Hide Article Text (OCR)
■widow collected $S.500 insurance on his life and then went to visit a cousin, a farmer living in Otter Tail county, near Fergus Falls, Minn. While on this farm she became acquainted with Gunness. After two months at her cousin’s farm Mrs. Sorenson and Gunness came to Chicago and were married.The Alma street house in Austin wastraded for the farm property one milenorth of La Porte, Ind., and the Gunnesscouple, with the two remaining Sorenson, children and little Jennie Olson, adopted by Mrs. Sorenson a couple of years previously, went to live on the farm wherethe tragedies have been revealed.In an effort to find a motive for the crimes evidently committed by Mrs. Gunness, Mrs. Larsen, her sister, revealedsome significant traits in her sister’scharacter. She said airs. Gunness was“fond of children” and “crazy formoney.”L never saw such a money mad person in my life.” said Mrs. Larsen. “It seemed that she would do anything formoney. But how she could commit allthese terrible murders is beyond my understanding. If she did it I am convinced she was not alone about it.” The first La Porte knew of Mrs. Gunness was when her husband, Joseph Gunness died suddenly. She told the neighbors that a meat grinder fell from a shelf in the kitchen, fracturing his skull. The story was believed and the victim was buried. She collected $3,000 life insurance.From that time she ran her farm with the assistance of hired help, Pay Lara-pliere being* the one who has come into most prominence in that capacity, as it is believed he had something to do with assisting her in disposing of the bodies.From the revelations now made it seems that directly after the death of her second husband she began to lure men to her home by means of matrimonial ads, and having gotten them toGARDEN f*A7GH WHERE BODIES HAVE BEEN FOOrtDGerhalt disappeared; owned a horse andbuggy. Disappeared at oat cutting. Mrs.Gunness fell heir to the liorse and buggy. She said she had paid the man $60 for it.■Wore Hired Man’s Coat.“I knew all jthree of these men,” saidMr. Chris toff erson. ‘‘I was at the farm when Gerhalt came. He had a very heavy trunk, and I helped him to carry it to liis room over the kitchen. After he disappeared Mrs. Gunness said he had left his trunk and his fur coat and gone away to Chicago. I have seen her wearing the coat often. I thought this very funny at the time.“So far as I know, no one ever saw anyof these three men after they disappeared.Gerhalt had a black mustache and Lind-bom a reddish mustache. Two of the corpses dug up are so described.“There were two other men who came from a distance and spent some time at Mrs. Gunness’ place. One of these was from Geneva, Wis., and the other was from somewhere in South Dakota. The Geneva man had a black mustache and the other a red mustache. The South Dakota man had just sold a lot of cattle in Chicago, Mrs. Gunness told myself and wife. She brought both men to our home and introduced them, but I have forgotten their names. These may be the men of black and red mustaches whose bodies have been found.”Identify Father's Body.Matthew and Oscar Budsberg of Iola, Wis., arrived in La Porte and identified one of the recovered corpses as that of their father, O. E. Budsberg. The remains were nothing but a bundle of bones to which shreds of flesh clung.Budsberg answered one of Mrs. Gunness’ matrimonial advertisements a year ago.“Father left us in charge of his farm near Iola,” said Matthew Budsberg. “He said he was going to La Porte to take charge of a farm there. He said nothing to us about another woman, and it was seven months later that we learned- lie really had gone away to be married.“When father left he took with him all the letters which he had received from Mrs. Gunness, and also §800 in money. We thought that was a big amount for him to travel with, and were surprised when we learned a few weeks later that he had raised $1,000 more by means of a note on the Farmers’ State Bank of Iola. We did not hear from him, but thought he was all right and working hard, and as we, too, were busy with our farm work, it was several months before we tried to lea,rn what had become of him. The bank at Iola tried to find out something about him from t-lie La Porte, bank which handled the note for him. They sent us word that Mrs. Gunness said father had. gone to Oregon to buy a farm there. That was all that we could learn.