The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-01-12

the Cellar of Their Hotel and Buried
IN the Garden-Were They the Infa-
nous Benders?--Old Kelley's Con-
fession.
IRON tic Chicago Herald
BEAVER CITY, No MANS LAND, VIA
nonGr CITY, KAN, Jan. 3.-The last mem
ber of the Kelley family of monsters, be
nayed bv many TO be identical with the
famous Bender family, has been killed.
The Herald correspondent dispatched
hence several days ago to join the party
then reported to be organizing in Oak
CIV. No Mans Land, for the purpose of
running down the Kelley band of assassins,
reached this country in time to find the
dead bodies of the infamous monsters lying
mon the prairie. The Kelleys were mys-
terious family. Their ranch was few
miles south of Oak City, and while not one
Of their number was ever seen to do any
work. all seemed to be well supplied
with money The family moved on the
ranch in the spring of 1877. Nobody knew
where they came from, and little attention
was paid to them: Old man Kelley did not
come to town very often. When he did
come it was for the purpose Of buying pro-
visions and liquor. He was a short, shriv-
ellea. bushy-haired man, with little squint-
ING blue eyes, long, notified hands, and
yellowish white beard He spoke III high
kew his walk was between a hobble and a
lone. and his clothing, although whole, was
never clean. Mrs Kelley was angular,
sharp featured, and fully as unprepossessing
IN appearance as her husband. The daugh-
ter was perhaps 80 years old. She
was of medium height, coarse featured,
and very powerful. Her hair was long
and wild-that is, it was unkempt and hung
in masses upon her broad shoulders Like
her mother, she was poorly Dire sed. Both
wore calico dreSse and each attracted a
great deal of attention aby the immense
number of rings she wore on her fingers.
Bill Kelley the son, was much taller than
the rest of the family. He was powerfully
built fellow, with heavy jaws, coarse, bushy
hair, all beetle eyes. Bill usually accom-
panied his fat1er to Oak City. AS is the
custom in this country both men were
armed with Winchesters The women sci
dom came to town.
The Kelley ranch was situated on lonely
trail running from Oak City to the Texas
line. The house, which was a rude one
story building, with a cellar, was supposed
to be a hotel At least that is what the
Kelley family said they kept. The patron
age Of the house was not very heavy. Few
persons passed over the trail and fewer still
stopped at the hotel. But the Kelleys
seemed to live comfortably off mysteri-
Gus revenue, and the house and its strange,
unneighborly tenants were believed to be
prosperous.
About the middle of last November per-
sons passing the Kelley Hotel saw that the
place was deserted. Its doors and windows
had been nailed down, but strangely enough,
scarcely a piece of furniture had been re
moved. Everything showed that the Kel-
leys had made hasty departure. The mys-
terry surrounding the identity of the family
and their peculiar actions on the ranch and
in town led several men of Oak City to
search the hotel. This was done about two
weeks after the absence of the kelleyS was
first discovered The front room or parlor
did not prove a fruitful field for the search
ers. There was no carpet in the room. and
with the exception of few pieces of rude
furniture the apartment was barren. The
back room, or dining room, gave the search
ers the first clew to crime SO hideous in its
conception and execution as to rival the
atrocities Of the Bender family. A long
table stood in the center Of the room, and
the remnants of the meal, evidently eaten
by the Kelleys before leaving the place,
were strewn ov - the coverless boards. On
one side of the table, and i'll a place where
the chair of traveller might have rested
during a meal, the searchers found trap
door which could be opened only from the
cellar below. The searcherS reached the Gel
lar by way of a hidden hole outside the
house. Sickening doors greeted the men as
they wOrmed their way into the dark room.
Candles were lighted, however, and by the
light cast by the tapers the searchers dis
covered the source of the stencil. Lying
directly beneath the trap-dOor was the fast
decomposing body of a man, whose head
had been nearly severed from the trunk.
There was nothing upon the corpse by
which it could be identified. The clothes
we're gone, and the jewelry and money, if
the unfortunate traveller had any when he
met his death. were stolen. The
body was taken to Oak City and
buried. The story told by the search
ers created profound sensation
IN the settlement. Another party of men,
armed to the teeth and fully equipped for
The work before them, started for the hotel
TWO days later. This band of searchers
'paded up four more bodies in a little gar
Gen patch near the house, and found in one
corner OF the cellar an AK, the blade and
handle of which were rusty with the blood
Of It's victims, Not one of the bodies could
ne ldentltied. Decomposition had destroyed
Ihe features of the dead, and the clothing
on each skeleton was in tatters.
Inc bodies were taken to Oak City and
guiled beside the corpse found in the cellar.
20 Ho WoHueT UudU une helleyS were myS-
erloUs-so unfathomable. In their isolated
leh beside lonely trail which runs across
Sulp OF country owned by nobody and
ruled by Wholesalers, these monsters mas
queradlng as human beings, practiced sys-
enatlc murder until the fear of discovery
put them to light. Their murderous system
was the same as that introduced by the
nenders at Coffeeville The traveller who
was was so fated as to apply for meal at the
M4eneyS was seated over the trap door. If
ne proprietor and his villainous family
Hought the diner possessed money or Jewels
le uap door was sprung from the cellar,
US yictlm shot through the hole like aflash,
lio before he could regain his feet his head
as nearly severed from his body by an ak
'uug ny the monster who lay in waiting
One darkness. There was no escape The
'alhed man persisted before he could utter
Try. II a traveller applied at the house
y. IoaIglng he was murdered by the daugh-
" me girl attended to this part of the
Ole work. She was the siren OF the
Alone with her victim, the girl would
yne napless man with liquor and drugs
~ III SICK l, and dizzy he fell helpless upon the
linen she would draw knife from
garments and with one sweep of IFS
ower. '-' -'A0 'A'0 "0'0 - "0'
w identical were the methods of the
~ 3 IN staying their victims with those
T " benders that the settlers in Oak City
0.. beaver City believe that both families
ere pro one and the same. When the Benders