0:00

It's Sunday dawn and a gridiron is sizzling

0:02

with flavor. And here come your hometown heroes.

0:05

Bush's chili beans, red gold canned tomatoes,

0:07

and Tillamook cheese. And we can't forget

0:09

the tremendous team efforts of premium saltine

0:12

crackers and daisy sour cream. It's the

0:14

only way to tailgate effectively every Sunday

0:16

through the playoffs.

0:17

Uh, you guys are supposed to be calling

0:19

the game, not the tailgate. Well, we'll

0:21

catch up at halftime. I'm starving.

0:24

Check out meyer.com for chili recipe

0:26

inspiration and visit your nearby Meyer to

0:28

grab all the ingredients you need.

0:31

Warning. This episode contains

0:34

scenes of graphic violence that may not

0:36

be suitable for all audiences. Listener

0:38

discretion is advised.

0:59

At dawn on May 6th, 1873, Township

1:03

trustee Leroy Dick stared

1:06

at the bender cabin from his horse. More

1:08

men rode up behind him. They

1:11

converged just outside the structure. People

1:14

brought shovels and flasks of coffee.

1:17

Leroy whistled and called the group to

1:19

attention. He divided the volunteers

1:21

into three groups. He

1:24

instructed the first one to go search

1:26

nearby Drum Creek. He

1:28

told the second group to tear apart the

1:30

interior of the bender's barn and

1:33

dig up the ground around the structure. He

1:35

informed the third group that they were coming

1:38

with him. They were going into the cabin.

1:41

The volunteers broke formation and

1:43

headed for their assigned tasks.

1:46

As soon as Leroy's group entered the cabin,

1:48

the smell overwhelmed them.

1:51

The benders were gone, and they had been

1:53

terrible housekeepers during their three

1:55

years on the property. But the lack

1:57

of basic cleaning wasn't the problem.

2:00

The worst of the smell came from a specific

2:03

source. Leroy and his

2:05

crew moved to the back half of the

2:07

cabin. They threw aside the

2:09

nasty canvas curtain that divided

2:11

the front half from the back half, and

2:14

they found the trap door in the floor that

2:16

Leroy had discovered during an earlier visit.

2:19

They pulled up the trap door, climbed

2:22

down into the cellar, and tried not

2:24

to vomit. Many of these

2:26

men, including Leroy, were Civil

2:28

War veterans. They knew the

2:30

smell of human decomposition, and

2:33

they were smelling it now. But

2:35

they didn't see any bodies. The

2:37

only thing in the cellar was the seven-foot

2:40

piece of sandstone that was used for

2:42

the floor. They needed to lift

2:44

it and see what was underneath. To

2:47

do that, they would have to break the sandstone

2:49

into chunks. To do that, they

2:52

would have to move the entire cabin.

2:55

They drove circular logs under the

2:57

base of the small rectangular building

2:59

and tied ropes to the logs. They

3:02

tied the ropes to horses,

3:04

gave the signal, and the horses started

3:06

to pull.

3:07

Eventually, the horses dragged

3:10

the cabin a few yards away, enough

3:12

to give the men access to the solid. The

3:15

volunteers poked at the soil around

3:17

the sandstone, and an even stronger

3:19

smell wafted up. Several

3:22

of the men stumbled away to throw up. The

3:25

town doctor announced that the soil

3:27

was drenched with human blood, both

3:29

new and old. There

3:31

were no bodies, but there certainly had

3:33

been at some point. The

3:35

search party dug around the immediate area

3:38

of the cabin, but they found nothing

3:40

until sunset. Then, a

3:43

man named Edward York moved

3:45

toward the apple orchard. He

3:47

spotted an irregularity in the top

3:49

soil among the saplings. He

3:52

asked someone to bring him a metal rod.

3:54

He pushed it hard into the dirt. At

3:57

about four feet deep, it encountered

3:59

resistance. distance. Pulling it out,

4:02

a horrible odor came with it.

4:04

Leroy and other men hurried over to dig.

4:08

Minutes later, Leroy's shovel found

4:10

a heavy, lifeless weight beneath

4:12

the soil. It was the upper

4:14

body of a man. He was one

4:16

of the more recent victims, which was

4:19

why Edward York was able to recognize

4:21

him immediately.

