Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1873 — The Kansas Horror. [ARTICLE]

The Kansas Horror.

The latest horror has just been unearth-, cd in Labette County, Kansas; where nine murdered bodies have already been discovered, and a search is being prosecuted for more. Among the victims found is Dr. William York, brother of ’State • Senator York (who gained such extended notoriety during the late Senatorial election). The scene of these wholesale murders lies one. atjd a half mite# southeast of Morehead Station, on the: 'Toad leading from Osage Mission to Independence. The bodies were found under a frame-house recently occupied by a German family named Bender, wjio left the place some two or three weeks since. This family consisted of four adults, Bender and his wife, and a son and daughter. They had settled upon a railroad claim ten years ago, and although they were not regarded favorably Jby their neighbors, no suspicion existed that’ they were engaged in criminal practices. ■ The daughter professed to be a spiritual physician, and claimed theart of healing all the ills that flesh is heir* to.

Her mode of cure is now found to have been effectual. The following is a copy of her advertisement published in the Independence (Kas.) Journal: Prof. Miss Katie Bender can heal all sorts of diseases ; can cure blindness, fits, deafness, and all such diseases, also, deaf and dumbness. Residence 14 miles east of Independence, on the road from Independence to Osage Mission, 1% miles southeast of Morehead Station. Katz Bbndkb. June 18,1872. The history of the terrible tragedy is full of interest. Persons had been mysteriously disappearing for some time, but as they had no friends to prosecute an earnest search, but little attention was paid to the matter. Some time in March, while Dr. York was on a visit to Fort Scott, a partially consumed wagon was brought into the city which the doctor recognized as the remains of a vehicle he had sold to a German in Independence. The parties who brought it in explained that they had found it just off the road between Liadore and Morehead, and that it was supposed to have belonged to a German who, with his daughter, had started out a few days previously. Dr. York expressed great interest in the discovery, and when he started out on his return home, declared his intention of hunting up the details of the supposed crime. About March 10 he left Fort Scott, mounted on a valuable horse, but never reached his home. His family becoming alarmed at his absence, his brother, the Senator, proceeded to Fort Scott to inquire after him. Learning the facts of the case, he returned over the ‘ road, accompanied by another brother who lived in that city and some other persons, und they traced the missing man to Osage Mission and thence to Drum Creek, and here all trace of him was lost. I t was at once supposed that the doctor had been waylaid and murdered, the decent disappearance of other persons in the same locality giving color to the suspicion. Officers were sgt to work to ferret out the murderers, and Governor Osborne offered a reward of SSOO for the apprehension of every person concerned in the crime. This stimulated inquiry, and on the 6th inst. the body of the murdered man was discovered by his brother Edward in a plowed field about an Jacre in extent, and ten rods from the house. He had been stripped naked and thrown face downward into a hole four feet deep. The head was found to be badly broken both temples crushed in, and an indentation on the back of the skull. A shoe-hammer was found in the house fitting the fracture in the skull, and the supposition is that the murdered victim was struck down from behind, and then his temp les broken in by the same weapon. The face, hair, and whiskers were in a good state of preservation, and the remains were readily identified by his brother. This successful issue of the search led to a closer scrutiny, and, on the house being entered, an effluvium arose which instantly led to the- suspicion that more bodies were concealed beneath. The building was removed without delay, and, on the earth being removed, the gaze of the beholders was horrified by the discovery of eight more bodies. All these victims had been killed by a blow on the back of the head with a hammer, and their throats then cut. The following are the names of the persons thus far discovered and identified: B. F. McKenzie, identified by his brother-in-law; H. Longchor and child eighteen months old, identified by his father-in-law; W. F. McCarthy, formerly a member of the 123 d Illinois infantry, D. Brown, identified by some Howard County man, and John Geary, also of Howard County, identified by his wife. The names of the other two bodies I have not learned. Intense excitement prevails, and the determination is general to bring the guilty parties to justice. The Bender family are supposed to have gone north;' as the agent at Thayer, the next station north, reports that he sold tickets to a family answering the description of the Benders, two or three weeks ago. With the crowd at the grave was a man named Brockman, who was supposed to know something about the murders. Furious men laid hold upon him at once, and strung him up to a beam in the house. His contortions were fearful. His eyes started from their sockets, and a livid hue came to his face that was appalling. Death was within reach of him when he •was cut down. “Confess! confess!” they yelled, but he said nothing. Again he was jerked from his feet, and again was the strong body convulsed with the death throes. Again resuscitated, he once more refused to open his mouth. He did not appear to understand what was wanted of him. The yelling crowd, the mutilated and butchered dead, the flickering and twirling torches sputtering in the night wind, the stern, set faces of his executioners, all, all passed before him as a dreadful phantasmagoria which dazzled him and struck him speechless. For the third time they swung him up, and then his heart could not be felt to beat, and there was no pulse at his wrist. “He is dead," they said. But he was not dead. The night air revived him at last, and he was permitted to stagger away in the darkness as one who was drunken or deranged.— Chicago Po»t, May 12. St. Louts, May 'll. Thomas Beers, a detective of Kansas, arrived here on yesterday on the trail of the Bender family, upon whose premises so many bodies of murdered men have been found. He has the authority of Governor Osborne, of Kansas, to hunt the assassins down regardless of expense. Chief McDonough, of this city, will render all assistance possible. Already information has been received of parties here who have told more about the murders than thqy ought to know as innocent people. Pabsons, Kan., May 12. Colonel Boudenot, who has just returned from the scene of Benders’ murders, reports three more graves discovered yesterday. Over 3,000 people were on the ground. A special train has just arrived with seven cars filled with people. There was intense excitement all over the country, and a firm determination to ferret out the parties engaged in the murders. It is understood that large rewards will be offered by the county and State for the arrest of the assassins. Nearly ail the bodies of the dead were indecently mutilated. It is considered certain that the little girl was thrown alive into the grave of ner father, as no marks of violence, were found /on the body. L New York papers are sounding notea of alarm over the threatened diversion of commerce from that city. The immediate occasion of this is the- opening of the Hbosac tunnel, now near at hand, an event of the first importance in engineering and railroad affairs, and which will take rank as such among the great successes of the century; norisit impossible that it may, as is feared, really mark the beginning of a deflection of those currents of trade which have hitherto made New York the shipping focus of the continent,

TME RENSSELAER UNION.' Thursday, May 22,' 1873,