The Murder of the French Family

Note: The following account is sourced from the incredible, rare book Play the Yellow Tape by Bobbie Lee (self-published, 2007)

September of 1854 was a hard year for anyone that lived through it. It was made doubly so if you were a poor settler on the flat, often inhospitable black dirt of Indiana. Outside Fort Wayne, a little family (seven was considered a "little" family, in that era), did what they could to make ends meet: so survive, they sold the hardscrabble fruits of the earth, particularly corn.

Before we get into that, though, we might want to go ahead and mention that Edgar Allan Poe had already written his classic tale, "The Tale-Tell Heart," in which a young, clearly insane servant kills an old man, chiefly because he didn't like the look out of one of his eyes (he would sneak up on it in the middle of the night, close off the lamp, so that a single beam of light would fall upon the watery, bland, white and evil eye--the Eye of Judgement, perhaps. The young servant may have feared the Old Man could see into his soul.)

In the tale, he buries an axe in the old man's forehead and then dismembers the body. But the still-beating heart provides testimony to MURDER, thumping under the floorboards, louder and louder until it becomes a maniacal, supernatural POUNDING in the mind of the unnamed, mad narrator.

Three policemen, unaware apparently (or are they?) that the narrator has dispatched the old man, come a-calling. The Narrator places his chair exactly on top of the remains of the old man, still hearing the thumping, unaccountably still living heartbeat. The officers, who have come in response to a reported cry, share a jest or two with the Narrator,. He interprets this in the most paranoid way imaginable, thinking they are "dissembling." Finally, he can stand it no longer. Feeling they already suspect his guilt, he throws over the chair, rips up the floorboards, and reveals the butchered remains of the Old Man.

"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! --here, here! --it is the beating of his hideous heart!"

--The Tell Tale Heart, Edgar Allan poe, 1843.

The Bloody Benders of Kansas, circa 1870-1873, were known for dispatching their victims by dropping them through a trap door into the root cellar. The victims, wayward travelers on the great prairies looking to stay at a comfortable Inn, were further attracted by the supposed mediumistic powers of Kate Bender, daughter of John and Almira. Kate was, among other things, an advocate of "free love", and was involved boldly in an incestuous relationship with HER OWN BROTHER. (She was, reportedly, under no pains to hide this fact during her psychic lectures.)

The "guest" (victim), would be sat at a table on one side of a canvas curtain. John, the brother, would lurk behind them as they ate the delectable vittles, heft a sledge, and then bash the unsuspecting victim's brains in like a hog. Then mother Almira would cut the throat from ear to ear. The body would then be dropped through the aforementioned trap door, like something out of Sweeney Todd, and dismembered. The remains could be buried in the nearby orchard or the vegetable garden.

The Benders disappeared without a trace, escaping justice. Bones and fragments and skeletal remains were found in the root cellar, in the orchard, in the garden, and in local creeks. Happy tale. A true group of ogres they were, butchering their prey beneath the stone slabs of their humble prairie cottage.

Beneath the Ground, the Bodies are Found

Getting back to Fort Wayne's French Family, it was in the early Fall of 1854 that a man and his wife, both named Hubbard, stopped by the French Family cottage or cabin or sod house or what-have-you, and asked if they could board with them. Delighted, and clueless, Mr. French agreed enthusiastically to the offer, primarily pleased that the two might be able to help make those "ends meet." At this he was, alas, to be sadly, tragically mistaken.

It was October before neighbors realized something was strange at the French homestead. The family had disappeared, and only Hubbard and his wife came out to greet visitors, claiming the entire family had moved to "Illinois. Sold me the house, and the grounds, and all the furniture."

But one man grew suspicious, and finally, after receiving no help from locals, went to the former French home with a shovel and pickaxe. (One wonders: Where were the Hubbards?)

Pulling up the floorboards, beneath the sod, he was alarmed to find what seemed to be part of a human skull. He dug deeper. He found more.

He found the five little bodies of the French children, slain, piled on top of their parents, who had had their legs broken, to better fit them into their mass grave. The method of murder was apparently to crush the skulls.

Constable and coroner came and began removing the remains. The French children ranged in age from fifteen months to fifteen years.

Put on trial, Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard were both quickly found guilty, with Mrs. Hubbard receiving a life sentence. Her husband didn't get off so lightly: he was hanged in the public courtyard.

Being butchered and buried beneath the floor is a rather inauspicious way to leave this damned earth, whether you're a character from Poe, or a real-life victim, whose life is snuffed out by the twisted machinations of an inscrutable fate. C'est la vie.