# 3 Cases Where Serial Killers Got Away With It

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 3 Dec 2025, 40 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO1239667426.mp3

Join me as we discuss the Skid Row Stabber, the Golden Years Killer, and a case ripped from the pages of history. 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill True Crime Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8dVJtzeHcJgd_Z0bHrJTHQ Lazy Chill History Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillHistory Lazy Chill Zone Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillZone 👇 Support My Work: 🛍️ Merch: https://lazy-chill-zone-shop.fourthwall.com ❤️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lazychillzone 👇Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/lazychillzone/ 👇 Podcast links: ⚡History Video Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/7km5pLWpYWEj1mrPpEfRUr?si=0FHYnZf-Qs2FY1GyLevfig ⚡True Crime Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/0klIz08pAr7wR4we0Ia4sk?si=68qZxCeAQkysXzMZrHE0Iw 🍏 True Crime Podcast on Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lazy-chill-true-crime/id1815534472 true crime, cold cases, unsolved mysteries, missing persons, murder investigation, forensic evidence, serial killers, crime scene analysis, dark history, criminal psychology, real life horror, police investigations, DNA breakthroughs, forensic genealogy, crime documentaries, criminal profiling, mysterious disappearances, solved cases, justice system, law enforcement stories, cold case files, creepy mysteries, true crime storytelling, crime reconstruction, chilling cases, investigative reporting, modern forensics, victim advocacy, unidentified remains, crime scene forensics, disturbing cases, true crime analysis, hidden clues, infamous crimes, real crime stories

## Transcript

[0:00] What's up friends? It's Jimmy here with my usual
[0:02] reminder to hit the like and subscribe buttons and drop a
[0:04] comment down below. Feel free to comment where
[0:07] you're watching from, what you're doing right now, or just
[0:11] leave a quick I'm doing my part. Also, don't forget to tap that
[0:16] notification bell and turn on all notifications so I actually
[0:19] pop up on your homepage. Between October 1978 and January
[0:26] 1979, the Los Angeles neighborhood of Skid Row became
[0:30] the stage for a brutal reign of terror.
[0:33] An assailant, later dubbed the Skid Row Stabber, systematically
[0:38] targeted and slaughtered up to 12 people using a knife.
[0:42] For decades, the case was considered closed following the
[0:45] 1984 conviction of Bobby Jo Maxwell, who received a life
[0:50] sentence without parole. Yet this legal resolution was in
[0:55] fact a profound miscarriage of justice due to systemic
[0:59] constitutional violations. Maxwell's conviction was
[1:03] overturned in 2010 by a federal appeals court.
[1:08] In 2018, the Los Angeles County Prosecutor's Office formally
[1:12] dropped all charges. This startling turn confirmed a
[1:16] disturbing truth. The Skid Row stabber, the
[1:20] individual who terrified the downtown core, had successfully
[1:24] evaded justice. The killer selection criteria
[1:29] were narrowly focused, praying exclusively on homeless men
[1:33] whose bodies were found dumped in alleyways close to one
[1:36] another in the Skid Row area. The spree, spanning
[1:40] approximately 3 months, exhibited an alarming intensity
[1:44] and frequency. It began on October 23rd, 1978
[1:50] with the death of Jesse Martinez and concluded with the death of
[1:54] Luis Alvarez on January 21st, 1979.
[2:00] By the time his reign of terror appeared to have come to an end,
[2:04] the stabber had claimed either 11 or 12 lives.
[2:08] The geographical proximity of the crime sites, alleyways and
[2:11] Skid Row, and even near Los Angeles City Hall is highly
[2:15] significant. This clustering suggests the
[2:19] offender had an intimate knowledge of the area's routines
[2:22] and landscape, establishing A defined comfort zone for his
[2:26] attacks. The common scenario involved
[2:30] targeting sleeping homeless people, suggesting A
[2:33] premeditated strategy focused on selecting the most defenseless
[2:36] victims. The attacker likely knowingly
[2:39] took advantage of the fact that his targets lived on the
[2:42] outskirts of life and that the first stabbings would likely
[2:45] just be written off by police. Crucially, the initial
[2:51] investigation yielded a very distinct behavioral profile that
[2:54] was later completely discarded in the rush to prosecute Maxwell
[2:59] during the investigation of the killing of David Jones on
[3:02] November 9th, 1978. Witnesses, friends of the victim
[3:07] reported interacting with the killer for several minutes prior
[3:10] to the attack. They described the assailant as
[3:13] a 30 year old Afro Latino man who spoke with a thick Puerto
[3:18] Rican accent and identified himself simply as Luther.
