Kate Bender, The Kansas Murderess: The Horrible History of an Arch Killer

by Vance Rudolph

Overview

First published in 1944, this is an unusual little edition concerning the infamous Kate Bender and her family, also known as the “Bloody Benders,” who owned an inn and small general store in Labette County of southeastern Kansas from 1871 to 1873 and systematically murdered at least a dozen travellers that passed through their hotel and store, with Kate luring men with promise of a meal and a rest.

Consisting of John Bender, his wife, Elvira Bender, their son, John, Jr., and daughter, Kate, the Bender family were widely believed to be German immigrants. Kate Bender, who was around 23, was cultivated and attractive and spoke English well with very little accent. A self-proclaimed healer and psychic, she distributed flyers advertising her supernatural powers and her ability to cure illnesses. She also conducted séances and gave lectures on spiritualism, for which she gained notoriety for advocating free love. Kate’s popularity became a large attraction for the Benders’ inn.

This book details the family’s crimes and explores some theories on the family’s fate following the discovery of their crimes and escape from justice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781787204706
Publisher:	Papamoa Press
Publication date:	06/28/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	35
Sales rank:	959,231
File size:	479 KB

About the Author

Vance Randolph (February 23, 1892 - November 1, 1980) was a folklorist who studied the folklore of the Ozarks in particular. He wrote a number of books on topics including the Ozarks, Little Blue Books, and juvenile fiction.

Randolph was born in Pittsburg, Kansas in 1892, the son of a lawyer and a teacher. Despite being born in a privileged home, Randolph dropped out of high school to work on left-leaning publications. This did not stop him from attending college and he graduated from what is now Pittsburg State University in 1914. He pursued graduate work at Clark University and received a Master of Arts degree in psychology. He later dedicated his book Ozark Superstitions (1947) to the memory of his Clark mentor G. Stanley Hall.

In 1927, Randolph had his first article published in the Journal of American Folklore, based on work on Ozark dialect and folk beliefs. The dialect work led to multiple publications throughout the 1920s and 1930s in American Speech and Dialect Notes.

He moved to Pineville, McDonald County, Missouri in 1919. He never moved away from the Ozarks and remained in the Ozark Mountains from 1920 until his death. He made a living by writing for sporting and outdoor publications. While writing, Randolph used pseudonyms, but never for his work on the Ozark culture. For example, his 1944 work, Kate Bender, The Kansas Murderess: The Horrible History of an Arch Killer was published under the pseudonym Allison Hardy.

Randolph wrote about non-folklore aspects of Ozark society, such as music. His Ozark Mountain Folks (1932) describes the creation of a distinctive church choir singing style created by a corps of uncredentialled, itinerant choral instructors.

Pissing in the Snow and Other Ozark Folktales (1976) was a national bestseller. He published over a dozen works on Ozark folklore. In 1949 he and the poet John Gould Fletcher founded the Ozark Folklore Society.

Randolph died in 1980 at the age of 88