Episode 143: Horrors on the Homestead
In this week's episode Kate and Paul travel back to 1871 Kansas where a family goes missing out in the settled plains of the Old West. After a few possibly related crime scenes are discovered, the scope of the case grows and grows.
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Sources:
“Are They the Benders?” The Saint Paul Daily Globe. January 11, 1888: 4. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059522/1888-01-11/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=1887&sort=date&rows=20&words=family+Kelly&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=6&state=&date2=1888&proxtext=Kelly+Family&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=8.
“The Bloody Benders.” Evil Kin. Season 2, Episode 2. Investigation Discovery. 2014. https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/video/evil-kin-investigation-discovery/the-bloody-benders
“BLOODY BENDERS (PART 1): Family of Monsters, at Linwood Cemetery, Glenwood Springs, COLORADO.” Faces of the Forgotten. YouTube video. August 29, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIATE7TNZHY&list=PLB6vsr675JiEsnbUa_GljRzE7SS7FRJ5f&index=1
“BLOODY BENDERS (PART 2): Excavations for Artifacts, More Victims? In Cherryvale, Kansas.” Faces of the Forgotten. YouTube video. January 25, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRidkoF_ZfM&t=992s
Case, Nelson. “The Bender Slaughter-Pen.” In History of Labette County, Kansas: From the First Settlement to The Close of 1892, 86–90. Crane & Company, Publishers, 1893.
James, John T. The Benders of Kansas. Kansas-Oklahoma Publishing Co. 1913.
Jonusas, Susan. Hell’s Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, A Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier. Viking, 2022.
Potter, Tim. “The Bloody Benders: 140–Year-Old Crime Scene Still Fascinates Today.” The Wichita Eagle. August 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131004213258/http://www.kansas.com/2013/08/24/2962349/the-bloody-benders-140-year-old.html
Roath, Beverly. “The Bloody Benders: Kansas, ca. 1870–1893.” Malice, Madness, and Mayhem: An Eclectic Collection of American Infamy. 2010. 6 pages. https://web.archive.org/web/20111010080847/http://www.flexassistant.com/images/Benders.pdf
Scott, Robert F. “What Happened to the Benders?” Western Folklore 9, no. 4 (1950): 326–337.
Triplett, Frank. “The Bender Family.” In History, Romance and Philosophy of Great American Crimes and Criminals with Personal Portraits, Biographical Sketches, Legal Notes of Celebrated Trials, and Philosophical Disquisition Concerning the Causes, Prevalence and Prevention of Crime . . ., 557–581. University of Minnesota Press, 1885.