Bloody Benders - Appearances in Fiction

Appearances in Fiction

• The Bender Family is the subject of the Western novel The Hell Benders (1999) by Ken Hodgson.
• In Lyle Brandt's novel Massacre Trail (2009) the Benders are responsible for several homestead killings, and are brought down by Marshal Jack Slade.
• Candle of the Wicked (1960), by Manly Wade Wellman, novelizes the events leading up to the discovery of the Bender killings.
• The novel Cottonwood (2004), by Scott Phillips, features Kate Bender in a supporting role; the second half of the book takes place during the trial of two alleged surviving members of the Bender Family.
• An episode of the 1954 television series Stories of the Century named "Kate Bender" focused on only the son and daughter.
• A nonfiction graphic adaptation of their history is part of Rick Geary's Treasury of Victorian Murder series.
• The Benders are also mentioned, though not by name, in Neil Gaiman's 2001 novel American Gods, as a cult apocryphally said to worship the Slavic god Czernobog. They play a similar role in the short story "They Bite" (1943) by Anthony Boucher.
• In the first season of the television series Supernatural, there is a murderous family who are named Bender as a reference to the historical family.
• The main character of Katie (1982) by Michael McDowell is reminiscent of Kate Bender in many ways.