Belle Gunness

The Truth Behind 'Lady Bluebeard' Is Still Being Debated 100 Years Later
By Alicia Therese (numerous photos on line if this site is googled)

Selbu, Norway

Family portrait from 1910. Photo: Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane (CC 2.0)

Named Brynhild Paulsdatter Storset, "Belle" was born in Selbu, Norway in 1859. She was the youngest of eight children, and her father was a poor stonemason. She spent most of her life working on farms and building up a high tolerance for most anything.

Not much is known about Belle's upbringing, though rumor holds she once had a quarrel with a man that led to a marked change in her personality. When he died a few weeks later, some claimed it was Belle's revenge. If so, it was the first of many killings to come.

When Belle's big sister moved to the United States and changed her name to "Nellie Larson," Belle got extremely jealous. She hated the name Brynhild and wanted something prettier. So, she got to work at copying her sibling.

Belle landed a job at a wealthy farm where she worked for three years. Finally, in 1881, she had enough money saved to pack-up and move to United States. Once there, she changed her name to Belle and began a new life. Three years later, she met a man named Mads Sorenson.

Mads Sorenson and Belle got hitched in 1884 and opened their own candy shop. Unfortunately, the business was a dud, and they nearly went broke. Belle was furious. She didn't come all this way just to lose everything. That's when something mysterious happened.

One day, the candy shop was found burnt to the ground. Belle and Mads collected a handsome sum of insurance money, allowing them to move into a new house. If Belle was indeed the arsonist, she now had a taste for danger.

Researchers disagree about how many children Belle and Mads had together. Most say they had four, two of which died as infants from poison-like symptoms. Supposedly, this allowed Belle and Mads to collect more insurance. After that, they were said to have adopted a 10-year-old girl named Jennie. That's when tragedy struck.

In 1900, Mads Sorenson was found dead. His doctor ruled it to be heart failure due to preexisting conditions, which Belle had been giving him medicine for. His death just so happened to occur on a day where two of his life insurance policies overlapped. The day after Mads' funeral, Belle waltzed into the insurance agency.

Mads' family believed that Belle had poisoned her husband and demanded another autopsy. However, Belle was already long gone. She moved to La Porte, Indiana after receiving $8,500 (over $200k today) and bought herself a farm. Here, her criminal addiction began to thrive.

Belle was quick to find love after Mads' death. She met her soon-to-be second husband right before she moved and they married two years later. The man, named Peter Gunness, was a widower himself. His wife had left him with a baby girl, whom Belle was not fond of.

Peter's daughter died mysteriously while under Belle's care. With two major loses in his life, Peter was inconsolable. He and Belle were together for nine whole months before he also suffered a mysterious death. Belle recounted the bizarre story to authorities.

Suspicious story

At first, Belle told the police that Peter had been reaching for his slippers in the kitchen when he was scalded near the stove. Later, she told them that a sausage grinder had also fallen on his head. She collected around $3,000 in insurance money.

Once again, family and friends were unconvinced that Belle was innocent. It didn't help that Belle's adopted daughter, Jennie, was overheard telling a schoolmate that Belle had "hit him with a meat cleaver." When brought before a jury, Jennie denied it. Years later, Jennie's body was found buried among her mother's victims.

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 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."

There's no clear count on the number of men who visited and never left Belle's farm. She poisoned them within hours, then hacked up their bodies with butchering tools. A letter to one of her suitors ended with the words, "Come prepared to stay forever." Some later saw her as a gender-swapped embodiment of the Bluebeard fairy tale.

Belle's hired hand, a man named Ray Lamphere, was in love with the murderess and knew of her crimes. He grew jealous of the men she lured in, leading Belle to fire him. She even convinced the police he was threatening to burn her house down. One can assume what happened next

Eventually, Belle's farmhouse was burnt to the ground, and many were quick to blame Ray Lamphere. The corpses of Belle's children were found, as well as the headless corpse of a woman wearing Belle's clothing. Some townsfolk, however, said the woman's body looked nothing like Belle. Investigations soon began.

Shortly after the fire, one victim's brother came looking for his missing sibling. He brought the police to Belle's property, where they discovered a graveyard of bodies. Among them were the man's brother, Belle's adopted daughter, and the countless men she'd courted. Their remains were horrifying.

