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librarianguish's review
3.0
What's this? An entire series of graphic "novels" about true crime cases? For teens? Cool.
antlersantlers's review
Yowza this one was so weird! I got a taste of this in [b:The Best American Comics 2008|3427455|The Best American Comics 2008|Lynda Barry|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1403261824s/3427455.jpg|3468318], and I finally got to read it in [b:A Treasury of Victorian Murder Compendium II|22180677|A Treasury of Victorian Murder Compendium II Including The Borden Tragedy, The Mystery of Mary Rogers, The Saga of the Bloody Benders, The Case of Madeleine Smith, The Murder of Abraham Lincoln.|Rick Geary|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1400962194s/22180677.jpg|41528409]! The Bloody Benders were a family of serial killers living in southern Kansas in the early 1870s. They opened up a store and then just killed a bunch of people! They were set up along a major route and would just kill people as they were traveling along! For YEARS!
All of Rick Geary's murder stories really confirm that living now is kind of the best in terms of crime solving. People could get away with so much! You could just get on a train and disappear! It makes me think of that John Mulaney joke about the old timey detective. Ack.
All of Rick Geary's murder stories really confirm that living now is kind of the best in terms of crime solving. People could get away with so much! You could just get on a train and disappear! It makes me think of that John Mulaney joke about the old timey detective. Ack.
rovertoak's review against another edition
5.0
Geary’s Treasury of Victorian Murder series never falters, and continues to give readers interesting, well researched, and exquisitely drawn grapic novel experiences. Bloody Benders tells the story of the Bender family, a group of German immigrants who open a sundries business catering to travelers on the Osage Trail in Kansas circa 1870. When it appears that people begin to connect the disappearing travelers with the offbeat family, the Benders are nowhere to be found, their “store” abandoned, leaving plenty of grisly evidence behind for the law to discover.
The Bender family is interesting because not much is actually known of them aside from the anecdotes Geary structures the story around. The fun is in the speculation! The last part of the book explores the popular theories on, “whatever became of…?” There’s plenty of intrigue here — the beautiful daughter practicing the dark arts, a cro-magnon-father who speaks little and wields a big hammer, a mystery stain on a sheet (BRAINS?!) — so fans of the macabre and/or of true crime will devour this and look to the included Bloody Bender bibliography for more!
The Bender family is interesting because not much is actually known of them aside from the anecdotes Geary structures the story around. The fun is in the speculation! The last part of the book explores the popular theories on, “whatever became of…?” There’s plenty of intrigue here — the beautiful daughter practicing the dark arts, a cro-magnon-father who speaks little and wields a big hammer, a mystery stain on a sheet (BRAINS?!) — so fans of the macabre and/or of true crime will devour this and look to the included Bloody Bender bibliography for more!
mermaidsherbet's review
dark
informative
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, and Violence
Minor: Child death
quinnster's review
2.0
This review is for 4 of Rick Geary's Victorian Murder Books: The Borden Tragedy, The Case of Madeleine Smith, The Beast of Chicago, and The Saga of the Bloody Benders.
Dry, fact-based accounts of some of the more notorious murderers in history. They read almost like textbooks. There is no creative license taken in any of these. While interesting, some get downright boring. The Bloody Benders was spent going on a history lesson of Kansas and of the guesstimations of where the Benders might have relocated. Very little was spent on the family itself because it seems very little is known of the family, which begs the questions why include them in this series?
I found The Borden Tragedy most interesting because out of the four I read it had the markings of a true whodunit. By all accounts it would seem that Lizzie Borden was innocent. So who then, murdered her father and step-mother?
Madeleine Smith was also an intriguing because it seemed only she could be the culprit and if so she got away with murder to live a long and fulfilling life.
The Beast of Chicago was impressive mostly in how H. H. Holmes's trail of back and forth travels was kept straight!
If you're looking for no nonsense reads on murderers these are your books. If you're hoping for some entertaining read I might try elsewhere.
Dry, fact-based accounts of some of the more notorious murderers in history. They read almost like textbooks. There is no creative license taken in any of these. While interesting, some get downright boring. The Bloody Benders was spent going on a history lesson of Kansas and of the guesstimations of where the Benders might have relocated. Very little was spent on the family itself because it seems very little is known of the family, which begs the questions why include them in this series?
I found The Borden Tragedy most interesting because out of the four I read it had the markings of a true whodunit. By all accounts it would seem that Lizzie Borden was innocent. So who then, murdered her father and step-mother?
Madeleine Smith was also an intriguing because it seemed only she could be the culprit and if so she got away with murder to live a long and fulfilling life.
The Beast of Chicago was impressive mostly in how H. H. Holmes's trail of back and forth travels was kept straight!
If you're looking for no nonsense reads on murderers these are your books. If you're hoping for some entertaining read I might try elsewhere.
rovertoak's review
5.0
Geary’s Treasury of Victorian Murder series never falters, and continues to give readers interesting, well researched, and exquisitely drawn grapic novel experiences. Bloody Benders tells the story of the Bender family, a group of German immigrants who open a sundries business catering to travelers on the Osage Trail in Kansas circa 1870. When it appears that people begin to connect the disappearing travelers with the offbeat family, the Benders are nowhere to be found, their “store” abandoned, leaving plenty of grisly evidence behind for the law to discover.
The Bender family is interesting because not much is actually known of them aside from the anecdotes Geary structures the story around. The fun is in the speculation! The last part of the book explores the popular theories on, “whatever became of…?” There’s plenty of intrigue here — the beautiful daughter practicing the dark arts, a cro-magnon-father who speaks little and wields a big hammer, a mystery stain on a sheet (BRAINS?!) — so fans of the macabre and/or of true crime will devour this and look to the included Bloody Bender bibliography for more!
The Bender family is interesting because not much is actually known of them aside from the anecdotes Geary structures the story around. The fun is in the speculation! The last part of the book explores the popular theories on, “whatever became of…?” There’s plenty of intrigue here — the beautiful daughter practicing the dark arts, a cro-magnon-father who speaks little and wields a big hammer, a mystery stain on a sheet (BRAINS?!) — so fans of the macabre and/or of true crime will devour this and look to the included Bloody Bender bibliography for more!
djblock99's review
4.0
You may have heard the legend of the Bender family (who live somewhere in the Midwest) luring travelers into their home and them murdering them. This is the true story that spawned the legend. More than a hundred years ago, the Benders settled in rural Kansas and opened a small inn and grocery store. Soon after, people began disappearing. Nearby townsfolk got suspicious when it was discovered that one of the missing men had stayed the night at the Benders, and they were the last people to see him alive. A posse formed to investigate the disappearances, but the Bender family vanished before they could be questioned.