The Bloody Benders

The Bloody Benders Arrive in Kansas

The Bloody Benders were a family of murderers in Kansas in the 1870s. Little is known about them; unfortunately, there are different versions of what happened. No doubt myths and legends have grown up.

It’s known for certain that the Benders were a family of four. They were German immigrants. Pa Bender was described as being about 60 years old in 1873. Ma Bender was said to be about 50. John Bender was about 27. Kate Bender was about 24.

The Homestead Act of 1862 gave settlers the right to free land if they farmed it for five years. After the Civil War, the Osage Indians were moved to a reservation in Oklahoma, and their land was then given to homesteaders.

At the end of 1870, the Benders claimed land in Kansas. They built a cabin about 2 miles from the town of Cherry Vale, next to the Osage Trail. In the 1870s, many people traveled along the trail by horse or wagon. The Benders let travelers stay the night. They also sold groceries to their neighbors. In the 1870s, Spiritualism was popular in the USA. Kate Bender claimed to be a spiritual healer. She even called herself ‘Professor Kate Bender’.

The Benders’ ‘inn’ was divided into two rooms by a canvas curtain. Nobody witnessed their murders, but the victims all had the back of their heads caved in and their throats cut. It’s believed the Benders would ask guests to sit with their backs to the curtain. Standing behind it was a man holding a hammer. At the right moment, he would smash the back of the guest’s head with the hammer. The Benders would then cut his throat and rob him. Under the Bender’s hut was a small ‘cellar’. 

It’s thought the dead body was hidden there until it could be disposed of. The Benders also sold the victims’ horses and wagons.

The Benders killed at least 11 people. The first definite victim was a man named Jones who was murdered at the beginning of 1871. His body was found dumped in Drum Creek. His head had been smashed in, and his throat was cut. 

Shortly after, two unidentified men were found dumped on the prairie, both of them had been killed in the same way as Mr Jones. The Benders then began burying their victims near their cabin rather than dumping them in the open.

The Bloody Benders are Discovered

The last victim of the Bloody Benders was Dr William H. York. Dr York had been an assistant surgeon in the Unionist army during the Civil War. He was in his early 30s at the time of his death.

In March 1873, Dr. York set out on horseback from Fort Scott, Kansas, for Independence. He told someone that he planned to stay at the Benders’ place. 

He was never seen alive again. His brother, Colonel Alexander York, grew alarmed when he did not return, and he set out with a party of men to look for him. The Benders admitted Dr York had stayed at their ‘inn’, but they claimed he had left normally. Colonel York and his men moved on, but the trail went cold. When the Colonel returned to the Benders’ place, he found it abandoned. The Benders had realized the game was up, and they had fled. 

On 6 May 1873, Colonel York’s men discovered a trapdoor in the Bender’s ‘inn’ with a ‘cellar’ below. They found it had dried blood in it. Then someone noticed a depression in the ground near the shack. On digging, they found the body of Dr York. His head was smashed in, and his throat was cut. 

Several other victims were found buried near the Benders’ inn. Altogether, seven graves were found. One of them contained two bodies.

Among the victims was Henry F. McKenzie from Indiana, who was relocating to Independence. He was about 29 at the time of his death. The body of William F. McCrotty from Cedar Vale was also found. 

Two victims were buried in the same grave. One of them was George Newton Longcor. Mr Longcor served in the American Civil War. He was 30 years old at the time of his death. 

The other body was his infant daughter, Mary Ann Longcor. She was only about 19 months old when she died. The child was either strangled or buried alive. A victim, Benjamin M. Brown, was identified by his silver ring. 

The bodies of two other men were never identified. Sadly, the bodies were too decomposed to allow identification. Altogether, the bodies of 7 men and a baby were found buried by the Benders’ shack, but it seems almost certain that the Benders also killed the three men found dumped in 1871.

Meanwhile, the Benders had fled with their wagon to the town of Thayer. They then escaped by train. What happened to them afterward is a mystery. A party of men pursued the Benders, but the trail went cold. For years afterward, there were rumors that vigilantes had caught the Benders and killed them, but no evidence was ever found to prove this. 

