Belle

[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to Hooked. I'm Rachel, your guide through the perplexing and sometimes deadly world of Internet catfishing. Why do people catfish? And how many lies can they tell. [00:00:17] Speaker B: Before they get caught? [00:00:18] Speaker A: Stick around to find out in this week's episode of Hooked. [00:00:26] Speaker B: People immigrate for all kinds of a better life for themselves and their family. Job opportunities Perhaps just an exciting change of pace. What most people don't do when they move abroad is kill a bunch of people. But that's exactly what this week's subject did upon her move to America. Brynhild Paulsdader Storseth was born in Norway on November 11, 1859. She was the eighth and youngest child to her parents, Paul and Barrett. The family didn't have a lot of money, so once she became a teenager, Brynald would work for nearby farms, milking and herding cattle. Her older sister Nellie had already moved to the United States, Chicago specifically, and Brynaud wanted to do that too. So she saved as much of her farming money as she could. When she was 22, she finally saved up enough money and set off for Chicago to join Nellie. During processing on US soil, Brind wanted a more American first name, so she became Belle. Until she could get her own place, Belle lived with Nellie and Nellie's husband, and Belle quickly found work as a domestic servant. Later she had a job at a butcher shop cutting up animal carcasses. A bit of foreshadowing for the rest of her life. In 1884, three years after she arrived in the States, Bell met and married a man named Mads Albert Sorenson. The two owned a candy store and for several years lived a fairly standard lower class American life. Tragically, within a very short time of one another, both their home and their confectionery burned down. Thankfully, the couple had insurance on both, so they weren't completely destitute after One. [00:01:59] Speaker C: Thing that's confusing about their first years of marriage together is whether or not. [00:02:02] Speaker B: They had a family together. Many sources say that they had four children, but many other sources also suggest that Belle actually never had any children, and the latter makes interesting the fact that Belle and Mads did raise four children. It was a pattern in Belle's life that she procured children she was not related to. Even if the four children she raised with Mads were her own. Sources say that she partly raised at least 12 children. It is true that back in Belle's day, people more commonly died from things like the flu, and she also lived in the US at the time of epidemics like the Spanish Flu. And polio, not to mention physical labor jobs were very unsafe. So it's possible that the children who came into her care did so after one or both parents died from one thing or another. In any case, four of the children Belle and Mads had in their possession were Caroline, Axel, Myrtle and Lucy. But bad luck started to plague the family in the late 1890s. Caroline died as a young child in 1896 from acute colitis and two years later, the same fate befell Axel. By the time the Chicago census was taken on July 13, 1900, Bell and Mads were listed as the parent or guardians of two deceased children and three living children. One one year old Lucy, three year old Myrtle and ten year old Jenny, whom the couple had adopted. But within just a few weeks of that census, the status of the family would change again. Bell's husband, Mads, died. According to Bell, Mads had complained of a headache and she'd given him some quinine powder for the pain. Mads went to lie down and when Bell went to check on him, he was dead, allegedly from heart failure. Interestingly, the day Mads died, July 30, 1900, was the one day that year that both of Mads life insurance policies overlapped, leaving Belle with today's equivalent of $200,000. In addition to the life insurance that Belle had collected upon the deaths of Caroline and Axel, Mads family, in addition to being devastated at the loss of their brother and son, were very suspicious of Bell and demanded an inquiry. It's reported that an inquest was ordered, but for some reason nothing was ever looked into. So Bell, home free, used the insurance money to move to the town of La Porte, Indiana. She bought a pig farm, but the insurance money from her husband's death wasn't enough for her and she collected even more after her carriage house and boathouse both burned down. Soon after, she moved onto the property with her three children. [00:04:26] Speaker C: Belle stuck out in the town of 10,000 residents. In general, people were shorter in the past, but Belle was taller than even the average man, standing between 5, 7 and 6ft tall and weighing up to 250 pounds. She was also incredibly strong, reportedly being. [00:04:42] Speaker B: Able to lift a hundred pound hog in each arm with ease. [00:04:46] Speaker C: Something a single woman running a pig. [00:04:48] Speaker B: Farm had to do quite a lot. But she wouldn't be single for very long. [00:04:52] Speaker C: In 1902, Belle met Peter Gunness and married him on April 1st of that year. Again, some sources report that