Serial Killer Saturday - America's First Female Serial Killer?

  Brynhild Paulsdatter Storset, or Belle as she would later be known, was born in Selbu, Norway on November 11, 1859. Her father Paul was a poor sharecropper at the Storset farm where her family name originated. Very little is known about her childhood and accounts of her varied among the people that knew her while she was growing up. In the early 1880's she set sail from Norway to America. She moved in with her sister Nellie, who had already immigrated to Chicago some years before, and her sister's husband. Brynhild took on an American name and became Bella Peterson. She took sewing jobs, cleaning, laundry and housekeeping jobs in order to pay Nellie back for her passage to America and for her room and board.

  In March of 1884 Bella married Mads Ditlev Anton Sorenson. Bella was 24. Mads was five years older than she was and worked at one of the department stores in Chicago. The Sorensons saved money and were able to purchase a candy store with living quarters on the second floor. Despite it's busy location the store wasn't profitable. Less than a year after the store was purchased, it mysteriously caught on fire. No one was in the store at the time except for Belle and Jennie, Mads and Bella's three year old foster daughter, and they both managed to escape unharmed. Suspicions of arson could not be proven and the Sorensons' insurance paid for their loss. They decided to sell the store and were able to recoup all losses. With the money from the insurance and the sale of the store they purchased a new home and Mads took a job with the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. Over the next few years the Sorensons had four more children. To this day no one knows for sure if these children belonged to Bella and Mads biologically or were adopted. Bella was in her late thirties at the time the children show up in records. Two of the children died shortly after their births; one at five months old and another at three months.

   In 1897, the Sorensons almost lost everything when they were scammed into putting up their own money and using their home for collateral to a fake mining company. They filed a lawsuit and did win back the deed to their property. Mads had quit his job with the railroad company because he believed he was going to Alaska to search for gold mines with the mining company. He was able to get his old job back at the department store where he was working when he and Bella first married. This job paid significantly less than his job at the railroad and the Sorensons became poor. That was until April 1900 when once again fire plagued the Sorensons. Their house caught on fire. Firefighters were able to save the structure but their belongings were lost. Luckily they had insurance and they received a large sum of money to recover their losses. Tragedy struck again three months later when Mads suddenly died. Bella told the physician that he was suffering from a cold and a bad headache and she had given him a dose of quinine powder. When she went to their bedroom check on him after preparing dinner, she found him dead. Doctors at first thought the pharmacist had mistakenly given her morphine instead of quinine but Bella couldn't produce the power packet. The conclusion was that Mads died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Lucky for Bella, most unlucky for Mads, was his life insurance situation. He had a $2000 policy that was set to lapse at the end of that very day and his new policy worth $3000 also took affect that same day. Bella was able to collect both life insurance policies.

