Colonel York. In 1923 it was donated to the Kansas Museum of History by York's wife but is not on display; still bearing reddish-brown stains on the blade, it can be seen upon request. A historical marker describing the Benders' crimes is located in the rest area at the junction of U.S. Route 400 and U.S. Route 169 north of Cherryvale. Connection to the Kelly Family According to a news report from contemporary media, an unnamed man from Kansas City, who had investigated the Bender Family's house and the rumors of their deaths numerous times, claimed that The Kelly Family were in fact the Benders. The man further elaborated that all the stories of the latter's capture were made up, supposedly by a group of Confederates, who have also helped the Benders dispose of the murdered victims' horses and wagons. He pointed out that both families' modus operandi, family unit numbers and other evidence proved that they are one and the same. Connection to Little House on the Prairie The Ingalls family, made famous in the books and television series Little House on the Prairie, lived near Independence, and Laura Ingalls Wilder mentioned the Bender family in her writing and speeches. In 1937 she gave a speech at a book fair which was later transcribed and printed in the September 1978 Saturday Evening Post and in the 1988 book A Little House Sampler. She mentioned stopping at the inn, as well as recounting the rumors of the murders spreading through their community. She alleged that her father, "Pa Ingalls," joined in a vigilante hunt for the killers, and when he spoke of later searches for them she recalled, "At such times Pa always said in a strange tone of finality, 'They will never be found.' They were never found and later I formed my own conclusions why." Some have cast doubt on the story, saying that Laura would have been only 4 when her family moved away from the area, and that the Benders were exposed in 1873, two years after the Ingalls family left. Appearances in media The book "All the Blood We Share: A Novel of the Bloody Benders of Kansas", by Camilla Bruce, published in 2022. The book "Hell's Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier", by Susan Jonusas, published in 2022. The feature film Bender (2016), produced by