Belle and Peter had a child who died as an infant. But other sources say that the baby Was Peter's from a previous relationship. In any case, just a week after Belle and Peter met, the baby would die, allegedly from a virus. While alone with Belle eight months later, likely still mourning his daughter, Peter would die. But this time, the circumstances presented a little more questionably than Mads death. According to Bell, Peter had been reaching for something on a high shelf when he knocked down a meat grinder, which fell onto his head, cracking his skull. Jenny, Belle's oldest daughter, allegedly told a classmate, my mama killed my papa. She hit him on the head with a meat cleave. Don't tell a soul. [00:05:39] Speaker B: A soul was told, though, and the. [00:05:41] Speaker C: Already suspicious district coroner brought Jenny in for questioning. Unfortunately, Jenny insisted that she'd never confessed such a thing. The coroner suspected foul play, but without. [00:05:52] Speaker B: Jenny's statement, nothing could be done. [00:05:53] Speaker C: And Belle got away with it again, along with a $3,000 insurance payout. Peter Gunness body wasn't even cold. Before Belle started looking for her next victim, she placed marriage ads in Chicago newspapers that read personal. Comely widow who owns a large farm in one of the finest districts in La Porte, Indiana, desires to make acquaintance of a gentleman equally well provided with view of joining fortunes. No replies by letter unless sender is willing to follow answer with personal visit. She promised a partnership to any man who was willing to abandon his life without a word to his loved ones, sell all of his things, and bring her a fat wad of cash. And it seemed like many men, not all of them single, found Belle's offer very attractive. According to Belle's mailman, Belle sent eight to ten letters a day and received many replies. If ever a day passed when she didn't get admiring letters from men, she would get annoyed. But truth be told, those days were. [00:06:52] Speaker B: Few and far between. [00:06:53] Speaker C: Bell had her pick of unsuspecting men. [00:06:56] Speaker B: One such man was Henry Gerholt, a farmhand from Wisconsin. Eager to raise his social and monetary status, Henry traveled to Bell's farm in the port and wrote to his family that he'd liked the farm and was in good health, adding that he would like it if they sent him some seed potatoes. His family obliged, but they never heard from him again. But there was a reason Belle advised these men to leave without contacting their loved ones again. Even in the early 1900s, Henry's family was able to track down Belle and interrogate her about the whereabouts of Henry. According to Bell, within just a week or so, the farm had lost its luster for Henry, and he'd gone off toward Chicago proper with a group of Horse traders. Oddly, though, he left behind his trunk and his fur coat, the latter of which was quite necessary in Chicago. And yet nothing happened. Belle wasn't investigated, the authorities didn't try to track Henry down, and Belle continued placing personal ads in newspapers. For the next few years, men kept disappearing and no one really said a word. Neighbors noticed men coming and going, but that was hardly an odd thing on a farm. One strange thing they did notice, however, is that each time a man moved on to his next job or prospect, he always trunk behind. Belle had a huge collection of trunks belonging to her former lovers. In 1906, Belle was exchanging letters with a man named George Anderson. He was from Missouri by way of Norway, just like Belle. In fact, many of the men Belle lured to her farm were from her home country. And just like all the others. When George wrote to Belle, she insisted he turn all of his belongings and property into cash and bring that cash with him to pay her mortgage. But George was a little more forward thinking than some of the past victims. He told Belle that he would be happy to pay off her mortgage, but she wouldn't get the cash until they were married. Belle agreed. But that night, George awoke with a start to find Belle standing over him with a candle and quote, a strange sinister expression on her face. Once Belle realized that George was awake, she ran from the room. As soon as dawn broke the next day, George hopped a train back to Missouri, making him, as far as we know, the only man to survive Belle gunness. [00:09:05] Speaker C: Also, in 1906, Bell's eldest daughter, Jenny, disappeared. According to Bell, Jenny had moved to Los Angeles to attend finishing school, but she was never heard from again. In 1907, Bell received another answer to her ad from a man named Andrew Helgelein. Unlike some of the men before him, Andrew needed some convincing to leave behind everything he knew to join Bell in the port. After 16 months of correspondence, Andrew had yet to leave his home, and Bell was getting impatient through gritted teeth. I'm sure, she wrote to him. My dear friend, have all the money changed into bills, into as large a denomination as possible, and sew them real good first on the inside of your underwear and put a thin piece of cloth under it so it will not be noticed. And