Hell’s Princess: the Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men by Harold Schechter
Belle Gunness of Laporte County, Indiana, was a notorious serial
killer known as the Lady Bluebeard. She
would place classified advertisements in Norwegian language newspapers in the
Midwest, seeking single men to come and help her run her large farm (oh, and
bring all your money, too). Once the men
arrived at the Gunness farm, Belle would rob and murder them, dismembering the
bodies and burying them in her pigsty. Since
she weighed around 300 pounds and wasn’t a pretty woman by any stretch of the
imagination, it’s surprising how many men were taken in by Belle (the photo on the cover of the book actually bears a resemblance to Lizzie Borden - see the photos below). While it is unknown exactly how many men
Belle murdered, at least 14 of her victims were identified, and there may have been
dozens more.
When one of her victim’s brothers notified her that he was coming
to her farm to search for his brother, her farmhouse conveniently burned
down. Her children’s bodies were all
found inside along with a headless woman’s body. Even though he never found her head, the
local sheriff decided that it was indeed Belle and pronounced her dead,
but many people believed she had escaped.
For years afterward, there were sightings of Belle all over the country.
The first half of the book is fascinating, as it recounts Belle’s background and her history
as a serial killer, but unfortunately, the last half of the book is mainly speculation
about what happened to Belle, and whether or not she really died in the house
fire (seems unlikely). There are
comparisons to other serial killers of the age such as the Bender family in Kansas
who lured wealthy travelers to their deaths, or "what if" Belle had attracted a fellow
serial killer with her ads and which one would have killed the other one first.
More text is spent on the mythology that
grew up around Belle, and the industry that sprang from her story (pamphlets,
stage dramas, ballads, etc.). Well researched but I lost interest soon after Belle disappeared/died.
Lizzie Borden
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