[3:24] This identity was corroborated months later.
[3:27] In January 1979, an absolutely chilling inscription was
[3:31] discovered in a Los Angeles bus terminal washroom.
[3:35] It read My name is Luther, I kill Winos, I put them out of
[3:40] their misery. And I have to mention here that
[3:43] the Luther identity wasn't released or leaked to the
[3:46] public, making this much more likely to have been written by
[3:50] the predator himself. This self authored statement
[3:55] provided a clear indicator of the killer's psychological
[3:58] framework. The perpetrator viewed the
[4:01] killings as a mission. He saw himself as engaging in a
[4:05] form of moral purging of Alcoholics.
[4:09] Based on this evidence, the Skid Row stabber appears to fit the
[4:12] profile of a mission oriented serial killer.
[4:16] The ability to engage in conversation with witnesses
[4:19] before the attack suggests a level of social competence
[4:23] indicating the killer was not entirely disorganized or
[4:26] socially inept. Despite the evidence, Bobby Jo
[4:31] Maxwell, a laborer who had moved to Los Angeles from Tennessee in
[4:35] 1977, became the primary suspect.
[4:39] His connection to the crimes was highly circumstantial, resting
[4:43] primarily on a single palm print found near the body of victim
[4:47] Frank Garcia, which was traced to Maxwell.
[4:51] Further suspicion arose from the observation that the spree
[4:54] temporarily halted while Maxwell was incarcerated for several
[4:58] weeks in December 1978. Interestingly, this arrest was
[5:03] for disturbing the peace and menacing people with a knife, so
[5:07] he was clearly no Angel to build a prosecutable case.
[5:13] Investigators searched Maxwell's apartment, seizing his Diaries
[5:17] and letters, which they then used to declare that Maxwell was
[5:21] a Satanist. This sensational narrative,
[5:24] unsupported by direct forensic evidence, served to provide a
[5:28] compelling, albeit fictional, explanation for the random
[5:32] brutality. This narrative that he was a
[5:35] crazed Satanist influenced the jury to believe that he was
[5:39] capable of the crimes. However, this alone wouldn't
[5:43] have been enough. The 1984 conviction for two of
[5:48] the Skid Row stabbings rested almost entirely on the testimony
[5:52] of Sydney Storch, a 37 year old career felon.
[5:56] This jailhouse snitch served as Maxwell's cellmate for three
[5:59] weeks. And yes, if you're a long time
[6:03] viewer, you probably know I'm about to dunk on this guy's
[6:06] credibility. Storch claimed Maxwell confessed
[6:10] to the killings, even providing details about forgetting to wear
[6:13] gloves, an attempt to explain the palm print evidence.
[6:18] Storch, however, was a documented habitual liar with an
[6:23] extensive criminal history known for gross deception, including
[6:27] impersonating intelligence officials.
[6:30] Storch's involvement was later exposed as part of a
[6:33] wide-ranging jailhouse informant scandal that rocked the Los
[6:37] Angeles County justice system. He was a serial snitch known to
[6:41] familiarize himself with case details through media reports
[6:45] and then fabricate confessions. Why Storch did this was unknown
[6:50] for years, though he claimed everything he said was true and
[6:55] claimed that his rabbi informed him of the moral consequences of
[6:58] not telling the truth. But this wasn't true, and it
[7:04] appeared that no such conversation with any such rabbi
[7:08] ever occurred, and he simply wanted to provide a religious
[7:11] shield to his true actions. In essence, he hoped that when
[7:16] people heard that his decision to become a snitch resulted from
[7:20] a religiously motivated change of heart, people wouldn't
[7:24] question it further. In truth, it was later revealed,
[7:28] Storch had secured a hidden deal with prosecutors for an early
[7:31] release from prison. This was contingent on his
[7:34] testimony being accepted and the prosecution getting wins on the
[7:38] cases that he gave quote UN quote evidence on.
[7:44] Furthermore, prosecutors had raised concerns about Storch's
[7:48] reliability before the trial, but these doubts were never
[7:52] revealed to Maxwell's defense counsel.
[7:55] They had evidence to suggest that Storch was making it all
[7:58] up, but simply never disclosed this to defense counsel in
[8:02] violation of Maxwell's rights. After decades of appeals, the
[8:08] 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Maxwell's conviction
[8:12] in 2010. The ruling explicitly stated
[8:16] that the case against Maxwell was based on lies from a
[8:19] notorious jailhouse snitch and emphasized the fundamental lack
[8:24] of physical evidence. In the meantime, this allegedly
[8:28] very helpful snitch had died while still in prison, never
[8:33] getting that sweet release he was hoping for.
