Podcast
RedHanded
Phyllis de la Garza's book, "Death for Dinner: The Benders of Old Kansas", explores the mystery of the Bender family, who were suspected of being serial killers in the 1870s. De la Garza found evidence that John Bender was born in Germany and married Catherine Miller in Missouri, later moving to Colorado and opening a tavern.
And that is where the mystery of the bloody Benders stops. It remained unsolved for well over a century. But then 140 years later Phyllis de la Garza the author of Death for Dinner the Benders of Old...
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Episode: Bonus Patreon Upcycle - The Bloody Benders: Americ...
Phyllis de la Garza's book, "Death for Dinner: The Benders of Old Kansas", explores the mystery of the Bender family, who were suspected of being serial killers in the 1870s. De la Garza found evidence that John Bender was born in Germany and married Catherine Miller in Missouri, later moving to Colorado and opening a tavern.
And that is where the mystery of the bloody Benders stops. It remained unsolved for well over a century. But then 140 years later Phyllis de la Garza the author of Death for Dinner the Benders of Old Kansas claims to have solved the mystery or at least some of it.
De la Garza searched census records articles and biographies and found that John Joseph Bender was born in Mosk Bay Welschag Baden Germany in 1843.
Catherine had moved to the US from Baden Germany too when she was just a child.
And John worked as a blacksmith until he died aged 45 in 1888 from dropsy of the heart which I also discovered during my research for the Victorians and all of the things that could kill you.
After John's death Kate turned the tavern into a restaurant and she successfully ran it for 30 years.