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Author: Amanda Sedlak-Hevener
APRIL 28, 2020- Who was Belle Gunness? She was a serial killer who lived in both Illinois and Indiana around the turn of the 20th century. Her original name was Brynhild Paulsdatter Strseth and she was born in Norway in 1859. She immigrated to the US in 1881 and married her first husband a mere three years later.
After this, the crimes of Belle Gunness began. She committed insurance fraud, killed upwards of 40 people- including her own family members- and possibly faked her own death. Among the known facts about Belle Gunness is that she was an imposing woman, very tall and 250 pounds and that only one child-her second husband's daughter Swanhild- survived her clutches. At the time of her supposed death in 1908, Gunness lived on a farm in LaPorte, IN. If you're curious to learn more about her, read on to discover the truly gruesome crimes of Belle Gunness.
1. She May Have Killed Three Of Her Children In A House Fire
The LaPorte, IN, farmhouse owned by Belle Gunness caught fire and burned to the ground on the night of April 27, 1908. When authorities sifted through the rubbed the next day, they found the bodies of three children- presumably those of her daughters Mrytle and Lucy from her first husband, Mads Sorenson, and her son Philip, from her second husband, Peter Gunness- were found in the basement. A fourth lady, thought to be Gunness herself, was also found. The latter body was headless, and considerably shorter than Gunness, leading people to theorize that it really wasn't hers.
Ray Lamphere, a hired hand who worked on the farm, was later charged with setting the fire. This was never proven, and some people believed
that Gunness set the fire in order to fake her own death.
2. She May Have Killed More Than 40 People
While sifting through the wreckage of the farm house, several men came forward and voiced their suspicions of Belle Gunness. They claimed they had relatives go to her farm and never return. This, along with the news that hired farmhand Joe Maxson covered up large holes in the ground near the farm's hog pen, led authorities to begin digging. They unearthed numerous bodies from
various places on the farm. At the time, DNA evidence and other modern forms of identification were not yet available, so investigators had to guess the identity for each body. In all, thee were more than 40 bodies found on the property.
3. She Poisoned Two of Her Children and One of Her Husbands
Belle Gunness married her first husband, Mads Sorenson, in 1884. During their marriage, they had four children: Mrytle, Lucy, Caroline, and Axel, and took in orphans. While they were infants, both Caroline and Axel died of what medical doctors claimed was "acute colitis." The symptoms of the disease include nausea, cramping, and abdominal pain, all of which are consistent with arsenic poisoning.
Sorenson died in a similar manner. However, his actual cause of death- heart failure- was proceeded by symptoms similar to those of strychnine
poisoning, and he conveniently died on the exact day that two of his life insurance policies overlapped, allowing Gunness to receive both of them.
4. Her Second Husband Died in A Meat Grinder "Accident"
When she married him, Belle Gunness's second husband, Peter Gunness, was a widower with two young children. The youngest, an infant daughter, died suddenly one week after the two were married in April, 1902. It is suspected that Belle poisoned her. Peter's oldest child, a girl named Swanhild, went to live with relatives and escaped relatively unscathed.
In December 1902, Belle became a widow once again when Peter died under suspicious circumstances. Supposedly a meat grinder fell off of a shelf and hit him on the head, killing him instantly. However, Jennie Olsen told her classmates, "My mama killed my papa. She hit him with a meat cleaver and he died. Don't tell a soul." Other people suspected murder as well, and Belle, pregnant with the couple's son, Philip, went before a coroner's jury but managed to convince everyone Peter's death was nothing but a tragic accident. In the end, she wound up with his life insurance payout.
5. She Repeatedly Committed Insurance Fraud
Belle Gunness and her first husband, Mads Sorenson, opened a confectionery store in Chicago. The store caught fire shortly after it opened, and Gunness and Sorenson used the insurance money to buy a house in Indiana which also burned to the ground. Although it is unknown whether they set the fire, the timing seems odd as the store wasn't doing well and hadn't been open long. The mysterious circumstances here mark the beginning of Belle Gunness's life of crime, and
it wasn't the last time Gunness would profit from insurance payouts. She later received money upon the deaths of her two children, Caroline and Axel, as well of those of her two husbands: Mads Sorenson and Peter Gunness.