[8:37] Facing an unwinnable case with their key witness both dead and
[8:40] discredited, the Los Angeles County Prosecutor's Office
[8:44] formally dropped all charges in 2018.
[8:50] However, the legal system's ultimate finding of innocence
[8:53] came too late. Bobby Jo Maxwell spent over 30
[8:57] years incarcerated for crimes he almost certainly didn't commit.
[9:02] In late 2017, while still awaiting retrial, he suffered a
[9:07] severe heart attack that left him comatose.
[9:10] Though he was formally exonerated in August 2018, he
[9:14] remained unconscious, never regaining the ability to
[9:18] recognize or benefit from his freedom until his death in April
[9:22] 2019. The case of the Skid Row stabber
[9:27] is a profound and lasting indictment of the justice system
[9:30] systemic failure. By knowingly leveraging
[9:34] fabricated evidence against an innocent man, the state secured
[9:38] public closure in 1984. The only problem is that this
[9:43] conviction came at the obvious cost of the truth, and the real
[9:46] serial predator, the man known as Luther, has never been
[9:50] caught. There's a very real possibility
[9:55] that Luther didn't simply stop in January 1979.
[9:59] Mission oriented predators almost never age out abruptly,
[10:03] and nothing in his demonstrated psychology suggests he would
[10:06] have felt his quote UN quote work was done.
[10:10] If anything, the sudden end to the Skid Row cluster may
[10:13] indicate he thought the heat in the kitchen was getting a bit
[10:16] too hot. Increased patrols, media
[10:19] attention, or a near encounter with witnesses could have pushed
[10:23] him to shift neighborhoods, cities, or even states.
[10:28] In fact, given that there's strong evidence to suggest that
[10:31] he was Puerto Rican, he may have moved to the territory.
[10:35] There's always the possibility as well that he fled to Latin
[10:38] America and may have resumed his crime spree there.
[10:43] Perhaps the most disturbing possibility is that Luther may
[10:46] have learned his lesson about committing crimes so frequently.
[10:50] If he was a transient himself, he may have realized that he
[10:54] could take his show on the road, perhaps committing a single
[10:57] crime in a city before moving along.
[11:03] Hey everyone, just dropping in with a quick reminder to hit
[11:06] that notification bell in the subscribe button if you haven't
[11:09] done so already. Also, I haven't mentioned this
[11:12] for a while, but there is a podcast available for this
[11:15] channel and I've included a link to it in the description.
[11:23] The term golden years is meant to evoke a sense of peace, a
[11:27] well earned reward of quiet comfort after a long life.
[11:31] It's a time for front porches, familiar neighbors, relaxing
[11:36] with family and the safety of home.
[11:40] But between 1990 and 1996, in the historic West End of
[11:44] Richmond, VA, that promise was shattered.
[11:49] For at least 13 elderly women, their golden years became a
[11:53] season of unimaginable terror, their homes transformed from
[11:57] sanctuaries into mortuaries. This is the story of the Golden
[12:02] Years slayings and a horror which began on July 1st, 1990
[12:07] when 89 year old Mabel Venable was found cut down inside her
[12:11] house. It was a brutal, shocking crime
[12:15] that served as a dark omen of the six year nightmare to come.
[12:21] Following the slaying of Mabel Venable, a chilling and specific
[12:25] pattern began to emerge. Over the next two years, five
[12:29] more elderly women were eliminated in their homes, each
[12:33] attack bearing the same terrifying signature.
[12:37] The victims were all black women ranging in age from 61 to 85,
[12:42] who lived by themselves. The list of the dead grew
[12:45] steadily. 80 year old Eva Jones and 61 year old Mary Coffee in
[12:50] October, 19, 9061, year old Robinette Mickelberry in May 19,
[12:55] 9185, year old Pearl Gash in December 1991 and finally 81
[13:03] year old Martha Bolden in May 1992.
[13:08] The method in each of these first six attacks was consistent
[13:11] and brutal. The women were stabbed.
[13:15] This consistent modus operandi suggested a single predator was
[13:18] at work, a perpetrator with a clear and horrifying preference
[13:22] for a specific type of victim. The community was paralyzed by a
[13:27] unique kind of fear that can only be evoked from violating
[13:31] the home. Then, as suddenly as the attacks
[13:35] had begun, they stopped. For two years, an uneasy silence
[13:41] settled over Richmond's West End.
[13:44] Residents wondered if the predator had died, been
[13:47] imprisoned for another crime, or simply moved on.
