The Real Faces of Horror: The Bloody Benders – America’s First Family of Serial Killers

Step into part two of our October series, The Real Faces of Horror, where we uncover the true crimes that inspired some of horror’s most twisted tales.This week, we’re heading back to 1870s Kansas to meet The Bloody Benders, a family of innkeepers with a deadly secret beneath their floorboards. Their story of deception, violence, and disappearance would go on to inspire horror classics like The Hills Have Eyes, the banned X-Files episode “Home,” and countless other tales of terror.From rumors of the family’s escape to legends of hauntings on “Hell’s Half Acre,” we explore how one frontier family’s crimes became part of American folklore, and why their ghosts might still linger today.Lock your wagon doors and grab a lantern, it’s going to be a dark ride.