Bender: Volume Three

The Fate of the Bloody Bender FamilyThis deluxe magazine collects the final three chapters of the Bender saga originally presented in Saddlebag Dispatches in one handsome volume!In chapter five, "Spirit Guide," George Lochner and his daughter have gone missing and the trail leads U.S. Marshal William York to the Bender Inn. York senses something troubling with the Inn's beautiful proprietor, Kate. Her attempts to seduce him are clumsy and obvious, and do nothing to distract him from his investigation. When he vows to return with more men, the Benders disappear. York returns to an abandoned Inn, livestock foundering in the field, and a trail cold as winter.In chapter six, "Lamentation," Marshal York unearths a house of horrors. Bodies--some intact, others mutilated or dismembered--are discovered in the garden behind the Bender Inn. Satanic runes are carved in the makeshift basement. George Lochner and his daughter are found in a shallow grave, and evidence determines that the young girl was buried alive with her dead father. Desperate for information, York tortures Kate Bender's paramour, the hapless Brockman, only to discover he is just a fool in love with a murderess. Charles Ingalls is recruited by locals concerned about discovering the truth behind the Inn while fortune hunters and the U.S. Marshals dismantle the cabin. In chapter seven, "The Penitent Man," Charles Ingalls narrates the many theories behind the disappearance of the Bender family. Did they split up? Was that man drunk in a bar really John Bender, Jr.? Are that black widow and her mother really Kate and Ma Bender? Did the Baldknobbers of Missouri stop the family, or did Marshal York, hellbent for vengeance, eventually catch up with their wagon? Are their descendants still out there? Explore the possible fates the America's first family of serial killers in this final chapter of the saga of the bloody Benders!