Kate Bender

Serial Killer

Kate Bender: The Spiritualist of the Bloody Benders

Overview

Kate Bender, commonly called Kate Bender Jr. or "Professor Miss Katie Bender," was a member of the notorious family known as the Bloody Benders, one of the earliest groups of serial killers documented on the American frontier. Kate was a young woman of about 23 or 24 when the family's crimes were exposed in 1873. She lived with three other people known as John Bender Sr., Mrs. Bender, and John Bender Jr. on an isolated homestead in Labette County, Kansas, several miles northeast of Cherryvale. Although they presented themselves as a family, historians have never been able to establish with certainty that all four Benders were actually related. John Bender Jr. was also identified in an official 1873 description as John Gebardt. Kate was described as dark-haired, articulate, confident, and able to speak English fluently. Unlike the more withdrawn older Benders, she deliberately cultivated a public reputation and became the most socially visible member of the household. The Benders operated a small grocery, eating place, and wayside inn beside a route used by settlers, land seekers, Civil War veterans, merchants, and other travelers moving through southeastern Kansas. Between approximately 1871 and early 1873, an unknown number of people disappeared while passing through the region. When the Bender property was searched in May 1873, investigators discovered multiple bodies and human remains buried around the homestead.

Kate Bender the Spiritualist and Healer

Kate's public persona was unusual even by frontier standards. She advertised herself as "Professor Miss Katie Bender" and claimed to possess supernatural abilities. She offered spiritualist services, promoted herself as a healer, reportedly conducted séances, and claimed that she could communicate with spirits and cure illnesses. Her advertisements promised assistance for conditions including blindness, deafness, and other ailments. Her reputation brought strangers to the Bender cabin who might otherwise have had no reason to visit the isolated property. Kate also gave lectures on spiritualism and became well known enough that travelers and local residents sought her services. This aspect of her life later became particularly sinister because investigators believed the family's hospitality provided them with a steady supply of potential victims. Later accounts portray Kate as an important part of the family's method of attracting and distracting travelers. She could converse easily with guests and apparently made the crude Bender establishment appear less threatening. However, because the Benders escaped before they could be arrested and no member of the family was ever tried for the murders, the precise actions of Kate during each individual killing cannot be proven. ...

Confirmed Victims: (14)

Joe Sowers , Date of Death: 1869

Bloody Benders - Wikipedia