Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1873-05-24
fT.Hl IHe InlCagO IHbunos
THE KANSAS HORROR.

THE KANSAS HORROR.
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 novel of Catherine" was phara-
phrase. The adventures told in the BIZ
ographies Of Jack Sheppard and Dick
Turpin: the horrors that Sue and the
elder Dumas invented to satisfy morbid
appetites; the blood 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 wayside
inn, with its trap-doors and its murders,
which people have cone to regard with
the disgust that attends ascertained ex-
aggeration, have all been rendered pos
-ible by the systematic and prolonged
butchery practiced by the Bender fami-
ly in Southern Kansas.
Jroppmann enticci away single
family on the pretext Of discovering in
heritance and murders all the members
Of it, but the Blenders and their confed-
crates lay in wait for all people who
happened to come their way, and slaugh-
tered them with the prospects of small
gain.
The disappearance Of DR.. York, o
brother of senator York, who exposed
the Pomeroy bribery, caused the first
vigorous investigation into the cause Of
numerous similar disappearances that
had occurred in q section of Kansas not
far from Independence. DIR. York was
missed about the middle Of last March,
and a short time ago, Senator York or
ganized 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 q
house situated about half way between
Drum Greek and Big Hill in a dismal
expansa of prairie-land. This house was
Il sort of halfway stopping place, COM
bining a grocery and eating-house, where
travellers usually halted for lunch. The
house was KEEP by family named
/ Bender. consisting Of the old man, and
Young man, said to be the father and
son. and ali Old woman, and a young wo-
man said TO be mother and daughter.
Both couples were supposed to be marri
1 ed but the young gwoman. who professed
/ to be spiritualistic medium, to tell for
tunes and to cure diseases, had a reputa-
ton in the neighborhood. When the
object of Senator York's search became
known to these people, the young man
offered to assist the party, and the young
woman desired to make an appointment
with Senator York, when, she promised
she would reveal the manner of his
brothers disappearance through the aid
Of the spirits. Little attention was paid
to these offers, and Senator York and
his party went on. They were obliged
to return at last without having discov-
cred any clue of the mysterious disap-
pearance. Senator York then employed
: 4 detective named Beers, who went to
work at the case After some days,
Beers attention was drawn to the Ben
! der house. and. when he went there, he
, found that it had been deserted. The
whole family, warned by Senator York's
, search, had fled Their absence increas-
, ed the detectives suspicion. Search
was instituted ut once, and traces of the
/ missing I ork were soon discovered
The first convincing evidence of foul
play in the house was found when Beers
; lifted the trap door in the floor, and the
sickening stencil of decomposing re-
= mains came rushing through the open
= ing. This satisfied Beers that DIR. York
: had met with violent death, on these
/ premises, and he prosecuted his search
G still further a patch of ground at the
l. back of the house had been newly plow-
f cd over, and Beers carefully examined
V it in search of disturbance or sub-soil.
Y Having found spot which looked as
c though earth had been thrown up, he took
o a wagon-rod, plunged it in the ground
+ and at depth of about four feet, it
j pierced what was subsequently found
e to be the remains of a human body
V Men were set to work to dig, and a body
S was found, which was subsequently iden-
Y titled as that of DR.. York.
e The finding of York's body induced a
n search for others which resulted in the
IS finding of nine bodies in all, several of
n- which were identified as those of per
a sons who had suddenly and mysterious
le " disappeared within few months
Is back 1t was discovered that there had
ID been regular system for burial. Each
h body had been deposited near tree,
;" which was then pruned in a manner to
/, indicate that one burial had been made
v in that spot, so that there would be nc
le danger of digging grave where ono
/. body aires d. rested. This systematic
arrangement showed that the murderer'
to seriously and deliberately counted upoI
O. filling up the patch of ground Will
in corpses, making church yard-Sceme
en- terry without tomb. The bodies wer'
re all deposited after regular SYSTEM
as the right arm folded across the breas
u { the left arm stretched down at the side
en- There was a disposition to economic
'e- groud, as if it was feared that the burr
ed al-place would not accommodate all tn
to victims, for some of the bodies wer
N placed on the side in narrow bitches, an
rs; some doubled in squatting position
1T. Three more bodies were discovered da
M before yesterday, making twelve in al
The search still continues, and it is I'M