Peter (Peder) Gunness

Ft1875 http://digitalarkivet.arkivverket.no/ft/person/pf01052127002093

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=26462609

Peter was the second husband of mass murderer Belle Gunness. She is believed to have murdered her first husband, and Peter was probaply killes by her as well.

Belle used some of her first husbands insurance money to buy a hog farm in La Porte, Indiana, and began looking for another husband. On April 1, 1902, she married Peter Gunness, a local butcher and recent widower. A week after the wedding, Peter's infant child died while left alone in Belle's care. This resulted in yet another insurance payout.

Eight months later, Peter died. The circumstances were suspicious to say the least. Belle told police that a meat grinder had fallen from a high shelf and landed on Peter's head.

The coroner didn't believe it and ruled it a homicide.

A witness claimed to have heard Belle's foster child Jennie, now 14, tell a classmate that her mother killed her father with a meat cleaver. A grand jury questioned them. Jennie denied her incriminating statement. Belle denied killing her husband. The jury found Belle innocent. Belle collected the $3,000 insurance payout.