“The body that we saw I am sure is my father’s. He had a small mustache and the hair that still sticks to the un-the hall near the diningroom door,” he said. “The day before *the fire it disappeared. There was no one but Mrs. Gunness in the house except the children. She. did not allow me to come into the brick portion of the dwelling.”In the light of these facts a theory hasbeen evolved that Mrs. Gunness affectedto throw suspicion for the crime she planned on Bay Lamphere, her former hired man and consort, now under arrest on a charge of burning her house and murdering herself and children, pretending to fear that he would kill her.In this connection it will be recalled that she drove into La Porte the day before the fire and made her will. .She told her lawyer then Lamphere had followed her and she was afraid he would kill her.There arc those who say that she had planned to run away with Lamphere after concocting an elaborate scheme by which she hoped to throw the authorities off their trail. They think after she had killed her three children, left a decapitated woman’s corpse to be mistaken for her own, and fled by night, Lamphere was to set fire to the house. He is asimple yokel, and, it is believed, carriedMads A. Sorenson.[The Murderess* First Husband.]go to La. Porte with their money, killed them and buried their bodies in her private graveyard.Following is a translation of an advertisement published in Skandinaven in Chicago, which Nicolav Grevsiad, editor of the Norwegian paper, says was inserted by Mrs. Belle Gunness in the issue of Saturday, March 21:WANTED—A WOMAN WHO OWNS A BEAU-tifully located 'and valuable farm in first-class condition, wants a good and reliable man as partner in the same. Some little cash is required for which will be furnished first-class security. Address C. H., Skandinaven oiiice.Matrimonial Murder Bait.Following is another of Mrs. Gunness’ matrimonial ads with which victims were lured to death:PERSONAL—COMELY WIDOW, WHO OWNSlarge farm in one of the finest districts in La Porte County, Ind., desires to make the acquaintance of gentleman equally well provided, with view of joining fortunes. No rc-plies by letter considered unless sender is willing to follow answer with personal visit.Neighbors had been aware for some time that the Gunness home had become a place to be shunned; there werevague suspicions and gossip about the widow and her many callers, and when on the night of April 26 her home was burned, the bodies of three children anda woman being found in the ruins, her former* hired man, Bay Lamphere, was arrested for committing the crime, jealousy being given as his impelling motive.While the people of La Porte were discussing the fire and speculating upon the guilt of Bay Lamphere, a man named Ansel Helgelfin, from Aberdeen, S. D., appeared upon the scene seeking bisbrother Andrew. He was amazed whenlie heard the widow’s house had beendestroyed by fire, and that she and herthree children had perished in the conflagration.He called on the sheriff and informed him of his object in coming to La Porte.He exhibited two letters-from Mrs. Gunness to his brother Andrew. They were as follows:Tells Him to Bring the Cash.One of the letters Mrs. Gunness wrote to Andrew Helgelein in South Dakota reads:My Dearest and Truest Andrew.—I look up to you and depend upon you as to no King upon this earth. We must pray to God constantly to keep you and guard you on your journey from Aberdeen to this sweet 'and pleasant country seat. I have enough for us both for the rest of our lives. Sell all that you have and bring the money with you; take my earnest advice in this matter; do not deposit the money in bank there. I have had experience in the matter of drafts, believe me it would be much better for you to bring what you have in cash.Eagerly awaiting your coming, my King.Say good-by to your life in .South Dakota andbound tightly with ropes. Sturgess offered to aid Mrs. Gunness in removing the ropes, whereupon she told him not to bother and permitted him to get no farther than the porch of the house.A short time later two other trunks were delivered at the house by Leo Wade, driver for John Welker. Pie was not permitted to enter the house and the trunkswere delivered at night. These trunks were all consigned from Chicago, whether by freight or express the drivers do not recall. Because of these incidents and the apparently inexhaustible supply of corpses in the Gunness yard the local officials believe that the woman had accomplices who lured some of her victims, to Chicago to murder and from there Shipped their dismembered corpses to La Porte for burial.In his cell Lamphere was asked concerning -,a secret room in the Gunness country mansion to which no one was ever admitted except Mrs. Gunness herself. She had the key and kept the door locked constantly. In the night hours no one in the household was ever near that room. That, the authorities believe, was the chamber of horrors whose walls must have been spattered with the blood of the ill-fated victims of the woman’s greed for gold and passion for the blood lust.