Strange Country Episode 19: The Benders

Kansas was bleeding way before the Bender family showed up, but they sure added their share to the body count. In Strange Country Episode 19, co-hosts Beth and Kelly discuss this murderous family that ran and inn/slaughterhouse on the Osage Trail in the 1870s, and come up with a new idea for Martha Stewart. Theme music: Resting Place by A Cast of Thousands Sources used....lots and lots...it makes me so tired: "Bender Knife." Kansas Historical Society, www.kshs.org/kansapedia/bender-knife/10106. "Bleeding Kansas." PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2952.html. "The Bloody Benders, America's First Serial Killers." Mental Floss, 14 Nov. 2013, mentalfloss.com/article/53672/bloody-benders-americas-first-serial-killers. "The Bloody Benders--Serial Killers of Kansas." Legends of America, www.legendsofamerica.com/ks-benders/2/. Duke, Thomas. The Family That Murders Together: The Bender Family of Kansas - HistoricalCrimeDetective.Com, www.historicalcrimedetective.com/the-family-that-murders-together/. Thomas Duke wrote the short feature in 1910. Geary, Rick. The saga of the Bloody Benders: the infamous homicidal family of Labette County, Kansas. NBM Pub., 2007. Hallowell, Wayne. "Bloody Bender Family 1871-1873." The Bloody Benders story, www.leatherockhotel.com/BloodyBenders.htm. History.com Staff. "Bleeding Kansas." History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/bleeding-kansas. "John Brown." HistoryNet, www.historynet.com/john-brown. Mann, Fred. "The Settlement of Kansas: Railroad Hype Drew Settlers." The Wichita Eagle, 23 Jan. 2011, www.kansas.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/the-story-of-kansas/article1053043.html. Nash, Jay Robert. The great pictorial history of world crime. vol. 2, Scarecrow Press, 2004, books.google.com/books?id=aTghCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1045&lpg=PA1045&dq=frances mccann benders&source=bl&ots=BV-gzoSWja&sig=fIspceZHMbYSRbfowdhNB3kIBlA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwip0-KZg7fXAhXm3YMKHTGuAfkQ6AEIRTAI#v=onepage&q=frances%20mccann%20benders&f=false. O'Brien, Liam. "Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Bloody Benders: truth or fiction? » MobyLives." Melville House Books, www.mhpbooks.com/laura-ingalls-wilder-and-the-bloody-benders-truth-or-fiction/. Rudolph, Vance. Kate Bender, The Kansas murderess: The horrible history of an arch killer. Pickle Partners Publishing , 2017, books.google.com/books?id=dgQqDwAAQBAJ&dq=paul ponziglione kate bender&source=gbs_navlinks_s. Rutter, Michael. Bedside book of bad girls: outlaw women of the Old West. Farcountry Press, 2008, www.farcountrypress.com/emails/images_sept08/Farcountry_Press_Bedside_Bad_Girls_chpt1.pdf. Turner, Erin H. Outlaw tales of the Old West: Fifty true stories of desperadoes, crooks, criminals and bandits. Rowman & Littlefield , 2016, books.google.com/books?id=C0PCCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA114&lpg=PA114&dq=wetzell kate bender&source=bl&ots=Xfzsdpj79E&sig=BwUWtqip75A4-AhORiB4bTYdoE4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwidv9yXibfXAhWp7IMKHWRYAh8Q6AEIRjAI#v=onepage&q=wetzell%20kate%20bender&f=false.