Bloody Benders

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The Bender family, more well known as the Bloody Benders, were a family of serial killers in Labette County, Kansas, United States, from May 1871 to December 1872. The family supposedly consisted of John Bender, his wife Kate Sr. (or Elvira), their son John Jr. and their daughter Kate Jr. Contemporary newspaper accounts reported that the Benders' neighbors claimed John Jr. and Kate were actually husband and wife, possibly via a common-law marriage. Estimates report that the Benders killed at least a dozen travelers and perhaps as many as 20 before they were discovered. The family's fate remains unknown, with theories ranging from a lynching to an escape. Much folklore and legend surround the Benders, making it difficult to separate fact from fiction.

Read on Wikipedia · Image John Towner James (author), Kan-Okla Publishing Company (Wichita, KS), publisher., Public domain