River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1880-09-23
WE'RE THE RENDERS LYNCHED!
senator Work. whose Brother Was
One of Their Victims, Does Not Be-
Ifcve the Renders Were Eynched.

Iieve the Renders Were LJnched.
Hon. A. York, of Fort Scott, Kan,
whose brother was murdered by the
Blenders in 1878, writes to the editor of
the Fremont Herald as follows:
Your letter of the 10th, king if |
believed the Blenders TO have been
lyncheI, came duly to hand. In reply
to your inquiry would say that | do
not believe the Blenders were lynched.
There are two theories as to their hav
ing been lynched: One that they were
killed by band of vigilantes; the other
that they were put out of the way by
their confederates. | can not conceive
it possible that the first theory is COR
rect for the following reasons: In the
first placeI was actively engaged in
their pursuit for year after they dis
appeared, and think it extremely inn
propable, and well nigh impossible that
they could have been lynched by Il
vigilance committee without the fact
having come to my knowledge, and
it is certain that neither myself or any
of my family have such knowledge, or
have the slightest reason to believe that
they were disposed of. Another reason
| why | do not believe it is that there can
be no possible reason assigned for CON
cealment, were it true Their crimes
were so terrible and the public mind
was so wrought up over their cnormit-
| les. that instead of condemnation al
most universal approval would have
resulted from their summary punish
ment And still another reason against
| he first theory that regard as unan-
swerable is that thcy-the Benders-
had disappeared weeks before the dis
covery Of their crimes As to the the
DRY that they were destroyed by their
| confederatcs, there are no known facts
in support of it, nor anything indicating
it, and it is purely conjecture that such
was the case. | concede there are
many reasons that might with
others to be induced to think that such
was their fate, were it not that facts, or
what | deem to be facts, positively
negative this view Of the case.
Funds were appropriated by Gov.
/ Osborn, at that time governor of Kan
sas, to prosecute the search for the
| Beuders The funds were disbursed by
| Col. c. j. Peckham, at that time n
resident of independence, Nan, and
he employed a detective by the name
of Bears | was fully conyersant, as |
| believe, with all that was done, and
with the report of Bears from time to
| time, and according to the informa-
ton so obtained, the Blenders took the
| cars at Thayer, on the L., L. & G. Il. r.
| about the 9th of April; went from there
to Chaute and changed onto the NJ, X.
| & Il. Il. r., and went south; left the
I ~, L. II,
went some twenty miles into the
country southeast from Caddo, where
| they remainded about two weeks;
| they then went by wagon to Red River
! station, ON the same line, between the
/ territory any Texas, about one hundred
miles west of Denison, where they re-
mained or some time. From there
| they went to the Rio Grande river, on
! the extreme western border of Texas,
and united themselves with band of
ten others whose principle business was
to collect horses and mules in the
winter and send them to Colorado in
the spring for sale. This is a briefsum-
mary of the facts reported by the de-
tective and corroborated by entirely in
! dependent sources of information.
| Their retreat was well chosen. 1t
was peopled by outlaws and savages,
where the civil law was absolutely
powerless to arrest fugitivcs from jus
tice, and nothing but the military could
have captured them. They had ample
time to make their escape after the
time it is supposed they fled and the
| discovery of their crimes.
lam aware that the prevailing opin-
ion is contrary to the one | have ex-
pressed, but were the public as CON
versant with what was done by the
authorities to trace them, and the facts
reported by the detectives, with all the
attending circumstances, as | am, l
think there could be but one intelligent
opinion.