  Bella decided to sell her home in Chicago after Mads death. She found a 48 acre farm for sale in La Porte, Indiana that had once been a notorious brothel. Bella, now calling herself Belle, and her three remaining children moved to "Maddie Altic's Place" at the end of the year 1901. Soon after moving to La Porte, Belle remarried. Peter Gunness had boarded at Belle and Mads home in Chicago some years before. He was recently widowed with two children. According to first hand reports of Belle from people who knew her, she was not an attractive woman, but her 48 acre farm apparently was. Five days after Belle and Peter were married, Peter's infant daughter died. Her body was shipped to Chicago and buried beside Mads and the other two infant Sorenson children. Eight months later, on December 16 1902, Peter Gunness was dead. Neighbors were woken by Jennie, Belle's foster daughter, asking them to come quickly to the Gunness farm because her step father had been badly burned. When they arrived on the scene they found Peter's body on the floor face down in a pool of blood and a large dent in his skull and a broken nose. When the coroner arrived, Belle half incoherently told everyone a story about how a meat grinder fell from a shelf onto Peter's head and then knocked over a hot bowl of brine that scalded his neck. He assured Belle that he was fine and had went to lay down for a rest. She found him on the floor a few hours later. Dr. Bo Bowell, county physician and coroner, immediately upon seeing Mr. Gunness' body thought he had been murdered but waited until the autopsy before making a judgement. The postmortem only raised more questions than answers since the findings didn't match the story provided by Belle. There were no burn or scald marks anywhere on Peter's body. Dr. Bowell concluded that death was "due to shock and pressure caused by fracture and said hemorrhage." Bowell decided to open an inquest into Peter's death. The inquest was held two days later at the Gunness farmhouse in the same room where Peter died. The inquest didn't turn up any new answers. Belle, Jennie and the neighbor all testified but the story basically remained the same. Dr. Bowell concluded that Peter Gunness had died by accident due to the meat grinder hitting his head causing a fractured skull and hemorrhage. That might have been the official report and the official end to the incident but rumors and suspicions around town remained. Peter's brother Gust was of the group who remained suspicious. When he asked about Peter's life insurance policy that listed his oldest daughter Swanhild as beneficiary, Belle claimed he had invested it in a mining company. When Belle made a proposal that Gust could stay on the farm and help her manage the place, Peter's brother declined the offer and quickly left with Swanhild in tow.

  Belle took on all the roles that a farm required. She was a very large woman, tall, large boned with a tendency towards obesity. Even with her large build she soon realized the work was more than she could handle. She began to place help wanted ads in Norwegian language newspapers in the Midwest for farm workers. Olaf Lindboe, a new comer to America, responded to Belle's ad. He showed up at the Gunness farm with $600 and everything he owned in the world. He and Belle soon became friendly. Their relationship was so friendly in fact that her neighbors believed they would soon be married, as did Olaf himself. In a letter he wrote to his father describing his new living location he also mentioned that he might be getting married soon. Everyone thought it very odd when Olaf came up missing and Belle was asking a neighbor for help on the farm at harvest season. Henry Gurholt answered her ad a few months after Olaf disappeared. Chris Christofferson, a neighbor that was helping out while she was between farmhands, worked with Gurholt a few times and was surprised when Belle told him Gurholt had returned to Chicago with only a few possessions. She was later seen by Christofferson during the winter wearing Gurholt's fur coat. When he asked about it Belle replied that he must not want it since he didn't take it and she hadn't heard from him since he left.

   Belle mysteriously became a mother again to a baby boy she named Phillip. Neighbors couldn't believe the news when Jennie told them, or when they came to visit. They were sure Phillip was much too big to be a new born and Belle was still hard at work with farm chores. Not the sorts of activities a newly delivered mother should be performing. Another ad was placed again in the Midwestern Norwegian Newspapers. This time the ad wasn't just looking for a farm hand but a "partner" to share life on the farm. All the man had to do was provide some cash as security of good faith and reliability. "Triflers need not apply.", the ad read. The number of responses to Belle's ad is unknown but her mailman would later testify to delivering as many as 10 letters per day. George Berry left his home in Tuscola, Illinois with $1,500 in cash after telling friends he was moving to La Porte for a job and marriage prospects. Christian Hilkven sold his farm for $2000 and gave his friends his forwarding address in La Porte. A Swedish bachelor from Kansas quit his job and told his boss he had $2000 and was going to marry a rich widow. Ole Budsberg told his sons the same thing, also giving La Porte, Indiana as his new address. He left with $1000 in cash. And so on. One young farm hand, Emil Greening, later testified that Belle Gunness received male visitors on a regular basis and that she would always introduce them as cousins from out of state. None of these men seemed to stay for very long. The residents of La Porta always saw them arrive but no one ever saw them leave again.

Jennie Olsen at 16 years old

  During all these comings and goings of male "cousins", Jennie Olson, Belle's foster daughter, was growing into womanhood and she herself would receive many gentleman callers. Emil Greening and John Weidner were local boys who paid suit to Jennie. In the winter of 1906 Jennie told John and Emil that Belle was sending her to college in California. When each one came to say goodbye Belle told them Jennie had already left. They both wrote to her at the address she had given them but they never heard from her again. In fact, no one ever did.


