The San Francisco call., 1910-05-05
DEATH ADDS TO
BENDER MYSTERY
Was Mrs. W. Peters, Who Died
at Rio Vista, the Notorious
Woman in Murder Cases?
special Dispatch to The Call


RIO VISTA. May 4.-Was Mrs. W. Pc
ters, whose lifeless body was found to-
day in her dwelling on the river shore.
the notorious Kate Bender, who. with
her parents and brother, was implicated
in June. 1873, at Cherryvale. Kan, in
the murder of II men.
Living alone and avoided in a dilap-
idated house the woman had few friends
in her last days, but it is told today
over her remains that 10 years ago she
confessed to General John Collins that
she was Kate Bender
1t is said that she admitted that her
part in the horrors was to lure men to
the Bender tavern. After the family
crimes were discovered, the alleged con
fession continued, Kate Bender escaped
from the Kansas town. went to Chi
cago, then made her way to the Atlantic
seaboard and came to San Francisco in
a sailing vessel around Cape Horn.
DR.. r. II. Endicott, formerly of Rio
Vista, now living in Oakdale, has been
mentioned as knowing the story of the
Woman's career. In a telephone inter
view with a Call correspondent tonight
Doctor Endicott said that he knew
nothing of any confession that Mrs.
Peters might have made and nothing
that would tend in any way to con-
meet her with the Bender family.
MARRIED SEA CAPTAIN
About 30 years ago the woman came
to Rio Vista, after having lived in san
francisco, where, it is said, she was
employed as a nurse by DIR. c. G. O'Don-
nell. She ma rried Captain John Gavin.
a whaIer and arctic sealer. but was
separated from him and resumed the
name of Peters, which she said was her
maiden name.
In Rio Vista the woman kept a road
mouse. Ten years ago she was taken
seriously i'll and it was then that she is
alleged to have made her confession to
General Collins
atrocious crimes and the fate of the
murderers has been a subject of CON
tlnual speculation ever since the crimes
were discovered. One story was to the
erect that the four members of the
Bender family were lynched at the
scene of their outrages in 1873
The Benders-father, mother; John. a
son, and Kate, the daughter-ran a
tavern at Cherryvale, near GaIena
suspicion by the countryside. One dav
in June, 1873, DR.. William York dis
appeared after having been seen trav-
cling in the direction of the Bender
tavern.
Later search was made of the
Bender place and in the cellar the
mans glasses were found. The search
was continued and the bodies of 10
victims were found buried in the ward
Nothing definite was learned of the
Bender family after that
FAMILY LANCHED, HE SAYS
On July "a, 1901, a Kansas family
travelling near Denver, professed to
identify a Mrs. Frank Ayres of Fort
Collins, Kan. as Kate Bender. In
August of the same year Cornelius
Stone, a resident of Linn county. ore
declared that he was one of a partv
of men who first discovered the crimes
of the Benders and that he assisted in
the lynching of the entire family. in
cluding Kate Bender.
The woman who died in Rio Vista
was about the age that Kate Bender
would have been had she lived
The old woman, Mrs Peters or Kate
Bender, had been dead several days
before her body was discovered.