In 1871, the Benders family moved to Kansas and settled near the Great Osage Railroad, a popular route traveled daily by hundreds of passers-by. They built a small, two-room hut where passengers could stop, rest, replenish supplies and spend the night. It seemed like a perfectly normal move by a family coping with the cruel world of the Wild West. And then people started disappearing ...
The 1970s in Kansas were years of fear and horror, mostly because of a family of serial killers who were nicknamed “Bloody Benders”. They were the owners of a motel from which some guests never came out alive. At that time, Kansas became a place where a group of spiritualists moved, including the Bender family. Parents Jordan and Ma (whose real name was never revealed) had two children, a son John and a daughter Kate. It didn't take long for the neighborhood to "brand" Bender as "devilish and mysterious people", primarily because of their asociality and poorer knowledge of the English language, as a result of which they were not particularly sociable.
On the other hand, their children were the complete opposite. Kate's daughter stood out, who declared herself a "clairvoyant healer", and often organized her own sessions.
Rumors of her paranormal abilities quickly spread, and more and more people visited the Bender home to chat with ghosts over dinner. Some paid a large sum of money to spend the night with Kate.
Son John did his part by stopping passengers passing through their place and starting a seemingly casual conversation with them. Throughout the story, I would recommend them to stop by their house and buy fresh groceries from the family orchard.
The home of the Benders was slowly turning into a motel "Bender In", which over time attracted more and more guests.
However, some of the visitors never left the Bender house.
This is evidenced by the story of George Loncher, who spent the night with his daughter in the "Bender Inn". George planned to return to his native Iowa from Kansas, after the death of his wife. Days and weeks passed, and he and his daughter never arrived at their destination.
When Launcher's disappearance became apparent, a man named Dr. William York, his close friend, went in search of him. On his way, he also spent the night with the Benders. Since then, every trace of him has been lost. After several disappearances, stories began circulating about the disappearances of passengers passing through Label, a small town in Kansas where, by chance, "Bender In" was located. The farmers organized a meeting attended by, among others, Jordan and John Bender, as well as the brother of the missing William York.
At the meeting, it was decided that the locals would start searching all the houses in the city. They were briefly prevented from doing so by a fierce storm that hit Kansas in those days. When the weather calmed down after a few days, there was no sign or voice from the Benders. They simply disappeared. When the locals searched their house, they found a hidden door leading to the basement, which was full of blood. However, no bodies were found. The house was then burned to the ground. The mystery of so much blood without a body continued to confuse the farmers, who then began searching the Bender orchards. They found the bodies of Dr. York, as well as George Loncher and his one-year-old daughter.
In addition to theirs, eight more bodies with slit throats and crushed heads were found.
Witnesses soon appeared, people who narrowly escaped death at the infamous motel. It was concluded that the Bender family was obsessed with murders, and that they killed their guests at the dining table. They would first offer the victim a "place of honor" at the head of the table, behind which was a large curtain. When the victim started having dinner, the father and son would sneak up behind the curtain, and hit the head with a hammer from the back of the guest, after which they would cut her throat and hide her in the basement.
Several passengers who pulled out a live head at the last minute testified to this ritual of the Bender family. Although the exact number of victims has never been confirmed, it is suspected that there were as many as 21. The motive of the family of serial killers remains unknown. Some of the victims were rich, while some did not even have a penny in their pockets. The Benders were never found, and for many years after their disappearance, fear and horror were present in the Label, a small town from which many visitors never left.
