When the men arrived at the property, they found the cabin empty of food, clothing, and personal possessions. Ten bodies were found in the Bender’s apple orchard, including Dr. York and the people he had been searching for – Mr. Loncher and his daughter, just seven or eight years old. I have heard the Bender story many times when I was a child and I was raised 35 miles east of Springfield Mo. John Bender, Sr. chose a 160-acre section on the western slopes of the mounds that today continue to bear their name. Containing niacin, vitamin A, B6, C, potassium and their high water content, make it an excellence diuretic.Many species of melons are found, but they belong to four genera: Momordica, Benincasa, Citrulus, and Cucumis. A gang of four so ferocious they have the catchy nickname to prove it, the Benders settled in isolated Labette County, Kansas, in the early 1870s. KANSAS CITY, Mo. With the full realization that there truly was a major problem in their township, the group decided to search every farmstead between Big Hill Creek and Drum Creek. The question: 'who killed James Adamski?' (AP) — A Kansas man accused of killing his two sons and taking his two daughters from their home before being stopped in Oklahoma was charged Tuesday with capital murder in … He previously admitted having plans to kill an 11th victim, whom he said he planned to hang upside down in her home before he was caught. A beautiful girl of about 23, she was quick to laugh and talk to strangers. When the Benders opened their store and inn in 1871, many travelers would stop for a meal or supplies. The question: 'who killed James Adamski?' (AP) — A Kansas man accused of killing his two sons and taking his two daughters from their home before being stopped in Oklahoma was charged Tuesday with capital murder in … Dr. York had two brothers, one living in Fort Scott, and the other in Independence. LIBERTY, Mo. Prairie Ghosts. See more ideas about historical marker, kansas, historical. Season four’s oddest episode, ‘East/West’ is as wild a departure as this series has ever attempted. But investigators and the man's family have not given up hope that someone, knows something. © Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated December 2019. Graves of the many who the Benders killed. In the spring of 1894, the victims’ bodies were discovered, sending the town into hysteria. Charlie Otero was 15 years old when he discovered the murdered bodies of his family in Wichita, Kansas in 1974, Our free email newsletter sends you the biggest headlines from news, sport and showbiz. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The attempted-murder charge accuses the four of shooting Roger Bluml in the head. Read the latest crime and police news from Kansas City, Overland Park, Lee's Summit and other counties in Missouri and Kansas. The life of Paul Mellon’s first wife, Mary E. Conover Mellon, will also be highlighted with a new marker. After bearing him a dozen children, including Kate, Mr. Griffith suddenly died, some said of a “bad place on his head,” resembling a “dent” that might be made with a hammer. 21-year-old Tityana Coppage is facing a second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of 36-year-old Keith Lars according to KSHB. Both knew of his travel plans and when he failed to return home, an all-out search began for the missing doctor. Radder, a Boy Scout leader, church president, and married father-of-two, murdered ten people in Wichita, Kansas between 1974 and 1991. Karl was also married to a CHAMBERLAIN and a BUTLER. From an early age, Thomas Mellon entrusted his sons with business ventures. Faculty of Theology. — A Kansas City woman charged with murder carried out the deadly shooting because she believed the victim killed her brother, according to … Shortly thereafter, the family disappeared. However, some of those men, who frequently carried large sums of cash with the intention of settling, buying stock, or purchasing a claim; began to go missing. NEW YORK (AP) _ Here are the Forbes 400 richest Americans for 1988, grouped by their residences in 39 states, the District of Columbia and three other nations. Attempts to capture the bloodthirsty family were immediately made by both law officers and vigilantes alike. Indexes for all of these censuses available online on our research room computers at ancestry.com. Kansas had no death penalty at the time of the murders. Now aged 61, he still remembers the details from that horrific discovery. Kate Bender and her daughter Molly came to Smackout about 8 miles south of Seymour, Mo. I like the family atmosphere What I’m getting up to during Lockdown: Very little - staying home, watching tv, reading and enjoying my family's company. The action takes place in Kansas City in the 1950s when an uneasy peace existed between men such as Dearborn and the long-established Italian mob family run … My grandfather, who is approaching 80 years old, is always full of great stories but, he assured me that his father, who passed this on to him, knew of what really happened. Of those most often reporting seeing glowing apparitions on the property were those who came to the site in search of some long lost souvenir of the grisly murders. Your email address will not be published. Their story is unresolved, and remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of the old West. When he refused to sit with his back to the canvas because of its disgusting stains, Pickering said that Kate Bender threatened him with a knife, at which point he fled the premises. • Anthony Boucher's 1943 short story "They Bite" is set at a western oasis where "Carkers" once used to kill and eat travelers; the hypothesis is floated that they were the Benders (who, in this telling, ate