The Bloody Benders and the Lunenburg Women: Kansas & Virginia

The Bloody Benders killed travelers at their Kansas inn and vanished in 1873. In 1895 in Lunenburg County, Virginia, Mary Abernathy, Pokey Barnes and Mary Barnes were convicted of killing Lucy Pollard on testimony the witness later admitted was false. All three went free.

The Benders ran an inn on the Osage Trail in Labette County, Kansas, and for two years travelers went missing there. At least 11 victims were found buried in the orchard and the well, among them Dr. William York and an 18-month-old girl, Mary Ann Longcor. The family was gone before the bodies were found, and the 3,000 dollar reward was never claimed.

Lucy Pollard, 56, was killed in her farmyard in Fort Mitchell, Virginia, on June 14, 1895, as she walked out to collect eggs. Solomon Marable named three women and all three were convicted. Pokey Barnes cross-examined Marable herself and he admitted what he first said was false. With support from John Mitchell Jr. and the Richmond Planet, Pokey Barnes and Mary Abernathy won new trials and went free, and the governor pardoned Mary Barnes, who walked out on Christmas morning 1896.

Content note: the deaths of at least 11 people including a toddler, a plain description of a woman's injuries, an execution, and death sentences handed to Black defendants on testimony the witness later admitted was false.

Foul Play, Season 40: America's 250th Anniversary. Fifty states, fifty crimes. This is Episode 15.

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