I do not know if Belle Gannes, popularly nicknamed "Lady Bluebeard", can be called a woman or even just a man. During its life, this creature became the murderer of several dozen people, among whom, along with strangers, were her own husband and children.
And all this is for the sake of money.
You've probably heard the story of Bluebeard - the character of the fairy tale of the same name by Charles Pierrot. It tells about an aristocrat who married many times, but no one could understand where his ex-wives went. And then one day another spouse accidentally enters the forbidden secret room and finds all her predecessors there …
Hardly anyone could have imagined that such a spooky plot could unfold in the real world, but for the victims of a creature named Belle Gunnes, this tale, unfortunately, turned out to be a reality.
About the life of Gannes until the mid-1880s (when she moved from Norway to the United States), nothing is really known.
It was rumored that when Belle was 17 years old, she, pregnant, was beaten to a pulp by some villain. As a result of the beatings, the young woman lost her child, and from this something wedged in her brain. It was said that the abuser soon died from symptoms resembling poisoning, but no evidence of this has survived.
It is possible that she fled overseas because of this incident, but it is possible that she just wanted to join her sister, who left for America several years earlier.
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Gannes met her first "true love" in Chicago, where the wedding took place in 1893. The chosen one of the future "Lady Bluebeard" was named Anton Sorenson, and he was destined to become the first (known) victim of the cold-blooded Belle. A happy-looking married couple opened a confectionery business and raised four children - Caroline, Axel, Myrtle and Lucy. There is evidence that an adopted child named Jenny also lived with them.
After a year of entrepreneurial activity, it became obvious that the business only brings losses. "Fortunately," the insured bakery was soon burnt down, after which Gunnes and her husband received substantial monetary compensation. The building itself caught fire or the couple planned the arson, one can only guess.
Soon, two of Belle's children, Caroline and Axel, die one after the other. According to the official version, from acute colitis. However, many of the symptoms of acute colon inflammation are similar to those of poisoning. But the doctor who examined the children could not assume that the mother was poisoning her children with her own hands, so he did not delve into this matter in detail. And since the lives of Carolina and Axel were also insured, she was "compensated" for the loss of children with a substantial amount.
As for the husband of Gannes Sorenson, he died in 1900, shortly after taking out insurance. There are several versions of his death, but the official reason for his premature death is heart failure. At first, the doctor who examined the man suggested strychnine poisoning, but for some reason did not do an autopsy, and the “inconsolable” widow Gunnes again received a decent sum of $ 8,000 (about $ 217,000 at today's exchange rate).
In 1901, with the help of such an eerie way, Gunnes was able to purchase a farm in Laporte (Indiana). But here's the bad luck - some time after the acquisition, part of the estate suddenly dies in the fire and, what do you think, it again covers the loss with insurance compensation.
After a while, Belle meets her second "true love" - Peter Gunnes. Mr Gunnes recently became a widower and raised two daughters. The couple married on April 1, 1902, and the Gunnes family, represented by her husband Belle, herself, Peter's two children and the two girls left from their previous marriage, moved to Mrs. Gunnes' farm.
After this, the events begin to resemble the plot of a horror movie even more. Shortly after the wedding, two of Peter's daughters, who were in Belle's care when their father left on business, mysteriously die.
And in December 1902, Peter Gannes himself becomes the victim of an "accident": a heavy meat grinder "accidentally" fell on his head and left him no chance for life. Nevertheless, Jenny's adopted daughter, who ran to the scene of the tragedy, found Belle sobbing sobbing over the body of her dead husband. Did she suspect Belle? Of course.
During the investigation, she secretly whispered to the detective: “Mom killed Dad. She hit him with a meat grinder and he died. Just don't tell anyone. It was the girl's words that forced the investigator to delve into this case, and only after that Belle really began to be suspected of the murder of her husband.
However, soon Mrs. Gannes somehow managed to convince the detective that she had nothing like this in her thoughts. Perhaps one of the arguments in her favor was the fact that during this period she was pregnant. In the end, Belle was not only not sent to jail, but also paid another compensation of $ 3,000 ($ 81,000 at today's rate) under the insurance obligation.
In May 1903, she gave birth to a son, Philip, and there were four children in the Gunnes house. Fortunately, the eldest daughter was soon taken to him by a caring uncle, who himself, perhaps without knowing it, saved the life of his niece. In any case, she turned out to be one of the very few surviving characters of this scary story.
And the ruthless widow again set out in search of another victim - she submitted marriage announcements to several large print media of the city.
