Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1873-05-24
THE KANSAS HORROR!
AN AWFUL REVELATION
One of the most Fearful Crimes on
Record.
DISCOVERY OF A MURDERER'S DEN CON-
T.. TANNING EIGHT VICTIMS. .

r. TANNING EIGHT VICTIMS. l-
Tho Kansas City (Mo.) Times contain
the following account of dreadful afai
already alluded to in our telegraphic col
umns: r.' .F| 'I ..
What follows in its facts may read lik
the recital of some horrible dream, where
In nightmare mirrors upon The distemper
ed brain countless number of menstrou
and unnatural things, yet what is set dowl
In the narrative is as true as The sun.
From the information furnished to us
last night by q gentleman Just from tn,
scene Of the 6utcRery, and from dispatche,
and accounts already published, we are en-
ablcd TO give tolerably detailed account
OF the monstrous series of murders up tt
date. .. .... s..-..i
The beginning of the end came about in
this wise On the 9th of March, DR.. VIII.
liam III. York, the brother of that other
lork, famous now for his penetration o
the guilty secrets of Pomeroy, and his be.
traya in the supreme moment of the Sen.
atorial crisis OF the trusts confided to his
keeping, left Fort Scott, on horseback, for
bis home in Independence, Kansas. lie
did not come home. His friends watched
and waited for him--his family prayed and
prayed for him--the talk of the town dealt
day after day with him--cxpectatiou deep
ened into downright earnestpess, until on
the 2Sth of March the Lawrence Tribune
gave brief account of the mysterious dis
appearance. All at once thereafter all the
papers in the State took up the tale of his
Journey, OF his nou-arival, Of the fears of
foul play, and of all the little details and
circumstances that might go to show that
he had been murdered. ..... ...., ,......
The most thornuoh eoo rob tpoun 10
hAlte skill was at once commenced His
neghbors turned out en- masSe. His bro
ther, Colonel A. M. York, rested uether
by day nor night in his labors, but followed
what seemed to him trail with the tenaci-
ty of an Indian, and the devotion of saint.
Rivers were dragged, spots fit for an am
bush were probed foot by foot, lonesome
places were questcd as keen hound scents
trail that is cold, routes that he was sup
posed to have followed had scouts upon it
from city to city, the tracks of his horse ev.
Gil were attempted to be identified, but all
to no purpose. Not a shadoY of evidence
rested anywhere to say that DR.. York had
been murdcred-not sign anywhere told
how he came to his death, if death indeed
had overtaken him unawares. He was
traced to Chcrryvale, but no further.
There the trail was no longer trail, but a
myth, mystery, an enigma neither the
unwearied patience of friends nor the sac
rlllcng devotion of brother could solve.
Cherryvale is a small town on the Lea
venworth, Lawrence and Galveston rail
road, and is in Labette county, about fifty
miles from the south line of the State. To
the south of Cherryvale, some two miles or
less, stands frame house, having in front
a large room, where the meals were served,
aud III rear sleeping room, furnished with
tus| AAas nnd Rnme scant additional iurnl-
WILLIAM AND THOMAS BENDER
lived in this house with their wives. To
the right of the dwelling house was an out
house, and in the rear was an enclosed
garden Of possibly two acres.
The search seemed to end suddenly at
Cherryvae. Suspicion, ifever entertained,
fell upon no one. There were various sur
misses, cOnjectures and expressions Of opin-
foh but for the life of any man he could
not say what had become Of DR.. York.
One day, early in April, some men from
Cherryvale rode over to the Bender house
"a tavern too, il was-where entertain
ment was furnished to travellers, TO inquire
concerning DIR. York, and to learn, if pos
sible, some tidings of his fate. They learn
ed nothing, however. None of the Bendcrs
had seen him, nor heard of him, nor his
mysterious disappearance, nor anything
that pertained to him. Very we'll, the mon
said, and they rode back again as fully in
formed as before.
VIM. Bender, the eldest of the brothers,
had a wife who was spiritunlst. The ba-
lance of the Blenders called her medium
the neghbors she devil. She was for
ty-two with irou-gray hair, ragged at the
ends, and thin over her temples. Her eyes
were steel-gray and hard. All the house
hold feared her, dreaded here obeycd her,
and, as the sequel proves, did the devils
work for her beyond all the atrocious dew
lis work ever done in Kansas.
Time went slowly by, and man riding
in one day from the prairie saw no smoke
arising from Bender's chimney. The win
dows were down, the doors were closed,
there was no sign Of life anywhere. These
evidences of emigration did not even inter-
esthm. So absolute was the stupor over the
disappearance of DR.. York that an awak-
ening had to depend upon an absolute dis
covery. This man, however, in riding by
pen to the left of the house, saw dead
calf in the lot, and upon further investiga
ton and with the practical eyes OF prac-
teal farmer, used TO guessing the weight of
live stock upon the hoof, he knew that the
calf had f....
DIED OF STARVATION.
Then the truth came, as an overflow Of
ten comes to q Kansas creek, all of sud-
den and overwhelming. Such death sug-
gested flight, flight meaut guilt, and the
nature of the guilt was surely murder. lie
galloped into Cherryvale, and related what
he had seen. The town aroused itself. A
party was organized instantly, and set out
for the Bender mansion. Then is was re-
membered that about two weeks before this
say somewhere near the Gath of April
William Bender had sold to some persons
either in or near Cherryyale, watch, some
clothing of fine character, two mules, and
perhaps a shot gun or two, and some pis-
tolls. How did he come by these? lflhe
dead could speak, the question might be
readily answered
The party from Cherryvale arrived at the
house directly upon the Usage Mission
road, having the clubhouse in the rear
and to the south of it. In the rear, as we
have said, was a garden. This at first was.
not examined. The first room in the house
was carefully searched, every crack and
creyice being minutely looked into, and
subjected to the application of rods and le-
vers to see if the flooring was either hollow