Belle Sorenson Gunness (born as Brynhild Paulsdatter Strseth, November 11, 1859, Selbu, Norway- April 28, 1908 La Porte, Indiana) was one of America's most prolific known female serial killers. Astrological Sign: Sagittarius, Death Year: 1930, Article Title: Belle Gunness Biography, Author: Biography.com Editors, Website Name: The Biography.com website, Url: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/belle-gunness, Publisher: A&E Television Networks, Last Updated: March 18, 2021, Original Published Date: April 2, 2014. In the early 20th century, Belle Gunness killed scores of men for their money. They arrived with thousands of dollars and then disappeared. This is what is known, and what is suspected, about the number of victims serial killer Belle Gunness had. Sure, I worked for Mrs. Gunness for a time, but I didnt see her kill anybody, and I didnt know she had killed anybody., But on his deathbed, Lamphere changed his tune. Gunness and Sorenson opened a candy store, but it soon burned down. Several other middle-aged men appeared and disappeared in brief visits to the Gunness farm throughout 1907. Belle Gunness was one of the first "Black Widows" and became a prolific serial killer. Usually accompanied by a handsome man, she was unrecognizable from the rough farm woman the locals were used to seeing. That man is out to get me, Gunness told the attorney. Come prepared to stay forever. Afterward, the locals said that Brynhilds personality drastically changed. She married her first husband, Mads Sorenson, three years later in 1884. . A few weeks later, a reverend came forward with Lampheres confession before he died. The April 28, 1908, fire at Gunness' farm seems to have shut the book on the Norwegian immigrant's murder spree, inasmuch as she was never heard from again and was, initially at least, presumed dead. It is not known how many men were victims of a treacherous woman. Her family lived as tenants on a small farm owned by the Storseth family. Born Brynhild Paulsdatter Storseth on November 11, 1859, in Selbu, Norway, Brynhild was the youngest daughter of eight children born of stonemason, Paul Pedersen Strseth, and Berit Olsdatter. [29], In the Garden of Spite: A Novel of the Black Widow of LaPorte is a US-published 2021 novel by Camilla Bruce with elements of "Norwegian noir and true crime" based on the life of Belle Gunness. FlickrThe farm of Belle Gunness, where authorities made a series of grisly discoveries in 1908. Wikipedia, Byways & Historic Trails Great Drives in America, Soldiers and Officers in American History, Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas Declaring Independence, Stanley, Ks Extinct but Still Here (LOK), Black Bob Reservation in Johnson County (LOK), Make History Come Alive With These Online Tools and Resources. 3) What groups of people were Gunness' victims? Belle did indeed become wealthy, but not because she earned the money honestly. Authorities couldnt identify all the bodies. Belle Gunness was born Brynhild Paulsdatter Strseth on November 11, 1859 in Selbu, Norway. I know nothing about the house of crime, as they call it, he said, when asked about Gunness murders. They also found the body of a headless woman who, at first, they assumed was Belle Gunness. [7], Sorenson had purchased two life insurance policies. Lamphere was quickly charged with murder and arson, and police began to search the farm grounds, hoping to find Gunness head. Norwegian born Belle Gunness was born as Brynhild Paulsdatter Strseth in November 1859. Belle Sorenson Gunness, a notorious female serial killer born November 11, 1859 and declared dead April 28, 1908 was born Brynhild Paulsdatter Storseth. Over the next several years, more men, sometimes accompanied by their children, would show up, their checks would be deposited, and they'd never be heard from again. Billed as "based on a true story," Tom Logan is directing the film, which stars Traci Lords cast as the murderous Belle Gunness. T.J. Tiefland of Minneapolis is alleged to have come to see Gunness in 1907. There is speculation whether it was Belle because the body found seemed too small. She suggested that maybe Andrew Helgelien had gone to Chicago or perhaps back to Norway. At this time, Belle started to have problems with her farmhand, Ray Lamphere. Her parents had eight children; she was the youngest. I know that you are now to come to me and be my own. Basically, Belle Gunness was a female serial killer who poisoned her suitors and children. Strangely, tragedy seemed to return to Belle Gunness doorstep yet again. Lamphere was later linked to the fire at Gunness farm. 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The woman in the fire was approximately 5 3 tall and weighed about 125 pounds, significantly smaller than Belle Gunness. Before long, news of the gruesome discovery spread throughout the nation. When they finally discovered his destination, they wrote to her, and she promptly responded, saying she had never seen their father. Belle Gunness. American newspapers labeled Belle Gunness the Black Widow, Hells Belle, the Indiana Ogress, and the Mistress of the Castle of Death.. There, Gunness met her first known victim her husband, Mads Ditlev Anton Sorenson, whom she married in 1884. She also chloroformed her children, smothered them to death, and carried them to the basement. Belle also began. Soon enough, the shop burned down, and the couple collected a nice insurance payment. Jennie Olsen's death certificate. Then, I did the planting.. She would spike their