The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1873-05-22

itse1f.u.A., patty. uxas, Organized instantly
and set out for the Bender fHansi6A.- Inen
it was reme1sbeHd that Rtplt i've weeks
before this say Bd&eYffrS geer tnl
Of April-William Bender had SOD td
some persons eithersin or near Cherryvaie
d watch; sofhe clUtlfmg Of d fine Character;
two mules, and perhaps shotgun or two
and some pistols. How did he come ny
thescs If the dead could speak, the ques-
ton might be readily answered. -.
The party from Cherryvale arrived az
the house directly from the Usage Mission
road, having the clubhouse in the rear ana
to the south of it: - -
In the rear, as we have said, was a. gar:
den. This, at first, was. not examined.
The front room of the house was next care
fully searched, every crack and crevice
being infinitely looked into, and subjected
to the application of rods and levers to see
If the flooring was either hollow or loose
Nothing came of it all. No blood spots
appeared. The floor was solid; the walls
were solid. Ifthere were dead men about
they were not in the front room. Then
came the back room. The beds were re.
moved. In his flight the elder Bender had
left everything untouched. Not even the
doors were locked, though such had been
the reputation of the she-devil thai ...e
premises stood as safe from intrusion as if
protected by devil in reality. After the
beds had been removed, one of the party
noticed slight depression Ii the focr;
which, upon closer examination, revealed
trap-doOr upon hinges. This was imme-
diately lifted up, and in the gloom pit
outlined itself, forbidding, cavernous, un-
known. Lights were procured, and some
of the men descended. They found them
selves in an abyss shaped like 9 well,
some six feet deep and about five feet in
diameter. Here and there little damp
places could he seen as if water had come
up from the bottomsos& been poured; dawn
from above: They: gropsd about over
these splotches and held up . handful u
the light. The !ooze. ,smeared itself over
their palms and dribbled through their
fingers. 1t was blood-thick, fetid, clam
my, sticking, blood-that they had found
cropping there in the void-the blood, per-
haps, ofgQme poor belated traveller who
had laid himself down 10 dream OF home
and kindred, and who had died while
dreaming of his loved ones. The party
had provided themselves with q long,
sharp rod of iron which they drove into
the ground in every direction at the bot
tom of the pit, but nothing further re-
warded their search, and they came away
to examine the garden in the rear Of the
house. After boring, or prodding,, as it
were, for nearly an hour, the rod was
driven down into spot, and when it was
Withdrawn something that looked like
matter adhered to the point. Shovels
were at once set to work, and in a few
minutes corpse was uncovered. 1t had
been buried upon its face. The flesh had
dropped away from the legs. There was
no coffin, no winding sheet, no prepara-
ton for the grave, nothing upon the
body but an old shirt, torn in
places and thick with damp and decay.
The corpse was tenderly disinterred, and
laid upon its back in the full light of the
soft April sun. One look of horror into
the CHASTITY face, fostering and swollen,
and dozen voices cried out in terror:
MY God, it is DR.. York; And 1t was.
He had been buried in shallow hole,
with scarcely two feet of dirt over him.
Had he been murdered, and how? They
examined him closely. Upon the back Of
his head and to the left, and Obliquely
from his right ear, terrible blow had
been given with a hammer. The, skull
had been driven into the brain, and from
the battered and broken crcvices dull
stream of blood had oozed, plastering his
hair with a kind of clammy paste and
running down upon his shoulders. Strong
men turned away from the sickening sight
even had to leave the garden and remain
F,.o,,, f1,nc oh 1,1nc IF tho hnfnhnrc
1t seemed as if the winds carried the
tidings to Cherryvale. In an hour all the
town was at the scene of the discovery. A
coffin was procured for DIR. York's body,
and his brother, utterly overwhelmed, sat
by the CHASTITY remains as one upon whom
the hand of death had been laid. He could
not be comforted.
But the horrible work was not yet CON-
pleted. The iron rod was again put in re-
QUESTION, until six more graves were dis
covered, five of which each contained
corpse, and the sixth, containing two, an
old man and little girl. Some were in
the last stages of decomposition, and
others, not as far gone, might have been
identified if any among the crowd had
known them in life.
The scene was horrible beyond descrip.
ton. The daylight fled from the prairies,
but the search went on with undated
vigor. A fascination impossible to define,
held the spectators to the spot. The spirit
of murder was there, and it kept them in
spite of the night and the horror of the
surroundings. The crowd increased in.
stead of diminishing. Coffins were pro-
vided for all, and again was the search re-
newed. 1t was past midnight when our
informant left, but three more graves had
been discovered, each supposed to contain
a corpse, although they had not been open
ed. The whole country is aroused. COuriers
and kilograms have been sent in every d.
rection with descriptions of the Benders,
and it is not thought possible that they can
escape. With the crowd at the grave was
a man named Brockman, who was sup
posed to know something about the MUIR,
ders. Furious men laid hold upon him at
once, and strung him up to beam in the
house. His contortions were fearful. His
eyes started from their sockets, and a livid
hue came to his face that was appalling.
Death was within reach of him when he
was cut down. "Confess! Confessv' they
yelled, but he said nothing. Again he was
ierked from his feet, again was the strong
body convulsed with the death-throes.
Again resuscitated, he once more refused
to open his mouth. He did not appear to
understand what was wanted of him.
The yelling crowd, the mutilated and
butchered dead, the Pickering and stwik-
ing torches suffering in the night wind,
the stern, set faces of his executioners, all,
all passed before him as dreadful phan.
tasmagoria which dazed him and struck
him speeches.. For the third time they
swung him up, and then his heart could
not be felt to beat, and there was no
pulse at his wrists. HE is dead" they
said. But he was not dead. The night
air revived him at last, and he was per-
mitted to stagger away in the darkness as
one who was drunken or deranged.