Thread by @MikeStuchbery_

While I'm at it, here's another one of the cool little historical easter-eggs @RockstarGames snuck into Red Dead Redemption.

If you're riding around near Pleasance, you'll find the Aberdeen Pig Farm...

<<SPOILERS AHEAD>>

If you rock up here around dusk, the very, very large Bray Aberdeen will invite you in for dinner, introducing what you assume is his wife, Tammy.

Shortly afterwards you realise that they are siblings - altogether far too intimate siblings.

After a quick trip upstairs, during which Tammy tells you that there might be a roll in the hay later, you eat dinner, finishing with a few drinks...

...& next thing you know, you wake up in a mass grave.

At this point, you can either cut your losses, or go get your money back.

Now, I went and killed them, I killed them both. I got my money back, and I set their house alight with cleansing flame...

...but that's not why you're reading.

As it turns out, the Aberdeen's have a real life historical analogue!

The Benders were a German family that lives in Kansas in the 1870s. John, Elvira, Kate & John Jr all shared the same small lodgings, that they also operated as a guesthouse, near Osage.

Locals remarked that John Jr, and Kate were altogether way too familiar with each other...

Now, folks went disappearing near Osage heading west, but for a while people just assumed it part of the dangers of the road.

It wasn't until 1873, after a few relatively high-profile individuals failed to return from trips in the area, that the Bender lodgings were looked at.

The house itself was empty, with quite a few possessions left behind. The place, however, *stank*!

Investigations discovered that this was due to the fact that the packed dirt floor of the house was sodden with blood!

Eight bodies were eventually recovered from the yard of the Bender House, their skulls smashed and their throats cut.

It was a huge deal - vigilante squads ride from miles looking for the Benders, but no conclusive trace was found.

What they think happened is that the visitor would be seated with his back towards a canvas sheet.

Kate Bender would fuss over the victim, getting him soused, before John Bender would hit him in the head.

Kate would then cut the throat, & the body taken to the cellar.

The goods taken from the Bender's victims would then be sold on at the guesthouse, or pawned in a larger town.

Despite years of study by historians, it's not known conclusively how much they were able to steal before the upped sticks & escaped.

Unlike reality, you actually get to revenge yourself on the swine that stole your money in RDR2, and there's no ambiguity in regards to their fate - you can very much kill them.

I just thought the allusion to the Bender case was pretty darn neat - well done @RockstarGames!

Pic: Rick Geary - check his stuff, folks. rickgeary.com