Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1873-05-22
The Kansas Herrer.

tive readers with incarnadine narrstions
of crime most mysterious and horrible,
have never yet imagined anything worse
than the long series Of murders perpe,
trated by the Bender family in their lit
tie wayside cottage down by the frontier
Of Southeastern Kansas. All the horrors
that Sue and Dumas invented to satisfy
morbid appetites, the ghastly sketches
produced from Poe's excited brain, the
sanguinary plots and incidents of Satur,
day night dramas at the cheap theatres,
the staple stories of the weekly serial
all these have been surpassed by the
SYSTEMATIC BUTCHFRY
practiced by these four men and women
for the sake of gain, The trite old adage
that truth is stranger than fiction is real;z'
ed in this case. There are all the cirvum.
stances connected with it that intelligent
people have been accustomed to turn
away in disgust from when they met
them enacted upon the stage or told in
print, with the feeling that such things
we're but the product Of unhealthy ina.
ginatious. The lonely country>house. the
concealing curtain from behind which the
assassins
STRUCK THE DEADLY BLOW
upon the heads of unsuspicious guests,
the hidden trapdoOr through which their
bodies were dropped int a bideous pit,
and the secret place Of burial beneath
the trees Of the nearby orchard, make
up the points 10 tale Of human depravi,
ty that has never been equalled.
The 6rst suspicion was directed towards
the Bender family by the disappearance
Of DR.. York, who was known to have
been travelling between Independence
and the Usage Mission. When
SEARCH FOR HIM WAS RESOLVED UPON,
men came forward with other instances
Of the marvellous vsnishment Of persons
who while 10 that ncighborhood had sud.
denly passed out of mortal sight and
hearing. For more than a month the
vicinity was secured by scouting parties,
but the mystery remained unsolved, and
hidden it might have been to this day il
the Benders had not taken alarm and fed
from their home. Its emptiness attracted
attention to it, The detectives &
EXAMINED THE DESERTED uousE,
and the first evidence of the tragedies
which its walls had witnessed was found
when the tIapdoor in the floor was lifted
and the nauseating stencil Of rotting hu.
man remain. came rushing through the
opening. Subsequently the body of DR..
York and those Of eleven other travellers
we're found in the orchard. The wounds
on the head, which are identical on all the
bodies, indicate how the
VICTIMS NET THEIR DEATH
They were all travellers, who stopped at
the house for refreshments. They were
seated at table in back room, near
which hung curtain. Behind this hiding
place lurked the murderer, who, while
the unsutpicious guest wa, resting from
the fatigues of country joulneying, struck
him down with a hammer. He was then
dropped through the trap door at hii
side into the pit. there bis throat was cut
and bis body rifed Of lis valaables, and
then
DRAGGED OUT AND BURIED.
The arrangement Of the corpses in the
orchard shows that the murderers con.
tempiated filing the entire area Of ground
With them. All the evidences 20 Il
prove that they had entered on a regular
business of slaurhtering all the travellers
who entered their house, and that they
expected to continue their atrocious work
for months or years in the future. Con-
fcderatcs along the read advised them Of
the coming Ct wsyfarers. and ksp. them
informed concerning favorable Opportuni.
ties for
MURDER AND rrLLAeE.
Fortunately such abnormal develop
ments Of criminal tendencies are not fre-
quen:. A murder committed on the
spur of the .aoment for the sake of gain,
or even one murder deliberately planned
for the procurement Of money or valu-
ables, bears no comparison IN enormity
with the schemes and tho deeds Of these
Kansas people. An ordinary burglar
may expect to live by robbery and be
prepared TO take lifo If 10 stands in the
way Of bic purposes, bnt the Benderi