The governor of Kansas offered a reward of $ 2,000 (a large sum of money at the time) to anyone who could provide information leading to the arrest of the Benders, but no one ever claimed it. The Benders’ shack was then broken up. People took pieces of it as souvenirs, and it soon disappeared.

Blossom Alley

 A gruesome murder happened in Portsea, Portsmouth in 1923. The victim was Mary Frances Pelham, aged 37. According to newspaper reports, she was born in ‘the north of England’. During the First World War, she moved to Brighton and later to Portsmouth. She was separated from her husband. Mary was a kind woman, especially to local children. She was a sex worker, although she also sold flowers. She was known as Brighton Mary.

On 27 January 1923, a neighbour found her dead in bed in her hovel. The unfortunate woman had been strangled with a scarf or handkerchief. She was also stabbed or slashed with a broken bottle. A neighbour had seen Mary with a sailor the previous night. The navy held an identity parade and a woman did pick out one sailor but he had an alibi and was never arrested. The killer was never found.

The public was shocked, not just by the murder but by her living conditions. She lived in Blossom Alley, an alley 300 yards long and only 4 feet wide. Her home was a ‘one-up-one down’. Built in the 18th century it was one room over another joined by a ladder. 

The floors were sagging so the ceiling of the bottom room was 6 feet high at one end and 10 feet high at the other. Five houses shared three outside toilets and one water tap. Following the horrific murder, a great deal of slum clearance took place in Portsea.

Mary Wilson

 Although Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in Britain the last woman to be sentenced to death was Mary Wilson in 1958. 

Mary was born on 11 June 1889. She married a chimney sweep named John Knowles in 1912 He died in August 1955. Early in 1956 she married a painter and decorator named John Russell but he died early in 1957. At first, the two men were believed to have died from natural causes but later they were found to have been poisoned. 

In June 1957 Mary married Oliver Leonard. He soon fell ill and died on 3 October. 

A doctor ascribed his death to heart failure, although the truth is Mary poisoned him. On 28 October 1957 she married a fourth man, Ernest Wilson but he lived for only a short time after the wedding. He too, was poisoned. He died on 12 November 1957. At first his death was ascribed to natural causes.

However, people who knew Mary were suspicious. It was not just that her husbands kept dying; it was also the cheerful way she dealt with the deaths. It’s said that at her last wedding reception, Mary was asked what to do with the leftover sandwiches she said they would still be fresh for his funeral. (Such brazenness is common among multiple murderers. They often seem to think they will never be caught). Police began investigating and they exhumed the bodies of Oliver and Ernest.

She was convicted of poisoning two of her husbands, Oliver Leonard and Ernest Wilson with phosphorus, which was found in rat and beetle poison. She was sentenced to death but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment because of her old age (She was 68). The remains of her two other husbands, John Knowles and John Russell were exhumed and found to contain poison but it was felt there was no point in having another trial. 

Mary Wilson, the merry widow of Windy Nook died in prison in 1963.

Ruth Ellis

 Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in Britain. She was born on 9 October 1926 in Rhyl, Wales. She was one of six children. Ruth was sexually abused by her father. When she was 17, Ruth had a son called Andy by a Canadian soldier.

After the Second World War, Ruth was living in London. In the 1940s Ruth worked in factories but she could not earn enough to support herself and her son. Ruth became a nude model and by 1950, she was an escort. In 1950 she married a man called George Ellis. They had a daughter named Georgina but the couple soon separated. However, by 1953 Ruth had a job as a manager of the Little Club in Knightsbridge, London. It was there that she met David Blakely.

Blakely was a racing driver. He was also a heavy drinker. He moved in with Ruth even though he was already engaged to another woman. Ruth met another man, Desmond Cussen and she moved in with him. Ruth and David Blakely continued their relationship, although they were both seeing other people. Blakely was abusive. 

He asked Ruth to marry him but she had a miscarriage in January 1955 after Blakely punched her in the stomach. Blakely later decided he never wanted to see Ruth again.

On 10 April 1955 Ruth took a taxi to a flat where she knew Blakely was staying. As they arrived, she saw him drive off in his car. She paid the taxi driver and walked to the Magdala Tavern, where she thought he would be. Ruth waited till Blakely emerged from the pub. She drew a revolver from her handbag and as he searched for his car keys she shot him. Gladys fired six bullets at Blakely. The first shot missed. The second hit him, causing him to fall to the ground. 

