Kansas historians will gather at Pittsburg State University for a discussion on a Southeast Kansas serial killer family.
The talk will be about the Bloody Benders as a part of the Gene DeGruson Memorial Lecture. The event, called The Bender Family Crimes: 150 Years Later, is on October 27th at 7:00pm in the basement of the library. Historians will discuss the crimes committed by the Bender family that set up an inn in remote Labette County. The Benders murdered nearly a dozen travelers over several years who stopped by their inn. These crimes were not discovered until after the family fled the area. They were never caught, and their fate remains a mystery.
Panelists include Max McCoy, a former Pittsburg journalist and PSU faculty member who is now a historian and professor at Emporia State University, Carol Staton and Mike Wood, curators at the Cherryvale Museum, which houses some Bender family artifacts and Bob Miller, the current owner of the Bender property.
