10 Horrifying Serial Killers You've Never Heard Of

8. The Bloody Benders

The Bloody Benders were a family of serial killers who owned an inn and small general store in Labette County in Kansas between 1871 and 1873.

The family consisted of John Bender, his wife Elvira Bender, their son John Bender Jr., and their daughter Kate. Those family relationships were just for show, however: the Bender family appears to have been one of convenience, and John Jr. and Kate may even have been husband and wife.

The Benders are believed to have murdered at least a dozen travellers before they were discovered, but fact and fiction have blurred together, and it's likely to be many, many more: those are just the bodies that were discovered when their cabin was raided in 1873. The house was found deserted, the family long gone, and they were never heard from again, at least, not in Kansas.

If none of the bloody Benders were actually related to one another, then that's a whole different kind of terrifying: that four so similar people would find each other, gel to the point where they could pose as a family, and then commit mass murder together, as a family.