[13:52] But the monster hadn't vanished. It was merely dormant.
[13:56] And when it re emerged, it would be terrifyingly different.
[14:02] On August 16th, 1994, the uneasy piece was broken with the
[14:07] slaying of 59 year old Phyllis Harris.
[14:10] The terror was back, but the perpetrator's signature had
[14:14] completely changed. The new victims, beginning with
[14:18] Harris. We're all white women.
[14:21] Even more jarring was the change in method.
[14:24] He now preferred strangulation. After the slaying of 82 year old
[14:30] Inez J Childress in September 1994, the attacker once again
[14:35] went dormant for a time. Unfortunately, he would be back
[14:39] in 1996 to unleash a final terrifying onslaught. 5 women
[14:44] were slain in just four months. Lucille Boyd, 75 in January.
[14:50] Gertrude Gardner, 77 in February.
[14:53] Mamie Harris Verlander, 84, in March.
[14:57] Then, in the most brazen set of attacks, there was Elizabeth
[15:00] Seibert, 69, and Jane Foster, 55, on consecutive days in
[15:07] April. The rapid succession of attacks
[15:10] sent a fresh wave of panic through the city.
[15:15] As the body count rose, Richmond transformed into a city under
[15:19] siege. The slayings provoked widespread
[15:22] outrage not just because of their brutality, but because of
[15:27] the victims profound vulnerability.
[15:30] Fear became a tangible part of daily life, especially for
[15:33] elderly women. Sales of weapons, door locks and
[15:38] guard dogs surged as residents took security into their own
[15:43] hands, no longer trusting that they were safe in their own
[15:46] homes. In some neighborhoods, citizens
[15:50] patrols were formed with police assistance, a clear sign that
[15:54] public faith in the authority's ability to protect them was
[15:58] eroding. In 2004, years after the last
[16:03] attack, a suspect finally emerged, but he was far from the
[16:07] criminal mastermind some might have imagined.
[16:11] Leslie Burchart was a 51 year old homeless man with a long and
[16:15] documented history of severe mental illness, including a
[16:19] diagnosis of schizophrenia. Burchard was already in prison
[16:24] serving a life sentence for confessing to the slaying of
[16:27] three homeless men in 1996. Then in 1999, he contacted
[16:33] authorities and confessed to four of the Golden Years
[16:37] attacks. He admitted to having taken the
[16:40] lives of the last four victims, Lucille Boyd, Mamie Verlander,
[16:46] Elizabeth Seibert and Jane Foster.
[16:51] His confession was stunningly detailed.
[16:53] He provided information about the crime scenes that was
[16:56] supposedly known only to investigators, making his claims
[17:00] seem highly credible. For a Police Department under
[17:03] immense pressure, it was the breakthrough they desperately
[17:06] needed. However, the confession was
[17:09] built on a foundation of sand. Burchart was a man known to
[17:13] suffer from hallucinations and hear voices.
[17:17] Some believe that he may have been purposely or inadvertently
[17:20] fed information during the confession process.
[17:23] Others suspect that he may have talked to someone in prison who
[17:27] actually committed the disturbing acts.
[17:31] Compounding the doubt, shortly before he died in prison from
[17:34] natural causes in 2002, he recanted his confession entirely
[17:39] and proclaimed his innocence. Due to the lack of any physical
[17:44] evidence connecting him to the crimes, Birchart was never
[17:47] formally tried, though he remains the prime and only
[17:50] significant suspect. With Leslie Birchart dead and no
[17:56] forensic evidence to provide clarity, the Golden Years
[17:59] slayings remain a puzzle with several competing solutions.
[18:03] The first theory is that a single serial perpetrator was
[18:06] responsible for all 13 deaths. This would require a
[18:11] psychological explanation for the dramatic shift in both
[18:14] method and victim race, a change that is highly unusual for
[18:17] serial predators. A second, more plausible theory
[18:23] suggests that Richmond was plagued by at least two separate
[18:26] monsters whose crimes were mistakenly linked by police.
[18:31] This is the theory that I strongly prefer because
[18:34] personally, I'm not seeing the strong connection to the two
[18:37] sets of attacks that the cops see.
[18:40] Under this scenario, one predator slew 6 elderly black
[18:44] women between 1990 and 1992 and then disappeared.
