Frank Bender: Local Artist Who Became a Forensic Phenomenon

“If Frank does your bust, you’re toast.” (John Walsh, former host of the long-running television show America’s Most Wanted)

Although the mustard-yellow building located at 2215 South Street next to Bicycle Therapy now houses an art gallery, from 1986 until his death in 2011, Francis (Frank) Augustus Bender, Jr. lived and worked in this small space. He was first known as a talented painter and sculptor, but in the late 1970s, he embarked on a second career in which he helped local and national law enforcement officials to identify victims of violent crime and to track down individuals who had managed to elude justice for years and even decades.

Fascinated with human anatomy, Bender regularly visited Philadelphia’s morgue to learn more about this topic by viewing corpses. After examining a woman whose features had been obliterated by multiple gunshot wounds, Bender boldly declared that he knew what the victim’s face looked like before her injuries.

Although he helped solve numerous cases throughout his career, many officials were initially skeptical of Bender’s abilities and depictions. One of his greatest talents was to create uncanny likenesses of fugitives. Somehow, Bender was able to get inside the head of these criminals as he carefully considered their background. He could accurately predict not only the altered appearances of these individuals but also their new lifestyles and personas. His predictions, which he rendered in the form of detailed sketches and lifelike busts, often dramatically differed from investigators’ opinions. However, after Bender proved his mettle time and time again, everyone agreed that he possessed a “sixth sense.”

Bender had no formal training when he started his new career. Most forensic artists hold degrees in related areas such as physical anthropology, anatomy, or biology. Bender instead relied on his intuition and creativity. After establishing himself as an expert in the field, however, Bender did use standard facial tissue thickness charts that dictate how much clay to apply to areas of the face such as the forehead, cheeks, and chin. Nevertheless, forensic artists concede that these measurements are only part of the equation; only creativity can capture an individual’s unique essence.

In the late spring of 1989, I vividly recall closely following one of Bender’s most notorious cases through one of my favorite television programs, America’s Most Wanted. In November 1971, 46-year-old accountant John Emil List systematically murdered his wife, children, and mother in Westfield, New Jersey. After leaving a detailed letter in which he coldly rationalized his heinous crimes and listed his many perceived personal hardships, he vanished without a trace for authorities to follow. The List case remained cold for 18 years, until officials reopened the investigation and solicited Frank Bender’s assistance. Based on List’s personality profile, police strongly suspected that he could have assumed a new identity and lived a semblance of his former existence in an unknown location. The question was, after 18 years, what did the 64-year-old man look like?

Bender created a slightly fleshier bust with pronounced jowls wearing a pair of staid glasses with square-shaped frames. On May 21, 1989, America’s Most Wanted aired List’s story and revealed Bender’s bust. The suspense was palpable as the nation waited to see if the profile would result in any leads. Less than two weeks later, a neighbor in Virginia identified List as “Bob Clark,” who had remarried and continued to work as an accountant after his escape. One year later, he received five consecutive life sentences for his crimes. AMW’s host John Walsh forged a close friendship with Bender. Walsh is said to have kept the bust of List in his office until he donated it to a crime museum in 2008.

Even four years after his death, residents in the neighborhood where Bender lived and worked remember him fondly. In fact, upon entering Woven Treasures, located just across the street from Bender’s studio, one is struck by the sight of a large, rectangular painting depicting a familiar Philadelphia scene by the Schuylkill River. Store owner Parviz Yathrebi commissioned his friend Bender to create a painting that evoked spring. Toward the back of the store, another Bender painting brings together images of a dark and cozy autumn night in Philadelphia. Yathrebi also owns a bust that Bender made of the frozen mummy (Ötzi), who was found in the Alps in 1991 on the border of Austria and Italy.

Yathrebi describes Bender as a night owl who quietly completed most of his work after dark. He recalls Bender’s “penetrating gaze,” which was paired with a mind that seemed to absorb every detail. Although he was often confronted by the more brutal aspects of human existence, Bender maintained a sense of humor and profound humility throughout his life. In one interview, he succinctly noted that his work brought him happiness and fulfillment because he knew that his art had helped other people to find peace.