coffee, bash their heads in, cut up their bodies, and put them in sacks, he explained. Whether Gunness died in the fire or escaped remained uncertain, although the sheriff blamed a Chicago American reporter for inventing the "escaped" story. To lure her last victim, Gunness wrote: My heart beats in wild rapture for you, My Andrew, I love you. Stephanie Brooks. Gunness then began meeting wealthy men through a lovelorn column. As days progressed and the gruesome work continued, one body after another was discovered in Gunness hog pen. I can tell from your letters that you are the man I want. Years after Gunness supposed demise, rumors surfaced that she may have faked her own death to escape potential capture. Whether Gunness died in that fire remains unclear. But in reality, she was a serial killer who murdered at least 14 people. She kept his trunk and fur overcoat. These were lonely Norwegian bachelors, many completely cut off from their families. Further digging yielded more grisly discoveries. [7], Gunness began placing marriage ads in Chicago newspapers in 1905. In 1884 Belle Gunness married Mads Albert Sorenson. Shortly after dispensing with Lamphere, she presented herself at the La Porte County courthouse, declaring that her former employee was not in his right mind and was a menace to the public. She immigrated to the United States, where she lured her victims to her remote farm in Indiana. However the fourth, believed to be Gunness, was inexplicably missing its skull. In the belief that the headless corpse was, in fact, Belle Gunness, the remains were buried next to Belles first husband, Mads Sorenson, at Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois. Their life together seemed to be marked by tragedy. Leliter, telling him she feared for her life and her children. [6] When Lamphere was arrested, he was wearing John Moe's overcoat and Henry Gurholt's watch.[7]. She was nicknamed "Hell's Belle" after it was discovered that she was a prolific serial killer. She was also known as Hell's Belle, the . But, when the coroner looked at the body, he allegedly muttered: This is a case of murder.. When Andrew left home, he withdrew his life savings from the bank and was never heard from again. Belle began putting the following ad in out-of-state newspapers: "Comely widow who owns a large farm in one of the finest districts in La . [9] The couple owned a candy store which later burned to the ground. One of the bodies belonged to Andrew Hegelian. Together, the seemingly happy couple opened a confectionery store and had four children togetherCaroline, Axel, Myrtle, and Lucy. At 5'8" ft tall and over 200 lb (91 kg), she was a physically strong woman. Belle Sorenson Gunness (November 11, 1859 declared dead April 28, 1908) born Brynhild Paulsdatter Strseth was a NorwegianAmerican serial killer. [4] Gunness seemingly died in a fire in 1908, but it is popularly believed that she faked her death. Lamphere was arrested and charged with murder, with his cries of innocence falling on deaf ears. But she also became somewhat of a legend, shrouded in mystery, revenge and money. Then, Joe Maxson came forward with information that could not be ignored. Or perhaps she simply wanted to be free to kill again. Not Only Was Belle Gunness America's First Female Serial Killer, But She Just Had To Live In Indiana. Belle Gunness had asked him to level dozens of soft depressions in the ground, which supposedly covered trash. The farm of Belle Gunness, where authorities made a series of grisly discoveries in 1908. Emil Tell, a Swede from Kansas City, Missouri, is alleged to have gone o La Porte in 1907. He was jealous of the many men who arrived at court his employer and had endured most of these attentive strangers up to this time. In April 1902, she married Peter Gunness. His name was Mads Ditlev Anton Sorenson, and he didn't know it yet, but he was going to be Gunness' first known victim. It is believed the couple produced two children whom Gunness poisoned in infancy for the insurance money. The first doctor to see him thought he had suffered from strychnine poisoning. The Line-UP Caroline and Axel died as infants from acute colitis, the symptoms of which nausea, fever, diarrhea, and lower abdominal pain and cramping are also symptoms of many forms of poisoning. Once dead, she decapitated the body, tied weights to the head, and disposed of it in a swamp. Though the coroner ruled that the kids had died of colitis, their symptoms were also consistent with poisoning. She is responsible for so many deaths that detectives have ceased counting the number of bodies discovered on her premises. Carlson died on May 6, 1931, while awaiting trial. It read: To the Dearest Friend in the World: No woman in the world is happier than I am. Next, Belle presented herself to a lawyer in La Porte named M.E. From 1884 to 1908, it's believed that Belle Gunness killed, at least, 14 people. Their home had also burned down, and both instances granted the couple insurance payouts. Gunness had a system. Initially, authorities found the remains of an adult woman and three children and quickly concluded that they belonged to the homeowner, a Norwegian immigrant known as Belle Gunness and her three foster children. Reading Gunness' plodding letters to Andrew, it is plain that "soaring" and "rapture" were not her style. He later stated that the expression on her face was so sinister and murderous that he let out a loud yell, and she immediately ran from the room without uttering a single word. In 1907, she employed