The text was like this:
“A respectable widow who owns a large farm in one of the finest districts of Laporte, Indiana, wishes to meet a gentleman equally well equipped to connect destinies. I answer letters only to those who deign to pay me a visit. Please do not disturb the hangmen."
Unfortunately, many men responded to this tempting announcement. They came to the rich widow, willingly demonstrated their financial solvency and … "mysteriously" disappeared.
So, for example, a certain John Moe came to get acquainted with the amount of $ 1000, and disappeared.
But the residents of Laporte were not particularly worried about this, since Ms. Belle was considered an extremely enviable party, so applicants constantly came and went to her house. Even in her mature years, having, judging by the photo, a very ordinary appearance, she mysteriously knew how to attract crowds of gentlemen. They say she charmed them with light curls, a stately figure and a snow-white smile.
Meanwhile, the black widow continued her bloody harvest: Jenny, whose suspicions grew stronger with each disappearing suitor of her mother, in 1906 she suddenly disappears in an unknown direction. Miss Gunness stated that she sent her to a girls' boarding house in Los Angeles, but since then no one has seen Jenny alive again.
In 1907, Miss Gunness was seen with a man buying her an expensive wedding ring. Needless to say, he soon disappeared. The same fate befell poor Andrew Helgelain, who, shortly before his loss, withdrew a significant amount of funds from his bank account.
All of this, of course, could not last forever. In the end, such wealthy people as the disappearing rich boyfriends were found relatives and friends who gradually went on the trail of Mrs. Gunnes, reasonably suspecting her of involvement in the disappearances.
So, Andrew Helgelain's brother began his own investigation into the disappearance of a relative and wrote to Belle to find out at least something. Gunnes innocently replied that she allegedly did not see him again, but Asl Helgelain decided to get to the bottom of the truth anyway and headed to Laporte. However, he was late.
On April 27, 1908, Gannes wrote a will and attached a note to it stating that she feared for her life, as her former boyfriend Ray Lamfer was very jealous of her other men. Her house burned to the ground that very night.
Four corpses were found in the ashes - three children, belonging to Lucy, Myrtle and Philip and the decapitated body of a woman. Lamfer, as the main suspect, was immediately taken into custody on suspicion of murder and arson, although investigators were never able to find out who the woman's body belonged to. Without a head, the dentist could not identify the victim by the teeth, and the size of the found female body did not agree with the tall Belle Gunnes.
From this event, the secrets of the black widow begin to be revealed. So, in the ashes of the house of Gannes, a wristwatch belonging to the late Andrew Helgelain was found. Putting two and two together and guessing that Belle was killing people and taking their money was not hard. Brother Andrew tried to explain this to the sheriff, but at first he did not want to believe it.
Then he asked Belle's workers if there were any places on the farm where Gunnes dug holes for garbage or coal. They pointed to a fenced-in area next to the pigsty.
In this place, Asl discovered the body of his brother. His torso was chopped into pieces and packed in flour sacks. Several more bodies were also found there, one of which most likely belonged to Jenny, who had never traveled to any California. Perhaps she became an unwitting witness to the reprisal of her stepmother over another victim, for which she paid with her life.
In total, 12 bodies were found in the pit near the pigsty. Maybe more, however, due to the large number of chopped remains, it was difficult to determine the exact number. Further excavations continued and corpses began to be found in other places. Many of them could not be identified, however, comparing the reports of missing people, one could roughly guess who they were.
As for Lamfer, he was charged with arson, but not murder. During the investigation, he admitted that he helped Belle get rid of the bodies. According to him, Gunnes has dealt with 42 applicants for his hand and heart. To begin with, she generously treated the guests, and then poured sleeping pills into their coffee, after which she chopped off the heads of the victims with a cleaver. Or simply poisoned the poor fellows. Then she chopped the bodies into pieces and buried them on the site, or even fed them to pigs.
In addition, Lamfer claimed that Gunnes herself set fire to the house with the children and went into hiding. Earlier, he lured an unknown woman into the house, where Belle chopped off her head. She then put the children to sleep, strangled them and left them in the house. After that, she disappeared forever. True or not, when the bank where Belle kept the money checked the history of the money transfers, he discovered that the day before the fire, she had withdrawn almost all of her "savings." Therefore, it is likely that Gunnes successfully left the city, faking her death in the fire.
On the other hand, in May of the same year, a jaw was found that allegedly belonged to Belle, which convinced the dentist and some townspeople that Belle did burn in flames. Although the skull itself was never found. Many people are still convinced that she escaped safely and hid in some quiet area with a lot of money. No one could confirm her death, just as no one else saw her herself.