Little Slaughterhouse on the Prairie

By: Harold Schechter

Narrated by: Steven Weber

Length: 1 hr and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

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.

True Life Crime

Audible recently started the plus catalog for those who have the Gold monthly and yearly and those who have the Platinum monthly or yearly. I have the Platinum yearly as I listen to a lot of books being a truck driver. As the first title listened to in this catalogue, I was introduced to those titles with an excellent story. At first I thought this was a horror fictional story playing off of the Little House on the Prairie. Not so! The author writes about true crime which has taken place in our history. I knew violence was a big part of life when America was settled across the Midwest and Western part of the United States. I was not prepared for something of this nature pertaining to a serial killer family in Kansas. As I’ve gotten older, I have taken a greater liking to history. I do also like fiction based upon history (historical fiction). This is not historical fiction. There are a total of 5 books in the Bloodlands series so if you have an Audible membership, do not miss the other 5 titles for free in the Plus Catalogue.

I Love These Mini Books

These short books by Schechter are perfect for a short drive or at home while I am beading or crafting or putting together furniture and want a beginning, middle, and end, rather than just part of a longer book.

Steven Webber is perfect for these; I have always enjoyed him as an actor, but that does not necessarily mean he/anyone will be a great reader. He is, though. I hope he enjoys performing books and continues to do so!

If you enjoy true crime, you will enjoy this. I am very knowledgeable about crime, but did not know much about this family of 19th century serial killers.

The Benders of Independence, Kansas is interesting, but the tale gets better after their murderous ways are discovered and the hunt is on for Ma and Pa and the 2 younger Benders (they were either brother and sister, husband and wife, or both).

Definitely recommend!

Detailed retelling of horrific events

The subject matter of this book interested me, but when I saw that Steven Weber had narrated it, I knew I had to listen. It was excellently done. The details of what was done by this psychopathic family are presently in full and with sensitivity, even though many years now separate us from the brutality of their acts. I only wish they had been caught so they could have been made to answer for their crimes.

I have been to the area where these events took place, however, and people there are certain the Benders did not escape justice. The common belief is that they were caught by vigilantes who took care of the matter themselves. I hope this is true.

i Interesting

Pretty good story short and kept you interested will search out more like this . Good narrator too

Great short listen!

Short but sweet...well..it’s murder..so maybe not so sweet...it was a pretty easy listen with an interesting story line. I like how it tied the beginning and the end to the title.

Serial Killers on the Prairie

A true-crime short recounting the history of John Bender, and his family, found to be frontier serial killers in the late part of the 1800's. Laura Ingalls Wilder was a contemporary of this time period, and wrote an article sometime later with her "Pa" being part of a vigilante group to track them down, and bring them to justice. .

The Bender family, brutally slaughtered for pleasure, at least 10 known victims including a baby, with several others who gave their accounts of having escaped the certain death that had awaited for them.

I found it to be interesting read, and appreciated the author handling details of the crime with grace and honesty, yet not much gore.

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

Very tough to follow

Very tough to follow as there were alot of names and places yet there was not really enough information about anything to tell a whole story.

Slaughter House

Not sure I liked this one. Maybe a better reader . Slower and more mysterious . Sorry.

A true prairie horror story

Harold Schechter beautifully paints this atrocious story of old time true crime. A tale of horrors that seem unimaginable for the setting but not unbelievable in the least. I had no idea about the Benders and now I am endlessly fascinated by their story.