The chain of low hills known as the Bender Mounds extends in a diagonal seven miles northeast of here, islands of limestone and scrubby trees over level fields where this time of year soybeans have just been harvested. The lonely hills meander across what is now U.S. Highway 400, where travellers whoosh by in comfort at 65 mph.
But 150 years ago, the rugged Osage Trail ran between these mounds, somewhat north of the present highway. This section of the trail ran the 47 miles from the Osage Mission at what is now St. Paul to Independence, Kansas, and food and lodging was hard to come by. Tired and hungry travellers would sometimes stop for a hot meal and a hard bed at the Bender Inn, a two-room frame cabin on the south side of the trail between the mounds.
Many of the travelers were never seen again, victims of a multiple-murdering frontier family that has gone down in history as the Bloody Benders.
https://www.ksal.com/kansas-bloody-benders-serial-killers-still-a-mystery/