sew it good. Do not say one word about it to anyone, not even your nearest relative, she assured him. I do not think you will leave. [00:09:56] Speaker B: Me after you have first come here. That I am sure of. [00:09:59] Speaker C: In a letter written on January 13, 1908, Bell supposedly wrote the letter that seemed to convince Andrew to come to her, though it's posited that this letter was made up by the press years later. To the dearest friend in the world. No woman in the world is happier than I am. I know that you are now to come to me and be my own. I can tell from your letters that you are the man I want. It does not take one long to tell when to like a person. And you I like better than anyone in the world I know. Think how we will enjoy each other's company. You, the sweetest man in the whole world. We will be alone with each other. Can you conceive of anything nicer? I think of you constantly 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. My heart beats in wild rapture for you, my Andrew. I love you. Come prepared to stay forever with what we know. Now the letter sounds sinister, but of course, Andrew couldn't know that. He withdrew all his money from savings about $2,900, boarded a train to the port and was never seen again. And just a few months later, Belle would disappear too. On April 27, 1908, Belle kept her children home from school and went into town to write her will. The very next day, the Laporte pig Farm burned down. But while the investigation would answer some questions, it brought up a lot more. [00:11:27] Speaker B: In the ashes of the Laporte pig farm, the investigators found the bodies of three children and a headless body of an adult woman. On its face, it seemed obvious these were the bodies of Belle and her three children. And despite the suspicion the community had regarding Belle, the newspapers printed a narrative in which Belle was the heroic mother who died trying to save her babies. But as the investigation went on, more and more harrowing details came forth. The police found the remains of at least 11 other people on the farm grounds. Five were found on May 5, 1908, and six more were found the next day. Some were buried in the pig pen. Others were near an outhouse or a lake. Sadly, one of the bodies that was found on the fifth was that of Jenny, Belle's eldest daughter. Another was Andrew, Belle's latest victim. A third body was an unidentified man, and the final two were eight year old girls. There were tons of burlap sacks on the ground containing torsos and hands. Arms hacked from the shoulders down. Masses of human bone wrapped in loose flesh. Each body was disposed of in the same way. Decapitation. Arms removed at the shoulder, legs cut off at the knees. Disturbingly, not all of the heads were found, but the ones that were had skulls that showed gashes and blunt force trauma. According to investigators, the amputation was done with surgical precision by someone familiar with anatomy. Word spread fast about the fire, even to neighboring towns. And on May 5, the same day Andrew Helgelein's body was found, Andrew's brother Azel arrived on the farm weeks before. He'd found a letter from Belle to Andrew in which she gave her usual. Sell all your belongings, Bring cash, tell no one. Since Azel hadn't heard from his brother in a while, he wrote to Belle's address demanding to know the whereabouts of Andrew. Belle actually wrote back, telling Azel that Andrew had gone back to Norway and that she was surprised Andrew hadn't confided in his brother. But she had an idea. Why didn't Azel sell the rest of his and Andrew's stocks and come to her farm and they could search together? Sadly, when Azel did arrive on the pig farm, it was he who discovered Andrew's remains in the pig pen. Azel's story prompted further investigation into the fire and Belle in general. People were shocked that a woman could do what appeared to be over a dozen murders, and violent ones at that. Statistically, most female killers favor cleaner methods of killing, such as poison. And Belle did employ poison. At the very end. The organs of the woman and the children in the house came back showing lethal levels of strychnine. But for the most part, Belle seemed to enjoy blunt force trauma and chopping up bodies. On May 9, more bags of remains were found. This time, most of them could not be identified. On the 12th, surgical instruments were found in the ashes of the torched house, believed to be what Belle used to dismember her victims. On the 14th, bones were found in the cellar. On May 19, the pig farm received another family member searching for a lost brother, Jenny Graham from Wisconsin. Her brother had told him that he'd found a rich widow in Illinois and was going there to marry her. Jenny never heard from him again. It's likely that her brother was among the dead, but it was never concretely determined. Months after the investigation, a man named Ray Lampere came forward and identified himself as Belle's former hired hand. On again, off again boyfriend. According to him, it was he who had set the house on fire, but only because Belle had asked him to. He also told the newspapers about the way Belle would place personal