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Show THE BKXDEA BUTCHKK1ES. On Friday, tho 9.h, wo published the finding of eight dead bodies, under the desorted houso of a family named Binder, near Independence, Kansas. The details of the affair reveal a series of most horrible murders perpetrated by this family. Two brothers, William and Thomas Bender, with their wives, formed tho quartette. Tho wife of the former was a spiritualist. Tho following follow-ing alvortiscmcnt in an Independence paper indicates what her professions werr. Prof. Miss Katie Bender can heal all sorts of diseases; can cure blindness, tits, dealucMt, and ail such diseases, also deaf and dumbness. Kesidence fourteen miles east of Independence, on the road from Independence to O-'ago misMon, one ami a half miles southeast ol Morehead station. Katie Bender. June IS, IS, This Katie Bender was called by the members of the family a "medium;" the neighbors knew her as the "aha. devil." She is described as forty-two years old, with iron-grey hair ragged at . tho ends and thin over the temples. Her eyes wore fteel-grey and hard, With a sinister anl forbidding light. Her form aDgular and tall seemed to lift itself up when the "spiritualistic influence" took possession of her and the neighbors t-ay, became gigaDtia in height, th i boiled roots aud herbs, deak iii iucanaiiuns and all manner of oh .riut and spells, ller will was indomitable, in-domitable, and tho rest of tho household house-hold dreaded and obeyed her. Thit "ohe-devil" is supposed to bo tho ono who directed ail of the murders. Tho mysterious disiippcaraoco of a Dr. York, brother of Col. York bo widely known u tho exposor of benator Fomc-roy, Fomc-roy, oflUusaj, was the cause leading J to the discovery of the bodies some two weeks after the Bender family had fkd tho country. A reporter of the Kansas City Times thru describes tho 'finding of Dr. York's body: Al ter the beds had been removed one of the party noticed a slight depruonion in the floor, which, upon clor-er examination, exam-ination, revealed a trap door upou hinges. This was immediately lifccd up, and in tho gloom a pit outlined itself, forbidding, cavernous, unknown. Lights were procured, and some of the men descended. They found themselves them-selves in an abyss shaped like a well, some six fuel deep, and about five feet in diameter. Hero and thoro little damp places could be seen as if water bad come up from tho bottom or been poured down from above. 1 lu-y groped about over these splotches and held up a handful to the light. Tho ouzo smeared iloelf over their palmu and dribbled through their fingers. fin-gers. It was blood thick, foetid, olammy, sticking bloodthat they had found groping there in the void the blood, perhaps, of some poor, belated ,U- uhn UaA loiH hinwlC rlf.om tn dream of homo and kindred, and one who had died while drcuming of his loved oucp. Tho party had provided themselves with a Ions, sharp, rod of iron, which they drovo into the ground in every dirco ion at the bottom of the pit, but nothing further rewarded tho search, and they came away to examine exam-ine tho garden in tho rear of tho houso. Alter borirjg, or probing, as it were, for nearly an hour, the rod was driven down into a spot, and when it was withdrawn something that looked like matter adhered to tho point Shovels wore sot at onco to work, and in a few moments a corpse was uncovered. The flesh had dropped away from the logs. Thoro was no cofhn, no winding sheet, no preparation tor the grave, nothing upon the body but an old shirt, torn in places and thick with damp and decay. de-cay. Tho corpse was tenderly disin tcrrcd and laid upon its back in the lull light of tho soft April sun. One look of horror into tho ghastly face, festering and swollen, and a dozen vyiceti cried out in terror ; "My God, it is Dr. Yorkl" Among tho other viotims was a young girl, some eight yoars of age, with long sunny hair and traces of boauty still visible upon tho countenance counten-ance not yet entirely disfigured by do-oay. do-oay. Ono arm was broken. The breast bone had been driven in. The right knee had been wronohed from its sookot, and tho leg doubled up under the body. The most terrible and intenso ex-oitcment ex-oitcment has Binoe filled the whole of that portion of tho State, and every possible means has been made use of to secure the arrest of tho Bender family who finally have been captured noar Dallas, Texas. Bobbery is supposed sup-posed to have been the object of all the murders. While the crowd were engaged en-gaged digging over the ground to discover dis-cover more bodies, a man ramcd Brook man, who was supposed to know something of tho u-urders, was strung up to a beam and bung until thought dead; hut. ho revived after being cut down and escaped half alive. It is scarcely believed possible that a trial of the prisoners ean be secured any where in that region of the State, and more exciting news may bo looked for therefrom upon tho arrival of the Bonders fr om Tcxae. |
