Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1877 — Why the Benders Hare Not Been Discovered. [ARTICLE]

Why the Benders Hare Not Been Discovered.

You wouldn’t have believed that snch a rough-looking old chap could read at all, but after the train left St. Jo he pulled a St. Louis paper from his pocket, settled back in his seat, and for half an hour lie waa buay with the newi. All of a sudden he threw the paper down, with a wicked oath, and, reaching forward, he toadied a fellow-passenger on the shoulder, and blurted out: “ They are fools; sir, cussed fools!” “Who,” asked the astonished traveler. “Why, them newspaper men! Blast their eyes! can’t they take a hint without a kick?” “ What do you mean?” He picked up the paper and pointed out a paragraph, which read that old Bender, the Kansas murderer, had been seen in Maryland, and then growed out: “I’ll give ten thousand dollars to any man who ever gets eyes on old Bender, or any o’ the rest o’ that family!” “ What do you know about the Benders?” asked the traveler, greatly interested all at once. The old man chuckled, as if greatly pleased, but after a moment his face grew serious and stern. Leaning over to get closer to the traveler, he whispered: “ I knew every one o’ the devils, from the old man down! God never made a wusslot! I lived up in Kansas within twenty miles o’ their private buryinggroundl” You did?" • “ I did, and I’ve eaten more’n one dinner in the room where they used to shoot their victims from behind a curtain! Sometimes, when I git to thinking of the sitting at the table in that little room, and old Bender behind the curtain, not twelve feet away, ready to put a bullet through my head, why, sir. the cold chills go over me till it's like having a shake of the ager!” “ But he spared you ?” “3o he did, and I could never guess why, icept that there arc five brothers of us,"and he might have argued that the other boys would make a sharp hunt if I was missing. Travelers who didn’t wear aoy better clothes nor I do, and who didn’t seem to carry any more money, halted at the Devil’s Hotel for dinner, and were murdered, robbed, and put under ground in less’n hour!” “Was there nothing suspicious about the house itself—nothing in the looks or actions of the family to put the traveler on liis guard?" asked the passenger. —“ Yes, there was, and then agin’ there wasn’t. It was a lone house, with no neighbors to spv and meddle; but it was a handy place for one to stop and get dinner. I reckon that a hungry man, riding a tired horse, don’t be suspecting as much as a detective would. Old Bender wasn’t purty, but he’d pass muster as well as a thousand others out this way. The only mean thing about him was the way he got around. He didn’t pick up his feet like a man, but sort o’ slid here and there like a cat. He didn’t look ye in the face if he could get rid of it, but looked over beyond ye. Still, I’ve seen Jiqnest men do the same way.” “ And the others?”

“ Well, less see. There was the old man, then there was an old she-devil around there who was alius knittingstockings and singing religious songs. She whs fifty years old or more, and was probably his wife. Then there was a woman about thirty years old called Kate. She wasn’t good looking nor bad-looking, and nobody could have told what a bloody heart she had. The pr.pers said she was Bender’s daughter, but I don’t believe it. The papers hadn’t as many ways of finding out as I had. Some of them never mentioned the old woman at all, and yet she was right there all the time. Then there was one or two chaps hanging around there most o’ the time. One o’ them passed for Kate’s husband, but I don’t believe they were ever married. I think the pair had laid in with the old man to open the tavern, help do the running of it and the murdering, and take half the profits. They were a reg’lar gang o’ horse-thieves, robbers and murderers, and nobody will ever know what relation they were to each other.” “The papers had an awful story to tell when it come out,” said the traveler. “ So they had, butthey didn’t tell it bad enough. Those pale faced chaps with lead-pencils over their ears didn’t git around there to see the worst of it. I tell you, sir, there never was such another gang of cut-throats in this country. They had been killing away and killing away for years. Leastwise,'some of the bodies had almost gone to dust, and it takes time for that. When a man came along there who looked to have money they popped him over, no matter whether he was a stranger or lived only a dozen miles away. The bodies were buried down cellar and around the house, and I ’spect that we didn’t find half o’ them. When they first commenced killing they probably took the corpses further away to bury ’em, and were more caretul to cover up all signs. I’ll give you my word that the gang put over twenty travelers out o’ the way.” “ And what finally aroused suspicion against them ?” “ Well, several things. The chap who passed for Kate’s husband had too many horses to sell. They got reckless, and left revolvers, riding-boots, fancy overcoats, and other such" things in sight. Then Senator York’s brother was murdered there, and the crowd who was on the hunt for him tracked him to old Bender’s to a dead certainty. The old man stood up as bold as a lion, and even asked them to search the house. If they hadn’t been bluffed, -they would have found two corpses in five minutes’ search. I wasn’t with that party, but with a second, and wc got around there that night. The Benders had taken the alarm and made tracks.”

“ Isn’t it curious that the family could have escaped the country, when hundreds of men were on the lookout for them ?” observed the traveler. “ Waal,yaas,”slowlyrepliedthestrange old man. “ And how do you account for it?” He chuckled and looked out of the window. There was an interval of three or four minutes, during which he chewed at his tobacco. Finally, he said: •< “They won’t find old Bender in Maryj land, nor in Mexico, nor anywhere else en toD the earth, and they needn’t look for any o’ the rest o’ toe gang.” “ Are they dead ?” “ Purty likely they are. stranger! When you see any more newspaper items about any of the Benders turning up, you jest ax yourself if corpses can turn up and walk around!” “ When you and the others discovered that the family had fled, what did you do ?” asked the traveler, hoping to draw the old man’s secret. “ Bat right down and sucked our thumbs, of course!” he chuckled. “ That’s what we did; but some of toe rest had more pluck. They started out on as plain a trail as they wanted to foller, and before

sunrise there wasn't any further use of anybody hunting tor the Benders!” ’’ Why?” “Why? Well, what’s the use o’looking for anybody after they have been shot full o’ holes and planted ? I reckon that the old woman quit knitting and singing religious songs jest about daylight! 'Bout that time, also, that she-devil Kate and her boss-thief of a husband pulled hair and called each other hard names for the last time. The stranger who was with the family might have been a hoss-thief, a preacher, or an angel, but I guess our boys did’t wait to ask many question^’ “ And old Bender himself?” “ I guess he didn’t git away, stranger! I guess there are men in Kansas who could dig up what’s left o’ him without much trouble! Law is good enough in some cases, but in other cases it is 'bout as well to plant a fam’ly in sandy sile and not have any foolingsround!” “And that’s the reason the Benders have not been discovered ?" “ Purty much the reason. I reckon, though folks cun keep on looking if they want to!”—IF. Y. Sun.