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Thought Woman Slew Two Husbands and Several Ghildren.THE EVIDENCE SHOWS SHE LURED MEN TO HER HOME TO MURDER AND ROB THEMOne of tlie Most Startling Sensations of the Century Unfolded When Woman’s Home Burns and Brother of a Missing Man Comes to Hunt Him — Garden Behind Widow’s Home Turns Out to Be a Graveyardin Which She Buried Her Victims.The murder of the Borgias, back in.the fifteenth century, made their name historic; people shudder at the crimes of the Bender family in Kansas backin the early days, but both of thesa murderous syndicates dwindle to insignificance at the revelations of the operations of Mrs. Belle Gunness, late of La Porte, Ind. Her maiden name was Belle Paulsen. Coming from Norway something like twenty years ago, this arch fiend made her home with a married sister in Chicago until her marriageto Mads A. Sorenson.She first came into public notice when, a candy store she owned caught fire.The first known of the fire was whenMrs. Sorenson, with her children, rushedout on the sidewalk crying “Fire! atthe top of her voice. The insurance adjusters found a number of suspicious circumstances pointing directly to arson and Mrs. Sorenson had great difficulty in collecting the insurance.She declared a 6mall kerosene lamphad exploded, but no trace could bo found in the debris of glass fragments or other evidences of a broken lamp. The Sorensons bought the store fromC. Christiansen, and after the lire Charles Christiansen, a ’ rather of tlio first owner, now living: a North . or:second and Armitag . .ues, pUrc.ii; e«.'s 2 property.-•-TjSro t»i!* ^ -t --the store of Mrs. Soitr. • i. lsafe at the store, which s now u*y d by John Johnson.“I did not know the r oman. -ut remember Christiansen told, ine she had much trouble getting the insurance, said Johnson. “The neighbors talked a good deal at the time, as I understand it, and some of them said they believed she set fire to the store.Death Cause of Talk.It was after obtaining the insurance money that Mrs. Sorenson sold the store and moved with her husband to the Alma street house in Austin, a suburb ’ Chicago.Shortly before this she took a girl name Jennie Olson to live with her. Speaking of this a friend of Jennie said:“She was dreadfully cruel to Jennie when they lived in Alma street. The girl could not move from one room to another -without getting Mrs. Sorenson’s permission, and whenever she came out on the porch to talk with us her mother came out and sat beside her, listening to every word we said and rebuking Jennie and dragging her back into the house if either of us happened to express any ideas or opinions that she did not like.“The only day I remember of that she granted Jennie any freedom was tlia day she murdered her husband. I say murdered, because I believe she did kill him.The Day Sorenson Died.“With two or three other little girJa I went to the Sorensen home. I called for Jennie and asked if she could go out with us to get apples. We were surprised when Mrs. Sorenson said Jennio could go.‘When we were out in front of tha house Mr. Sorenson was sitting on the porch. lie had the two children in his arms and was trotting them up and down 011 his knees. He was as happy as could be, and I remember thinking afterward that he must be in good health and not the least bit sick.“That was at 10 o’clock in the morning. We went to Ridgeland to gather apples. We got back at 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Sorenson was dead then. He had died at noon, and preparations were being made for the funeral. I remember that Dr. J. B. Miller entered tlio house and asked about the death. Dr. Miller used to room at the Sorenson, home. Mrs. Sorenson told Dr. Miller that her husband had complained of a fearful headache and that she gave him a powder. Miller asked to see the paper that held the powder and Mrs. Sorenson, told him that she had burned it up.“Mrs. Sorenson took on terribly anti displayed so much emotion that people thought it was put on. Then there was a great deal of talk ‘about it and so many people were of the opinion she had given him poison.“Some started a movement to have her charged with murder, but it did not go through, as the body had been hurriedly prepared lor burial.Child Also Disappears.“Then at that time there was an awful amount of talk over the disappearance of a little child by the. name of Lucy. This child Mrs. Sorenson was supposed to have adopted, when she lirst came to Chicago. It suddenly disappeared, while she was living over «*t Grand avenue ami Elizabeth street. She said that the child had been sent back to the wealthy people from whom she secured it at lirst. That disappearance was the World’s Fair year, lS9u’. She refused to say where the child had been sent. That was the first record of any mysterious disappearance or death connected withMrs. Sorenson.“Right after her husband's death people talked of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of her two children, Lucy and Caroline. They died suddenly. They were bvried in the Sorenson lot.A couple of years before the mysterious death of Sorenson fire broke out in the Alma street house in which they lived. Mrs S« renson also collected insurance f dlowing that fire. Several other liousts burned at the same time, and^ Mrs. £''reason declared the fire originated in he house of a neighbor next door.Following thG death of Sorenson tlio
Newspaper Details
Chicago Saturday Blade
Chicago, Illinois, US
Sat, May 16, 1908
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
PA, USA 26 May 2021
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