Hell’s Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, America’s First Serial Killer Family by Susan Jonusas
Read by Lee Osario
Published: March 2022
Summary from Goodreads:
A suspense filled tale of murder on the American frontier—shedding new light on a family of serial killers in Kansas, whose horrifying crimes gripped the attention of a nation still reeling from war.
In 1873 the people of Labette County, Kansas made a grisly discovery. Buried by a trailside cabin beneath an orchard of young apple trees were the remains of countless bodies. Below the cabin itself was a cellar stained with blood. The Benders, the family of four who once resided on the property were nowhere to be found. The discovery sent the local community and national newspapers into a frenzy that continued for decades, sparking an epic manhunt for the Benders.
The idea that a family of seemingly respectable homesteaders—one among the thousands relocating farther west in search of land and opportunity after the Civil War—were capable of operating “a human slaughter pen” appalled and fascinated the nation. But who the Benders really were, why they committed such a vicious killing spree and whether justice ever caught up to them is a mystery that remains unsolved to this day. Set against the backdrop of postbellum America, Hell’s Half-Acre explores the environment capable of allowing such horrors to take place. Drawing on extensive original archival material, Susan Jonusas introduces us to a fascinating cast of characters, many of whom have been previously missing from the story. Among them are the families of the victims, the hapless detectives who lost the trail, and the fugitives that helped the murderers escape.
Hell’s Half-Acre is a journey into the turbulent heart of nineteenth century America, a place where modernity stalks across the landscape, violently displacing existing populations and building new ones. It is a world where folklore can quickly become fact and an entire family of criminals can slip through a community’s fingers, only to reappear in the most unexpected of places.
Confession:
Even though I own a copy of this book, and I even started off reading that copy, I decided to also listen to the book on Libby. I initially was just going to switch back and forth between the two, but I started enjoying the audiobook so much that I just switched to listening to the whole thing. Lee Osario just has such a nice voice and he really brought the story of this horrific family to life. It really made a difference in how much I ended up enjoying this book.
I always sort of knew that the Wild West in the late 1800’s was pretty wild and that it swallowed up many people who were never seen again. But this story was quite unbelievable. This family slaughtered 11 people (one a toddler), just so they could steal whatever few possessions they owned. Many times this was just a horse or two. It was pretty horrible and unbelievable how they got away with it for so long.
The Bender family was a small group of German immigrants that settled in a small corner of Kansas after the Civil War. They consisted of an older man and woman, believed to be husband and wife, and a younger woman thought to be their daughter, and a younger man whose relationship to the rest was unknown. They had a small cabin that was on a popular route between two settlements. They often had people stop to water their horses and get provisions from the Benders and occasionally spend the night. Some of these people never left.
The story focuses more on the investigation of one man’s disappearance that eventually leads to the Bender’s and the discovery of the many bodies in their orchard. Unfortunately, the Bender’s fled the territory before their deeds were discovered. The rest of the book follows the search for them and the need to bring them to justice. Unfortunately they disappeared into the wilderness, and although there were sighting and some accounts of what maybe happened to them, they were never found.
The author does a great job of bringing the time period to life, and how difficult it was to find anyone, even when you sort of knew where they were going. Her writing style was also great, and this often felt like a story. All of the people involved in the discovery and the pursuit of the Benders, were well described and felt like the real people they were. You could tell that there had been a lot of research done by the author, as newspaper accounts and old interviews, diaries and letters were reviewed to help put this tragedy into perspective. The author talks about pictures having been taken of the scene, but there were none included.
This was a very interesting read, and was presented in a style that made it easy to understand and relate to the people involved. If you have an interest in the Old West, or in serial killers this is a book that you might want to consider reading.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 
I added this one to my TBR list. I once lived one county over from where this happened.
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That’s so cool.
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