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Case 1227: The Bender Curse 13 July, 1998
Summary:
Three victims have been found within a six-block radius. All three bodies were found with their skulls crushed and their brains removed. The current suspect is hospitalized with little hope of recovery.
History:
The Bender family consisted of four members - Old Man William John, Ma, Kate, and John. They moved into Cherryvale, Kansas in the 1870s. The family lived in a rough log cabin outside of town, consisting of one large room divided by a canvas partition. The Benders served drinks and food to travellers on one side of the curtain and slept on the other side. At night, they set up some beds on the public side for travellers who wished to stay the night.
When they served meals to someone they knew, someone with family in the area, the Benders were hospitality itself. But if the patron was a stranger travelling alone and looked like he had money, he never left the Bender cabin alive.
The victims were directed toward a seat by the canvas curtain and one of the male Benders would bash in his head with a sledge hammer. They were stripped of valuables and buried in and around the cabin.
Colonel A.M. York set out to look for his missing brother, Dr. William H. York of Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1873. The trail ended at Cherryvale. He stopped at the Bender's place, but did not remain. He went ahead to try and pick up the trail. When he returned, he was told the Benders had picked up stakes and left the territory.
A group of men went to the cabin and found the remains of eleven bodies, including Dr. York. The skulls had been crushed. Information not released said the brains of the men had been removed.
York mounted a posse of seven tough men and they started out to scour the surrounding area for the fugitive family. But when they came back three weeks later they said they had failed. All the members refused to talk about what they'd seen and found.
1909: George Downer made his final confession to his wife and his lawyer, Edward Davis (a member of the Legacy). He recorded this statement and set to collecting all rumors, etc. dealing with the case: "After catching up with them, we butchered them so bad we could never tell anyone what we done. So we buried the benders in a 20-foot well and covered them over with dirt."
1910: Matthew harker admitted to helping kill the Benders. Included in his statement was a mention of the 20-foot well. "We took about $3000 from the bodies. We reckoned that was some of the money they'd stole from them they murdered."
1940: George Stark gave a statement that his father had made a similer confession to him, but made him swear secrecy until after his death.
No trace has ever been found of the well or the Bender family, definitively. Later sources indicate that Old Man Bender actually escaped the posse and continued his chosen profession. In 1884, an aged man answering Bender's description and speaking in a German accent was arrested in Montana for a murder near Salmon, Idaho. The victim's skull had been crushed and the brain removed. Teh suspect was clapped in irons and tossed in jail. Before a witness could identify the man, he attempted an escape by cutting off his own foot. He bled to death and by the time the witness arrived, the body was decayed beyond recognition.
The old man's skull was out on display in the Buckthorn saloon in Salmon, and remained there until Prohibition started in 1920. After that time, it disappeared into history. No record of its whereabouts has ever been found.
Conclusion:
The assumed skull of Old Man Bender was exorcized and destroyed. Remarkably, at the same time the skull was destroyed, the prime suspect of the tree murders flat-lined in his hospital bed. He could not be revived. No cause was determined. The police have listed the case as officially closed.
Legacy Case: File 1227
Case Status: Closed
Reference Material:
Journal References:
X Dr. Bryn O'Neil, Research Coordinator
X Father Talib Nakisisa, Religious Advisor
X Sidney Shaw, Computer Programmer
