With only descriptions to work from, Geary has a vivid gift for visual characterisation and his portrayal of the Bender family is memorable and evocative.
In a dangerous era when it was hardly uncommon for people to disappear, the sheer number who vanished in South-East Kansas eventually drew attention, and Geary’s extrapolation recounts how very gradually the circle of suspicion contracted to the Bender Inn. The term ‘hospiticide’ has thankfully fallen into disuse, but once applied to innkeepers who murdered their guests to acquire their valuables. The Saga of the Bloody Benders marked the 20 th anniversary of Rick Geary beginning work on his Treasury of Victorian Murder series, his ninth volume, and one featuring a cast that history hasn’t remembered as well as those spotlighted in earlier works.įrom 1871 the Bender family operated an inn situated between two small towns in Kansas, a remote post that nonetheless provided rich pickings for a very old trade.
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