their victims) after leaving Kansas. Main navigation The university Faculties. Tole reported the news to Leroy F Dick, the Township Trustee, and a search party was soon formed, which included Dr. York’s brother, Colonel A.M. York, of Fort Scott. The death was originally ruled a car accident, but was later revisited after the body of Pastor Bird's lover's husband was found shot to death along a Geary County highway. A cult-like group, the families chose from several available claims and began to make their homes. He traveled extensively in the 1880s, caring for the family business interests in Kansas, Colorado, Idaho, and Oregon. Karl was also married to a CHAMBERLAIN and a BUTLER. James, John Towner; The Benders of Kansas; Kan-Okla Publishing, Wichita, KS, 1913, reprinted 1995. James Ross Mellon was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on January 14, 1846, son of Judge of Thomas Mellon who is better known for being the founder of Mellon Bank and patriarch of the wealthy and influential Mellon family. We use cookies. Along with her desire for fame, she also craved wealth and position. Finally, the men physically moved the entire cabin to the side and began to search beneath, but no bodies were found there either. Mrs. Bender, a heavyset woman, was so unfriendly and had such sinister eyes, that her neighbors began to call her a “she-devil.” To add to her fierce look, Ma Bender also claimed to be a “medium” who could speak with the “dead” and boiled herbs and roots that she declared could be used to cast charms or wicked spells. It was only a few days later that the homestead was found abandoned and the search party began to discover the grisly remains of the bodies. Upon further investigation, Captain James B. His family was from the Cherryvale, Kansas area and the story involves a group of men that found the Benders and were in a gunfight with them, one of whom was a judge that lost part of his ear in the gun battle. Erected by Kansas State Historical Society and Kansas Department of Transportation Funeral Home Services for Charlotte are being provided by Connell Funeral Home, Inc.. This is blatantly a reference to the Bender Family, a family of serial killers from late 1800s Kansas. The Walton family fortune is dispersed among seven family members, including co-founder Sam Walton's three children, Rob, Jim, and Alice, who is the richest woman in the world with a … Then Kate would begin to charm the men with her social skills, flirting, or revealing her psychic “gifts.” As the men gave their full attention to the alluring Kate, Pa and John Bender, hiding behind the canvas, would strike the unsuspecting traveler in the skull with a hammer. The Benders then stripped him of his clothes and went to bury him, when the man suddenly awoke. Charles Starkweather was executed in 1959. Speaking English fluently with a German accent, he was said to have been social but, he was prone to laughing aimlessly, which led many people to think of him as a half-wit. After Colonel York’s visit and the meeting at the Harmony Grove schoolhouse, the Bender family fled. Charlotte Mellon passed away in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Search the website Search. KANSAS CITY, Mo. A Background Of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rise Up by Hank Willis Thomas, 2014, at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, via NBC News . — A Kansas City woman charged in a homicide is getting attention from rappers known worldwide. The Mellons are believed to have killed over a dozen people, including a child. View phone numbers, addresses, public records, background check reports and possible arrest records for Barbara Mellon. If the terrible story of the Bender murders was not, in and of itself, “legend” enough, another tale began to circulate regarding the property upon which the Benders had once lived. Meanwhile, Ma and Pa Bender continued on the train north to Kansas City where it was believed they transferred to a train headed to St. Louis. But investigators and the man's family have not given up hope that someone, knows something. 215 East 4th Street A BANKING heir and cryptocurrency bigwig may have been murdered for his fortune, pals claim. Keeping mostly to themselves, the Benders appeared to simply be struggling homesteaders who worked hard to earn their living like the other area pioneers. Her husband and son were said to have feared her as she ran the household with an iron hand. Yet another group claimed to have killed the Benders during a gunfight and buried their bodies on the prairie. By then Kansas had become a leader in the nation’s livestock industry. The mounted police came to my Great-Grandparents and took Kate back to Kansas for questioning but let her go.Kate was blind in one eye but it couldn’t be detected by looking at her and so was the woman that came to our area. Dennis Rader stands for a mug shot released February 27, 2005, (L-R) Charlie Otero, his younger sister Carmen Montoya and brother Daniel Otero, the children of Joseph and Julie Otero, the first victims of 'BTK' serial killer, Dennis Rader gave himself the 'BTK' nickname, Outside the El Dorado Correctional Facility were Dennis L. Rader now resides, A family walks in the street in front of the house that Dennis Rader lived in 2005 when he was arrested, Subscribe to Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror newspapers, BTK serial killer's daughter describes moment she found out dad was murderer, Infamous 'BTK serial killer' reveals what drove him to torture and murder 10 people, How do you spot a serial killer? Though Karl was not seriously injured, the shooter was sent to prison for attempted murder. His father, Judge Thomas Mellon, was the founder of Mellon Bank and