


The Benders’ story begins, like many from this time period, thanks to the Homestead Act of 1862. This is the story of the Bloody Benders, America’s first family of serial killers. In April, 1873 on a homestead in Labette County, Kansas, another of these stories was unfolding-one that would leave a local family with a nickname that remains infamous almost 150 years later. And while it’s unconfirmed whether the inspiration for Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Leatherface, serial killer Ed Gein, actually committed cannibalism, the items found in his house of horrors went far beyond the infamous mask of human skin.

The real Amityville Horror was Robert DeFeo Jr., who killed his father, mother, two brothers, and two sisters in the house that would later become the focus of paranormal speculation. Take Lizzie Borden, who killed her parents with around 10 whacks each, instead of the 40 depicted in the morbid children’s rhyme.