  Belle hired Ray Lamphere to be her boarder and farm hand. Ray was a member of a prominent La Porte family who had become the town drunk. Belle gave him a place to live in exchange for his help on the farm and Ray began to boast around town that Belle was giving him more than just a bed to sleep in. Even though Belle was supposedly in a relationship with Ray, she still received letters responding to her newspaper ads. She began a lengthy correspondence with a man named Andrew Helgelien who owned a farm in South Dakota. For almost two years Belle set the scene in her letters of a friend turned devoted lover with a prosperous money-making farm in need of Helgelien to save her from loneliness. Helgelien was urged to come quickly with all his cash he planned to invest in his share of the farm. "We shall be so happy once you get here," she wrote in one surviving letter. Belle also instructed Helgelien to keep their plans for the future a secret from everyone, including his own family.  "It is so much pleasure to keep this secret to ourselves and to see how surprised everyone will be when they find out." Unfortunately, Andrew Helgelien fell ill and could not come to Belle as quickly as she wanted. Even though he repeatedly told her he was unable to make the journey, her letters back to him urged him to make the trip anyway, always with the aside that he not tell anyone of plans. Finally, after 18 months of letter writing, Andrew Helgelien arrived in La Porte in January of 1908. Belle unceremoniously kicked Ray Lamphere out of his snugly bed and put Andrew in it. Ray was told to go sleep in the barn. A few days later Belle took Andrew to the bank to cash in his certificates of deposit from his own bank back in South Dakota. Belle became furious when they were told it would take 4-5 days for the money to be redeemed. A week later the two of them came back for the money. Helgelien was ready to accept a  cashier's check but Belle refused and insisted it be in cash. Almost $3,000 in cash, half in gold coins and half in currency. It totaled close to $75,000 in today's currency. And that was the last anyone would see or hear of Andrew Helgelien.

   Even though Andrew had not told anyone where he was going or why, he did tell his brother Asle that he would be back within a week's time. When he didn't arrive back home after a few weeks Asle became worried. A farmhand that worked on Andrew's small farm also began to wonder where he was. Looking through Helgelien's home to find some clue as to his whereabouts he came upon Belle's letters she had written to Andrew. These were turned over to Asle who promptly wrote to Belle, or Bella, as she had singed her letters to Andrew, asking if she knew where he was. She replied back with some crazy story about him running off to hunt down another of the Helgelien brothers who had gotten into some trouble in Chicago. Asle wrote back that he was coming to La Porte to start searching for Andrew's whereabouts. Belle told him to come on and she would help in any way she could.

  Ray Lamphere and Belle were now on the outs with each other. No one knows exactly what started the feud but Ray suddenly quit the Gunness farm leaving all his carpenters tools and most of his other belongings behind. When he finally came back for his belongings Belle had him arrested for trespassing. He hired a lawyer. She began to drop comments around town that he was harassing her, sneaking onto her property at night, looking in her windows and any other kind of dubious activity she could think to add. He was put on trial a few times for trespassing and harassment. One time he was found guilty and had to pay a fine. The next time he was acquitted of the charges. Still Belle persisted in bringing charges against him and declaring that he was insane. He was put before an insanity trial and the comity declared that he was of sound mind. She would tell neighbors and shopkeepers that she feared for her life and that she wouldn't be surprised if Ray tried to set fire to her house one night while she was asleep to try and kill her. During one of the trials where Ray was accused of harasment, Ray's lawyer began to ask Belle questions about her deceased husbands and their mysterious deaths. Belle became very agitated at all these questions. No one really thought much of it at the time except for Ray's lawyer who was asking them and Dr. Bo Bowell who had attended Mr. Gunness at the time of his death and who already had doubts surrounding the circumstances. Later, everyone in La Porte would take it as a sign that Belle feared her secrets were about to be found out.