4:31

From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends

4:34

of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris

4:36

Wimmer, and this season we're bringing you

4:38

the disturbing stories of the Donner Party

4:40

and the Bender Family, a murderous

4:42

clan who were known as the Bloody Benders.

4:45

This is episode 6, The Bloody

4:47

Benders, part 2 of 2, The

4:50

Cherry Veil Horror. In 1872,

4:59

farmer George Longcore lived

5:01

in Rutland Township, Kansas, in

5:04

the next county over from Lebet County.

5:06

For 18 months, he had taken care

5:09

of his daughter, Mary Ann, mostly

5:11

by himself. She was 18 months

5:13

old, and George's wife had died

5:15

during childbirth. His

5:18

neighbors, the York family, had

5:20

helped when they could, but William

5:22

and Mary York had four kids of their

5:24

own, and they couldn't provide the kind of help

5:26

that George needed to take care of his young

5:28

daughter and run his farm at the

5:31

same time. By December

5:33

of 1872, George

5:35

conceded that he needed more help than was

5:37

available in rural Kansas. His

5:40

wife's family in Iowa wanted him

5:43

to bring Mary Ann up to live with them, and

5:45

George finally agreed. He

5:47

bundled Mary Ann into a wagon that

5:50

had been loaned to him by William York. They

5:53

headed northeast and stopped at the

5:55

Bender Cabin to rest along the way. About

5:58

six weeks later, In late January

6:01

of 1873, William

6:03

York received a letter from George's

6:05

in-laws in Iowa. George

6:08

and Mary Ann never arrived in Iowa,

6:11

and the in-laws were concerned. William

6:13

was concerned too. He was fond

6:16

of the little family, and he'd heard

6:18

rumors of people disappearing on the trail

6:20

in Labette County. Then he

6:22

received another piece of news. Outside

6:25

a village several miles away, a wagon,

6:28

similar to the one he'd loaned to George, had

6:31

been found. The wagon was abandoned,

6:34

and inside was clothing that belonged to

6:36

a man and a little girl. On

6:44

March 4th, William York said

6:46

goodbye to his family and set out

6:48

to search for the longcores. When

6:51

he reached the site of the abandoned wagon, he

6:53

confirmed it was the one he'd loaned to his friend

6:56

two and a half months earlier. The

6:58

wagon was not on the route that George had

7:00

said he would use to go to Iowa, so

7:03

William knew there had to be foul play. Frustrated,

7:07

William returned home and packed up

7:09

for a more substantial investigation.

7:12

He told his wife that regardless

7:14

of whether or not he found them, he'd returned

7:16

by March 18th. He

7:19

also notified his sheriff of his mission.

7:22

On or about March 10th, he

7:24

set out to the northeast. William

7:27

York traveled all the way to Osage Mission, 45

7:30

miles away. No

7:32

one had seen the longcores. He

7:34

spent the night at a lodging house, and

7:37

in the morning, he headed back down south.

7:40

William York never arrived home. March

7:43

18th came and went. Mary

7:46

York was despondent. She

7:48

called on her husband's brother, Alexander

7:51

York, who was a state senator. Alexander

7:54

contacted a third brother, Edward. Edward

7:57

and Alexander went to Osage, Michigan.

8:00

the last place anyone had seen their brother.

8:03

Then they started working their way south. About

8:07

halfway between Osage Mission and

8:09

Cherryvale was a town called Parsons.

8:12

In Parsons, the brothers received a

8:14

credible description of their brother from

8:17

a general store owner. The

8:19

owner may have even told them that their brother had

8:21

planned to stay at the bender cabin down the

8:23

trail. Satisfied

8:25

he'd been there recently, they searched the area.

8:28

Someone suggested they add a person to their search

8:31

team, a man who was familiar

8:33

with the Osage Trail. That

8:35

person was Leroy Dick, a township

8:37

trustee in Labette County. Leroy

8:40

was relieved to hear from the York brothers.

8:43

For nearly 18 months, he'd hoped

8:46

that the disappearances in and around

8:48

his county would resolve themselves,

8:50

but they never did. He was happy

8:52

to join forces with Senator York

8:55

and his brother. Edward

8:57

York was blunt and asked the question,

9:00

did Leroy know of anyone in the area

9:02

who seemed suspicious? Leroy

9:05

thought long and hard before replying. People

9:08

on the frontier were quick to spread gossip

9:11

and unfounded stories, but

9:13

he had to say it. He'd been hearing complaints

9:15

about the benders for almost two years

9:18

now. He talked about the complaints

9:20

about the bender seances, missing

9:22

horses in town, the missing people

9:25

from the trail, and the generally strange

9:27

behavior. Lastly,

9:30

he recounted the theft of jewelry and

9:32

cashier's checks from two German

9:34

women who had stayed with the family. Leroy

9:38

hadn't seen the older benders for a few

9:40

months, but the York brothers were

9:42

sold. There seemed to be plenty of probable

9:44

cause to have a chat with the bender

9:46

family.