“I never was in that room,” Lamphere said. “I knew that there was a room in the house that was always kept locked,and there was also a room in the basement, a sort of ice box, that no one ever knew much about. It was a big place, capable of accommodating several persons.”This place, near a door which led outto the barnyard, is believed to have beenthe temporary morgue of the victims.So many bodies have now been found that the authorities believe the womansaved her victims and disarticulated thebodies in groups and buried them that way, sewed up in gunny sacks, adding chloride of lime to the earth to aid disintegration.Great Crowd on Sunday.Twenty thousand people swarmed into La Porte Sunday to make a Roman holiday of “murder farm.” They came on t rains, in automobiles, buggies, wagons, and on bicycles, and hundreds walked from the neighboring towns to see the ruins of the home and the private burying ground of the most fiendish murderess of the age.The scene at the Gunness “graveyard”farm was the strangest in murder history annals. Never before has anythingbeen enacted to equal it.Men and women were drawn from farand near by the uncanny fascination ofterrible crimes, and when they approached the grewsome scene they were met by hawkers selling popcorn, peanuts, lemonade, and postal cards.On the edge of a bole from which two of the victims of the female Bluebeard had been dug a man bad erected an ice cream booth and dispensed pink ice cream and cake to the visitors.Boys sold cows’ teeth, representingthem to have been taken from the bodies of the victims, and frenzied, horror craving men and women tore to pieces and carried away as souvenirs a dead hogJennie Olson.[Adopted Daughter of Mrs. Gunness.]Total..........................$17,200In addition to this sum, Mrs. Gunnessieceived insurance for two fires on herAustin residence. It is thought she cleared several thousand dollars by her murders. These items would swell the total of the money she might have had on hand for emergencies to $20,000 or more.Hired Men Are Missing.The identity of three hired men' once employed on Mrs. Gunness’ farm, and whom she is believed to have murdered, was learned yesterday. Two of them she is thought to have killed merely to escape paying them their wages for a few months’ work. By the other’s death sheis believed to have come into possession of a horse and buggy. The corpses of two of these men are believed already to have been dug from her private cemetery. One hired man, who had a reddish mustache, answered the description of one corpse. The other man had a black mustache and tallies with the description of another body.These latest additions to the woman’slust for blood and gold were:Olaf Lindbom, 35 years old, of Wisconsin; employed by Mrs. Gunness threeyears ago. Worked on the farm from March to July. When lie disappearedJoseph S. Gunness.[Second Husband, Whose Death WasSuspicious.]Joseph Maxson.[Mrs. Gunness’ Hired Man.]earthed head is of the same color as father’s. He was about 5 feet S inches tall and weighed 1S5 pounds. He was 52 years old. I am sure that he never left the Gunness farm and that that woman murdered him for the $1,800 which he had with him.“The only way that I know that father could have begun writing letters to the woman was through some advertisementin a Norwegian paper.“We could not find any letters to himin the house, but after he disappeared a letter came there addressed to him and written by by Mrs. Gunness. She wrote as if he had left Indiana to come home. Yet she told the bank here that he had gone to Oregon.”Later J. C. Swenson, cashier of the Farmers’ State Bank, wrote to Mrs. Gunness asking about Budsbcrg's absence She replied Budsberg went to Chicago and was robbed of $2,000 he took from his home. She said he returned to La Porte and that she begged him to return to his family. He said no, that he would go to Oregon and make as much money as he had lost.Mrs. Gunness said she went with him to a La Porte bank to identify himwhen he drew some money. She declared she went with him to the railway station and saw him depart.Her Private Graveyard.The small inclosed space in which ten victims of the woman have been found buried was used by this modern Borgia for a private graveyard and for nothing else. This was a startling revelation brought out by the developments. It had been supposed that the fenced in space was a garden, a