Belle with daughters Lucy and Myrtle and baby son Phillip

  On April 27, 1908, a few weeks after the last trial of Ray Lamphere, Belle went to her lawyer's office to have her will made out because she was so afraid Ray was going to kill her. She left everything to her three children, Myrtle Adolphine Sorenson, Lucy Bergliat Sorenson and Phillip Alexander Gunness. In the event that her children died without issue, the property was to be given to the Norwegian Children's Home of Chicago. After storing her will and some money in a deposit box, she stopped by the store where she bought candy, cake and some toys to give to the children as a surprise. She also purchased a large quantity of groceries and two gallons of kerosene. According to Joe Maxson, the handyman hired to take Ray's place, he, Belle and the children sat down to a large dinner and then played games with the kids the rest of the evening. Maxson, feeling very sleepy, retired to bed around 8:30 with Belle and the children still playing in the parlor. When he awoke the next morning he believed everything was the same as it was every morning; except Mrs. Gunness was burning the breakfast. Except it wasn't breakfast that was burning. When he came fully awake he realized the house itself was on fire and his room was filled with smoke. He ran out of his room and tried to open the door that separated the guest area from the rest of the house where Belle and her children slept but it wouldn't open. He ran down the back stairs and tried to open the front door but it wouldn't open either. Grabbing an ax from the nearby tool shed he chopped at the door. The neighbors soon saw the flames and smoke and began to rush to Mrs. Gunness' farmhouse. It was engulfed in flames. One of the neighbors grabbed a ladder and put it to the window of Belle's bedroom. Peering in he saw the room was empty. Continuing on in the same way, they searched all the windows they could reach hoping to see someone still alive. Someone rode into town to alert the sheriff while everyone else stood around helplessly watching the flames reach higher into the early morning sky. By the time the fire was out there was nothing but three stone walls left standing.

  

  By mid-morning fifty people were there and by the afternoon that number had doubled. One spectator that morning was Harry Burr Darling, an editor for the Argus-Bulletin, one of La Porte's newspapers. His would be the first of many articles written about Belle Gunness and what would become known as her "murder farm." Darling was also the first to speculate that Belle Gunness had started the fire herself due to her "weakened mentality" over her recent troubles with Ray Lamphere. Sheriff Smutzer believed Ray himself was guilty of starting the fire. When the smoldering ruins had cooled enough to allow anyone to get close, people began to sift through the debris. They came upon the forms of three small bodies huddled together with an adult female. Surely these were Belle and her children. Sheriff Smutzer sent deputies out to arrest Ray for arson and murder but like most of the men in Belle's life he had disappeared. The next day Darlings article reported on the conditions of the bodies found. In describing Phillip Guness, Darling wrote "whose face was black, with a hole in the forehead evidently from a falling brick. Its limbs below the knees had been burned away. The child's mouth was open, silent testimony to the agony of death." The girls were likewise salaciously described in order to appeal to the reader's morbid curiosity. Mrs. Gunness, he went on to describe as "an unrecognizable mass, with the bones protruding through naked flesh." But was the body that of Mrs. Gunness or some other female? Jennie was supposed to be in California in collage. No other females save the small girls should have been in the house. Why would this question even be asked? Because the corpse was missing its head!

 Ray Lamphere was eventually found right where he should have been; at work. The first words out of Ray's mouth when the deputies arrived where to ask if the children and Belle had escaped the fire. How did he know about the fire? Simple, he saw the smoke as he was walking to work that morning but didn't stop because it wasn't any of his business or that given his history with Mrs. Gunness they would suspect him right off. Ray was taken to the county jail where he was questioned multiple times.When asked where he was the night of the fire he reluctantly admitted that he had been at the home of Elizabeth Smith, a colored woman. Smith corroborated Lamphere's story but many La Porte residents still believed Ray was responsible for the fire and subsequent deaths of the Gunness family. An inquest was held, then an arraignment where Ray was charged with arson and murder. He pleaded not guilty and was held without bond to await a grand jury to meet on May 11th.

