there is a museum in Cherryvale, Kansas with a hair wreath made from an approximately 8 year old girl who was a victim of the Bloody Benders!

Mass grave: This photograph from 1873 shows the graves found behind the Bender farm. It was noticed that the Benders' garden was always freshly plowed but never planted. the murder is horrible. but having a part of you go on forever, above ground, occasionally looked upon by the living? kind of cool, I think. like a photograph. but not.

The Cherryvale Bender Museum opened in May 1961. The museum building was an authentic reconstruction of the clapboard Bender homestead located along the bleak, isolated countryside of the Osage Mission trail during 1871-1873. The museum was located 2-blocks from US Highway 169 in Cherryvale seven miles southwest from the original 1871 Bender southeast Kansas frontier “store and inn”. The following black and white pictures are from the promotional postcards that were sold to help preserve and maintain the museum. Let’s go inside the Museum to relive that Bender era. Postcard Cherryvale Museum Collection

Stepping inside the replica of the killers’ home, constructed from actual measurements, photographs, and memories of the notorious wayside Inn, you instinctively address the woman behind the counter. “Oh…Hello…,” then your words die as you realize you are staring at a life-sized dummy of the notorious Ma Bender wearing period clothing waiting for your provision order. Behind Ma on the wall are shelves of scantily-stocked containers and merchandise which were sold in the 1870s, goods such as tobacco, crackers, sardines, candies, powder and shot. Among these were Pastime Plug Tobacco: “The Essence of Excellence” and Pink Pills for Pale People, popular items at that time. In front of you, a few paces away, is the infamous wagon canvas curtain serving as the room’s only partition. In front of it, waits John Bender Sr. with a scowl on his face and a 5½ pound hammer in his right hand. Stepping forward out of the corner of your left eye, you encounter John, Jr. quietly standing there. Postcard Cherryvale Museum Collection

As you progress a few more steps you are behind the heavy curtain that divides the inn where death lurked for many a guest. There sits the selected well-dressed unsuspecting traveler of 1873. Before him, spread on a red and white checkered tablecloth, is a place setting which has been prepared for his eating pleasure. The wide plank floor is broken only by the trap door under the table to the cellar pit awaiting its next deposit (shown open in the above photo). The pit was six feet square and about the same in depth with a large sandstone floor and stone-lined tunnel leading to the back of the slaughterhouse for travelers. (The metal bars have been added for all museum visitors’ safety). Splattered blood found in the cellar indicated that the victims’ throats were also cut in the dark cellar. Young John waits quietly in the corner behind the wagon partition dividing the one-room murder house. The bench was always conveniently located next to the wagon sheet for the next weary lone westward bound journeyer. This traveler’s attention is focused to his left, for there she stands…the beautiful killer Kate Bender. Postcard Cherryvale Museum Collection

Katie Bender, as she was sometimes called, engages the unfortunate stranger in flirtatious conversation at the iron cooking and heating stove while she prepares to serve up her main course, DEATH. She was an expert at drawing out information, learning all she could of his affairs. Meanwhile, young John would be caring for the horses, making a quick check of the contents of the wagon or the saddlebags. If the traveler seemed worth the risk, the stage was set. Often buxom Kate would station herself at the roadside in front of the Inn when a unsuspecting stranger was approaching. When he drew nigh, she would accost him pleasantly. She would inquire in a friendly manner where he was going and if it was near evening, would assure him that it would be impossible for him to reach his destination before nightfall. She would propose that he should remain over night at the Inn with them. Most travelers generally accepted the hospitable proposition. Under circumstances when the victim would not sit in the chair against the curtain or moved the chair, killer Kate would propose a game. The part the doomed guest played would be to get on his knees as if he were praying. When in the required position, a family member would sneak softly from behind the curtain and strike him dead as he knelt. They always aimed to make death certain, provided they thought the unwary traveler had valuables worth stealing. Two beds, covered by old quilts and having feather ticks and straw mattresses, also occupied this section of the house along with chamber pots, cooking vessels and skillets, and personal provisions. Lighting is provided by coal oil lamps. A wooden water bucket is on one wall, as is a gourd dipper. Clothes are hung on the walls. Postcard Cherryvale Museum Collection

A chair or bench was always conveniently positioned near the curtain for a traveler. When a man whom they had marked as a victim entered this little area, his doom was sealed. While sitting at a dining table, the unsuspecting traveler’s back would be against the curtain outlining the back of his head. In a few moments John will swing his sledgehammer. It would crack against the flesh and bone of the hapless wayfarer’s head. With hardly a groan, he will plop his head on the table. Rushing from their hiding places, the family will deal another blow to the temple with a smaller hammer and drag the senseless body to the opened trap door, over which the insatiate monster in Kate will drew a knife across his throat from ear to ear. After stripping the victim of his clothing and valuables, the body will be dropped through the opened trap door into the pit or cellar beneath. Later at night, the carcasses will be removed for burial in the nearby orchard through a tunnel that exits behind the back of the Inn. Postcard Cherryvale Museum Collection.

THE CHERRYVALE BENDER MUSEUM You leave this spooky environment through the back door with your life and all your possessions. Outside and to your left as you leave is the double-leaf door, with the always present pad lock, leading into the stone-lined passage to the killing pit or cellar. Those who visited this museum with you, and others before you, will leave with a feeling that the notorious Benders, unlike their many ill-fated forgotten travelers, live again. More than 130 years after the news first spread about “The Kansas Bloody Benders", their story is still told by Kansans around campfires and noted by road markers from the Kansas State Historical Society. Generations have gossiped about Kate Bender and newspapers, magazines, and the movies have portrayed her. Today, as an infamous character of the prairie, she ranks with Jessie James, the Daltons, and Belle Starr, and still the story of Kate lives on. On the Internet Google site, more than 2,600 daily hits are made, a grim reminder of a dark page out of the past. Photo by Mike Gullett of the Parsons “Sun”, used by permission

google says Mercer to Cherryvale: 275 Miles - 443 Km 4 hours 21 mins

but I research on: and find this sad, sad news: Kansas Tourism The Bender Museum in Cherryvale was only open from 1961-1978 in Cherryvale. There are museums in Cherryvale's Leatherock Hotel, but nothing completely dedicated to the Bender's.