Saturday, March 16, 2024

Bloody Benders Again

I've written on this blog about the Bloody Benders of southeast Kansas at least once before, maybe more than once, but I recently finished reading a new book about the Benders called Hell Comes to Play by Lee Ralph. It's very well researched and contains a lot of previously unknown information about the Benders, especially about their origins.

Anyway, reading the book got me to thinking again about the Benders. I believe I first wrote about the Benders in my book Ozarks Gunfights and Other Notorious Incidents, which was released in 2010. Looking back now at the Bender chapter in that book, I'm almost ashamed of it, because it contains some false information.

Specifically, in discussing the topic of what ultimately happened to the Benders, I suggested that it was likely they were overtaken and killed by posse members who went in pursuit of them following their heinous murders. I reached this conclusion based on the numerous stories to that effect that were told by supposed members of the posse in the years after the Bender killings. I kept reading stories, some of them deathbed confessions, from men who claimed to have been with the posse that overtook the Benders and dispatched them to hell south of the Kansas border in what was then Indian Territory. And I fell for the canard.

I guess everybody is entitled to a mistake now and then; mistakes find their way into print on a somewhat regular basis. But to someone who prides himself on being as accurate as possible, almost any mistake is a cause for embarrassment, and this one was especially embarrassing, because it's a fairly glaring error about a pretty important aspect of the Bender story. I corrected the error in my 2019 book entitled Murder and Mayhem in Southeast Kansas, but that doesn't erase the previous mistake, because the Gunfights book is still out there, too.

For the record, it is virtually certain that the Benders escaped unscathed after their heinous murders. Logic alone argues for this conclusion, since the murders were not discovered until a month after the Benders had flown the coop. By this time, they were long gone, not wandering around south of the Kansas border waiting to be overtaken by a vengeful posse. Very likely, they made their way back to Europe, where they had come from. Another reason the stories of the Benders being killed are almost certainly fabricated tales is that authorities who were in the best position to know the circumstances of the case dismissed the stories as falsehoods.

Speaking of where the Benders came from, I already knew, based on my research for Murder and Mayhem in SE KS, that the Benders came to Kansas from Illinois, that they had lived in France just prior to coming to America, and that they were originally from Germany. However, Mr. Ralph's book has added a lot of additional information about the family's origins that I did not previously know. 

And speaking of lies that surround the story of the Benders, the idea that they were overtaken and killed by a posse is just one of many. It's not even the most outlandish. 

For instance, the stories about Kate Bender being the leading spirit of the family and the stories about her and her older brother supposedly living together in an incestuous relationship, or else not being siblings at all, are sensationalist nonsense. Kate was only 13 or 14 years old when the Benders came to Kansas and was still just 16 when the last of the murders were committed. It's very unlikely a 16-year-old girl was the leading spirit of a family of cold-blooded killers. Kate was almost certainly the most fluent speaker of English in the family, which might have given people who had dealings with the Benders the idea that she was the leading spirit in the family, but just being able to communicate well with her neighbors doesn't make her the driving force behind a mass murder, as some of the more far-fetched stories about the Benders imply.

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Joplin's Morals Scandal of 1952

What one Joplin (MO) newspaper called "an amazing morals case" began on February 15, 1952, when the mother of a juvenile boy called authorities to register a complaint against Joplin physician Guy I. Meredith. After a brief investigation, Dr. Meredith was arrested at his office later that same day and taken to jail to await arraignment on charges of abusing and molesting as many as 31 Joplin High School boys between the ages of 15 and 17. 

Twelve of the boys were questioned, and all told similar stories. They said they had visited Meredith in his office, taken night trips with him in his car, and been offered money by him to engage in "immoral conduct." Nearly all the boys described being taken to "The Spot," a secluded roadside parking place near some abandoned mines north of Chitwood. Several of the boys said that they resisted Meredith's advances but that they had been attracted to him because he was liberal in buying them food and other items. They said Meredith's abuse had been going on since the start of the school term the previous fall.

As more students were questioned the next day, a pattern of "shocking" immorality among Joplin High School students was uncovered, and school administrators, in conjunction with local law enforcement, launched a thorough investigation. The probe also expanded to Carthage.