patriarch to the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They were never caugnt. — A Kansas City woman charged with murder carried out the deadly shooting because she believed the victim killed her brother, according to … WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — The Wichita Police Department has identified Michael Montgomery, 34, of Wichita as the victim of a murder Wednesday in … Bender Property Digging, sketch in Harper’s Weekly, June 7, 1873. The Benders were, no doubt, surprised to find that the man wasn’t dead. Though he reached Fort Scott unscathed and started to return to Independence about March 8th, he never reached home. Two months later, Starkweather killed Fugate's parents and sister before the couple set off on an eight-day killing spree that would claim seven additional lives. For the next five years they lived on death row at the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas (just north of Kansas City). The murder charge says that the defendants killed Melissa … Alabama Though many wanted to relocate the building, it had become a point of controversy in Cherryvale, with locals objecting to the town being known for the Bender atrocities. On March 29, 1960, a jury of all men returned a verdict of guilty and recommended the death penalty. While not actually on the old Bender property, the marker sits on the high prairie about a mile northwest of Bender Mounds at the US-400 and US-169 interchange at the Montgomery County Rest area, north of Cherryvale. The Mellon Family of Pittsburgh: Andrew W. Mellon, United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1921 to 1932; co-founded the Mellon Institute of Research in 1913; Paul Mellon, philanthropist, horse breeder, facilitator of the merger between the Carnegie Institute of Technology and the Mellon Institute to form Carnegie Mellon University These first few missing travelers did not raise an overall alarm in the area as it was not uncommon during those days for men to simply continue their journey westward. They were executed by hanging on the gallows of the grounds of the prison with very little fan fare on April 14, 1965. Members of the Otero family listen to testimony during the sentencing hearing of BTK killer Dennis Rader in Wichita - Charlie is the bald, bearded man, When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. During the night, the body would then be buried in the garden behind the house. More gruesomely, though the little girl’s body was found to have multiple injuries, none of them would have caused death and it was speculated that the poor lass may have been buried alive. The Mellon bank account went from $2.5-$4.2 million. Charlie Otero, then 15, discovered his family strangled and bound at their home on a snowy day in January 1974. Cherryvale, Kansas My grandfather, who is approaching 80 years old, is always full of great stories but, he assured me that his father, who passed this on to him, knew of what really happened. Though most of us know of Dodge City’s wicked ways, the deadly gunfight of the Daltons in Coffeyville, and the many outlaws and gunfighters who spent time in the Sunflower State, few aware of a family of mass murderers, living a supposed quiet life near the small town of Cherryvale. Charlie Starkweather and his teenage girlfriend Caril Fugate are arguably the state's most well-known killers. Another group claimed they had caught the Benders while escaping to the south and lynched them before throwing their bodies into the Verdigris River. In the end, it was Kate who was primarily blamed for the numerous bloody murders – that even at her young age, was the inspiration for the crimes. After the Benders‘ escape, one detective, who had closely followed all the leads, said that he had traced Gebhardt to the outlaw country along the Texas/New Mexico border where he had found that the criminal had died of apoplexy. The concept Mellon family represents the subject, aboutness, idea or notion of resources found in University of Missouri-Kansas City Libraries. I've been keeping The Mellon's social media ticking over too. From elopements to the all-out wedding extravaganza, Mellon Acres caters to your needs with a compassionate staff. Although stories abound, the ultimate fate of the murderous Mellon family … After the Civil War, as pioneers began to head westward along the many trails through Kansas, murder and mayhem persisted as hardened men from the battlefields, grown used to the violence, continued their violent ways along the overland trails and in the many cow towns. Cherryvale, Kansas Museum by Kathy Weiser-Alexander. A Kansas City woman has been charged with murder after she fatally shot a man she believed killed her brother according to court documents. A Kansas man was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in federal prison for killing his girlfriend by strangling her and pushing her over a balcony on a cruise ship off the coast of Florida. This is blatantly a reference to the Bender Family, a family of serial killers from late 1800s Kansas. From an early age, Thomas Mellon entrusted his sons with business ventures. One of the most baffling (and famous) Kansas murders is that of Sandy Bird, an Emporia pastor's wife whose body was found floating in the Cottonwood River in 1983. They’re posting about trying to … John Bender, Jr. was a tall, slender man of about 25 who was handsome with auburn hair and mustache. Not a willing participant in any of the great unsolved mysteries of the night at Jesse Smalley ’ doorstep! Stokes, but he abandoned his family about 1969 hit over the head of Bender. The town into hysteria for over forty years, relating the tale and hope you will as as. 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