Talk:Bloody Benders

Pop culture
I am moving the following pop culture references to here until appropriate sources can be found (IMDb is not a reliable source per Wikipedia). Also combining other suggestions from above in talk so there is just one list: Rublamb (talk) 19:05, 28 May 2023 (UTC)
 * The movie Cabin in the Woods (2011) features a family that heavily mirrors the Benders as the initial antagonists of the film.
 * Season 4 Episode 22 (1961) of the TV series Maverick titled “Last Stop: Oblivion” has several elements of the historical crimes and how their murders were finally discovered: A young woman is looking for her fiancé who traveled by stagecoach and never arrived at his destination. A family runs an inn at a stagecoach transfer station. They deny that the young man stayed at their inn, but with the help of Bart Maverick, the young woman discovers that her fiancé and several other travelers have been killed and buried nearby by the innkeeper and his family.
 * The Big Valley, Season 3, Episode 6, "Ladykiller" (1967) loosely depicts the story of the Bloody Benders, as "an innkeeper's pretty daughter is the bait used to rob and kill visitors." The inn is separated by a canvas curtain, from behind which the "Bleeck" family kills visitors (seated in a chair of honor) with a hammer. The father is a guest star Royal Dano. The daughter is played by Marlyn Mason.
 * In Season 1, Episode 3 (2013) of the Hulu comedy series Quick Draw, the main character, Sheriff John Henry Hoyle, and his deputy, Eli, are trapped and held hostage by the Benders (John Sr., Elvira, and Kate) while investigating a murder.
 * Michael McDowell's novel Katie (1982) is loosely based on the Benders. In it, John and Hannah Slape set up a fortune-telling business with their genuinely clairvoyant but homicidal daughter Katie, who uses her talents to determine how much money her clients have before dispatching them with a hammer.  ISBN 9780380801848
 * In Fargo season 4, episode 9 (2020), outside the entrance to The Barton Arms, a Kansas Historical Marker plaque for The Mellon Mounds recounts the story of the Mellon family, who lured unsuspecting travelers into their home, killed them with a hammer, and buried them out back. Although the bodies were found in the spring of 1894, the Mellons were never caught. This is a direct reference to the Benders.
 * How The West Was Won, Jimmy Stewarts character is nearly killed by a family suggestive of this story
 * "They also appear to have been given strong references to the movies House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects, which follows a beautiful blonde woman, her mother, brother, and their father."
 * American Gothic. --