She fired three more bullets into him. Her last shot ricocheted off the road and his a bystander in the hand.

Ruth was immediately arrested by an off-duty policeman. Psychiatrists who examined her found she was not insane. Ruth went on trial on 20 June 1955. There was no doubt that she had shot David Blakely. The prosecution merely had to prove the intent to kill. The prosecution lawyer asked, “When you fired the revolver at close range into the body of David Blakely, what did you intend to do?”. Ruth answered, “It's obvious when I shot him I intended to kill him”.

The jury found her guilty of murder and she was sentenced to death. However, many people felt that her sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment. A petition was signed by 50,000 people but the Home Secretary refused to grant a reprieve and Ruth Ellis was hanged on 13 July 1955.

The execution of Ruth Ellis is still controversial. In 1955 to plead insanity, a person accused of murder had to prove they did not know the ‘nature and quality’ of their acts. Ruth did not meet those criteria. However, in 1957 the law was changed so that a prisoner could plead that their mental state substantially reduced their responsibility for the crime. If the jury agreed, they would be found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter and would not be executed. Perhaps if that was the law in 1955, Ruth could have pleaded diminished responsibility and would not have been hanged. We will never know.

Leopold and Loeb

 Nathan Leopold aged 19 and Richard Loeb aged 18 killed a 14-year-old boy in Chicago in 1924. Both were from rich families and both were very intelligent. They excelled academically. Loeb graduated from the University of Michigan aged 17. Leopold was studying law at the University of Chicago and planned to study at Harvard Law School. Both seemed to believe they were superior beings, above ethics and the law. The two committed petty theft just for thrills before progressing to murder. They planned to commit the perfect murder. They didn’t. In fact, it was an incompetent crime and they were easily caught.

The unfortunate victim was Bobby Franks, aged 14. On 21 May 1924 Leopold and Loeb hired a car. They chose a victim at random. Driving along they saw a boy walking home from an after-school baseball game. Bobby didn’t know Leopold but he knew the Loeb family. The murderers lured him into the car. They gagged him then hit him, repeatedly over the head with a chisel. Bobby suffocated on the gag.

They threw the chisel out of the car. It was found and handed in to the police. Leopold and Loeb then stripped the body and hid it in a culvert by a railroad. They poured acid over his face to make identification harder.

They sent a letter to the family of Bobby Franks saying he had been kidnapped and demanding a ransom of $10,000. In fact, Bobby was already dead. 

The body of Bobby Franks was discovered the next day, 22 May. Nearby the police found a pair of glasses. They had an unusual hinge which allowed them to be traced to a certain optometrist. He had only made three prescriptions for that type of glasses. One of them was Nathan Leopold. He claimed he must have dropped them from his jacket pocket in the area when he was bird watching some days before. But it had been raining for days before the body was found and the glasses were dry. The police asked Leopold to demonstrate how the glasses could have fallen from his jacket pocket but no matter how he bent over the glasses did not fall out. 

At first Leopold claimed he had driven with his friend Loeb to Lincoln Park, Chicago. Loeb confirmed his alibi. However, Leopold had typed notes for students at his law school. One still had the notes and the typeface was found to match the type on the ransom note sent to Bobby Frank’s family. Also the Leopold family chauffeur made a statement that the car the murderers claimed they had driven around all day on 21 May, had not left the garage that day.

Faced with the evidence, Loeb broke down and confessed. When he was told that Loeb had confessed, Leopold confessed too. They both blamed each other for the actual killing. Both denied any sexual assault took place.

The two were interviewed by ‘alienists’ as psychiatrists were then called. Neither showed any remorse for the crime.

The trial began on 21 July 1924. The killers were defended by the famous lawyer Clarence Darrow. They pleaded guilty but Darrow pleaded with the judge not to impose the death penalty. 

He made a speech lasting two days. In the end, the judge did not sentence the two to death on the grounds of their youth. Instead, he sentenced them to life imprisonment plus 99 years for the kidnapping.

Richard Loeb was killed by another inmate in 1936. Leopold was paroled in 1958. He died of a heart attack in 1971, aged 66.

