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The  Cherryvale  Bender  Museum

As you progress a few more steps you are behind the heavy curtain that divides the inn where death lurked for many a guest. There sits the selected well-dressed unsuspecting traveler of 1873. Before him, spread on a red and white checkered tablecloth, is a place setting which has been prepared for his eating pleasure. The wide plank floor is broken only by the trap door under the table to the cellar pit awaiting its next deposit (shown open in the above photo). The pit was six feet square and about the same in depth with a large sandstone floor and stone-lined tunnel leading to the back of the slaughterhouse for travelers. (The metal bars have been added for all museum visitors’ safety). Splattered blood found in the cellar indicated that the victims’ throats were also cut in the dark cellar. Young John waits quietly in the corner behind the wagon partition dividing the one-room murder house.

The bench was always conveniently located next to the wagon sheet for the next weary lone westward bound journeyer. This traveler’s attention is focused to his left, for there she stands…the beautiful killer Kate Bender.  Postcard Cherryvale Museum Collection