  Meanwhile, back at the farm, men from all over the county arrived to help sift through what was left of the Gunness home in the hopes of finding the lost head of Belle Gunness. According to the local physicians no fire could have been hot enough to have entirely cremated a human skull. Surely her gold teeth or some other part had to remain. Had Ray Lamphere murdered Mrs. Gunness first and cut off her head and then set the fire? If so, where was the head now? A postmortem exam lead the doctors to believe that the head had not been removed before the fire. There was no evidence of violence having occurred.

  More newspapers began to pick up the story and La Porta began to have more and more visitors pouring into town. Nellie Larson, Belle's estranged sister came to town from Chicago. She was shocked to learn how her sister died and even more shocked to learn she wouldn't be the recipient of Belle's estate. She did make arrangements to have her sister's remains sent to Chicago and buried at the Forest Home Cemetery. Jennie Olson's older sister also came to town looking for Jennie. She had not heard from Jennie and over two years after Jennie had written to say she was being sent away to school in California. Attempts to locate said school by Jennie's sister had been unsuccessful. News reports claimed that Jennie was even then on her way home but Jennie never arrived. Asle Helgelien had also arrived in La Porte and went straight away to the police looking for his lost brother Andrew. Andrew's presence in town several months back was confirmed by the police chief and by the banker. Sheriff Smutzer drove Asle out to what remained of the Gunness farm. Asle joined in with the rest of the men still looking for Belle's missing head. While walking the property he began to look for anything suspicious or anything that would give him a clue as to the whereabouts of his brother. He asked the workers if any large holes had been recently dug. Why, yes, there were. Maxson, the current handyman had helped Mrs. Gunness haul some household trash to a pit in a fenced off around of the hog lot. The men took their shovels and headed for the pit where they began digging. Soon enough a shovel struck something hard. It was covered in a burlap sack. When the sack was opened up they found human remains. While someone raced into town to get the sherrif and the coroner, the other men kept digging. Finally, they found what Asle had been searching for. A human skull that resembled his brother Andrew. The partial remains of a young adult female were found with a lock of long blonde hair still attached. Jennie Olson had finally been found. Ole Budsberg's sons arrived to try and find their father whom they knew had come to La Porte to married a wealthy widow. They picked out his skull from among the remains that had been dug up. His red mustache a dead give away. (Heh, sorry). More and more people, fearing for missing loved ones,wrote inquiries to the La Porte police or came to town to search the bodies. All of them giving the same story of a single man cashing in all he owned to go off to marry a widow who owned a farm.

  The buggy shed was turned into a makeshift morgue as the men kept digging and searching other areas of the murder farm. Bodies with severed limbs were placed on tables. There were so many that it was impossible to match the pieces up for a full skeleton and know for sure that it was all of the same person. Body upon body was being discovered all over the property. It is estimated that as many as 40 were possibly killed and buried in various places around the Gunness farm. In one pit they uncovered more than a dozen pairs of men's shoes. Some of the bodies had been wrapped in the "gunny" or burlap sacks, some had been casually tossed like trash. Some had been covered with quicklime to cover the smell and help with decomposition. Severed, crushed, dismembered; legs, arms, skulls. Most were beyond even basic identifications like sex or age

