Susan JonusasReseñas

3.5 stars

The Benders were a group of four people, an older couple known simply as Ma and Pa, and a younger couple. No one knows if the younger were siblings or married. They moved to a plot of land in Kansas in the 1870s and stayed for a few years. The younger woman, Kate, called herself a “spiritualist”. They sold groceries (or had a sign out to do so, anyway), and attracted travellers with food and a place to stay. Unfortunately for some of those travellers, the Benders were also serial killers. When some of the locals were suspicious when the local doctor went missing, the Benders up and ran. No one ever found them. As the locals started looking around, the bodies were piling up on the homestead. There were at least 11 people killed, mostly men, mostly travellers, but one 18 month-old baby buried with her dad (they think the baby was buried alive).

I read a shorter account of this somewhere, I’d like to say not long ago, but it may be longer than I’m thinking. This was an expanded version of the story. Only about the first 1/3 of the book told of them coming to the area until they ran. The next bit of the book followed them to the wilds of Texas, where there were a lot more outlaws and places to hide, and people to help them hide. Beyond that, no one knows where they ended up. The last bit of the book was when, 16 years later, someone thought they’d found Ma and Kate; there were trials to determine if they really were the Benders or not. There is an extensive note section at the end, as well.

I thought the start and end were the more interesting. The middle part, as the Benders made their escape, was less interesting as we focused on a few of the other criminal element who helped them along their way (one of these people talked to police while he was in jail later on, so that’s how some of this is known). Overall, I’d say this was good. Certainly a lot of research went into it.½

Horrific but interesting story of a family in LaBette County, Kansas in the late 1800's. The Benders were strange - Ma and Pa, daughter Kate, and maybe son John. The Benders opened a sort of grocery store that people in the area and those traveling stopped by. Individuals begin to strangely disappear in this county. William York was a member of a highly though of family; he disappeared. A father and his 18 month old daughter disappeared, a local farmer was found dead in a nearby creek. People soon became afraid and the authorities were finally encouraged to look into the disappearances.

The narrative then follows the Bender family and the families of those that disappeared and the search that follows. Many threads are followed. I did question the use of dialogue at times - how accurate it is, yet there are lots of sources, etc. However, whatever the accuracy, it is an interesting story especially in light of living near the area. The life of the frontier at that time is certainly believable as times were hard. Interesting!

In Hell's Half-Acre, Susan Jonusas tries to bring together what's known about one of the most notorious true crime cases in American history—that of "the Bloody Benders", a group of gruesome serial killers who evaded justice and vanished into modern myth—and the times in which they lived—Kansas in the 1870s, when Native Americans were being rapidly dispossessed in the name of white settler colonialism. It's to Jonusas' credit that she tries to pay attention to how race and gender shaped how the Benders were seen. None of the families of newly emancipated Black people moving into Kansas at around the same would have been able to get away with so much for so long.

It's just that Jonusas doesn't approach her task with a great deal of grace or much evident skill with primary source analysis. The narrative voice lurches between staid academese and potted biographies of people only tangentially related to the case, and thriller-ish imaginings of various encounters and what people "must have" felt, thought, or said in that moment. It often wasn't clear to me why she gave some sources credence and dismissed others. There's probably enough known material and/or myth about the Benders to make for one decent New Yorker article or one likely-hammy novel—Jonusas opted for neither, and Hell's Half-Acre is the worst for it.½

Tells the story of a family named the Benders, who murdered travelers for their belongings to sell. Goes deep into the history of Kansas (specifically the southeast corner) at this time. If you aren't interested in the frontier history this could be a long read for you. Overall, I found it an interesting read, that was very well written.

Choosing a rating for this is hard.
-Wonderful, engaging writing: Five stars
-Making up information out of whole cloth, including private conversations among the Benders, themselves, when no one could’ve heard them: Zero stars (we in the know call this “fiction”)
-Useless “references” that are just narrative lists of citations not connected in any way to the text they supposedly support so that anyone who wanted to follow up would have to track down and read a dozen or more primary sources to find the origin of a single fact or quote: Zero stars
-Asserting that settlers to Kansas territory were met with “plentiful forests” (p. 5): Negative a million stars; she claims to have actually visited Kansas. I can only assume that this is also fiction.

I really enjoyed reading this well-researched, and intriguing account of an unusual/dark/murderous family who took advantage of those enthralled with the westward expansion. There were so many people looking to stake a claim as territories came open, and because there was little, if any, method to track them, other than sightings at typical stopping points, letters sent to those waiting at home, (i.e. "I have arrived!") to small encounters here and there with well-intentioned people, it's a wonder this didn't happen more often.

Somewhere toward the end I was thinking, okay, when are they going to figure out where the Benders went? And when do I get to see them get their comeuppance?

Then, I remembered, oh, wait, "a mystery that remains unsolved to this day."

When you read of what they did, you wish somehow, someway, someone had found them and served justice. Even as the narrative moved forward, and different individuals who may (or may not) have known the family were introduced, frustratingly, they would not meet expectations of what they knew, or would embellish what they knew, and eventually disappear into the sunset, so to speak.

Because they were never found, and their motives were never known, this adds even more to the mystery of what happened to them, and how they were able to get away with killing eleven (what's known) people. There was one particular victim - less than two years of age - buried alive with her murdered father. I found that part of this story the most horrific and tragic of all, even though the entire account is not for the tenderhearted.