9:50

Don't miss The Marvels

9:52

in theaters on November 10th, and see where

9:55

the Marvel stories all began when you watched

9:57

Captain Marvel, WandaVision, and

9:59

Miss Marvel.

9:59

only on Disney Plus. Get Disney

10:02

Plus with Disney, Pixar, Marvel,

10:04

Star Wars, and National Geographic. Plan

10:07

starting at $7.99.

10:10

Invest in yourself by investing

10:12

in the long-term benefits of LASIK. You've

10:15

already been saving for this life-changing procedure.

10:18

Even though you may not realize it, simply

10:20

use the dollars accumulating in your health savings

10:22

or flexible spending accounts. Now that

10:24

you've had a solid financial plan, it's time

10:27

to schedule a consultation with the experts

10:29

in vision correction, revision LASIK,

10:31

and cataract surgery. Go to revisioneyes.com.

10:42

Alexander York took the lead.

10:44

He picked up a detective from a nearby county

10:47

and a friend of his lost brother. On

10:50

March 28, 1873, they went to the Bender cabin. The

10:52

two younger members

10:56

of the family, Kate and John Gebhard,

10:58

were home. As Kate welcomed

11:01

the three men into the cabin, Senator

11:03

York got an idea. He

11:05

explained that his brother was missing. Kate

11:09

portrayed herself as a person with clairvoyant

11:11

powers. Maybe she could tell them

11:13

where William York was. Kate

11:16

invited them to sit down. York

11:18

did so, but the other two men remained standing.

11:22

Kate began to sing out a jumble of Latin

11:25

and German. The senator

11:27

was patient, but the other men weren't. John

11:30

Gebhard sensed their anxiety. He

11:33

interrupted and said he'd been shot at the

11:35

previous Christmas, near a spot

11:37

where the body of a missing person had been found.

11:40

He insisted that they follow him down to the

11:42

spot. Kate urged them to

11:44

do so, and she said she needed about

11:47

a week or so to consult with the spirits

11:49

about a case as big as the one Alexander

11:52

York had presented. They should come back

11:54

then.

11:59

nonstop about how someone tried

12:02

to kill him by his creek the previous

12:04

winter. Later, the

12:06

men realized he was just trying to deflect

12:08

and keep them from searching the property. But

12:11

at this moment, they thought he was just simple

12:13

minded. Senator York

12:16

thought the entire family was simple and

12:18

eccentric, but he wasn't convinced

12:20

they were killers. Though the senator

12:22

and his two companions agreed, the family

12:24

was hiding something. The

12:27

three men left to get instructions for

12:29

deputizing a group of men to

12:31

legally search every cabin in

12:33

the area,

12:34

starting with the bender cabin.

12:37

Senator York didn't want the public

12:39

to hear of their suspicion of the family and

12:41

to have a lynch mob arrive before they

12:43

could do a proper search. So

12:46

he kept up the pretense of needing

12:48

to search every house in the vicinity. He

12:51

also wrote to the governor, asking

12:53

the state to offer reward money for

12:55

the person or persons who were responsible

12:58

for the disappearance of so many people

13:00

in this little corner of Kansas. On

13:03

April 8, Leroy Dick held a

13:05

town meeting at the Harmony Grove

13:07

Schoolhouse, which served Cherryvale.

13:10

It was standing room only. He

13:13

told the people what he knew. Over

13:15

the last six months alone, eight

13:17

men and one little girl had

13:19

vanished on the trail through Lebet County. Two

13:22

of them had turned up dead, and there were

13:24

probably more they didn't know about, not

13:27

to mention the deaths and disappearances from

13:29

the past two years. Everyone

13:32

left the schoolhouse that night feeling

13:34

confident that the perpetrators would soon

13:36

be caught. But the next day,

13:39

a powerful rain system moved in.