Belle sorted her victim's body parts the same way she sorted the hogs, making it difficult to count the total number of corpses. She was said to have killed nearly 40 people. Convinced the Lady Bluebeard had staged the fire herself, police searched for the serial killer, but she had disappeared. Where did Belle go?

Added by Janet Milburn 5/13/22 (no relationship, thank goodness!)

Belle Sorenson Gunness (born as Brynhild Paulsdatter Størseth, November 11, 1859, Selbu, Norway; Bapthized: 18. mars 1860 died April 28, 1908?, La Porte,[1] Indiana) was a Norwegian-American serial killer.

Dokumentar: https://youtu.be/4eiezRvwFe8

https://www.facebook.com/notes/torger-st%C3%B8rseth/belle-gunness-v...

https://snl.no/Belle_Gunness

http://3600.no/belle-gunness/

Standing five feet and eight inches (173 cm)[1] tall and weighing over 200 pounds (91 kg), she was a physically strong woman. She killed most of her suitors and boyfriends, and her two daughters, Myrtle and Lucy. She may also have killed both of her husbands and all of her children, on different occasions. Her apparent motives involved collecting life-insurance benefits. Reports estimate that she killed more than 40 persons over several decades.

The Last Victim of the Gunnes Horror Anders "Andrew" Knutson Helgelien

Her family (in Norwegian language from the lokal history book); http://selbuboka.no/wordpress/?page_id=1653&hilite=St%C3%B8rset 1851-1885 Pål Persen fra plassen Dyrdalslia, f. 1808, d. 1890, var sønnen til Per Pålsen fra Uststoggo Garberg. G. 1842 m. Berit Olsdt. fra Nyhus på Langli, f. 1817, d. 1885. De hadde først hatt heimplassen hans. Barn: 1. Marit, f. 1842, død som barn? 2. Per, f. 1843, g.m. Malena Estensdt. Motrøen, se Yter Mobakken. 3. Brynhild, d.e., f. 1846, reiste til Amerika. 4. Marit, f. 1848, flyttet til Klæbu i 1865, g. 1872 m. Gabriel Persen Leangvollen fra Åsen i Nord-Tr.lag. 5. Ola, f. 1853, d. 1854. 6. Olina, f. 1854, tok over plassen. 7. Kari, f. 1857, d. 1859. 8. Brynhild, d.y., f. 1859, reiste til Amerika der hun bar navnet Bella Gunnes og ble kjent for massedrap. 1886-1908 Oline Pålsdt., f. 1854, død ugift 15.5.1908. Barn: Paul, f. 1885 (far: Per Olsen Sletnmoen), tok over bruket. 1909-        Paul Persen Størseth, f. 1885. G.m. Julie Ludviksdt. Tiller, f. 1890. Familien flyttet til Trondheim. LINKS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Gunness

Videre informasjon:

http://da2.uib.no/cgi-win/WebDebatt.exe?slag=listinnlegg&debatt=bru...

DOCUMENTARY on BELLE GUNNESS

"Brynhild Paulsdatter Størset, better known as Belle Gunness, was born in 1859 in Selbu, Norway. After moving to the United States, she became one of the most notorious female serial killers of all time. It is estimated that she murdered maybe 20 ( and some think between 40 and 70 people), but she was never tried or sentenced for any of these crimes. As the net closed in around her, IT is still a discussion if she died in the fire in her Home in MC Clung Roar, La Porte, April 28th 1908, or she arranged her own "death" and disappeared without a trace.

Director Anne Berit Vestby, a native of the same small village in Norway, follows Belle's tracks from Selbu to Chicago. Drawing on archival newspapers and featuring authentic photos, the story Vestby recounts turns out to be wilder and more gruesome than you can imagine."

http://vimeo.com/72970244#

http://www.nationalfilmnetwork.com/store/ProductDetails.aspx?Produc...

1865 census for Selbu

1875 census for 1664P Selbu

[http://digitalarkivet.arkivverket.no/ft/person/pf01052379001064] Visited her brother - 1875

Brynhild (49) lokket med sex og trøndersodd - 40 menn ble grisemat https://www.tv2.no/a/11394278/