Styllou Christofi

 Styllou Christofi was the second-to-last woman to be hanged in Britain. She was born in Cyprus about 1900. In 1925 she was accused of murdering her mother-in-law by shoving a burning piece of wood down her throat. However, she was acquitted.

Her son Stavros moved to Britain. He worked as a wine waiter. He married a German girl called Hella and they lived in Hampstead, London. The couple had three children. In 1953 her Styllou went to live with her son and daughter-in-law. 

However, the two women did not get on at all. They argued constantly. Matters came to a head in 1954. Hella announced that she was going to take her three children on a holiday in Germany. She made it clear to Styllou that she wanted her gone by the time she returned to Britain. 

But Styllou had other plans. In the evening of 29 July 1954 she walked up to Hella and hit her over the head with a heavy ash pan from a boiler. She then strangled Hella with a scarf. Christofi removed Hella’s wedding ring. She then dragged the dead body into the back garden. In a futile attempt to destroy the evidence, she poured paraffin over it and set it on fire.

A neighbour saw Christofi standing by the fire but he thought it must be a mannequin. Later, Christofi ran into the street and approached a couple in a parked car. She said ‘Please come. Fire burning. Children sleeping’. The couple found the fire. The fire brigade were called and when they saw the burning body they called the police. 

Christofi claimed she was woken by male voices and had seen a man in the garden by the fire. She claimed she attempted to douse the fire with water. Not surprisingly, police did not believe her and they arrested her for murder.

While she was awaiting trial a doctor examined her and stated that in his opinion, she was insane. The defence team urged Christofi to plead not guilty because of insanity but she refused. Perhaps she was too proud. 

Christofi went on trial on 25 October 1954. She was found guilty and she was sentenced to death. Styllou Christofi was hanged on 15 December 1954. 

Belle Gunness

 Belle Gunness was a Norwegian-American murderer of the early 20th century. It’s not certain how many people she killed but the motive for murder was financial gain.

She was born in Norway on 11 November 1859. She was one of 8 siblings. Her father was a stonemason. 

Belle migrated to the USA in 1881. Her birth name was Brynhild but she began calling herself Belle. In 1884, she married a man named Sorenson. The two ran a candy store, which was not successful. It burned down and they claimed insurance money. The couple had four children. Sadly, two of them died, supposedly of acute colitis, although they may have been poisoned. Both children had life insurance. As well as her two surviving children, Belle had an adopted daughter called Jennie Olsen. 

Sorenson died in 1900 and Belle collected a large amount of insurance money. His death was ascribed to natural causes but he may have been poisoned.

Belle moved to La Porte, Indiana. In April 1902 she married a man named Peter Gunness. The two had a son. Unfortunately, Peter died in December 1902, supposedly, when a meat grinder fell off a shelf onto his head. At the time, it was decided that his death was an accident. However, Belle gained a large amount of insurance money after his death.

Belle began advertising in newspapers. She described herself as a ‘rich, good-looking widow’. She claimed she owned a large farm and she was looking for a man to marry.

The advert was soon answered. A number of men travelled to Belle’s farm, where they disappeared.  Belle persuaded them to hand over their savings to her. It’s not known how Belle killed her victims. She probably poisoned them. The bodies were buried on the farm.

In 1906, Belle murdered her adopted daughter, Jennie Olsen, aged 16, and buried her body on the farm. Jennie was probably killed because she suspected the truth. Belle told her neighbours that the girl had gone away to school. 

In 1907, Belle employed a farmhand named Ray Lamphere. She later fired him. Belle claimed that Lamphere threatened her life. 

Then, on 28 April 1908 Belle’s farmhouse burned down, killing her three children. The body of a woman was found in the burned ruins, but it was missing its skull. It’s not certain if the dead woman was Belle Gunness.

The farmhand, Ray Lamphere, was arrested for the murder of Belle Gunness and the three children. He was acquitted of murder but convicted of arson. Lamphere was sentenced to 21 years in prison. He died in December 1909.

The relatives of missing people told the sheriff of their suspicions that Belle had killed them. Digging began and the searchers found the body of Belle’s adopted daughter, Jennie Olsen. The bodies of 11 people were found buried on the Gunness farm. Unfortunately, most were too badly decomposed to be identified.

What happened to Belle Gunness is not known. Did she perish in the fire or did she fake her own death?