Some Obscurish facts
#341
Belle Brynhilde Pulsatter Sorenson Gunness--to give her full name--was the greatest female mass murderer in history, as well as the most mysterious. Born in Norway, she settled on a farm in LaPorte, Ind., in 1901. A hulking, immensely strong widow of 40, Belle Gunness began to run ads in various matrimonial journals, enticing more than a dozen suitors to her homestead--none of whom was ever seen again. 'I don't know what it is,' she frequently complained. 'Men just won't stay with me.' In April, 1908, her farm suddenly burned down. In the ashes and buried in the yard, rescuers found the remains or skeletons of seven men, four children, and a woman, plus scattered bones from two more persons. The sole woman (minus her head) was at first presumed to be Mrs. Gunness, but examination revealed that it was another, much lighter and shorter, female. The children were Belle's own and a young lodger. Her former farmhand, a dim-witted Canadian named Lamphere, was convicted of setting the fire. But Belle Gunness had disappeared without a trace--and none was ever found. No one had suspected her of anything. There was no conceivable reason for her to kill her own children and fade into the oblivion that surrounds her to this day.
Belle Brynhilde Pulsatter Sorenson Gunness--to give her full name--was the greatest female mass murderer in history, as well as the most mysterious. Born in Norway, she settled on a farm in LaPorte, Ind., in 1901. A hulking, immensely strong widow of 40, Belle Gunness began to run ads in various matrimonial journals, enticing more than a dozen suitors to her homestead--none of whom was ever seen again. 'I don't know what it is,' she frequently complained. 'Men just won't stay with me.' In April, 1908, her farm suddenly burned down. In the ashes and buried in the yard, rescuers found the remains or skeletons of seven men, four children, and a woman, plus scattered bones from two more persons. The sole woman (minus her head) was at first presumed to be Mrs. Gunness, but examination revealed that it was another, much lighter and shorter, female. The children were Belle's own and a young lodger. Her former farmhand, a dim-witted Canadian named Lamphere, was convicted of setting the fire. But Belle Gunness had disappeared without a trace--and none was ever found. No one had suspected her of anything. There was no conceivable reason for her to kill her own children and fade into the oblivion that surrounds her to this day.