![]() In another incident, the Podkopaev family murdered a paratrooper, Dmitry Chudakov, his wife, Irina, their son, Sasha (age 7), and a daughter, Veronika (age 11), who absorbed the brunt of the violence. They always seemed to know where the police were at all times. ![]() The Russian clan was clever, too, using walkie-talkies to communicate during robberies and to track police. They also murdered police officers for the sole purpose of stealing their weapons. In one incident, the family tortured and killed two teenage girls - one reported to be Inessa’s goddaughter - and gouged the eyeballs from their skull. Middle class murderers, Roman Podkopaev (age 35), his wife, Inessa, and their two daughters, Anastasiya (13 years old) and Viktoria Tarverdiyeva (age 25), plotted to kill thirty men, women, and children to feed their own greed. Ten bodies were unearthed at the cabin, but twenty-one murders are attributed to the Bloody Benders. While dining, the Bender men would strike from behind the curtain, crushing their skull with a hammer, then drag them into the trapdoor in the floor, which led to the “slaughter room” in the cellar, where they’d finish them off by severing their throat. Guests at the restaurant were urged to sit in the place of honor, with their back against the separating tarp. Investigators pieced together what happened. All with severed throats, the skulls bashed in, with the exception of the infant, who suffocated to death when buried beneath her father. Seven more bodies were discovered that night and another the following day. ![]() The first body to be unearthed was the remains of Dr. Then they searched the garden, which was freshly plowed. The volunteers moved the cabin to search the ground underneath, but no bodies were found. And what they found chilled them to the bone.īehind the curtain a trapdoor in the floor led to the rancid-smelling cellar, drenched with blood. Hundreds of volunteers arrived for the search, including Colonel York. But the bad weather prevented the search for several days and by the time the weather cleared, the Benders had fled. Then at a town meeting, with the two male Benders in attendance, it was decided that they’d search every homestead for evidence of the murders. They questioned the Benders about a woman who claimed “Ma” threatened her with a knife, but got nowhere. Unfortunately for the Benders, he had two powerful brothers - Colonel Ed York and Kansas Senator Alexander York - who wouldn’t stop till they got answers. William York questioned everyone from Independence to Fort Scott, but then, he disappeared, too. It wasn’t until George Loncher and his infant daughter left Independence, Kansas and never arrived in Iowa that someone went looking for them. During that time numerous murder victims were even discovered in the area, but no one suspected the Benders. It wasn’t unusual for men to pass through Kansas to settle in the west in search of a great fortune. aka “Pa” and his wife “Ma” were in their sixties the two children, Joanne aka “Kate” and John aka “Thomas” were in their twenties - kept to themselves, except every Sunday when they attended church and their regular appearances at town meetings.įrom 1870-1873 several travelers went missing, but it took a while for people to notice. Other than Kate, the rest of the family - John Bender, Sr. She gave lectures on spiritualism and advertised her services in local newspapers, claiming to have the ability to “heal disease, cure blindness, fits and deafness.” Her skills helped to lure travelers into a trap they never knew existed. The eldest daughter, Kate, allegedly had psychic powers. The tarp was strategically placed behind the chairs of the dining room table, so while patrons dined their backs were to the rest of the home. Behind the tarp was where the Benders slept and in the front of the cabin lived a restaurant and general store, which sold staples, such as tobacco, sardines, candles, crackers, and powder. The Benders - though some say that wasn’t their real last name - divided the house into two sections by hanging a tarp from floor to ceiling, wall to wall. In the 1870s there lived a family of German immigrants who built a one-room cabin near the Great Osage trail in Cherryvale, Kansas. We’ll discuss serial killer couples in a future post. Four serial killer families who hunt, stalk, and murder together. But what about an entire family of serial killers? Believe it or not, I was able to find four. A pair of serial killers ups the stakes even more.
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