[18:50] Two years later, a different attacker, perhaps Burchardt,
[18:54] began strangling elderly white women in the same geographic
[18:58] area. The only common thread was the
[19:01] age of the victims and the fact they lived alone, which may have
[19:05] led to a critical case of confirmation bias by
[19:08] investigators. 1/3 theory suggests that the entire
[19:13] investigation was essentially botched, and we can't really
[19:16] know what is true or what isn't. This theory stems from 2013
[19:21] claims of a retired detective named Ron Reed who worked on the
[19:25] case. Reed alleged that his
[19:28] supervisors forced him to suppress parts of Burchart's
[19:31] testimony, fearing that more negative publicity would destroy
[19:35] the department's reputation. The Police Department officially
[19:39] denied this, but did state that the other deaths Burchard
[19:43] allegedly confessed to were determined to have been from
[19:47] natural causes. For instance, Reed had tossed in
[19:51] the name of a woman who was known to have died of natural
[19:55] causes in 1996 while in a nursing home under round the
[19:59] Clock care. Burchard readily provided
[20:02] details about how he slew the woman in her home.
[20:06] This allegation, if true, paints a picture of an investigation
[20:10] where controlling the public narrative may have taken
[20:13] precedence over uncovering the full truth.
[20:18] Decades later, the dust has never settled in Richmond.
[20:22] The Golden Years Predator case remains officially unsolved.
[20:26] Leslie Birchardt, the only person ever named as a suspect,
[20:30] will never face justice regardless, and it's unclear to
[20:34] what extent the cops continue to investigate the case.
[20:38] Whether this was 1 perpetrator or multiple perpetrators, the
[20:42] final injustice is the silence that continues to surround their
[20:45] deaths decades later. Imagine you're a traveler in
[20:49] southeastern Kansas in the early 1870's.
[20:52] The country still has the fresh scars of conflict, and the
[20:56] promise of a new life of 160 acres to call your own has
[21:01] pulled you West. The landscape around you is an
[21:04] immense, unforgiving Prairie. It's a lonely expanse where
[21:08] homesteads are scattered like islands in a sea of grass.
[21:11] And your nearest neighbor might be miles away.
[21:15] This is Labette County, a place carved out of land recently
[21:18] seeded by the Osage Nation, a place defined by both boundless
[21:23] opportunity and profound isolation.
[21:28] Your journey follows the Great Osage Trail, a path worn into
[21:32] the earth, first by migrating Buffalo, then by Native American
[21:36] tribes, and now by the wagons of settlers like yourself.
[21:41] It's a vital artery of westward expansion, but it's also a place
[21:45] of great danger. The weather is harsh and
[21:48] unpredictable, with tornadoes, blizzards and floods that can
[21:52] erase a homesteaders dreams overnight.
[21:56] Violence is a constant threat, whether from conflicts with
[22:00] displaced tribes or from the battle hardened American men who
[22:04] now work their way onto the frontier.
[22:07] In this vast emptiness, people simply vanish, and when they
[22:12] disappear, the Prairie keeps their secrets.
[22:18] As dusk begins to settle, casting long shadows across the
[22:21] plains, you spot a light. It comes from a small one room
[22:25] cabin, a welcome sign of life in the desolate landscape.
[22:29] A crude hand lettered sign above the door reads Groceries.
[22:34] This is the Bender Place, a wayside inn offering the promise
[22:38] of a hot meal, supplies, and most importantly, a safe place
[22:43] to rest for the night. For a weary traveller, it seems
[22:49] like a sanctuary, a fragile outpost of civilization where
[22:53] the unspoken code of frontier hospitality offers a moment of
[22:57] peace. You approach, unaware that the
[23:01] trust you're about to place in these strangers is the last
[23:03] mistake you'll ever make. This humble cabin wasn't a
[23:07] refuge, it was a slaughterhouse. And for at least a dozen
[23:11] travellers, this beacon of hope on this great migratory trail
[23:15] was the end of the line. This is the disturbing story of
[23:20] the Benders, a supposed family of innkeepers who committed
[23:24] horrific actions before performing one of American
[23:27] history's greatest vanishing acts.
[23:32] To understand the horror that unfolded in Labette County, one
[23:36] must first try to understand the perpetrators.
[23:40] But the Bender family itself is an enigma, a collection of four
[23:44] individuals whose true identities, origins and
[23:48] relationships remain a mystery. They presented themselves as a
[23:53] simple homesteading family, but they were a carefully
[23:56] constructed criminal conspiracy, a human machine where each
[24:00] member played a specific and deadly role.
[24:03] The patriarch, John Bender Senior was a man of about 60,
[24:08] described by those who met him as a repulsive and brutish
[24:11] figure. He was a giant of a man with
[24:15] piercing eyes and a sullen I'll tempered demeanour.
