Labette County

Then, there were William Quantrell's brutal attacks along the Kansas-Missouri border during the Civil War.

But one of the most chilling Kansas stories centers on a family in Labette County who in the early 1870s murdered over and over and were never caught.

The story of the Bloody Benders has remained part of our macabre side of culture and history in Kansas, I guess because it's an unsolved mystery.

That's Deb Goodrich, an author, historian, and associate producer of a new movie in the making about the Bender family.

That was soybean grower from Cherokee County, Katey Foster.

We're now going to round out our soybean grower conversation with soybean grower from LaBette County, Mike Froebe.

Mike, thanks for joining us today.

Thank you, Shelly.

And Mike, you mentioned talking with a few of your neighbors.

What's the overall feeling of the soybean crop in Labatt County?

It's pretty poor through LaBette County.

In fact, probably the southern two counties next to Oklahoma, which LaBette County is next to Oklahoma, and about three or four wide is all pretty poor in these lower tiers of counties extending into Oklahoma.

Every man was for himself and almost immediately crime started to run rife.

It was into this chaotic, lawless void in October of 1870 that a mysterious family of supposed German origin arrived in Labette County.

This was the Bender family, John Bender Sr. and his son, John Jr.

Couple of Benders.

Junior, Senior.

A lot of bending.

At around the same time that John Sr. and John Jr. arrived, a group of four separate immigrant families also arrived in different parts of Labette County, where they quickly purchased land and began to build homesteads.

Remarkably, all five of these families were apparently practicing spiritualists, despite each of them being from different parts of Europe.

Now friends, if

you take a ride out through Labette County, Kansas, when the autumn twilight turns the prairie grass the color of tarnished brass, you can feel an unnatural chill rising up from the dirt.

The wind out on those wide open places doesn't just blow, oh no, it whispers through the bluestem like a voice trying to tell a secret the earth has been keeping for over 150 years.

Now you see, back in the early 1870s, the Osage Trail was the main artery carrying dreamers, prospectors, and homesteaders westward.