The Mena weekly star., 1908-05-14
|ND|ANA'S MYSTERY
FARM NEAR LA PORT, fND, CLEAR ING HOUSE FOR ASSASSIN
 ATIoN AND CRIME.
SIX BODIES HAVE BEEN uNEARTHED
County Officials Still Searching Tn the
 Belief That Other Bodies Will Be Found--Indiana Excited As Never Before by the Sensational Disclos'
 ures.


 Before by the Sensational DiscIos.
 ures.
 La Porte, Ind, May 7.--From out of the mass of tangled and sensational l evidence which indicates that Mrs. Bella Guinness was one of the most monstrous murderers of the century and that her beautiful and well kept farm mile from La Porte was clear ing house of assassination and crime, there developed Wednesday the start | ling theory that the woman did not die in the fire which destroyed her home on the night of April 2S and that she is still alive and in hiding. probably in Chicago. This theory is strengthened by the fact that the head of the body of the woman found In the ruins of the Guinness home after the fire. is still missing although every effort has been made to locate 1t, even to going through the charred timbers piece by piece. Unless the head is | found the officers will make a post mortem examination of the remains or Mrs. Guinness and subject them to a more careful analysis to learn whether I the woman was herself killed in the fire or had substituted the remains of one of her female victims for herself and then set fire to the house in order to cover up the crime. In case 1t is proved that Mrs. Guinness did substt ute the body of another woman for her own, it is very likely that she was also guilty of the murder of her three children.
 Never before has this part of the state been so excited by crime and all day Tuesday and Wednesday a stream of newspaper men from throughout the west poured into the city to dig up the details of the crime. With five bodies already unearthed a force of men under Sheriff Smulzer land Coroner Mack resumed their search Wednesday in quest of other victims. When Sheriff Smulzer reached the Guinness farm at dawn Wednesday he was met by Joseph Maxson, the farmland and the two resumed their work of digging for more bodies. A pale blue cloud of smoke cprled up from the ruins of the house which burned early on the morning of April 2S, covering, as was believed in its ruins, the bodies of Mrs. Guinness and her three children. The search of Wednesday included as one of it's objects the head of Mrs. Guinness, which Is missing from the charred trunk. 1t was in a yard used as a runway for hogs that four bodies were unearthed Tuesday, about 100 feet south of where the body of Helge- llein was dug up. Lying on the mat Itress the decomposed body of Jennie IOlson Guinness. known by the matted yellow hair of the 1S-year-old girl, was Hound four feet beneath the surface and under the mattress the other three skeletons were found. The headless body of Mrs. Guinness lies at the morgue. burned almost to crisp, but as yet no analysis of the stomach has been made. Fishtrap Lake will be dragged for the missing head.
 It is pointed out as opposing the theory that Mrs Guinness is alive, that the day the Guinness home was burned the woman deposited s1,500 in the State bank here. She was worth about s20.000 and her passion for mon ey is given as the incentive for the crimes committed. A theory that she might be alive includes the supposi ton that she feared Lamphere was about to expose her through jealousy
 Mrs. Guinness maiden name was Bella Raulson. She was of Norwegian descent and in 1883 married Max Sor ensen, Swede, who died under sus picious circumstances. She later mar ried Guinness, who died. she claimed as a result of sausage grinder falling on him in the kitchen of their home Both carried life insurance aggregat ing s12,000.
 It is the opinion of the authoritie: that Mrs Guinness had accomplices II Chicago and that after prospective vic tins had been lured to that city to b, robbed and murdered. their bodie. were shipped to this city in order tt keep the Chicago police from gaining knowledge of the crime. It is the in tention of the authorities to remove the cement floor of the basement o the ruined Guinness house; also t' tear down false wall which was dis covered Tuesday afternoon. Tha there is a hollow space behind thi false wall is certain. The officers at tention was first attracted to the ce ment floor in the basement by report
 to the effect that when Mrs. Guinnes
 had 1t laid she acted In mysteriou
 manner and refused to allow any visl
 tors to her home to enter the cellar
 way. These reports, however, did no
 reach the sheriff and coroner unti Tuesday night.