At age 14, Gunness began working for neighboring farms by milking and herding cattle to save enough money for passage to New York City. And did Gunness really die in the farmhouse disaster? [12], Immediate inspection of the site revealed that there were dozens of such "slumped depressions" in the Gunness yard, and further digging and investigation at the site yielded multiple burlap sacks containing "torsos and hands, arms hacked from the shoulders down, masses of human bone wrapped in loose flesh that dripped like jelly", from trash-covered depressions that proved to be graves. In 1881, at the age of 21, she moved to the United States in search of wealth and gave herself the Americanized name of Bella (Belle) Petersen. Usually accompanied by a handsome man, she was unrecognizable from the rough farm woman the locals were used to seeing. [12] Lucas Reilly, quoting The Chicago Inter Ocean in Mental Floss, noted that, The bones had been crushed on the ends, as though they had been struck with hammers after they were dismembered [and that] Quicklime had been scattered over the faces and stuffed in the ears. By his count, he said she had murdered 42 men and had taken amounts from them ranging from $1,000 to $32,000. In 1893, Belle met and married Mads Sorenson. These were lonely Norwegian bachelors, many completely cut off from their families. She killed most of her suitors and boyfrie Alchetron Sign in Sneha Girap(Editor) 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. Within a week, he had disappeared. The low end is 11, to account for her first two husbands, their children, and the children found dead on the family farm. It is not known how many men were victims of a treacherous woman. 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. Belle explained that Peter reached for something on a high shelf and a meat grinder fell on him, smashing his skull. Soon after, Sorenson died of heart failure on the one day his two life insurance policies overlapped. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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 . Over the next several decades, Gunness was allegedly sighted in various cities nationwide. At the time, forensics was in its infancy, and the bodies had been so mutilated that there was little hope of identifying them. Ray Lamphere, the ex-handyman of Belle Gunness. In the pantheon of serial killers, Belle Gunness stands alone. Gunness then began meeting wealthy men through a lovelorn column. And she was different in another way as well. She was the rarest of female psychopaths, a woman who engaged in wholesale slaughter, partly out of greed but mostly for the sheer joy of it. However, word soon spread that her relationship with Lamphere was more than strictly professional. My mama killed my papa, Olsen allegedly told her schoolmates. The next thing she knew, her husband was dead. More reports of missing men began to pour in from surrounding Midwestern states, and relatives began to appear from all over the region to claim bodies. Lamphere was later linked to the fire at Gunness farm. Ole B. Budsberg of Iola, Wisconsin, vanished in May 1907. Soon enough, Gunness was depositing checks brought by her suitors, while the lovelorn men were never heard from again. On November 26, 1908, he was sentenced to two to 21 years in the State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana. Dont tell a soul.. Early clues pointing to an accomplice assisting Belle in her murderous schemes first surfaced when one Julius G. Truelson, Jr., the son of an upstate New York piano manufacturer, told Ralph N. Smith, LaPorte prosecuting attorney from the 2nd Judicial District, that he had arranged for Belle to kill his new bride. However, a neighborhood boy said he had seen Lamphere running down the road from the Gunness house just before the structure erupted in flames. Her parents had eight children; she was the youngest. Even DNA tests that were done decades later from envelopes that Gunness licked were unable to definitively answer if she had died in the fire. Where did Belle Gunness meet her first husband, Max "Mads" Sorenson? John H. McJunkin of Coraopolis (near Pittsburgh) left his wife in December 1906 after corresponding with a La Porte woman. We will be all alone with each other. To their horror, they ended up finding Andrew Helgeliens head, hands, and feet, stuffed into an oozing gunny sack. [1] Lamphere stated that Gunness asked him to burn down the farmhouse with her children inside. She was one of America's first woman serial killers convicted and put on death row. Thomas Lindboe had left Chicago and had gone to work as a hired man for Gunness three years earlier. [7], Belle married Peter Gunness on April 1, 1902. Belles husbands death netted her another $3,000 (about $81,000 today). Gunness claimed they were a Los Angeles professor and his wife who had taken Jennie to California. [Gunness] beguiled them with promises of down-home Norwegian cooking and painted a very seductive portrait of the kind of life theyd enjoy.. On November 5, 2007, with the permission of descendants of Belles sister, the headless body was exhumed from the grave by a team of forensic anthropologists and graduate students from the University of Indianapolis to learn her true identity. By now, Gunness had purchased a farm in La Porte, Indiana. 