ads in the newspapers to lure lonely men to her. And the catalyst for the house fire was that Belle had received a letter from a relative of one of her victims, vowing to come to the farm and investigate his brother's disappearance. Then Ray dropped a bombshell. The body of the headless woman in the ashes wasn't Belle, but a woman she'd lured to the pig farm, killed, decapitated, and placed in the house before Ray torched it. Unfortunately, most people didn't believe Ray. In fact, the only thing they did believe is that Ray was guilty of more than just arson. A motive of jealousy was assigned to him. He'd admitted to being a lover of Belle's, and anytime he was replaced with a new man, the police figured Ray just killed them. Maybe Belle was involved, maybe she wasn't. But Belle wasn't here. Ray was. Not to mention, when Ray was arrested, he was wearing the coat of one victim and the watch of another. These days, criminologists would call those true trophies. [00:15:51] Speaker C: Ray pleaded guilty to arson and was sentenced to two to 20 years in prison. Unfortunately, he didn't even make it a year, Dying from consumption in December of 1909. But as it turned out, Ray might have been onto something when he suggested that the adult body in the ashes wasn't Belle. Belle was between five, seven and six feet tall and over 200 pounds. The body found in the burned house was five inches shorter than Bell and at least 50 pounds lighter. And of course, how could the body. [00:16:19] Speaker B: Have cleanly lost its head in a fire? [00:16:22] Speaker C: During the initial investigation, a lower jawbone was found and taken to the local dentist. He identified dental work on the jawbone that he'd also done on Bell. However, there was a story that the dentist had placed the jawbone in the ashes himself. And if that sounds unlikely, it's really not. Back in the early 1900s, crime scenes weren't roped off, and it wasn't uncommon for crowds of townsfolk and tourists alike to visit an active crime scene like a museum, and even taking parts of. [00:16:51] Speaker B: The scene home as a souvenir. [00:16:53] Speaker C: In fact, the Gunness crime scene was such a tourist attraction that snack stands popped up to feed hungry rubberneckers. And as for the Jawbone, in 2008, it was attempted to test a sample of its DNA, but the Jawbone was. [00:17:06] Speaker B: Too old to yield results. [00:17:08] Speaker C: In addition to the potentially fake jawbone, many people believe that Belle would never have killed herself. Catherine Ramslyn, professor of forensic psychology at Desales University and who specializes in serial killers, doesn't think that suicide was Bell's style. Ramslin labels Bell an accomplished Psychopath who was only after money. The sheriff of laporte was convinced that Bell was dead. But after Ray's story was circulated by the Chicago American, many people believed Ray and sightings of Bell in and around Chicago were reported for years after the 1908 fire. [00:17:45] Speaker B: It's known that Belle had at least 12 victims, but it's possible she had upwards of 50. And while newspapers gave Belle labels like Lady Bluebeard and a black widow, Belle also killed young women like Jenny and children. The headless body that was believed to be Belle's was buried next to her first husband in Forest Oak, Illinois. But even after the burial, the alleged sightings of Belle didn't stop. In addition to the reports from the Chicago area, many people were determined that Bell had actually fled to Los Angeles and continued murdering under the name of Esther Carlson. And this was because in 1931, over two decades after the Gunnis fire, a woman named Esther Carlson was about to be tried for the murder of a man for whom she was a housekeeper. Allegedly, she stole $2,000 from him and poisoned him. And because of these two things, many people decided that Esther and Belle were one and the same. They were also semi close in. Esther reported to be 61, while Belle would have been 71. Esther denied that she was Belle, saying that from 1890 to 1908 she'd been working in Hartford, Connecticut. But she never got to plead her case as she died from tuberculosis before her trial began. As it happened, two former LaPorte residents lived in Los Angeles where Esther was. And so the police set up a viewing of her corpse for them. Both people confirmed that Esther and Belle were one in the same. And another LaPorte resident saw pictures of three children in Esther's trunk and claimed that the children were Belle's kids. Most likely, though, we'll never know the real answer. [00:19:21] Speaker A: Thanks for checking out Hooked this week. We'll be back next week with a new story. But for right now, you can find me on social media, on Twitter, Hooked Podcast 1. That's the number one at the end on Instagram HookedPodcast and on Facebook HookedThePodcast. Also, I'd love it if you left me a five star review on itunes or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you really like what I'm doing, head on over to patreon.com hookedthepod where you can get access to early episodes and regularly released bonus episodes. Again, thanks so much for listening and I'll see you next week.