The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 24

SUNDAY, APRIL 24, I960 TJF INDIANAPOLIS STAR PAGE 24 SEC. 1 STORIES OF STATE MARK ESQIIICENTENMAI, The Belle Gunness Horror Story-Still Causes Hoosiers To Quiver We Musf Help! YOUR FEET We're 55 yrs. in Indianapolis Come In bo appointment required now. We moke your fhoe test, fit your feet, and If you have orch trouble, corns, callouses, bunions, etc. we will buildup the shoes for comfort.

Accurate, reasonable and tjuaranrttd. made of the bodies of Jennio Olson, Andrew Helgelein and Al Bradsherg. After L'Amphere's death, a trusty disclosed to prison officials the story that L'Amphere had told him: THE BODY OF an adult found after the fire was that of a woman Belle had brought from Illinois, with a promise of housework, then a II led and beheaded. The head had been destroyed with quicklime in a hole dug in the swamp. Belle had killed the three children, dressed the dead woman in some of her own clothing, and piled the four bodies on a mattress.

L'Amphere said Belle had lured 42 men to their death. George Anderson of Tarkio, By HAROLD SABIN Characterized as "the greatest horror $tory of all time," the bloody saga of the multiple murderess. Belie Gunness, is unrivaled in the realm of violent crime in Indiana. Any abridgment of the tale suffers from oversimplification and can only suggest the tangled skein Il4ifl4iirirli Son "Heids Shoes Prescription Service" berg ram from Waupaca County. to claim Belle as hit bride, after an exchange of letters and photographs.

He brought with him $2,000 in cash to raise that everlasting mortgage. He soon vanished. In January. 1908. Andrew Helgelein, wheat grower, came from Aberdeen, S.D., loaded with $3,000 In cash, tn his home he inadvertently left a letter he had received gelein, digging began.

Several feet down was a gunny sack and in it was a body. Helgelein looked at the body and said. 'That's Andy." Digging done that day. May 3, 1908, unearthed four more bodies. One was that of Jennie Olson, the girl who had "gone to California;" next day, four more; total of nine in the yard.

Positive indentfication was 411 N. ILLINOIS free parking fcrvlna Hin-Woww-ChW BELLE GUNNESS Slew More Than Hogs STAR md NEWS Quick-Action WANT ADS Get fist Results who fists. Fven as a baby she had given evidence of abnormal strength. She bought a 48-acre farm 1 mile west of LaPorte and moved there with her daughters and Jennie Olson, daughter of Antone Olson. In mov ing, she amazed the truckers with her feats of juggling furniture and lifting a piano.

AN EXPERIENCED farmer, Belle could plant and cultivate crops, cut and pitch hay. She did her own butchering of hogs and calves and sold the meat in LaPorte. In her cellar were a long, hardwood table, a foot thick, a scalding tub, knives, cleavers, all the set-up of a butcher shop. In April. 1902, Belle married Peter Gunness and in was the only one had escaped.

of gory tragedy. IF THE head-1 charred remains of a woman, ound beneath a burned home, was not the corpse of Belle 2 MdDIBffimRfllZZ Sears as many doubted, she may have been Sabin alive and iVou? ciiicf Save During Sears Spring Sale from Belle. It is an illuminating example of her work: To the Dearest Friend tn the World: No woman in the world a hopcer than I am. I know that you at now to roine to see me ana to be my awn. I can tew from your lorter that vou are the man I want.

It doesn't take one long to know when to like a person and vou better than anyone in the world, i know. Ttvnk how we will enoy each other's company. You- the sweetest man tn the whole world, and I will be all alone with each othei. Can you conceive ot anything n.cer? I trtnk of vou constantly. When I hear your name mentioned, and ttis is when one of the dear children speaks of you or I hear myself hummlnq it with the words of an old love song.

It bountiful music to my oars. My heart beats in wild rcprurt for you. My Andrew, i love you. Coma prspored to stay forever. Ray L'Amphere, the hired hand, jealous of Helgelein, left the place and boastea in LaPorte that he knew enough about Belle to force her to pay him back wages.

BELLE CAUSED his arrest, charging he was insane and a public menace. In a security hearing he was found to be of sound mind. He called on her again at -v December of the same year he died. She said a sausage grinder, or it might have been a meat ax, had fallen from a shelf and hit him on the head. The coroner thought it "looked a little queer" but ruled death had been accidental.