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. Although no one ever saw Moe again, a carpenter who did occasional work for Gunness observed that Moe's trunk remained in her house, along with more than a dozen others. A few weeks later, a reverend came forward with Lampheres confession before he died. Then, Sorensen died, not at all suspiciously on the day that one life insurance policy was set to expire and another had just come into effect. Storset then married Peter Gunness, in 1901; a week later, his infant son from a previous marriage was dead under suspicious circumstances. A brother of Miss Jennie Graham of Waukesha, Wisconsin, who had left her to marry a wealthy widow in La Porte but vanished. Though the coroner ruled that the kids had died of colitis, their symptoms were also consistent with poisoning. Wikimedia CommonsBelle Gunness with her children: Lucy Sorenson, Myrtle Sorenson, and Philip Gunness. Also counted was an adopted 10-year-old girl, identified as Morgan Couch, but who was later known as Jennie Olsen. Abraham Phillips, a railwayman of Burlington. Though estimates vary widely, Belle Gunness is believed to have killed at least a dozen people (and possibly upwards of 40) between 1884 and . However the fourth, believed to be Gunness, was inexplicably missing its skull. The man, who came from a wealthy family, was never prosecuted by the Norwegian authorities. By 1886, she was married to a man named Mads Sorensen, had somehow wound up with an unknown number of children (although whether they were the couple's natural children or foster children remains unclear), and the family was running a failing candy shop. Their life together seemed to be marked by tragedy. Concurrently, Gunness had begun to develop problems with a farmhand named Ray Lamphere. So far, Belle Gunness had been able to largely escape detection or suspicion. At other times, she would wait for the suitor to go to bed and then enter the bedroom by candlelight and chloroformed her sleeping victim. General Information Sex Female Race White Number of victims 16 further plus 12 possible equals 28 In the meantime, she began ordering large trunks to be delivered, kept the shutters of her home closed day and night, and mainly kept to herself. To make matters worse, one of Belles children told a classmate that her mother had hit her husband over the head with a cleaver. He quickly jumped out of bed and threw on his clothes. But, for one reason or another, Gunness decided to emigrate from Selbu to Chicago in 1881. He died in prison, but not before revealing the truth about Belle Gunness and her crimes, including burning her own house down -- the body that was recovered was not hers. Further digging yielded more grisly discoveries. But, there was another side to the woman that Lamphere saw, and soon the local folk would as well. Sorenson died of cerebral hemorrhage that day. She told them Gurholt had gone off with horse traders to Chicago. No explanation was provided for what happened to the body's head. [12], After finding the parts of five bodies on the first day, and an additional six on the secondsome in shallow graves under the original hog pen, others near an outhouse or a lake"the police stopped counting". Belle Gunness was born Brynhild Paulsdatter Storseth in Selbu, Norway on November 11, 1859. Unfortunately, there was not enough DNA, so the mystery remains unsolved. Before long, Gunness and Helgelien began exchanging romantic letters. The Truth about Belle Gunness (MysteriousPress.com/Open Road), This page was last edited on 26 February 2023, at 01:28. [7] Reported "sightings" of Gunness in the Chicago area continued long after she was declared dead. Belle with daughters Lucy and Myrtle. But in reality, she was a serial killer who murdered at least 14 people. Christie Hilkven of Dovre, Wisconsin, sold his farm and came to La Porte in 1906. .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}Idaho Murders: What Led Police to Bryan Kohberger, Adnan Syed: A Complete Timeline of His Trial, Appeal and Killing of Hae Min Lee. Then, Joe Maxson came forward with information that could not be ignored. [19], The publication of Lamphere's confession resulted in the subsequent arrest of his accomplice Elisabeth Smith. As a result, Coroner Charles Mack officially concluded that the adult female body discovered in the ruins was Belle Gunness. A different man came nearly every week to stay at the house. All told, the remains of more than forty men and children were exhumed. Lamphere was to wait for her at a designated place on the road after the fire was set. Belle Gunness was born Brynhild Paulsdatter Storset on November 11, 1859, in Selbu, Norway. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. This is what is known, and what is suspected, about the number of victims serial killer Belle Gunness had. At the time, Gunness did not mention that she was pregnant, despite the possibility that it might have inspired sympathy, and in May 1903, Gunness gave birth to a son she named Phillip. Belle Gunness: How Many Victims Did The Serial Killer Actually Have. The story of Belle Gunness makes you wonder if some people don't really need motivation, some people . While there, she was attacked by a man who kicked her in the abdomen, causing her to miscarry. Belle insisted that a meat grinder had fallen on his head, crushing his skull. But they could identify Jennie Olsen Gunness foster daughter who had left for California. And it soon became clear that Gunness was behind some horrific crimes. A few days later, Helgelien was gone, but Gunness appeared at the bank to make an additional $1200.00 deposit. 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. They then found the small bodies of two unidentified children. But years later, the girls body would be found in Gunness hog pen. An unnamed man from Montana told people at a resort he was going to sell Gunness his horse and buggy, which were found with several other horses and buggies at the farm. On April 28, 1908, a fire destroyed a family farm near La Porte, Indiana. Maybe Belle Gunness needed money. Belle Gunness. The suitors kept coming, but none, except for the lucky Anderson, ever left the Gunness farm. 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. (Serial Killer) Belle Sorenson Gunness, birth name Brynhild Paulsdatter Strseth, was a Norwegian-American serial killer. Henry Gurholdt of Scandinavia, Wisconsin, had gone to wed her a year earlier, taking $1,500. Some documented serial killers from history, we know very little about. 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