![[ENCORE] FRONTIER TRAGEDY Ep. 6 | Bloody Benders, Part 2 - Legends of the Old West cover](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpod.wave.co%2Flogo.png&w=1920&q=75)
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This episode contains scenes of graphic violence that may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. At dawn on May 6, 1873, township trustee Leroy Dick stared at the Bender cabin from his horse. More men rode up behind him. They converged just outside the structure. People brought shovels and flasks of coffee. Leroy whistled and called the group to attention. He divided the volunteers into three groups. He instructed the first one to go search nearby Drum Creek. He told the second group to tear apart the interior of the bender's barn and dig up the ground around the structure. He informed a third group that they were coming with him. They were going into the cabin. The volunteers broke formation and and headed for their assigned tasks. As soon as Leroy's group entered the cabin, the smell overwhelmed them. The Benders were gone and they had been terrible housekeepers during their three years on the property. But the lack of basic cleaning wasn't the problem. The worst of the smell came from a specific source. Leroy and his crew moved to the back half of the cabin. They threw aside the nasty canvas curtain that divided the front half from the back half, and they found the trap door in the floor that Leroy had discovered during an earlier visit. They pulled up the trapdoor, climbed down into the cellar, and tried not to vomit. Many of these men, including Leroy, were Civil War veterans. They knew the smell of human decomposition and they were smelling it now. But they didn't see any bodies. The only thing in the cellar was the seven foot piece of sandstone that was used for the floor. They needed to lift it and see what was underneath. To do that, they would have to break the sandstone into chunks. To do that, they would have to move the entire cabin. They drove circular logs under the base of the small rectangular building and tied ropes to the logs. They tied the ropes to horses, gave the signal, and the horses started to pull. Eventually, the horses dragged the cabin a few yards away, enough to give the men access to the cellar. The volunteers poked at the soil around the sandstone, and an even stronger smell wafted up. Several of the men stumbled away to throw up. The town doctor announced that the soil was drenched with human blood, both new and old. There were no bodies, but there certainly had been at some point. The search party dug around the immediate area of the cabin, but they found nothing until sunset. Then a man named Edward York moved toward the apple orchard. He spotted an irregularity in the topsoil among the saplings. He asked someone to bring him a metal rod. He pushed it hard into the dirt. At about 4ft deep, it encountered resistance, pulling it out, a horrible odor came with it. Leroy and other men hurried over to dig. Minutes later, Leroy's shovel found a heavy, lifeless weight beneath the soil. It was the upper body of a man. He was one of the more recent victims, which was why Edward York was able to recognize him immediately. From Black Barrel Media. This is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're bringing you the disturbing stories of the Donner party and the Bender family, a murderous clan who were known as the Bloody Benders. This is episode six the Bloody Benders Part two of two the Cherryvale Horror. In 1872, farmer George Longcourt lived in Rutland Township, Kansas, in the next county over from Labette County. For 18 months, he had taken care of his daughter, Mary Ann, mostly by himself. She was 18 months old, and George's wife had died during childbirth. His neighbors, the York family, had helped when they could, but William and Mary York had four kids of their own, and they couldn't provide the kind of help that George needed to take care of his young daughter and run his farm at the same time. By December of 1872, George conceded that he needed more help than was available in rural Kansas. His wife's family in Iowa wanted him to bring Marianne up to live with them, and George finally agreed. He bundled Marianne into a wagon that had been loaned to him by William York. They headed northeast and stopped at the Bender cabin to rest. Along the way. About six weeks later, in late January of 1873, William York received a letter from George's in laws in Iowa. George and Marianne never arrived in Iowa, and the in laws were concerned. William was concerned, too. He was fond of the little family, and he'd heard rumors of people disappearing on the trail in Libet County. Then he received another piece of news. Outside a village several miles away, a wagon similar to the one he'd loaned to George had been found. The wagon was abandoned, and inside was clothing that belonged to a man and a little girl. On March 4, William York said goodbye to his family and set out to search for the long course. When he reached the site of the abandoned wagon, he confirmed it was the one he'd loaned to his friend two and a half months earlier. The wagon was not on the route that George had said he would use to go to Iowa, so William knew there had to be foul play. Frustrated, William returned home and packed up for a more substantial investigation. He told his wife that regardless of whether or not he found them, he'd return by March 18. He also notified his sheriff of his mission. On or about March 10, he set out to the northeast. William York traveled all the way to Osage mission, 45 miles away. No one had seen the long course. He spent the night at a lodging house, and in the morning he headed back down south. William York never arrived home. March 18th came and went. Mary York was despondent. She called on her husband's brother, Alexander York, who was a state senator. Alexander contacted a third brother, Edward. Edward and Alexander went to Osage Mission, the last place anyone had seen their brother. Then they started working their way south. About halfway between Osage Mission and Cherryvale was a town called Parsons. In Parsons, the brothers received a credible description of their brother from a general store owner. The owner may have even told them that their brother had planned to stay at the Bender cabin down the trail. Satisfied he'd been there recently, they searched the area. Someone suggested they add a person to their search team, a man who was familiar with the Osage trail. That person was Leroy Dick, a township trustee in Labette County. Leroy was relieved to hear from the York brothers. For nearly 18 months, he'd hoped that the disappearances in and around his county would resolve themselves. But they never did. He was happy to join forces with Senator York and his brother. Edward York was blunt and asked the question, did Leroy know of anyone in the area who seemed suspicious? Leroy thought long and hard before replying. People on the frontier were quick to spread gossip and unfounded stories, but he had to say it. He'd been hearing complaints about the Benders for almost two years now. He talked about the complaints about the bender seances, missing horses in town, the missing people from the trail, and the generally strange behavior. Lastly, he recounted the theft of jewelry and cashier's checks from two German women who had stayed with the family. Leroy hadn't seen the older Benders for a few months, but the York brothers were sold. There seemed to be plenty of probable cause to have a chat with the Bender family. I want to add another perspective about the apparel from our friends at Quint's. You've heard me talk about pants and shirts and jackets, but my sister recently made a couple purchases and I want her to chime in. Here's what she said. 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