated frontier
settlement in Labette county, Kansas.
The disappearance of DIR. York, q
brother of Senator York, who exposed
the Pomeroy bribery, caused the first
vigorous investigation into the cause of
numerous similar disappearance that
: had occurred in a section of Kansas not
r far from Independence. DIR. York was
missed about the middle of last March,
! and, a short time ago, Senator York or
: gained a party to scour the country in
search of some trace of him. DR.. York
was known to have taken the route be-
tween Independence and Usage Mission,
. and the securing party came across a
house situated about half way between
Drum Creek and Big Hill, a dismal ex-
panse of prairie land. This house was
a a sort of half way stopping place, COM
bining a grocery and clearinghouse,
r where travellers usually halted for lunch.
The house was kept by a family named
e Bender, consisting of the old man and
q q young man, said to be father and son,
and an old woman and a young woman,
Q said to be mother and daughter. Both
0 couples were supposed to be married,
e but the young woman, who protested to
! be O s~piritualistic medium, to tell for.
tunes and to cure diseases, had a bad
reputation in the neighborhood. Wher
n the object of Senator York's search be-
came known to these people, the young
% man offered to assist the party, and tie
young woman desired to make an APP
IL pointment with Senator York, when, sht
l. promised, she would reveal the mannel
of his brothers disappearance through
y the aid of the spirits. Little attention
was paid to these offers, and Senator
is York and his party went on. They were
" obliged to return at last without having
ID discovered any clue to the mysteriou.
4 disappearance. Senator York then EN-
~ u ployed a detective named Beers, who
went to work at the case. After some
re days, Beers attention was drawn t.
lg the Bender house, and, when he wen
% there, he found that it had been de
y, serted. The whole family, warned b.
8. Senator York's search, had fed. Theil
at absence increased the detectives sus.
in picion. Search was instituted at once
G and traces of the missing York were
soon discovered. The first convincing
ic evidence of foul play in the house wal
lie found when Beers lifted a trap-door il
he the floor, and the sickening stencil O
p decomposing remains came rushing
'ie through the opening. This satisfied
1e Beers that DIR. York had met with
n. violent death on those premises, and h
tn prosecuted his search still further. !
patch of ground at the back of the hous,
ne had been newly plowed over, and Beer
ne carefully examined it in search of a dis
er turbance or sub-soil. Having found
spot which looked as though earth haC
been thrown up, he took a wagon-rod
as plunged it in the ground, and, at
i'd depth of about four feet, it pierced wha
ed was subsequently found to be the re
~ mains of a human body. Men were Sc
re- to work to dig, and a body was found
ny which was subsequently identified a
as that of Dr.. York.
al The finding of Yorkls body induced
a search for others, which resulted il
a the finding of nine bodies in all, severa
DIS of which were identified as those of pei
sons VINO mad suddenly and mysterlousI
n, disappeared within a few months back
M 1t was observed hat there had been
regular system of burial. Each bod
en- had been deposited neal a tree, whic.
m was then pruned in a manner to indicat
ey that one burial had been made in tina
az spot, so that there would be no DANCE
OF digging a grave where one body a
ready rested. This systematic arrange
:" ment showed that the murderers serious
til ly and deliberately counted upon film
he up the patch of ground with corpses
e. making a church-yard without a churcl
az a cemetery without a tomb. The bodie
he he were all deposited after a regular sys
cir tem-the right arm folded across til
ed breast and the left stretched down 6
the side. There was a disposition t
economic ground, as if it was feare
IL that the burial place would not accom-