6. She Lured In Men With A Personal Ad- And Then Killed Them
After her second husband's death, Belle Gunness began to place personal ads in city newspapers. She painted herself as a wealthy, comely widow looking for her soulmate:
"Personal - comely widow who owns a large farm in one of the finest districts in La Porte County, IN, desires to make the acquaintance of a gentleman equally well provided, with view of joining fortunes. No replies by letter considered unless sender is willing to follow answer with personal visit. Triflers need not apply.
However, the men would visit her farm and then promptly disappear. After the house burned down, evidence of them were found. Body parts, belongings, and other items were buried on the property.
7. She Buried 11 Bodies in Her Hog Pen
As investigators began to comb the remnants of the house looking for bodies, they were pointed to the hog pen by her latest farmhand Joe Maxson. A few weeks prior to the fire, he claimed she asked him to get some fill dirt for the area around the hog pen. The ground there was pitted, and she claimed to have buried garbage in the vicinity. He complied, not realizing he was helping cover up evidence of her crimes. In total 11 bodies (possibly more), most dissected into various parts, were found in that same spot.
8. She Dismembered Some of Her Victims' Corpses in Her Basement
While it's hard to tell what happened to each victim (besides her children and husband's who were poisoned, hit in the head, or killed in the fire), according to an alleged deathbed confession from her farmhand Ray Lamphere, Belle Gunness preferred to chop up her victims' bodies in her basement. In some cases, he took them downstairs for her, and then helped her cover up the crimes after the bodies were in pieces.
9. She Fed Some of Her Victims to Her Pigs
Belle Gunness disposed of her victim's bodies in several different ways. Some were chopped up and their parts were buried in various spots on the farm, others were dumped into quicklime or the hog-scalding vat. Stories claim she would sometimes dissect their bodies in the middle of the night and then feed them to her pigs. All of these methods were brutal, and made it tough to determine exactly how many people she killed.
10. Ray Lamphere Was Either Her Accomplice, Her Murderer, Or Both
Ray Lamphere was one of the farmhands hired by Belle Gunness. He kept the farm running and handled odd chores for her, one of which, according to his testimony after her supposed death, was burying the bodies of the men and women that she killed. He claimed he would help her carry the dead bodies to her basement where she would dissect them. Later, they would be buried around the farm.
However, shortly before her death, Gunness allegedly told her lawyer that she was afraid of Lamphere. He supposedly threatened to kill her. She had fired him and already hired a new farmhand named Joe Maxson who was present when the farmhouse caught fire in April 1908. Based on the testimony of the lawyer, Lamphere
was charged with arson and the murder in the deaths of Gunness and her children. A jury found Lamphere guilty of arson, but not murder, and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. He died the following year of tuberculosis.
11. She May Have Faked Her Death and Assumed The Name "Esther Carlson"
Rumors ran wild when investigators realized the headless woman's body found in Belle Gunness's farmhouse didn't match hers. The heights were incorrect- the body was 5'3, nine inches shorter than Gunness- and the body was found to have strychnine in its stomach. Although a piece of bridgework- false teeth- were found in the fire and
attributed to Gunness. It's possible that she took out the teeth, leaving them behind after she started the fire and fled.
12. No One Knows Who Is Buried In Her Grave
In 2008, Gunness's grave was exhumed by forensic anthropologists. They used DNA samples from a postage stamp to prove once and for all whether or not it was really Gunness in the tomb. However, the tests have so far been inconclusive. However, Gunness was supposedly a large woman, measuring 6 feet tall and weighing around 200 pounds, according to clothing stores she frequently
wore. The body in the grave was that of a much smaller, headless woman, which does not fit her profile. Who's buried in there? No one yet knows.
Article Source: ranker.com/list/facts-about-belle-gunness/amandasedlakhevener
Author: Amanda Sedlak-Hevener
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