13:42

For more than two weeks, it rained so

13:44

hard that visibility was virtually

13:46

nil, and the roads were impassable

13:49

by people or horses. The

13:51

search was postponed, much to

13:54

the York family's disappointment. On

13:57

the first day of May, there was a brief

13:59

break. make in the rain. A man

14:02

named Billy Toll owned a homestead

14:04

that was connected to a corner of the Bender Land.

14:07

He took advantage of the clear weather to

14:09

do some work around his farm. At

14:12

midday, he set out to round up

14:14

the cattle that had gone missing during the storm.

14:17

He rode past the Bender

14:19

Cabin, and when he approached, he

14:21

heard a high-pitched whine from

14:23

an animal. He thought it was strange

14:26

that none of the Benders came out to check on the

14:28

troubling noise, so he investigated

14:30

for himself. He found

14:32

a pig lying on the ground, starving

14:35

to death. He jogged over

14:37

to the barn to get some food for the pig, but

14:40

he had to stop about 15 feet away.

14:43

The smell from the barn was overwhelming.

14:46

Having worked on a farm his entire life, he

14:49

knew it was the smell of a dead animal. He

14:52

covered his nose with his sleeve and

14:54

kicked the door of the rudimentary barn. He

14:57

was immediately hit by a wall of flies.

15:00

A dead calf lay on the floor of the damp

15:03

and putrid enclosure. He

15:05

managed to grab a bag of feed for the pig,

15:08

and by now he was furious about the

15:10

mistreatment of the animals. Billy

15:12

Toll stalked over to the Bender Cabin.

15:15

He lost his nerve for a direct confrontation,

15:18

so he flattened himself against a wall and

15:20

peered into the building. It was

15:23

dark and he couldn't see much inside, but

15:26

he could smell, and the stench was

15:28

very similar to what he had just experienced

15:30

in the barn.

15:39

Billy Toll rode away and informed

15:41

two of his friends who agreed to go into

15:43

the cabin with him. They had to

15:45

fight through a cloud of flies. The

15:47

Bender Cabin was clearly deserted. The

15:50

family had left a lot of stuff behind, indicating

15:53

they left in a hurry. Billy

15:55

and his friends hurried to Leroy Dick.

15:58

When Leroy heard that the men had entered the cabin

16:01

without permission, he was upset. Even

16:04

as the suspicion grew around the Bender family,

16:07

Leroy still entertained the possibility

16:09

that they had left because they felt harassed by

16:12

Senator York and his companions. All

16:15

the same, if the Benders were gone, it

16:17

was up to Leroy to take a full inventory

16:20

of the home and its goods. He

16:22

would eventually have to sell the place, or

16:25

God forbid, make sure everything was

16:27

accounted for if the Benders suddenly

16:29

came back. But deep down,

16:32

he felt sure they were guilty of something and

16:34

he wanted to go look around. On

16:37

May 5th, 1873, Leroy went to the Bender homestead.

16:46

He was halted by the same smell that hit

16:48

Billy Toll. But as a Civil

16:50

War veteran, Leroy knew this

16:52

was not just from a dead calf in the barn.

16:55

He was human decomposition and

16:57

he figured he might have stumbled into the final

17:00

resting place of William York. Then

17:03

he noticed a huge mound of manure

17:05

piled against the side of the barn. A

17:08

closer look told him it wasn't manure, it

17:10

was topsoil and a lot of it. Someone

17:13

had been digging awfully deep somewhere

17:16

around the property and piling the

17:18

dirt next to the barn. Looking

17:21

into the cabin, Leroy smelled the

17:23

unwashed dishes and rotting food, but

17:26

he could tell there was another source. At

17:28

the back of the cabin, behind the canvas

17:31

curtain, he noticed a leather strap

17:33

protruding from underneath a mattress. When

17:36

he kicked the mattress aside, a fresh

17:39

odor assaulted him. He pulled

17:41

the strap and opened a trap door. He

17:44

peered down into a cellar until the

17:46

smell of it became unbearable. He

17:48

didn't see any bodies, but they had

17:51

to have been there at some point. Leroy

17:53

closed the trap door and stepped back.

17:57

He looked around while gathering his senses.

