While many of us in the present day wish we could return to times of old, the wild west would make for a difficult transition. In this episode, Janelle and Vicky look at two cases from the wild country. From bank robberies and train heists to murders and gunfights, these crimes were all part of the fabric of life in the untamed frontier.
You can check out the We’re All Just Pretending podcast here!
Research links below!:
Slate – “The Story of the ‘Bloody Benders,’ the Serial-Killing Family That Terrorized the Wild West – Then Disappeared”
A&E – “Who Were the 1870s Serial Killing ‘Family’ Known as the ‘Bloody Benders’?”
Medium – “The Bastardized Story of the Bloody Benders”
Kansas Historical Society – “Kate Bender”
Smithsonian Magazine – “The Kansas Homestead Where America’s First Serial Killer Family Committed Its Crimes Is Up for Sale”
“Hell’s Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier” by Susan Jonusas (Amazon)
Legends of America – “Levi Boone Helm – Murderer, Cannibal & Thief”
The Caribou Sentinel – “Kentucky Cannibal In Cariboo”
“Vigilante days and ways; the pioneers of the Rockies; the makers and making of Montana and Idaho” by Nathaniel Pitt Langford
The Spell of the West – “Montana Vigilantes”
“The Vigilantes of Montana; or Popular Justice in the Rocky Mountains” by Prof. Thos. J. Dimsdale