Under intense questioning, Dr. Meredith admitted that he knew the boys who'd accused him of immoral conduct and that he had indeed met with many of them and even taken several of them to his "spot" at the northwest edge of town. He denied, however, that he had engaged in immoral behavior. Instead, he had merely listened to the boys and counseled them concerning their own immoral behavior. He said all the boys were members of what was known as the "dirty club" at the high school and that his association with the boys stemmed from the fact that he had once been a member of the same fraternity that many of the boys now belonged to. 

Meredith, who had been a physician in Joplin for 25 years, was released on $16,000 bond on February 16, and on the afternoon of February 18, he shot himself in the head at his office in the Frisco Building in downtown Joplin. He died a few hours later at a local hospital. 

The next day, February 19, eleven students, nine boys and two girls, were suspended from Joplin High School for unspecified immoral conduct. Ten other students who had not been attending lately were barred from coming back to school. Meanwhile, the investigation continued.

On February 22, the Joplin Southwestern ran an editorial on what it called the "sex perversion ring" at the high school. The newspaper said that, while 31 students were directly involved in the "sex cult," at least 300 others knew of its existence. Supposedly, members of the cult wore green on certain days to signify their membership in the group. At least one girl was selling contraceptives at the high school, and at least one boy was selling whiskey. Rumor had it that information about the so-called sex cult was known a year earlier but it was hushed up because several of students involved came from prominent families. 

The Carthage side of the investigation led to the arrest on February 22 of H. Tiffin Teters, the town's mayor, and he was charged with five counts of molesting minors. Also arrested on similar charges were Max Potter, who was well known in Joplin in amateur theatrical circles; and Morris Shaffer, a Carthage beauty salon operator.  At least one other Carthage man was charged in the case but could not be immediately located. Teters, who was released on bond, claimed he was completely innocent of the charges against him, but he asked for a leave of absence from his job as mayor. A hearing to determine whether Shaffer was a "homosexual psychopath" was ordered.

A mass meeting was held on February 27 at Joplin's Memorial Hall to organize the Citizens' Moral League of Jasper County. Over the next week or so, however, most of the suspended students were reinstated on probation after they and their parents met with board members and administrators, the morals investigation began to wind down, and the sex scandal of 1952 gradually faded into memory.

 

Sunday, March 3, 2024

The Attempted "Rape" of Mrs. Brake

The September 7, 1904, Springfield (MO) Daily Republican reported that two nights earlier a black man named Jack McCracken had tried to rape Mrs. J. R. (Anna) Brake while her husband, a Springfield policeman, was on duty. Supposedly, McCracken broke into the Brake home late on the night of the 7th while Mrs. Brake was asleep in bed with her baby. She was awakened when the "brute" grabbed her and dragged her out of bed to the floor. However, Anna screamed and fought, frightening McCracken away, as several neighbors rushed to the woman's assistance.

Anna recognized McCracken because he had worked at her house on several occasions, and she picked him out as her attacker the next day when he and several other black men were brought before her in a quasi-lineup. McCracken was whisked away to jail and charged with burglary and attempted rape.

The supposed attack on Anna Brake "stirred up the people of Springfield," and a mob formed on the night of the 6th and went to the jail, intent of taking McCracken out and lynching him. However, the mob spirit had been building throughout the day, giving officers time to whisk McCracken out of town for safekeeping. "Their appetite for human blood unsatisfied," the mob reluctantly broke up in the wee hours of the morning on the 7th. 

A month or so later, J. A. "Jesse" Brake began circulating a treatise on the so-called "race problem." The thrust of the virulently racist pamphlet was that black men were responsible for most of the lawlessness in the country. Brake especially decried the "unmentionable crime" of black men attacking white women, which, according to Brake, was unheard of during the days of slavery but had shot up in recent years. If something wasn't done to curb the "fiendish lust" of black men and to reverse the rising tide of crime in general, the people of the United States would have to decide what was the best and quickest way to dispose of all of its citizens "who may be unfortunate enough to have even a taint of African blood in their veins." 

On the last day November 1904, McCracken, through his lawyer, applied for a change of venue on the grounds that he had not been able to prepare his defense because he was in constant fear for his life and always having to be moved to prevent mob action. He had been taken to Christian County shortly after his arrest because of the threat from a mob that included Jesse Brake dressed in his police uniform. After his return to Greene County, he was still in danger from the mob and removed again. He had recently been brought back again, but now he was in danger from Anna Brake, who was carrying a pistol and had been encouraged by her husband to kill McCracken on sight. The defendant was assigned a new judge to hear his case, but otherwise the request for a change of venue was not granted.

