The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-05-05
THE BENDER FAMILY.


THE BENDER FAMILY.
DESCRIPTION OF THE OLD MAN BENDER
HOW HE WAS FOUND AND HIS APPEARANCE
PROBABLE WHEREABOUTS OF THE RE-
NAMING MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY.
A short time ago it was announced that
the old man Bender, of Kansas uotorety,
had been found in the mountains some
distance south of Salt Lake CITY. and
of his arrest and imprisonment. A CORES
pendent of the New York Herald writing
from Salt Lake City under date of April 9th.
says: The following is the description given
Of the old man Bender in the circular issued
by the authorities in Kansas: Old man
Bender is fifty-fiv to sixty years old, about
five feet seven inchesin height, round should
cred, dark complexioned; has heavy beard,
cut short; hair long and dark, mixed with
gray; heavy eyelashes, sharp nose, hands
spare, with prominent cords on the backs;
gait slow and sluggish, weight 40
downcast look, and was grim and suriy
In his department. His voice seems
to come rather from the breast than the
mouth. He speaks English in a broken man.
ner, his native tongue being Low Dutch.
He has been wandering now ten months
over the plains and in the mountains, so
that he cannot now appear with ''beard
short CUT" tits long and matted with dirt.
His complexion is not dark; but with that
exception the old man Bender that we have
here answers in every particular to the above
description. There Is nothing Of fierce
murderer's countenance about him, but
there is in his whole appearance 80 little OF
human intellect that 1t Is easy to believe
that he is one of the quartet who murdered
and robbed the unfortunate strangers who
CHANGED to call at the rancho for refresh
ments. This Bender was capable of wit
Messing all such work, and taking any part
in 4 without N
A glance at the prisoner here to-day would
satisfy any reader of human character that
he was capable of doing his full share OF the
Bender work in the way that the Bender
family did it. He is not
DEMoRALIzED BEING
he never had a conception Of morality-he
knows natures wants, and he has thought
of nothing higher-hence to human brutes
of that order the Kansas series OF murders
was a possible and likely thing. In these
particulars, then, the prisoner answers ply |
sically, mentally and morally to the Bender
of Kansas. The presence of such astranger
in thinly occupied country where he was
apprehended was at once against him. He
could not tell where he came from,aRd when
informed that he was apprehended on the |
charge of murder and that he was supposed
to be the notorious Bender, he threw up his !
hands and drew attention to the fact that the
little finger of his right hand was entirely |
gone, and half the little finger of his left hand
was also gone, and added that he could not |
have committed sc many murders, that he was |
physically incapable of much bad work. Here |
the French axiom was that excuses |
accuses himself" and to that he is said to |
have Observation-Disclosures had not lost his |
fngers!" Shortly after his arrest in Sewer |
county he was taken to San Pete county, |
where there was Jail. Wrile he was held |
there young man, stranger, asked to see |
the prisoner, and the jailor admitted him,
a 81 eli old haH
lar talk, and gave evidence of a personal |
acquaintance and interest in each other. In |
old settled countries this might seem too
great freedom to be permitted, but in the
western wilds there is no rule beyond the
within or disposition of the moment. The
stranger left, and has since been tracked and |
arrested as young Bender, and in three days
more will be in the same oaiabose with |
his father. He answers to the official ad
vertisement in all particulars except that in
the circular he is said to have scar on one
hand, while the scar is found on the other
on the young man now in prison in the /
South
QUESTIONED THE OLD MAN
to-day, and with the aid of Mr.. w. L.
Crane, who was in the Office of the county
clerk, in Pike county, Illinois, in 1867, L
am satisfied that he answers to the Bender o
Kansas. The prisoner admitted that ne had
a brother-in-law of the name of Schmidt,
who died in Pike county at that time. and
that he had been appointed the administra
tor of his small estate, where and when Mr..
Crane had occasion to see him, and immed-
lately recognized him in Jail to-day. Bender /
admitted to me that he was farming in |
Kansas after that, and Mr.. E. f. Milhoan,
who had been in the employ of the govern |
ment and supplied the Indians on the Usage |
reservation, assured me that he had almost |
daily seen the prisoner at Bender's rancho |
for months, and knew him to be Bender. |
NJ
structing road past Bender's place
to the reservation, and saw no difference in |
the Bender there and the Bender |
here than fatigue and restlessness. But the two |
women are still at large. Late In the fall
woman came out of the mountains into the
outskirts of Provo, forty miles south of this. |
She was almost naked, and seemed at times |
mentally deranged. She told contradictory |
stories of her past life; but gave out that
she had been disappointed in love and had
wandered from Colorado into the mountains |
in Utah. Pity for woman in distress in
duced Mormon sister to give her q home |
and clothes. and after a little stay the strange
woman left again for the mountains. There |
seems probability that the whole Bender |
family has been in the Watsatoh range Of
mountains all winter. They must have
had great difficulty In finding the means
have aided them, and what with |
the berries and roots to be found |
before winter in the mountains they may |
have provided for themselves AT all events |
they never came from Colorado to Utah in
the winter time. They must have come be- |
fore the snow fell, and the fact that they |
have been found on the west side of the
mountains within the last few weeks shows
conclusively that they have been concealed !
as before stated. Senator A. NJ. York, of
Kansas. whose brother, DIR. York, was the |
last victim of the Benders, is fully satisfied |
that the prisoner here is the "old man Ben |
der" and urges Governor Osborn 70 make |
requisition for him, but the governor seems |
very slow and apparently would like the
Kansas rather than to send for him prob
ably concluding that Kansas might save
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