[24:19] Like the other members of this so-called family, he claimed to
[24:22] be from Germany. As with all the members of the
[24:25] family, it remains unclear what their true origins were as
[24:30] German was commonly spoken across Central and Eastern
[24:32] Europe. And to get in my 1 mandatory
[24:35] Simpsons reference per video, no one who speaks German could be
[24:39] an evil man, right? His wife, Elvira Bender, was
[24:46] around 55 and equally disliked by her neighbors, who called her
[24:50] a she devil. Unfriendly and sinister, she was
[24:55] rumoured to have slain previous husbands before arriving in
[24:58] Kansas, and she dabbled in folk magic, claiming to be a medium
[25:02] who could cast spells while she claimed not to understand
[25:07] English. A moment of rage during a
[25:09] confrontation later revealed her command of the language was far
[25:13] better than she led on. The younger generation presented
[25:19] a stark contrast. John Bender junior, about 25,
[25:23] was handsome and spoke English well, though with a German
[25:26] accent. He had a peculiar habit of
[25:29] laughing without cause, which led many in the community to
[25:33] suspect there was something wrong with him.
[25:36] This perception, whether genuine or an act, made him seem
[25:40] harmless and non threatening, a perfect disguise for the
[25:44] violence he was capable of. The public face and undisputed
[25:50] star of the operation was Kate Bender, around 23 years old.
[25:55] She was universally described as beautiful, intelligent and
[25:59] intensely charismatic. She was fluent in English and
[26:03] was the only member of the family who actively engaged with
[26:07] the surrounding community. Kate was the family's lure and
[26:11] her chosen bait was spiritualism.
[26:14] In an era when communicating with the dead was a popular and
[26:18] widespread belief, Kate advertised herself as a powerful
[26:22] psychic, healer and spiritualist medium.
[26:26] She distributed Flyers and gave lectures claiming she could cure
[26:30] blindness and deafness with the laying on of hands, contact the
[26:34] spirits of the deceased and locate lost possessions.
[26:39] Her lectures also promoted radical ideas like free love,
[26:43] which while scandalous, only added to her notoriety and drew
[26:47] curious visitors to the family inn.
[26:51] And by curious travellers, I mean men travelling alone who
[26:54] definitely thought they had a chance with this frontier cutie.
[26:59] Kate's persona was the perfect tool for disarming travellers,
[27:03] and she was basically the honeypot that lured victims in.
[27:07] With her charm and supposed supernatural gifts, she could
[27:10] win their trust. This would draw them into
[27:13] intimate conversations where they would reveal their travel
[27:17] plans and most importantly, their financial situations.
[27:24] The very foundation of this group was built on lies.
[27:28] While they were widely believed to be German immigrants, no
[27:31] official documentation of their origins or even their real names
[27:36] has ever been discovered. The name Bender itself, while a
[27:40] fairly common German name, was almost certainly an alias.
[27:47] Even their family ties were likely a complete fabrication.
[27:51] Neighbors reported that the intimacy between John Junior and
[27:54] Kate seemed more like that of a husband and wife than siblings.
[27:58] The reason for doing this was also a part of their ruse.
[28:02] In a society built on the family unit, the image of a family run
[28:06] in offered a veneer of safety and respectability that was
[28:10] crucial to their predatory success.
[28:15] The Bender's genius for evil was not just in their deception, but
[28:18] in their engineering. They transformed their humble
[28:22] one room cabin into a highly efficient machine capable of
[28:27] quote UN quote processing guests.
[28:30] The cabin was a simple wooden structure measuring about 16 by
[28:34] 24 feet. Inside they had made a simple
[28:38] but critical modification. A large heavy canvas wagon cover
[28:43] was hung from a rope, splitting the single room in two.
[28:47] The front area was the public face of their operation, a small
[28:51] general store and a dining room where travellers could get a
[28:54] meal. The area behind the curtain was
[28:58] the family's private quarters, but it's true purpose was to
[29:01] serve as a blind from which to launch their ambush.
[29:07] Their modus operandi was a chillingly refined process.
[29:11] After Kate identified A suitable victim, usually a man traveling
[29:15] alone with significant money, he would be invited to dinner and
[29:19] given the seat of honor at the table.
[29:22] This seat wasn't a gesture of hospitality, it was a tactical
[29:25] position. It placed the guest with his
[29:28] back directly against the canvas partition, perfectly
[29:32] silhouetting his head for the attacker waiting behind it.
