Legend of The Bloody Benders

The Bloody Benders were a family of serial killers who owned an inn and small general store in Labette County of southeastern Kansas from 1871 to 1873. The Bender family consisted of the sixty-year-old patriarch, John Bender (generally referred to simply as “Old Man Bender” in historical accounts); his wife, Mrs. Bender known only as “Ma”—just forty-two years old but with the cold-eyed, Ma was