17:59

He knelt by the stove to

18:01

see if he could figure out how recently it had been

18:03

used. Then he discovered

18:06

the hammers. There were three of

18:08

them stuffed underneath the oven. One

18:11

was a three inch claw hammer. The

18:14

second had a longer handle and an

18:16

elongated head. The

18:18

last was a homemade sledgehammer

18:21

and it was heavy. The

18:23

hammers along with the smell in the cellar

18:26

made him extremely suspicious. He

18:28

wrapped up the hammers in newspapers and

18:31

packed them into his saddlebags. Riding

18:34

off toward his home in town, he passed

18:36

two local men. He told

18:38

them of his discoveries. The

18:40

two men reminded him of a recent news

18:42

article. A funny looking wagon

18:44

had been discovered broken up and abandoned

18:47

in a nearby town a few weeks earlier.

18:51

Leroy rode home and a

18:53

few hours later, one of the men he'd met

18:55

on the trail showed up at his house. The

18:58

man said he had ridden out to the spot of

19:00

the abandoned wagon and inspected

19:02

it. He believed it was the bender

19:04

wagon, which seemed to confirm

19:06

that they were gone. Leroy

19:09

was back at the bender farm before

19:11

dawn the next morning. A

19:13

dozen or so volunteers rode up to help

19:15

him search the property. He split

19:18

them into groups, gave them their orders,

19:20

and they started their work. They

19:23

searched the nearby creek. They searched

19:25

the barn. They pulled the cabin

19:27

off of its foundation to gain access

19:29

to the cellar. A local doctor

19:32

examined the floor of the cellar and said

19:34

there was evidence of blood everywhere, but

19:36

there were still no bodies. Then

19:39

Edward York found a horse bridle wedged

19:42

behind the ramshackle grocery counter

19:44

inside the bender house. It

19:46

belonged to his missing brother, William. He

19:49

moved outside and looked beyond the

19:51

throngs of people who were digging haphazardly

19:54

around the front of the cabin. His

19:56

gaze fell on the apple orchard. He

19:59

walked out of the house. to the saplings and saw

20:01

the disturbed soil. He

20:04

poked around the soil with a metal rod and

20:06

soon uncovered the body of his brother William.

20:10

Some men gently led Edward York away

20:13

and promised to carefully exhume William's

20:15

body for a proper burial. When

20:18

William's body was out of the ground, the

20:20

doctor examined it. The

20:22

back of William's head had been smashed

20:25

in, probably with something like

20:27

a hammer, and there was a deep

20:29

gash in his throat, and

20:31

after that discovery, it didn't take

20:33

long to find the other bodies.

20:41

Leroy Dick did his best to secure

20:43

the area until the next day. Then,

20:46

at sunup, scores of men

20:48

and women descended on the property. Word

20:51

of possible atrocities on the bender farm

20:54

spread quickly, and everyone wanted

20:56

to see. Local officials

20:58

tried in vain to keep people beyond

21:00

a perimeter of the cabin. Billy

21:03

Toll poked around a place in the ground

21:05

that he thought looked different from its surroundings.

21:08

Pushing a pole deep into the ground released

21:11

a smell that made him gag. He'd

21:13

found another body. Leroy

21:15

ran over to look and nearly passed

21:18

out. It was his wife's cousin,

21:20

Henry McKenzie, who had gone missing

21:22

six months earlier. Just

21:25

like William York, McKenzie's head

21:27

was bashed in and his neck was sliced.

21:30

He was naked except for a white undershirt.

21:33

Though McKenzie had been married for years, he

21:36

liked the company of pretty women. Leroy

21:39

and his wife theorized that Kate Bender

21:41

had lured McKenzie into the home. After

21:44

he was killed, they stole the expensive,

21:46

flashy clothing that he always wore. After

21:50

the discovery of McKenzie, the rest

21:52

happened fast. Searchers

21:54

found the bodies of William McCruddy and

21:56

Benjamin Brown, both of whom

21:58

disappeared the previous year.

22:00

Then there were three more bodies discovered.

22:03

Johnny Broyl's body

22:05

was discovered stuffed down the benders well.

22:12

As horrible as those discoveries were, the

22:15

discovery of bodies number seven and eight

22:17

were worse. Those were George

22:19

Longcore and his young daughter Mary

22:22

Ann, who was 18 months old

22:24

when they went missing. George's

22:27

throat had been cut so deeply that his

22:29

head fell at an unnatural angle. Mary

22:32

Ann's body was in the grave with her father.

22:35

The doctor found no marks on her body

22:38

and no signs of strangulation or cutting.