[29:37] As the unsuspecting traveller ate his meal, captivated by
[29:41] Kate's charm and conversation, one of the male benders would
[29:44] slip behind the curtain. At the right moment, the
[29:48] attacker would swing a heavy hammer, striking the victim on
[29:51] the back of the head with crushing force.
[29:54] Beneath the victim's chair, or immediately beside it was a
[29:58] concealed trap door. The stunned or dead man was
[30:02] immediately dropped through the opening into a dark stone lined
[30:06] cellar that was 6 feet deep. This allowed for the instant
[30:11] removal of the body from the main room, minimizing mess and
[30:15] the risk of discovery should another guest arrive.
[30:19] The body was then stripped of every valuable before being
[30:21] disposed of. Under the cover of night, the
[30:26] bodies were removed from this subterranean abattoir and buried
[30:30] in the family's two acre vegetable garden and apple
[30:33] orchard just north of the cabin. In a particularly macabre detail
[30:38] passed down through local lore, it was said that Elvira Bender
[30:42] used the apples from the trees growing over her victims graves
[30:46] to bake pies for future travelers.
[30:51] The Bender's reign of terror lasted for nearly two years,
[30:54] from May 1871 to the spring of 1873.
[30:59] During that time they eliminated at least a dozen people, though
[31:02] the true number may be much higher.
[31:05] Their victims were the forgotten travellers of the frontier, men
[31:09] whose disappearances created distant ripples of concern but
[31:13] no organized alarm until it was far too late.
[31:16] After all, Kate was an expert at finding men who were very far
[31:20] from home and whose disappearances wouldn't be
[31:23] noticed for months or even years.
[31:27] The case that finally brought an end to the Bender's slaughter
[31:30] began with the disappearance of George Newton Longcore and his
[31:34] 18 month old daughter Mary Ann in the winter of 1872.
[31:40] A recent widower, Longcore, was travelling back to Iowa and was
[31:44] carrying a significant sum of money when they vanished.
[31:48] Long Core's former neighbor from Independence, a physician named
[31:52] Doctor William York, became concerned and set out to find
[31:56] them in the spring of 1873. Doctor York's search led him
[32:00] along the Osage Trail and inevitably to the Bender Inn,
[32:05] where he too disappeared. The attack on Doctor York was
[32:11] the Bender's final overreach. For two years, they had preyed
[32:14] on the anonymous and the transient, individuals whose
[32:18] disappearances could be easily dismissed.
[32:21] Dr. York, however, was a prominent man and more
[32:25] importantly, his brother was Colonel Alexander York, a Kansas
[32:30] State senator. Unlike the families of other
[32:33] victims, Colonel York had the influence, resources and
[32:37] unwavering determination to mobilize a search and demand
[32:41] answers. In March 1873, Colonel Alexander
[32:47] York arrived at the Benders Inn, methodically retracing his
[32:51] brother's last known movements. During his initial questioning,
[32:55] the family deployed their well practiced deception.
[32:59] They admitted Dr. York had stopped there, but insisted he'd
[33:02] continued on his way. They casually suggested he might
[33:07] have fallen victim to an attack by a local tribe or by
[33:10] highwaymen, common and convenient explanations for such
[33:13] disappearances. Kate, the master manipulator,
[33:18] pretended to be deeply concerned and offered to hold a seance to
[33:22] contact his spirit. Telling the Colonel to return
[33:25] another day. She let him know that he needed
[33:28] to come back alone in what was a brazen attempt to make the
[33:32] investigator their next victim. But Colonel York was not easily
[33:37] fooled, and he sensed A profound evil in the small cabin and left
[33:42] deeply suspicious. His doubts were confirmed when
[33:46] he learned of another traveler, a woman who had recently fled
[33:50] the inn in terror after Elvira threatened her with a knife.
[33:56] York returned, this time with an armed posse of men that
[34:00] definitely weren't clowning around.
[34:03] The confrontation was tense, and Elvira's subsequent explosion of
[34:07] rage shattered her facade as a simple woman who couldn't speak
[34:11] English. This outburst further solidified
[34:15] Colonel York's conviction that the family was hiding a dark
[34:19] secret, but in the end, nothing happened.
[34:22] Yet as York's investigation intensified, the wider
[34:27] community, already on edge from the string of disappearances,
[34:31] reached a breaking point. A town meeting was convened
[34:36] where dozens of local men gathered to decide on a course
[34:39] of action. They resolved to obtain a
[34:42] warrant and conduct a search of every single homestead in the
[34:46] Township. In an act of astonishing
[34:49] audacity, the Bender men were also present at that meeting.
