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Show 436 WESTERN WILDS. in the extreme, though many of the details are unfit for publication. The Benders, consisting of John Bender, Sr., his son John and daugh-ter Kate, and their mother, were from the Franco- German portion of Alsace, and spoke both languages fluently, as also the English. They had formerly lived in Illinois, but came to Kansas in 1870, and boarded some time with Brockman; then made entry on this piece of land. They were fanatical spiritualists, and Kate Bender advertised as a clairvoyant and healing medium. The young man, her brother, who distributed her hand- bills around the country, was generally re-garded as a simpleton ; his mother also seemed very dull, and rarely spoke. But Kate was the genius of the family. She stated, in her moments of " exaltation," that she was a " savior come again, but in female form ;" that she could raise the dead, but it would be wrong to do so. She had a " familiar spirit" which Directed all the move-ments of the family ; and several persons visited and consulted her, either from curiosity or other motive. Before burial they mutilated the victims in an obscene and disgusting manner. So thoroughly was this done that when the body of Longcor was raised it was at first supposed to be that of a woman. The excised portions of none of the bodies were ever found, though the ground was thoroughly searched ; and among the few neighbors who knew any thing of the family's blas-phemous incantations, there are dark and horrible hints as to the dis-position made of these pieces. Should we accept the half that is told by the neighbors, we must conclude that this was a family in whom every natural impulse had been imbruted ; that they believed them-selves in league with powers to whom they offered infernal sacrifices, and murdered for mere lust of blood. It is known that, with one ex-ception, the victims had very little money, and that their spoils did not altogether exceed $ 2,500. One man was known to have had but twenty- five cents. The escape of the Benders was long a great mystery. That a fam-ily of four persons could drive to the nearest railroad station, abandon their team there, take the train and escape all the officers and detect-ives set upon their track, was incredible. Nevertheless, that was the report of the local officials, and the State of Kansas, apparently, made great exertions to recapture the fugitives. " Old Man Bender" became a standing joke ; every old vagabond in the country was suspected, numbers were arrested, and the Utah authorities actually sent a harmless old lunatic, captured in the mountains, back to Kansas for identifica-tion. But it was noticed that Kansas officials were rather indifferent on the subject, and in due time some of the facts leaked out. There |