22:41

He was left with the heartbreaking conclusion

22:44

that she had been buried alive. After

22:47

examining all of the victims and the scene,

22:49

the doctor gave his opinion as to what

22:52

had happened over the previous two years or so. People

22:55

would stay at the bender cabin because

22:57

of its convenient location. Or

23:00

Kate Bender or John Gephardt would

23:02

lure them to the premises with promises

23:05

of speaking to dead relatives. Kate

23:08

had advertised herself to the community as

23:10

a spiritualist who communicated with

23:12

the dead, and she held strange

23:15

seances at the cabin. When

23:17

desperate people fell into the trap and

23:19

agreed to a seance, Kate

23:22

would station them at the table with their

23:24

backs to the canvas curtain that separated

23:26

the front half of the cabin from the back half.

23:29

Then, Pa Bender or John

23:31

Gephardt or both would sneak

23:34

up on the unsuspecting victims from behind

23:36

the curtain. They would hit the victims

23:38

in the head with a hammer to knock them out.

23:41

Ma Bender and Kate would steal anything

23:44

of value. Someone would

23:46

cut the victims' throats and then push

23:48

them down into the cellar. Finally,

23:51

at night, away from any possible

23:53

witnesses, they would bury the

23:55

victims in the apple orchard behind the house.

24:00

The discoveries caused a sensation. On

24:03

May 15 alone, more

24:05

than 3,000 people visited the scene

24:08

of the cherry veil horror. Newsmen

24:11

flocked to the prairie from as far away as

24:13

New York and Chicago. The

24:15

papers dubbed the scene Hell's Half

24:17

Acre, and the hunt for the benders

24:20

started even before the last body was exhumed.

24:23

State Senator Alexander York offered

24:26

a $1,000 reward for information

24:28

leading to the family's arrest. He

24:31

also secured a $500 reward

24:33

from the state of Kansas, which then increased

24:36

to $2,000. With

24:39

the benders in the wind, rumors

24:41

of accomplices swirled. How

24:43

could one family accomplish something so

24:45

diabolical without help? The

24:48

town suspected Rudolph Brockman, co-owner

24:51

of a trading post, who had welcomed

24:53

them in the first place. He

24:55

would be in a position to sell stolen items.

24:59

Mostly though, they suspected him because

25:01

he was German, like the bender clan.

25:04

Authorities arrested a traveling preacher and

25:07

a couple who lived just west of the benders

25:10

because they had attended more than one seance

25:12

at the cabin. Ultimately,

25:14

the accusations and the rumors were

25:17

hollow and false, and all of

25:19

the accused were released. A

25:22

search party traced the benders to the

25:24

nearby town of Thayer about 12 miles

25:26

to the north. The family

25:29

purchased tickets on a northbound train

25:31

to Humboldt, Kansas, which had

25:33

connecting trains to Texas and

25:35

Missouri. The train's

25:37

conductor seemed to remember the group. He

25:40

said Ma and Pa Bender took a train

25:42

to St. Louis. John Gephardt

25:45

and Kate Bender took a train south

25:47

to the Red River country near Denison,

25:50

Texas. But from there, details

25:53

became scarce. There

26:01

appeared to be a few credible sightings

26:03

of Kate and John in Texas, but

26:05

after that, the trail went cold. Over

26:09

the next 15 years, tips poured

26:11

in, but none were strong enough to produce

26:13

the criminals or to collect the rewards.

26:17

Every so often, people claiming to be the

26:19

benders or charging others with

26:21

that identity made news, but

26:23

nothing came of those cases either. Then

26:27

in 1889, it seemed like at least two

26:29

of the benders had surfaced. A

26:32

woman in Kansas, Frances McCann,

26:34

had a neighbor named Sarah Davis. One

26:37

day, Davis became severely

26:40

ill and had a fever for several days.

26:43

McCann supposedly heard Davis reveal

26:46

her true identity as Kate Bender.

26:49

Shortly thereafter, Sarah Davis moved

26:51

to Michigan, as if she had realized

26:53

her mistake and quickly fled the area.