News article from 1908 reporting on the murders at the Gunness farm

 Over night Belle became infamous. Belle Gunness and her murder farm would make front-page news throughout the country for several months. She was labeled by the Chicago American as "the most fiendish murderer of the age," even the most "fiendish murderess in history."  As evidence emerged from other men who had previously contacted  Belle regarding her advertisements,  her motives and, as Harold Schechter describes her in his book, her "diabolical cunning", it seemed reasonable to believe that the headless body was not that of Belle at all. Could she possibly have committed all these murders and somehow gotten away with it?! The newspapers dubbed her everything from the "La Porte Ghoul" to the "High-Priestess of Murder" to the "Queen of Crime." All kinds of sensational stories hit the press regarding her whereabouts, the murders and her possible link to other crimes. Sightings of her were reported everywhere and yet when investigated were obviously false. She was part of a murder for hire gang in Chicago that sent victims out to her murder farm where she would dispose of them. She was part of a mail order murder gang that lured unsuspecting men (and their money) to their deaths. This she did do but she was solitary in her efforts. But because it could possibly be true, mail order marriages were banned in Chicago. Though there was a multi-state hunt for Gunness and many reported sightings, nothing led to her apprehension. Not long after the story broke, a moving pictured titled Mrs. Gunness, the Female Bluebeard  appeared in theaters in the Midwest. Fake love letters to would be victims began to appear. Even fictional paperback dime-store novels were written about Mrs. Gunness.

 Crowds began to gather at the farm to watch as the men dug and retrieved body parts and articles of men's clothing. They would come from all around the surrounding counties, even from the surrounding states. They would bring picnics out to the farm and spend the day in morbid amusement as piece by piece Belle's victims were unearthed. There was still that pesky missing head to find as well. The only parts of the farm that were off limits to the public were the cellar and the make-shift morgue. People could walk around the farm all they liked. The Lake Erie and Western Railroad even arranged for special excursion trains to bring in visitors from Indianapolis and Chicago and livery companies hired extra drivers to take sightseers out to the farm. Every hotel room in La Porte and the nearby cities and towns were full.  Sixteen thousand people, possibly more, showed up on Sunday May 10th. It was like a giant death circus. According to Harold Schechter's book "Hell's Princess", there were even vendors there selling their wares. Popcorn, peanuts, ice cream and cake could all be had while looking down on these poor dead people's remains. Photographers roamed the grounds taking pictures and selling them to the visitors. Some even found small bone fragments and sold them as well, alleging they were the bones of Belle's victims. They later found out the bones weren't human but were actually pig. Chunks of brick, bent nails, trash from the house that remained in the burn pile; all were scooped up as souvenirs. At first a single file line for viewing the make-shift morgue was arranged but the crowd became out of control and Sheriff Smutzer was forced to padlock the shed doors so no one else could get in. 

Spectators watch as the remains of Belle Gunness' victims are unearthed  - La Porte Historical Society

 Ray Lamphere was still in jail. There were many who still believed that Belle was innocent and Lamphere had committed these murders out of jealousy and revenge. Ray still insisted he was the innocent one. If they could find Belle then obviously Ray was innocent and Belle the murderer. Yet though there were all those sightings there was nothing that was confirmed as it actually being Belle. They either had to find Belle, her missing head, or her teeth. A sluice box was constructed on the farm by an old prospector determined to find Belle's gold teeth. If she died in the fire and her head had indeed "combusted" from her body due to the heat of the fire, then her 4 gold teeth should be somewhere amidst the ashes that were once her home. Right? Men's watches, knives, rings and suspiciously a badly burned book on anatomy were all found. Finally on May 19th, the crazy old prospector was rewarded for his hard work by finding a pair of dental bridges. Belle's dentist confirmed they were in fact those of Mrs. Gunness. Sheriff Smutzer firmly believed Ray was the culprit. Since they now had confirmation that Belle was in fact dead, they could proceed with the trial. Of course there were doubters. How could they have not melted in the heat of the fire? Was it possible she used someone else's dentures? The dentist pointed out that a real tooth was still attached to the bridgework. Could she have pulled out her own tooth? With this new evidence the coroner finally positively identified the body of Belle Gunness and Ray Lamphere was  indicted by a grand jury with charges of arson and the first-degree murders of Belle, her three children and Andrew Helgelien. What about all the other bodies though? Who killed them? Did Ray help Belle kill them but as was suggested grew jealous of Helgelien? Lamphere still denied having anything to do with the fire or any of the murders. Even though other dentists testified for the defense that the teeth presented as those of Belle Gunness had to have been planted after the fire, and Elizabeth Smith saying that Ray had been at her place the night of the fire, and witnesses that claim to have seen Belle after the fire, Ray Lamphere was convicted of arson with no mention of the charges of murder. The jury's decision had been 10 who were in favor of second degree murder, two who were in favor of the arson charge and one who wanted to acquit. They finally came to an agreement on the arson charge after their 19th ballot. Ray Lamphere died in prison while serving his two year term for arson.