chicken yard, or a stable paddock. It was none of these. It is about seventy-five feet by fifty feet. The ground is covered partly with turf. It is bare in spots. It is surrounded by a double lence. The fence is eight feet high..One fence is of wire of large mesh. The other is of wire of smaller woof. The barrier is surmounted by two strands of barbed wire. This elaborate precaution in the matter of fencing undoubtedly was to prevent dogs, hogs, chickens, or wandering animals from entering and scratching or rooting among the graves. There was but one gate. It was kept locked and Mrs. Gunness carried the key. Nothing ever was planted in the lot. No hogs, horses, cows, or chickens, as far as any one remembers, ever were confined there.Identify Helgelein’s Body.A hand from the grave reached up and bore eloquent evidence against Mrs. Gunness. In preparing for burial the body now positively identified as that of Andrew Helgelein of Aberdeen, S.Dak., John H. Ball, employed by Austintrunks and weights which would have taxed the strength of a powerful man. Because of the missing head and feetthe exact height of the dead womancoukl iiot bo determined. The measurement from the- back to the end of thefractured tibia at the ankle bone wasfour feet, or a fraction less.A physiological expert lias declared that the body of the woman was not more than 5 feet 2 inches, and would weigh no more than 130 pounds. A dozen friends of the woman, who have viewed the remains, are positive it is not she.Nine out of every ten persons in La Porte believe that Mrs. Gunness is alive.The four bodies of the woman and children were found in a heap in a corner of the cellar. Part of the night clothing on all the bodies escaped the fire. On the garment of one of the girls is a stain that seems beyond question to be blood. There are reddish stains on the garments of the other children. On thefragment of the woman’s garment thereis no stain. This would indicate the children were murdered before the house was set on fire. All the bodies were lying* parallel, head and feet in the same direction. Those of the woman and one girl were on the cellar floor, and the other two bodies were on top of them. Their position would have suggested they were piled there.Tells Story of Fire.Maxson, the hired man, added to the belief that the woman’s body found in the ruins was not that of Mrs. Gunness when he told the story of the fire indetail for the first time.“I slept in a room over the kitchen,V he said. “I was awakened by smoke at 4 o’clock in the morning. When I rushed outside the house was all locked. I kicked at the doors, but could not get in. 1 shouted at the top of my voice. Mrs. Gunness was a very light sleeper. I could hardly stir at night without awaking her. But this morning—it was just beginning to break day—I could not arouse her. I got a ladder and looked in both sleeping-rooms on tl^ second floor.“The bed which Mrs. Gunness and thelittle boy customarily occupied had no coverlids on it—only a bare mattress. The other bed which the two girls usuallyoccupied had not been slept in. The covers had not been turned down. I broke in the glass of the windows and sticking my head inside yelled as loud as I could. 1 got no response. I could not hear anybody inside. It is my honest belief that Mrs. Gunness was not there. When she had gone away or where she had gone I don’t know.” 'Maxson added one other detail which would seem to lead to the belief that Mrs. Gunness fired her own home.“The big kerosene can always stood inLE GUNNESS.Ray IiXimplicre.[Under Arrest as Suspicious Character.]between two suns Mrs. Gunness gave it out that lie had gone to Norway to witness the coronation of the new King.Eric Gerhalt, 40 ydars old, of Wisconsin, succeeded Lindbom as handy man on the farm. He worked five months for Mrs. Gunness. When he disappeared Mrs. Gunness said he had left his trunk and fur overcoat and gone off toward Boiling Prairie. She afterward wore his fur coat.A man from Ohio, 50 years old, name not learned; worked on the farm afterMyrtle Sorensen, Aged 11; Lucy Sorensen, Aged 0, and Philip Gunness, Jr., Aged 5. Children’s Bodies Were Found in the Ruins of the Gunness Home.Woman Who Is Thought to Have Murdered a Score of Persons. She May Have Died when Her Home Was Burned, but It Is Thought the BodyFound Is That of Another Woman.
Newspaper Details
Chicago Saturday Blade
Chicago, Illinois, US
Sat, May 16, 1908
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
PA, USA 26 May 2021
Other Publications Near Chicago, Illinois
News Journal
Suburbanite Economist
Southend Reporter
Community Publications
Southtown Economist
