Little Slaughterhouse on the Prairie

Bloodlands collection

By: Harold Schechter

Narrated by: Steven Weber

At a remote little inn not far from the Kansas homestead of Laura Ingalls Wilder lived the Bender family. These pioneers welcomed unwary visitors with jackrabbit stew and a sledgehammer to the skull.

In time, their apple orchard gave up its secrets - a burial ground for their mutilated victims, each stripped of their possessions. The devilish enterprise on “Hell’s Half-Acre” would earn the Bloody Benders an undying place in the annals of American infamy. But it was the mysterious fate of eldest daughter, Kate, that would make them the stuff of mythic campfire prairie tales.

Little Slaughterhouse on the Prairie is part of Bloodlands, a chilling collection of short addictive historical narratives from bestselling true-crime master Harold Schechter. Spanning a century in our nation’s murderous past, Schechter resurrects nearly forgotten tales of madmen and thrill-killers that dominated the most sensational headlines of their day.

©2018 Harold Schechter (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Excellent True Crime History

Great story about the crazy and violent Bender family in 1800's Kansas, check out the author's Badlands series for more true crime

Good book fun listen.

The narrator had a good voice and the book itself was good too. Overall 4 out of 5 stars.

A good bite of True Crime

Schechter's Bloodlands collection brings a whole batch of cases that, although well known, haven't been getting attention.


If you're a true crime delver like me, this a great pick. Specially if looking for new true crime stories or is simply fed up with rehashes of the usual cases.

Excellent narrative and story telling.

Really enjoyed this true story of frontier mayhem. Steven did a great job of maintaining my attention to the story.
The book was very fast because you were drawn in early.

4/5

4/5 Little Slaughterhouse on the Prairie
Summary:
A chilling, somewhat unsatisfying tale of a 19th century family of serial killers. The Benders reminded me of the family from the X-files episode called Home.

Additional Comments:
• The book kind of skips around a lot, but the heart of the story is still disturbing.
• Kind of hard to believe they could get away with that many killings but those were different times. People didn’t have the luxury of a cell phone in hand to keep abreast of news.
• The author goes through about 4 possible endings for the family.
• Sad to think they probably got away with it. That is the unsatisfying part.
Conclusion:
Interesting and dark tale of many gruesome murders.
*got from audible plus