Sharp County record., 1879-10-02
A NEW MEXICO TRAGEDY.
In Which Woman Figures Who is be
lieved To be the Original Kate Bender.

lieved to be the Original Kate Bender.
Especial to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
ST. LOUIS, August 30.-Sheriff White
hill of Grant County, New Mexico, is in
St. Louis, EN- route for indianapolis,
whittier he is taking bright 9-year-old
boy, named Josie Granger. The lad is
the henephew of Bishop Granger rof Indian
apolis, and the Sheriff is confident that
the boys father, who was the Bishops
brother, was murdered at the inStiga-
ton of none other than Kate Bender,
who six years ago was the most odiouS
woman in the United States. itwill re-
quire no effort on the part of the reader
to call to mind the Bender family, who
for several years kept human Slaugh-
ter-houSe in the shape of a little hostel
RE on lonely Kansas road, about 6O
miles from Fort Scott. The tracing OF
prominent citizen named York to their
house, and the discovery of his murder,
led to revelations of the most horrifying
character, and the grizzly old murderer
with his inhuman family fled in great
haste from the wrath which must follow
the discovery of the graveyard which
they had made all around their house.
Whether they were overtak ken
and all lynched, or whether they
really escaped and scattered, has al
ways been an open question. The most
fendish member of the family was Kate,
then a stout young woman, whose thews
had grown great in welding the ham
mer that crushed travellers skulls. The
story which the Sheriff of Grant County
tells has reference to Kate. He says
that William F. Granger, the father OF
the boy now in his charge, married a
wife in California, and when she died
moved with his son William, weak
minded, cruel sort of boy, to Fort
Smith, Ark. A second marriage took
place there, and Josie was the issue.
He took into his family as nurse and
servant young woman who had been
domestic in a hotel, and who went by
the name of Dora Hesser. The family
moved to Grant County, New Mexico,
and Dora went along. The second wife
died, and on the 10Th of last September
Granger married Dora. Just three
weeks after that he was enticed into the
mountains by his own son, William, and
a man named Parson Young, and the
boy fired a bullet from a needle-gun
through the old mans brain. They dug
hole, iammed the body into heap
and threw it in, then covered it up and
stamped the ground level. Going back
home they divided the old mans pos
sessions, amounting to about $4,000.
Young taking one-third, William one
third and the bride of three
weeks one-third. The authorities sus-
pected something wrong, and Sheriff
went to the Granger house to arrest the
trio. He found them all in bed together,
and hidden under the bed were the old
mans gray clothes, which Dora had
chopped into pieces. William was
closely questioned and finally acknowl-
edged that his mother and Parson Young
had fixed up the job on the old man and
induced him to do the killing, the object
being one of plunder. He led the Off
GERS to the scene of the murder, and the
body was exhumed Since then the be-
lief has been growing that Dora Is Kate
Bender She acknowledges that her
name is Kate, and she knows deal
about the Benders. A young man who
went to school with Kate Bender when
she was about 16 years old visited Dora
in jail, and positively identified her as
Kate. In her trunk was found about
$500 worth of silverware, most of it
marked "Galt House, Kentucky" The
Sheriff has her picture, and it represents
a woman about 80 years old, with full; 1;
heavy face, large lower jaw, very small
eyes, and a mouth of q virago. The
woman is still in jail, and will soon be
tried. Meanwhile, the Sheriff intends
to give the little boy Josie, who is very
amiable, intelligent, and who gives
graphic account of the murder, in charge