McCracken pleaded guilty to both charges against him when his trial came up a few days later. He insisted that he was not guilty of what Mrs. Brake had accused him of, but he knew he would not get a fair trial and that he stood no chance of acquittal on the charge of attacking a white woman. He feared mob violence and figured he was safer in jail than walking the streets of Springfield. He was sentenced to 30 years in the state pen, and he was hauled away to Jefferson City in early February 1905. 

That's where the case stood until mid-1908 when Mrs. Brake came forward to recant the story she had told at the time of the supposed crime. She and her husband had recently separated, and Brake had resigned from the police force over three years earlier. Mrs. Brake said that McCracken was "no more at fault" than she was. Not only was McCracken not guilty of attacking her, but he was also "a good friend" of hers. She said that for the sake of "the little one" she thought McCracken should be released. She began advocating for his pardon, urging others to do the same, and circulating a petition on his behalf. The "little one" was a reference to her four-year-old mixed-race child, whose father was, in fact, Jack McCracken.

Mrs. Brake said she had lied at the time of her and McCracken's so-called crime because she feared for her life if she told the truth. In making her admission, she asked that it be kept secret until she had time to get out of town, because she feared violence even now.  

Shortly after making her confession, Mrs. Brake left Springfield. A few days after that, J. R. Brake turned "a four-year-old negro boy" over to the county court, and the child was taken to the county farm. In September 1908, Brake was granted a divorce from his wife. 

In May 1909, Jack McCracken was released from the state prison by order of the governor after two Springfield lawyers working on his behalf were able to prove beyond doubt that he was not guilty of the charge for which he was serving time. McCracken had not broken into the Brake home and tried to rape Anna at all but had merely called at the home seeking to see his little son. 

After his release, McCracken came back to Springfield and worked as a chauffeur, but what happened to Mrs. Brake has not been traced. 

Sources: Various Springfield newspapers, White Man's Heaven by Kimberly Harper.

Sunday, February 25, 2024

The Joplin Exposition of 1879 & 1880

Joplin held its first exposition in 1879. Joplin gambling room operator and former Kansas jayhawker Charles "Doc" Jennison was involved in organizing and promoting the event. It was held at the newly constructed fairgrounds on the edge of town (on the east side of present-day Maiden Lane across from the James River Church). Given Jennison's interest in betting on horse racing, horse racing was, indeed, the main attraction of that first fair. 

In anticipation of the event, the Springfield Patriot-Advertiser mentioned that about $3,600 would be given out in prizes and that the largest amount, about $800, would be awarded to the top three finishers in "a great trotting race." The winner would get $500, and $300 would be divided between second and third. The large prize money was expected to draw entries from St. Louis, Kansas City, and elsewhere, meaning that "some of the best horses ever seen in this part of the state" would make their appearance. 

However, when information was later released suggesting that the percentage of prize money going to the races was even greater than the Patriot-Advertiser first thought, the newspaper complained about the inequity. Two-thirds of the total money to be given out at the Joplin fair was earmarked for winners of the horse races, with only one-third left for everything else, including all the agricultural and mechanical categories. "This is no business of ours," opined the Springfield paper, "but it does seem as though there are several other interests in the Southwest quite as worthy of encouragement as the raising of fast horses."

Perhaps the organizers of the expo were aware of critics like the Springfield newspaper, because the next year, 1880, Joplin staged a much bigger exposition that included competition in all sorts of categories. In the lead-up to the event, an article in the Joplin Daily Herald expressed the opinion that the Joplin Exposition would be such an overwhelming success that it would "pale into insignificance all other fairs ever held in the West, save perhaps the Kansas City show."

A large crowd was expected, with people coming from all over, and the Herald promised that the ground would be "chuck full with almost everything of interest to the people of the Southwest." There would be a large collection of fruits, flowers, and plants, as well as some of the best livestock in the country. There would also be a fine arts hall with many works of art and other curiosities. Since Joplin was the center of the mining district, there would naturally be a huge display of minerals. The "speed ring" would still be one of the main attractions, though. "Some of the most noted flyers in the West will be here."

The 1880 Joplin Exposition started on September 28 and lasted into early October. Although I could not find an estimate of attendance, the Herald deemed the event a huge success, with an "admiring multitude" in attendance. 


