Evening star., 1916-08-11

| During the autumn or 1873 ana tne
| following winter and spring many per-
| sons mysteriously vanished between
| Usage Mission and Independence. Kan.
They disappeared as completely as II
the earth had yawned and swallowed
them up. Wide search was instituted
but no clue as to their fate could be
obtained. and the news soon spread FAR
and wide that a reign Of terror was
raging in that lonely part OF the
| country.
| One early morning that autumn John
Boyd, carpenter. bade his young bride
goodbye and started to walk from In
dependence to Parsons, where he mad
obtained work. His heart-broken wife
never saw or heard from him again
| One Langnor, a widower, of 1ndepend-
ence, started out soon afterward IN ms
| wagon to take his little girl to her
grandmother near Fort Scott, and both
| he and the child disappeared. although
! the team was found tied in grove
| forty miles from home. About the
same time a man named Mackenzie
| was returning afoot from 1ndepend-
| ence to his home in Neosho county,
Then there was farmer named
Brown. who started home from Neosho
county the following autumn, but VINO
never got there. He had just collect
ed sum of money and had bought a
new team, which also vanished. Dur
ing that winter, at different times ana
places, two naked bodies were found in
Cherry creek, which runs through the
same neighborhood These victims had
been killed by blow on the right
fovp ny=i@ ;,,Rf t,,- h11
! mer. They were never identified. Final
ly, in the spring that followed DR..
A. NJ. Yorke. prominent citizen OF
Fort Scott, started out on visit to
his brother in Independence. Next
| morning he was met and recognized
about eight miles beyond a certain
farmhouse. where he had spent the
night. That was the last known of
him.
The brother. Col. Yorke, whom he
was about to visit. happened to be
man of wealth. He set about to solve
the mystery and started house-to-
house inspection of the entire COM
munity. He offered liberal rewards for
information bearing upon his brothers
disappearance, but his search had about
proved futile. when one morning two
men and two women drove into Thayer,
Neoso county, in two-horse wagon.
They unhitched the horses. tied them
to the back of the wagon in which
was some hay. and then going to the
depot took the early train north. buy
ing tickets for Humboldt. The horses
remained until nearly starved. when a
farmer took them to his barn. AS no
one appeared to claim them he ad-
vertised them as strays. About the
same time a man living in a little val
ley in the mystery-ridden area hap
pened at the house of family named
Bender, where he found a dead calf
lying with halter about its neck. 1t
had starved to death. Going to the
house, he found it deserted and news
of the fight Of the Benders-the same
persons who had deserted their team
at Thayer-was Immediately reported
to Col Yorke, who forthwith began
an investigation of the premises In
ten days he found the. body of his
brother. which. with eight other
corpses, lay buried in deep. narrow
graves which had been systematically
dug. The top soil had been removed
and kept separate from the underlying
clay and there had been care to re-
turp the bottom layer before adding
the~top. Col. Yorke found these graves
by patiently probing the earth with
not been disturbed the rod would stop
upon reaching it. So wherever this
probe would penetrate deep into the
earth he dug with the results men
had been killed in the same. manner
as had those found in the nearby creek.
In the right temple was q hole about
an inch in diameter. where hammer
skull. and the throat was cut two
thirds around into the neck bone. In
vestigating the cellar, Col. Yorke was
almost sickened by stencil caused by
vast quantities of blood. But the most
sensatio discovery was made in the
rooms above. Here the arrangement
of the furniture and other appointments
revealed the modus operandi OF the
murderers to have been as follows:
As each victim lured to the Bender
house in some way had entered the
front room he had been invited to sit
upon a certain bench. While resting
upon this his head naturally rested
against a canvas partition. through
which the slayer crushed his head with
a hammer found in the back room.
After sinking to the floor. the body
would be pulled back until the head
came over trapdoor leading to the
cellar. Here. as revealed by blood
stains. the throat would be cut. Then
the body was rolled UP in an old tent
cloth and carried outside for disposal.
The corpse of the little Langnor girl
was discovered among the others.
Meanwhile the Renders had fed-no
one knew whittier They had come to
the neighborhood only about a year be-
fore and had taken up 100 acres in the
lonely valley. Indeed. they had SO located
their house that every hishroad on the
nefghborhood radiat ed to their place The
house was little shack of about fourteen
by twentyfouT feet. and the front room
was fitted up as a small store. which is
believed to have been only decoy for
wayfarers The family consisted of Will
liam Bender. sixty years old; his wife.
aged ffty-five: their daughter Kate, twen-
ty-ive, and a son. John, twentythree.
Kate. who had steel gray eyes and
wealth of yellow hair. posed a magnetic
healer. and her role was to firt with
passersby. lure them into the house and
seA that they were seated beside her on
the bench against the canvas partition.
through which they were murdered. The
family were all Germans. Indeed. the
father could speak no English. He was
rnorose and sulen. He paid no attention
to travellers who entered his place.
What became of the Benders was never