Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1879-09-13
A NEW MEXICO TRAGEDY.
In Which n Woman Figures Who Is Be
Iieye,i to he the Original Kate Bender.

hill OF Grant County. New Mexico. Is in
81. Louis. en- route for indianapolis.
whittier he is taking a bright 9-year-old
boy, named Josie Granger. The lad Is
the nephew of Bishop Grangerof Indian
apolis. and the Sheriff j. confident that
the boys father. who was the Bishops
brother. was murdered at the Instiga-
ton Of none other than Kate Bender,
who six wears ago was the most odious
woman in the United States. twill re-
quire no effort on the part of the reader
10 call To mind the Bender family. who
for several years kept Il human slangh-
ter-honse in the shape of little hostel
,ie on Il lonely Kansas road. about CD
miles from Fort Scott. The tracing of
a prominent citizen named York TO their
house. and the discovery of his murder.
led 10 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 We're overtaken
and all lynched, or whether they
really escaped and scattered, has al
WAYS been an open question. The most
fiendish member of the family was Kate,
then 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 10 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, a weak
minded. cruel sort of boy, IL Fort
Smith. Ark. A second marriage took
place there, and Josie was the issue.
lie took into his family As nurse and
servant a Young woman who had been a
domestic i'm 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
man named sPar>on Young. and the
boy fired Il, bullet from a needle-gun
through the old mans brain. They dug
hole. damned the body into a heap
and threw II in, then covered ii UP and
stamped the ground'ievel.l Going back
home they divided the old mans pos
sessions. amounting 70 sahout S5,t"".
Young taking one-third, William one
third and the bride Of three
weeks one-third. The authorities sus-
pected something wrong, and a Sheriff
I went 10 the Granger house to arrest the
trio. He found them all in bed together,
and hidden under the bed We're the old
mans gray clothes, which Dora had
chopped into pieces. William was
closely questioned and finally acknowl-
edged that his mothers and Parson Young
! had fixed mp the job on the old man and
induced him TODD the killing. the object
being one of plumber 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 Kat,
Bender She acknowledges that hel
name is Kate. and she knows Il dea
about the Blenders. A Young man whc
went to school with Kate Bender when
she was about IL years old visited Dora
in Jail, and positively identified her a
Kate. In her trunk was found about
$500 worth of silverware, most of il
marked Calf House, Kentucky" Tn,
Sheriff has her picture, and it represents
a woman about 50 years old. with full
heavy face, large lower jaw. very small
eyes. and mouth Of virago. Th'
woman is still in Jail, and will soon b'
tried Meanwhile, the Sheriff intend
to give the little boy Josie, who is YER.
;imiable, intelligent. and who gives ;
graphic account of the murder, in charg'
of Bishop Granger.