a farmhand, Ray Lamphere, to help with chores. [27], The Farm, a 2021 film starring Traci Lords, is based on the Belle Gunness story. Gunness, a butcher by profession, and Belle were married in LaPorte on April 1, 1902. To their horror, they ended up finding Andrew Helgeliens head, hands, and feet, stuffed into an oozing gunny sack. But once the tide turns away from Belle Sorensen of Gunness. A well-built woman with six feet height and over 90 90 kg, Belle immigrated to the US in 1881. However, there was a rather glaring problem with their conclusion: the body of the adult was headless not something that generally happens in a fire. In what may be a rather cruel bit of irony, some of her letters invited the men to "come prepared to stay forever," according to SyFy. La Porte County Historical Society Museum. Chares Neiburg, a 28-year-old Scandinavian immigrant living in Philadelphia, told friends that he would visit Gunness in June 1906 and never returned he had been working for a saloon keeper and took $500 with him. Belle Gunness was known as many things: the "Female Bluebeard," the "High-Priestess of Murder," the "Mistress of the Castle of Death," the "Queen of Crime," and "Hell's Princess." . The headless adult female corpse was never positively identified. BLACK WIDOW: Belle Gunness, from Selbu, Norway, is infamous as America's first woman serial killer. Reporters described her home as a horror farm and a death garden. Curious onlookers flocked to La Porte, as it became a local and national attraction, to the point that vendors reportedly sold ice cream, popcorn, cake, and something called Gunness Stew to visitors. In the ruins, authorities found the bodies of a headless adult woman, initially identified as Belle Gunness, and her three children. On April 28, 1908, a fire destroyed a family farm near La Porte, Indiana. She introduced them as cousins from Kansas, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and from Chicago She was always careful to make the children stay away from her cousins.'. A few days later, Helgelien was gone, but Gunness appeared at the bank to make an additional $1200.00 deposit. He then sent two of his deputies to dig into the debris digging for the corpses missing head and sent two others to arrest Lamphere. An autopsy was considered unnecessary because the death was not thought suspicious. The coroner described the incident as a little queer but believed that it was an accident. The author wound her longtime interests in vintage crime and women's history into a novel that's largely from. When drinking, Lamphere often boasted of sleeping with his employer, which came as a surprise to those who only saw Belle as the burly woman who liked to dress in mens overalls and do her own hog butchering. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. He admitted to a fellow inmate that he and Gunness had killed 42 men together. This female serial killer was not only the worst in Illinois history; she was also one of the worst American serial killers ever recorded. And shortly after he arrived, Gunness killed him and buried his dismembered body in her hog pen, alongside other corpses. The pair had four children: Caroline, Axel, Myrtle, and Lucy. However, when he was introduced to Andrew Hegelian Belles new husband-to-be, he made a scene, and Belle promptly fired him on February 3, 1908. Come prepared to stay forever.. Soon afterward, Olsen vanished. And in 1900, their home burned down. The story of Indiana's first documented serial killer, Belle Gunness. Her birth name was Brynhild Paulsdatter Storset. . In 1884 Belle Gunness married Mads Albert Sorenson. [8], Gunness married Mads Sorenson in 1884. Next came George Anderson from Tarkio, Missouri, who said he would pay the mortgage off if they decided to wed. Late that night, while sleeping in the guest room, Anderson awoke startled to see Belle standing over him, peering into his eyes and holding a candle in her hand. When first interrogated as to his whereabouts on the night of the fire, Lamphere claimed that he was in the company of an [African-American woman] named Mrs. Elizabeth Smith until 4 a.m., or one-half hour after the fire started, but he subsequently confessed that he burned the . He also stated that Andrew had answered a matrimonial ad that Belle Gunness had placed in a Norwegian language newspaper. Between 1902 and 1908, she lured a succession of unsuspecting victims to her Indiana "murder farm." Some were hired hands. Olaf Jensen, a Norwegian immigrant from Carroll. Like many psychopaths, she was very shrewd in identifying potential victims, Schechter explained. Anderson had come to the Gunness farm from Missouri with money and a hopeful heart. Another victim of the widow . But, from the start, there were questions as to whether the headless corpse was that of Belle Gunness. Belle Gunness stood six foot tall and had a hard look to her strong face. Belle Gunness was born Brynhild Paulsdatter Storset on November 11, 1859, in Selbu, Norway. Initially, the bodies were believed to be Belle and her children, Myrtle (age 11), Lucy (age 9), and Phillip (age 5). All told, the remains of more than forty men and children were exhumed. Four bodies were found inside the house the headless corpse of a woman and three children. status aspirations. In his statement, he revealed the details of Gunness crimes and swore she was still alive. Belle wore the finest clothing on those occasions, and her hair was adorned in the latest style. We shall be so happy when you once get here, Gunness