26:57

Frances McCann stalked Sarah Davis

26:59

in Michigan for months, leaving her

27:01

own family for long periods of time

27:03

to do so. She found

27:05

that Davis lived with an old, stooped

27:08

woman. It wasn't too much of

27:10

a leap for her to believe that the woman was

27:12

Ma Bender. McCann

27:14

managed to convince her local sheriff that

27:16

she was telling the truth, and the newspapers

27:19

were starting to run the story anyway. So,

27:22

the Lebet County District Attorney felt

27:24

he had no choice but to have Sarah

27:26

Davis and the older woman arrested

27:29

and brought to trial. The

27:34

defendants didn't help their case. Davis,

27:37

for whatever reason, but probably for attention,

27:40

admitted to a police officer that the older

27:42

woman was in fact Ma Bender.

27:45

The older woman became angry at the accusation

27:48

and filed a report against Sarah Davis.

27:51

The accusation snowballed to the point

27:53

where they screamed obscenities at each other

27:56

during their preliminary court appearances and

27:58

had to be held back. from attacking

28:01

each other. They went to trial

28:03

in Kansas on November 1st, 1889. It

28:07

was the first time that residents of Cherryvale,

28:10

the closest town to the bender farm, received

28:13

a good look at the defendants. The

28:16

townspeople were adamant that the women

28:18

were not Kate and Ma Bender.

28:21

Fortunately for the defendants, their

28:23

attorney offered such convincing evidence

28:25

of mistaken identity that the prosecutor

28:28

moved for dismissal of the case. But

28:31

not everybody agreed with the judgment of

28:34

mistaken identity, including Leroy

28:36

Dick. No matter what people

28:38

believed, there would be no real

28:40

closure in the case of the bloody benders.

28:43

John Gephardt and John Bender, known

28:46

as Pa, seemingly disappeared

28:48

after a while. People in

28:50

Kansas picked the bender property

28:52

clean of any visible trace that

28:54

they had been there. Leroy

28:56

Dick bundled up the hammers that were

28:59

probably murder weapons, but everything

29:01

else was stolen. The cabin

29:03

and the structures were dismantled and

29:05

the wood and nails were taken. The

29:09

bender property has been owned by two or

29:11

three people over the years until 2020. Then

29:15

it went on for auction, and the man

29:17

who bought it recently commissioned the

29:19

geology department at the University

29:21

of Kansas to do research on the site.

29:24

Thus far, field studies have turned

29:26

up little, but it's a big chore.

29:29

The precise route of the old Osage

29:32

Trail is still debated, which

29:34

makes it hard to find the exact location

29:36

of the bender cabin and its orchard.

29:39

Maybe one day, a tip or a

29:41

family diary will explain exactly

29:44

where the benders fled to and what became

29:46

of them. Until that day,

29:49

as Western journalist and author Max

29:51

McCoy put it, the benders

29:53

vanished from history only to

29:55

reappear in nightmares. Next

30:02

time on Legends of the Old West, it's

30:04

a companion series to the stories of Wild

30:07

Bill Hickok and Texas Jack O'Mohundro,

30:10

though it's one that obviously stands on its own.

30:13

It's the story of the iconic scout, frontiersman

30:16

and entertainer, the man, the

30:18

myth, the legend, Buffalo Bill

30:20

Cody. That's next time on

30:22

Legends of the Old West. Members

30:31

of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to

30:33

wait week to week to receive new episodes.

30:36

They receive the entire season to binge all

30:38

at once with no commercials, and

30:40

they also receive exclusive bonus episodes.

30:43

Sign up now through the link in the show notes or

30:46

on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com.

30:50

This series was researched and written by Julia

30:52

Bricklin. Original music by

30:54

Rob Valier. I'm your host and

30:56

producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed

30:59

the show, please leave us a rating and review

31:01

on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening.

31:04

Check out our website, blackbarrelmedia.com

31:06

for more details and join us on social

31:09

media. We're at Old West

31:11

Podcast on Facebook, Instagram

31:13

and Twitter, and all our episodes

31:16

are available on YouTube. Just search

31:18

for Legends of the Old West Podcast.

31:21

Thanks for listening.

31:24

There's a reason Bowling Green State University

31:26

is ranked number one in Ohio for student

31:28

experience. Our in-demand degrees

31:31

and life design program prepare students

31:33

for their first career and their next. With

31:36

an unparalleled support system at a national

31:38

research university, DGSU

31:40

offers an unrivaled experience, all

31:42

on a vibrant campus in one of America's

31:45

best college towns. It's also

31:47

why Bowling Green State University is

31:49

the number one school in the Midwest that students

31:51

would choose again for the fourth year in a row.