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 Storseth and she was born in Norway in 1859. She immigrated to the United States 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, at 6-feet tall and 200 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, Indiana. This farm was later nicknamed the "murder farm" due to the many bodies uncovered there. If you're curious to learn more about her read on to discover the truly gruesome crimes of Belle Gunness.
13 Terrifying Facts About Belle Gunness, One of the Most Disturbing Killers Ever,
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 of each body. In all, there were around 40 people whose relatives claimed were missing and possibly murdered by Gunness, although there may have been upwards of 100 people associated with her who met odd, early deaths.
21 Babies Went Missing From Her Care In Chicago
During her time in Chicago, Belle Gunness ran a "baby farm" - pseudo foster care system - out of her house. A record number of babies, 21 in all, mysteriously disappeared while in her care. To this day, no one is entirely sure what happened to them. They may have been murdered or sold to the highest bidder, one by one.
She Poisoned Two Of Her Children And One Of Her Husbands
Belle Gunness married her first husband Mad Sorenson in 1884. During their marriage, they had four biological children: Myrtle, 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 this disease include nausea, cramping, and abdominal pain, all of which are consistent with arsenic poisoning. It goes without saying that both children had life insurance policies purchased in their names before they died, and Gunness made sure to collect on them.
Sorenson died in a similar manner. Doctors diagnosed him with an enlarged heart, and at the time of his death, Gunness was giving him unusual medical "powders" to treat the condition. 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.
She Dismembered Some Of Her Victims's 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 her farmhand Ray Lamphere, Belle Gunness preferred to chop up her victim's 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. Some were even buried in the basement, beneath a concrete slab.
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 Maxon. 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, most dissected into various parts, were found in that same spot.
Her Second Husband Died In A Meat Grinder "Accident"
When she married him, Belle Gunness' 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 Belle poisoned her. Peter's oldest child, a girl named Swanhild, went to live with relatives and escaped relatively unscathed. Belle brought her two surviving children from her relationship with her first husband, as well as her adopted daughter Jennie Olsen, with her to Peter's farm.
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, Phillip, 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 $4,000 life insurance payout.
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. Sometimes she would 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'd killed.
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 rubble the next day, they found the bodies of three children - presumably those of her daughters Myrtle and Lucy from her first husband, Mads Sorenson, and her son Phillip, from her second husband, Peter Gunness - were found in what remained of their beds. A fourth body, 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 at the time believed that Gunness set the fire in order to fake her own death.
She Lured In Men With A Personals 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, Indiana, 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.
She Repeatedly Committed Insurance Fraud
In 1886, 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 Illinois which also burned to the ground. Although it is unknown whether they set the fire, the timing seemed odd as the store wasn't doing well and hadn't been open long. The mysterious circumstances here mark the beginning of 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 two of her children, Caroline and Axel, as well as those of her two husbands: Mads Sorenson and Peter Gunness.