Sunday, February 18, 2024

Kennedy Dedicates Greer's Ferry Dam

Several years ago, I briefly mentioned on this blog President Truman's dedication of Norfork Dam and his same-day dedication of Bull Shoals Dam in 1952, and I might write more extensively about those events in the near future, but Truman's dedication of those two dams was not the only time a sitting president visited the Ozarks to dedicate a dam. On October 3, 1963, President Kennedy dedicated the Greers Ferry Dam at Heber Springs, Arkansas, on the southern edge of the Ozarks, just a month and a half before he was killed by an assassin's bullet in Dallas. 

Kennedy was scheduled to speak at 11:00 a.m. on October 3, but several thousand people had already gathered at the site of the new dam two hours before that time. A few were protestors carrying sings, but most of those present were there to witness history.

Some officials estimated that as many as 25,000 people might turn out for the event. Although attendance probably didn't reach that figure, the crowd that did show up was likely the largest ever gathered in the history of Heber Springs, the town adjacent to the dam.

In his address, Kennedy praised those who helped fund and construct the dam. He vowed that America would continue to develop its resources, build its "strength and greatness," and "move ahead." He pointed out that the dam project would expand employment opportunities and stimulate the economy in the Heber Springs area and would be a benefit to the whole country that would eventually more than pay for itself.  

In an ironic aside, at least one newspaper ran a brief article along with its reporting on Kennedy's dam dedication that said that military officials and the White House had issued a statement saying that things were going well in Viet Nam and that they expected they would be able to withdraw all US personnel from Southeast Asia within a couple of years. I can tell you from personal experience that that most certainly did not happen.


Sunday, February 11, 2024

A Gay Picnic

I ran onto an article recently in a Springfield (MO) newspaper about a gay picnic, and the descriptor had nothing to do with anybody's sexual orientation. Of course, the article was published in 1877, back when "gay" had a completely different connotation than it does nowadays. These picnickers were just happy and lighthearted. 

I found the article interesting because it sheds light on what fashionable young people of Springfield did for entertainment in the 1870s. On a Friday evening in mid-August about sixty "representatives of the youth, beauty and fashion of Springfield" left town around dark in a procession of omnibuses, carriages, and buggies, most of them "filled to their utmost capacity." Their destination was a social gathering hosted at the Rountree farm about two miles west of town. 

Upon their arrival, the "gay picnicers found the grounds brilliantly illuminated by torches, the poles being driven into the ground, giving the lights the appearance of lamp-posts placed at regular intervals, making the scene resemble a camp-meeting after nightfall, or a gorgeous French fete-champetre." 

A platform was set up for dancing, and a string band played "bewitching strains of music, inviting attendees to participate in the "poetry of motion." For those who did not want to dance, several croquet courses were laid out in the well-lit grove. Those who neither danced nor played croquet contented themselves to sit in the omnibuses and "hold hands." 

Later, refreshments, including ice cream, cake, lemonade, and other delicacies, were served. After the table had been cleared, the "dancing, croquet playing, and flirting were resumed." The party broke up some time after midnight, and the group returned to Springfield "heartily tired but full of pleasant memories of a delightful evening." 

Sunday, February 4, 2024

Bicycling

Bicycling mainly started in the 1860s as competitive racing, but shortly afterwards people began riding bicycles as a recreational activity. By the late 1880s, bicycling had become extremely popular, and the craze continued throughout the 1890s and into the very early 1900s.

Bicycling as an organized sport or organized leisure activity came to Missouri at least as early as 1887, when the St. Louis Cycling Club was formed. That club is still going today and is the oldest cycling club in the United States still in existence.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, though, cycling wasn't confined just to St. Louis. For instance, efforts to organize a cycling club in Springfield were underway in July of 1903, and it's clear from a report about the effort that appeared in a Springfield newspaper that cycling had been popular in Springfield for a long time. 

The newspaper said that the announcement that a cycling club was forming would be "gladly read by the numerous followers of the wheelman's art in this vicinity." 

The paper went on to say that "many expert riders" resided in Springfield and that several years earlier Springfield had been considered "the bicycle racing headquarters of the west." In recent years, however, "interest had been allowed to slacken" and had "almost died out." 

The purpose of the new club would be to host races, both road races and track races, and to sponsor "long rides over the country."


Bloody Benders Again

I've written on this blog about the Bloody Benders of southeast Kansas at least once before, maybe more than once, but I recently finish...