BY ANDY TAYLOR
Montgomery County Chronicle

CHERRYVALE — More than 135 years after the Bender clan committed a series of grisly murders at their rural Cherryvale inn, the saga of this serial killer family continues to draw interest.

Top on the list of questions asked by people who hear the Bender story: what happened to the family after their murderous deeds were discovered?

That’s where fact and fiction have collided.

Most prominent among the theories: a posse came in contact with the family as the Benders attempted to flee southeast Kansas. According to tales told years later by men claiming to be members of the posse, the Benders were apprehended by the posse and killed in a fit of Old West justice.

After all, protecting the peace in the days of the untamed prairie was only as quick as a twitchy trigger finger and as strong as a hangman’s noose.

The posse swore an oath of secrecy that the Benders’ demise and the location of their corpses would never be known, according to popular legend.

Other tales claim the Benders made a clean getaway and found new life in other parts of the nation under alias names.

And, one other fanciful story claim the family attempted to leave the United States via a hot air balloon, only to crash into a ship in the Gulf of Mexico during a wind storm.

Most of the stories are full of holes but continue to add to the lore of the Benders.

One thing for certain: no one definitely knows what happened to the Benders.

However, noted author Phyllis de la Garza may have added another chapter to the never-ending saga.

In 2005, de la Garza, who lives in Willco, Ariz., penned the book “Death for Dinner: The Benders of (Old) Kansas.” The book not only documents the story of the Bender murders, which took place northeast of Cherryvale in the early 1870s, but also serves as a compendium to the many myths and legends to the Bender family’s eventual disappearance or deaths.

The Arizona author thought her research was completed when the book was published in 2005. However, a recent reader of the book notified de la Garza about the gravesites of a John Joseph Bender and a Catherine C. Bender buried in a Glenwood Springs, Colo., cemetery.

De la Garza put her sleuth’s cap on her head and returned to the Bender mystery trail.

“At first, I was skeptical, but after researching the information about the Benders buried in Colorado, I discovered too many coincidences with the Benders in Kansas,” she said. “Even if the Benders in Colorado were not the same John and Katie Bender in Cherryvale, it’s almost storyworthy to note the similarities between the two sets of Bender family members.”

De la Garza said the John Joseph Bender buried in Glenwood Springs, Colo., carries a similar identity to the John Bender Sr., of the Cherryvale fame. How so?

• Both men were born in Germany: John Joseph Bender of Colorado was born in Germany in 1843; the John Bender, Sr., of Cherryvale is believed to hailed from Germany because of the thick Dutch accent.

• Both men lived in Missouri: John Joseph Bender of Colorado lived in Missouri in the late 1860s; John Bender Sr., is believed to have come to Cherryvale in 1870 after living several years in Missouri.

• Both men have connections to the blacksmith trade: John Joseph Bender of Colorado was known as a blacksmith; the Bender hammers allegedly used by John Bender Sr., in the murder of guests to the Bender Inn are believed to have been tools used by a blacksmith.

• There is a gap of information about John Joseph Bender’s life in the early 1870s: According to  the “Portrait and Biographical Record of the State of Colorado,” printed in 1899, the life of the Colorado Bender was told in detail — except for a period of years in the early 1870s. That’s when the John Bender, Sr., is believed to have lived with his family near Cherryvale.

De la Garza also noted a similarity in the photograph of the John Joseph Bender in the 1899 publication and a sketch of John Bender Sr., found in the book “The Five Fiends,” written by C.W. Alexander in 1874. The Bender of Cherryvale lore is depicted with a heavy crop of hair, slicked back above his brow, sitting atop a chiseled face. The Colorado Bender is clean cut and well dressed — but the square jaw and Germanic face are similar to that of the Cherryvale Bender.

And, what about Kate Bender — the primary actor in the Cherryvale story — and the Catherine C. Bender of Colorado?

Their circles of commonality are also uncanny, de la Garza said.

The Catherine C. Bender of Colorado is believed to have come from Germany as did the Kate Bender of Cherryvale.

• The Catherine C. Bender of Colorado spent her adult years childless, even though she and John Joseph Bender were the parents of six children (all sons), all of whom died in infancy. The Kate Bender of Cherryvale is believed to have been childless.

• The Catherine C. Bender of Colorado and the Kate Bender of Cherryvale appear to be the same period in age (they would have been in their 20s when Kate Bender roamed the Cherryvale area in the early 1870s).

• Catherine C. Bender spent her early career in Colorado as the owner of the Commercial Restaurant in Glenwood Springs. Kate Bender of Cherryvale once worked as a waitress at a Cherryvale hotel restaurant and also spent time preparing meals at the Bender’s rural inn and grocery store.

• An 1899-era photograph of Catherine C. Bender shows similarities to the sketch of Kate Bender found in books written about the Kansas murders. Both appear to have an auburn or reddish-brown hair color with light-colored eyes.

But, what about the documented marriage between John Joseph Bender and Catherine C. Bender? Would that mean that the father/daughter team of John Bender Sr., and Kate Bender of Cherryvale (this is where the story veers to the most extreme levels of bizarre)  were husband and wife in later life in Colorado?

“Nothing was ever right about the Benders of Cherryvale,” de la Garza said. “There were lots of questions as to whether Ma and Pa Bender were actually the parents of Kate Bender and John Bender Jr. And, there is some anecdotal evidence that John Bender Sr., and Kate Bender had an unusual relationship. Then again, the entire Bender family of Cherryvale was unusual.”

The John Joseph Bender of Glenwood Springs, Colo., died in 1888, of what newspaper accounts claim was “dropsy of the heart.”

Meanwhile, Catherine C. Bender spent her widow years as a successful land owner and real estate agent, taking advantage of the growth of the Colorado territory. She accumulated so much wealth that she took excursions to her native Bavaria and attended the Worlds Fair in Germany.

“She appears to have been a fantastic real estate saleswoman,” said de la Garza. “People seemed drawn to her personality, just like people were drawn to Kate Bender’s grace and beauty in Cherryvale.”

There is no hint that the Colorado Benders had any scrapes with the law. Nor are there any tales of homicides committed in gruesome fashion with a hammer in the Glenwood Springs, Colo., region.

Could the infamous John Bender Sr., and Kate Bender turned over a new leaf after their homicidal rages in Cherryvale?

Or, did the Cherryvale Benders find their deaths in the hands of the revenge-minded posse?

No one will ever know for certain.

For buried under two tombstones in Glenwood Springs, Colo., and (possibly) in the eternal silence of the Kansas soil are stories from two sets of families who shared not only a name but also an unbelievable amount of coincidence.