purred in one letter. The essential fact, however, was that the murderess was not alive as a fugitive. Though her husband's family demanded an inquiry, no charges were filed. An unknown man and woman are alleged to have disappeared in September 1906, the same night Jennie Olson went missing. She changed her name to Bella Petersen and worked for a time as a servant girl before getting . Belle Gunness, also known as Brynhild Paulsdatter Strset, was a Norwegian-American serial killer who operated in Illinois and Indiana from 1884 until 1908. Meanwhile, a man named Asle Helgelien had found correspondence between his brother, Andrew, and Gunness. Answer: Selbu, Norway Belle was born on November 22, 1859. Best Known For: Serial killer Belle Gunness is reported to have murdered more than 40 people between 1884 and 1908 before disappearing without a trace. [15][16] Described as worried as to the peace of the families of the victims, Schell offered the confession to Bechly, which was later published. Lamphere was to wait for her at a designated place on the road after the fire was set. Serial killer Belle Gunness is reported to have murdered more than 40 people between 1884 and 1908 before disappearing without a trace. Gunness is a rare female serial killer-for-profit, although she seems to have had other motives as well. Then, learn about Leonarda Cianciulli, the serial killer who turned her victims into soap and teacakes. But no one at the time chalked it up to anything but a tragic coincidence. When I hear your name mentioned, and this is when one of the dear children speaks of you, or I hear myself humming it with the words of an old love song, it is beautiful music to my ears. Suspicious, Asle started asking questions around town and then came the fire. Lampheres lawyer, Wirt Worden, developed evidence that the bridgework that was found may have been planted. Sheriff Smutzer then took a dozen men back to the farm and began to dig, and on May 3, 1908, the diggers unearthed the body of Jennie Olson, who had vanished in December 1906. Belle Gunness: How Many Victims Did The Serial Killer Actually Have. Most of the remains found on the property could not be identified. At the time, forensics was in its infancy, and the bodies had been so mutilated that there was little hope of identifying them. The Story Of Belle Gunness, The Meat Cleaver-Wielding Serial Killer Of Turn-Of-The-Century Indiana. She may have killed both of her husbands and all of her children (on different occasions), but she is known to have killed . In this depraved story of sex, deception, greed, and murder, a veteran true-crime writer offers the first definitive history of Belle Gunness (circa 1859-1908), the most prolific female serial killer in American history.In previous books, Schechter (American Literature and Culture/Queens Coll. An older sister, likely named Nellie, emigrated to the United States in the early 1880s. Belle collected $3,000 insurance money for Peter's death. She then drugged his coffee and when the man was in a stupor, she split his head with a meat chopper. A hired man from Ohio, age 50, name unknown, is alleged to have disappeared, and Gunness became the heir to his horse and buggy. These filled-in holes, Gunness had told Maxson, contained rubbish. With so much going well for the Sorenson family, Mads even convinced Belle to foster a fifth child named Jennie Olsen. Hoping to find a clue related to his brothers disappearance, Helgelien and the farmhand began to dig up a pile of soft dirt in the hog pen. Gunness received men visitors all the time, one of her farmhands later told the New York Tribune. As she was preparing to move from Chicago to LaPorte, she became re-acquainted with a recent widower named Peter Gunness, also from Norway. Without saying goodbye, he fled the house and ran away, getting on the first train headed to Missouri. Her store and her home burned down, She and her husband collected the However, by the time anyone suspected Gunness in their deaths, they'd been dead for decades and their suspected murderer had vanished. When they failed to hear from him after that, the family contacted Gunness. I think of you constantly. ", "Female Indiana serial killer, the 'comely' Belle Gunness, loved her suitors to death", "Day Trip: Step into Historic LaPorte, Indiana; Visit 19th Century Courthouse, Museum, Miniature Horse Farm", "Potempa: Murderess Belle Gunness film starting production in LaPorte", "a book review by C. C. Harrison: In the Garden of Spite: A Novel of the Black Widow of La Porte", https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/317016/triflers-need-not-apply-by-bruce-camilla/9781405945455, Belle Gunness, the Lady Bluebeard: Narrative Use of a Deviant Woman, Only Belle: Bare Belle - En seriemorder fra Selbu, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Belle_Gunness&oldid=1141635952, Articles lacking reliable references from July 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2019, Articles with incomplete citations from July 2019, Wikipedia articles needing factual verification from July 2019, Pages using infobox criminal with motive parameter, Articles needing additional references from July 2019, All articles needing additional references, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from July 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Lillian de la Torre (1955). She killed most of her suitors If you're curious to learn more about her, read on to discover the . 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