[34:53] They sat among their neighbors, listening as the community
[34:57] organized the very search that would inevitably unearth the
[35:00] bodies buried in their own garden.
[35:03] It was a final, desperate gamble to appear innocent, an attempt
[35:07] to deflect suspicion that was doomed to fail.
[35:13] The benders knew the moment the vote was taken that their time
[35:15] was up. They could perhaps deceive a
[35:18] lone questioner, but they couldn't survive a systematic
[35:23] official search of their property.
[35:26] Sometime in the days following the meeting, under the cover of
[35:29] the vast Kansas night, they packed what they could,
[35:34] abandoned their homestead and vanished.
[35:38] Their escape was discovered a few days later when a neighbor
[35:41] noticed their farm animals were starving and the inn was eerily
[35:44] silent. Unfortunately, a spell of bad
[35:48] weather delayed a formal investigation, giving the
[35:51] benders A crucial head start of nearly a month to disappear into
[35:55] the American frontier. When the search party finally
[36:00] forced their way into the abandoned Bender cabin in early
[36:03] May 1873, they were met with a scene of hurried departure and
[36:08] an overpowering stench of death. The source of the odor was
[36:12] quickly traced to a trapdoor under a bed which had been
[36:16] nailed shut. After prying it open, they
[36:19] peered down into the stone lined cellar.
[36:23] The pit was empty of bodies, but the floor was caked with so much
[36:26] clotted blood that it had soaked deep into the earth below,
[36:31] irrefutable proof that this had been a place of slaughter.
[36:37] The search then moved outside to the family's small apple orchard
[36:41] and vegetable garden. The ground in the orchard was
[36:44] soft and appeared to have been recently disturbed.
[36:48] The men began to probe the soil and it wasn't long before they
[36:52] made their first horrific discovery, the body of Doctor
[36:55] William York buried in a shallow grave.
[36:59] The news spread and a full scale excavation began.
[37:04] Over the next day, the searchers unearthed a graveyard.
[37:07] One by one, they uncovered the remains of at least 10 more
[37:11] people, including George Longcore and his infant
[37:14] daughter. The story of the Bender's House
[37:18] of horrors became a national sensation.
[37:21] Newspapers from New York to Chicago sent reporters to the
[37:24] remote Kansas Prairie, and their lurid accounts of the Devil's
[37:28] Kitchen captivated the public. These accounts took the already
[37:33] horrific realities and added new fictionalized elements in an
[37:37] effort to sell more papers. After fleeing their farm, the
[37:43] Benders Trail quickly went cold. Investigators found their
[37:47] abandoned wagon near the town of Thayer, just 12 miles to the
[37:51] north, but from there, the trail vanished completely.
[37:56] A massive manhunt was launched and the Kansas governor offered
[38:00] a $2000 reward, a fortune at the time for information leading to
[38:05] their capture. What happened to the benders
[38:10] remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Old
[38:12] West, a narrative vacuum that has been filled with two
[38:16] powerful and competing theories. The first is that they simply
[38:20] got away. In the vast, unmapped expanse of
[38:24] 19th century America, it was entirely possible for four
[38:28] people to change their names, split up, and begin new lives
[38:32] without a trace. This theory is bolstered by the
[38:36] numerous false sightings and wrongful arrests that plagued
[38:39] investigators for decades. In 1880, a couple in Nebraska
[38:44] was arrested and even confessed, but they were soon exposed as
[38:48] imposters. In 1889, two women were arrested
[38:53] in Michigan and extradited to Kansas on suspicion of being
[38:57] Elvira and Kate, only to be exonerated when their alibis
[39:01] proved solid. These incidents reflect a
[39:04] public, desperate foreclosure, but they also highlight how
[39:08] easily the fugitives could have blended back into society,
[39:12] either in America or elsewhere. The second, more pervasive
[39:18] theory is that the benders met a swift and brutal end at the
[39:21] hands of a vigilante posse. According to this version of
[39:25] events, a group of enraged neighbors caught up with the
[39:28] family shortly after they fled. They dispensed their own form of
[39:32] frontier justice, forcing confessions from the benders
[39:36] before eliminating them. While no physical evidence
[39:40] supports this story, it aligns with the harsh realities of the
[39:44] frontier, where communities often took the law into their
[39:47] own hands when official channels failed.
[39:51] The secrecy of such an extrajudicial act would neatly
[39:54] explain why no one ever came forward to claim the substantial
[39:57] reward. Today, more than 150 years
[40:03] later, the search for answers continues, and who the Benders
[40:07] were and what happened to them remains a historical, unsolved
[40:10] mystery.

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