  Sightings of Belle Gunness reappeared every so often for the next 20 years or so all across the country. Once they were investigated though they all proved to be false. The most credible of these sightings was in 1931 when a man named Peter Lindstrom received a call that his father had passed away. When he traveled to Los Angeles to take care of his father's estate, he was met by his father's housekeeper for the last 15 years. Her name was Mrs. Carlson. The circumstances of Peter's father's death didn't sit right with Peter when Mrs. Carlson gave him the details. He became more suspicious when he learned that his father had added Mrs. Carlson's name onto his bank account and that just days after Lindstrom's death, all the money in the account had been withdrawn by authority of Mrs. 
Carlson. An  autopsy was performed and two and a half grains of arsenic were found in the old man's body. Upon making inquiries into Carlson's past and with the help of a woman who had been conned into helping Carlson then subsequently poisoned by Carlson, charges were brought against her for the murders of Lindstrom, another man and Mr. Carlson too. Upon searching the Carlson home, police came across two little girls and a boy. The photo was somehow shown to a former resident of La Porte, Indiana who identified the children as belonging to none other than Belle Gunness. Carlson denied that she was not Mrs. Gunness. Esther Carlson was dead before anyone else could positively identify her. The mode, means and motive certain fit that of Belle Gunness. Every one who saw her after her death felt positive that the facial features and nationality all made her a shoe-in for Belle. 

 In 2008, the remains of what are supposedly Belle Gunness' body were exhumed from their resting place at Chicago's Forest Home Cemetery in order to perform DNA testing. Those results are still inconclusive. In 2014, a native of Selbu, Norway researched Carlson's background and came to the conclusion that she and Belle Gunness were not the same person. 

Did Belle Gunness escape the fire at the murder farm? Did Ray Lamphere have anything to do with the fire or any of the deaths that took place there? Here are my own thoughts about Belle Gunness:

 Did she kill her husbands? Yes. Perhaps the first time was an accidental overdose.  Did Belle kill Jennie? Yes. And Phillip was actually Jennie's son.  Did Belle kill all of those other people? Yes.  Did Ray Lamphere kill anyone? No.  Did Ray start the fire at the Gunness house? No.  Did Ray know about Belle's extracurricular activities? Yes.  Did Belle start the fire? Yes.  Did Belle set Ray up for the murder and arson charges? Yes.  Did Belle die in the fire huddled together with her children? No. That was someone else's skeleton.  Did Belle get away? Most definetly.  Was Belle Gunness ever found? Nope. Will the mystery ever be solved? I don't know.


To learn more about Belle Gunness and come to your own conclusions check this stuff out:

Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men 
by Henry Schechter

Hell's Belle : The True Story of Belle Gunness

by Lindsay Garrett

The Truth about Belle Gunness: The True Story of Notorious Serial Killer Hell's Belle

by Lillian de la Torre

The Mistress of Murder Hill: The Serial Killings of Belle Gunness

by Sylvia Elizabeth Shepherd

Belle Gunness: The Lady Bluebeard

by Janet L. Langlois 

You can watch a documentary about Belle on Amazon Prime. 

There was another movie in the works but there has been no news from them since 2018. There 

has also been talk of a Netflix series based on her life and crimes but nothing confirmed.