Mass murderess notorious in American criminal history for slaying fourteen men enticed to her farm by thoughts of marriage. Belle drugged them in their sleep, relieved them of their wallets and butchered their bodies which she later buried on her farm. After faking her own death Belle disappeared in 1908.

Belle was widowed when her husband died from an accident, leaving her with three children and a farm at Laporte, Indiana. The widow settled down to work the farm with assistance from handyman Ray Lamphere who soon became her lover.

Belle took to advertising in the Chicago newspapers for suitors, adding the punchline that ‘Triflers need not apply’. Several men replied to her advertisement and in 1908 Andrew Helgelien travelled to Laporte in anticipation of Belle’s warm embraces. He also had a pocketful of money as she had primed him as to her need of funds to pay off the mortgage on the farm. On arrival Helgelien was surprised to be introduced to Ray Lamphere whom Belle described as her next husband. Helgelien disappeared and on 28 April 1908 the Gunness farm was destroyed by fire.

A badly burned female body was found in the ruins and Belle was thought to have perished with her three children. Identification was not certain as the corpse was headless - it appeared that the woman had been murdered and the building fired in the hope of destroying evidence of the crime. Lamphere was immediately arrested, and he boasted of his affair with Belle.

Digging in the burned-out farm produced Andrew Helgelien’s body which had been dissected and wrapped up in oil cloth. Thirteen other bodies were also dug up. The police were satisfied that the corpse was Belle when her denture was retrieved from the ashes. Ray Lamphere was charged with murder and arson, and sentenced to 2 to 21 years’ imprisonment. He died in Indiana State Penitentiary.

Lamphere told a cellmate that the body was not that of Belle but a woman she lured to the farm for the purpose of providing a corpse, after she herself had burned the place down. She threw her denture into the blaze for good measure and escaped with a small fortune which she had taken off the suitors she had butchered like pigs on her farm. In any event, Belle Gunness was never seen again.