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Strange Country


Sometimes you need to have a glass of wine, cuppa whatever and listen to a good old weird story. Musical score Resting Place by A Cast of Thousands.

Dec 14, 2017

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.