Belle collected $4,000 in life insurance. At the age of 43, in 1903, Belle gave birth to a son, whom she named Philip. THEN SHE began to advertise in a matrimonial journal for a Norwegian to marry tain Save I Mfitl active as recently as 25 years ago. Although Belle Gunness is believed to have slain more than 40 men, actually only nine bodies were dug up on her premises and identified. Born Brynhilde Poulsatter, at Selbe, Norway, she came to the United Slates in 1859 and her first marriage was in 1883.

At the age of 42, Belle first appeared at LaPorte. in 1901, the widow of Mads So-renson, who died in 1900. Mads had died of a heart attack, the verdict said, but it later developed there had been indications of tetanic-convulsions from strychnine poisoning. MADS LEFT Belle with two adopted children. Lucy ana Myrtle, $8,000 in life insurance proceeds, and a home that sold for $5,000.

Belle was 5 feet, 7 inches tall, weighed about 200 pounds, was large and muscular. At the age of 10, she could kill a hog with a knife, and at 12 could fight with her Rs ftoof iiiig annaO Sidanig BUY NOW. NO PAYMENTS 'TTI1L OCTOBER 1st! the farm and was arrested for trespassing. He paid a fine but stuck around. When Belle received a letter from Asle Helgelein of Mansfield, S.D., wanting to know what had become of his brother, Andrew, she wrote him that Andrew had left.

Then Belle, with consummate cunning, invited Asle to come to LaPorte to help find Andrew. Completely Installed Complelelv Installed Koofiiig Shingles Interlocking A In milium Si din if -M her and help lift the mortgage from her home. She also started to employ a succession of hired men. Answering one of her advertisements in 1906, John Moo of Elbow Lake, a native of Norway, brought her $1,000 to help" "pay off the mortgage." Introduced to neighbors as "cousin John," he was around nearly a week before he disappeared. LIKEWISE CAME another Norwegian, George Anderson of Tarkio, Mo.

He did not bring any money. He awoke in the middle of the night to find his intended bride bending over him and peering into his face with an eerie expression. He let out a yell, leaped out of bed, grabbed his clothes and ran to the railroad station to take the next train back to Tarkio. A change in her advertisement brought her a new farm hand, a French Canadian, Ray L'Amphere, who was to figure largely in her affairs. When 16-year-old Jennie Olson vanished, Belle ex Average 24x36-Ft.

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Ede-liter, attorney in LaPorte, that L'Amphere had threatened to burn the place. She had tiie attorney draw her will to protect her children. Early next morning the farm home burned. Only Joe Maxon, the hired man, escaped. He jumped out a second-story window in his underwear.

Before jumping, he said, he knocked loudly to waken Mrs. Gunness and the children but got no response. They had been in the house when he went to bed. Of four bodies found beneath a mattress in the cellar, three were identified as those of Lucy and Myrtle So-renson, Belle's daughters, and Does It All 1 Get profit licit ana figures from Quieter Frandwaw UMflf lUIICE. CHIF SYSTEMS, INC.

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88 He was sentenced to the Inai-ana State Prison at Michigan City, where he died in 1919. L'AMPHERE CHAR GED that the dead woman was not Mrs. Gunness. He said Belle had killed the three children, slaughtered a woman housekeeper to foil police and escaped. His charge that the woman's bndy was not that of Belle Gunness was substantiated by doctors who, after measuring the headless corpse, concluded it was that of a woman 5 feet, 3 inches tall, weighing about 150 pounos.

Belle Gunness was 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighed about 200 pounds. IN ADDITION, several witnesses said they had seen Mrs. Gunness drive "a dark woman" to her home the night of the fire. While unsubstantiated rumors persisted that Belle was alive in California, police maintained she was dead. No new evidence supporting either contention has been found since.

Not knowing of the fire, Asle Helgelein, coming from Mansfield. S.D., to find his brother Andrew, decided Andrew had been a victim of murder and insisted that Sheriff Smutgers investigate further. The gate to a high-fenced plot had to be broken. Several soft depressions in the ground were soon noticed. JOE MAXON, Belle's last hired man, who had escaped from the burning house, said Belle had told him to wheel in oirt to fill the slightly sunken places.

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