Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1908-06-06
MURDER FARM WAS EXPOSED BY FIRE
Observation-Disclosures
That Attracts Country
Wide Interest

Wide Interest
La Porte, Ind. May 2O.--That Ray
Lamphere, held in jail on suspicion Of
having caused the deaths of Mrs.
Guinness and others at the Guinness
farm. may have returned to the home
of Elizabeth Smith after setting fire
to the Guinness house and then made
second start for the Wheatbroox
farm. where he was employed. is a
new theory advanced by the State.
Representatives Of the prosecution
profess TO have discovered evidence
to show that not only was Lamphere
seen to go toward the Guinness house
at about $3.50 on the morning of April
2S, but he was also seen to retrHce
his steps. This was about the time.
other witnesses will testify, that they
saw fire shooting from the Guinness
home.
This new theory Is that after re.
turning to the Smith house, Lam.
phere made fresh start for the cOun.
TRIP about an hour after the first de.
parture, but that on his second trip
he took the Guenther road from which
he could have seen the fire.
n the State is able to fully support
this theory II will be a blow to Lam.
phere's defense for the accused is
somewhat relying on an abb that will
show that he went north that morning
on the Guenther road about an hour
after the fire was started.
Laportc. Ind, May 13.-Thore Is no
better way Of indicating the demonia-
cal qualities now generally ascribed
to Mrs. Belle Guinness hereabout than
by Gaying that when II Is announced
at nightfall that no more bodies had
been dug In that garden of death on,
the Guinness place everybody In La
porte was surprised
Always In her lifetime disliked, sus-
pccted and feared, the woman has now
become in the public mind a perfect
paragon Of blood lust, craft and treach-
cry. Apparently nobody would be sur
prised to learn that every square yard
of her so acre farm is sown with the
bodies Of her victims.
Meantime where is Belle Guinness?
Are those fragments Of a female body
that lie In the morgne, charred past
recognition. really hers or are they the
remains of still one more of her VIC
Tins intended to throw dust In the
eyes Of the police until the multimur.
derer makes good her escape?
There are 30 many circumstances to
support either theory that the case re.
mains today as mysterious as II was
last Tuesday when the murder garden
yielded up its first grim fruit.
Certain things stand out as facts.
hard and brutal facts that cannot be
explained away. Since little Dan Hud.
son and Joe Maxson got to work with
their picks and spades Ave days ago
they have dug up what the doctors
say are the remains of ten human
bodies. Four OF them were buried In
single pit about four by seven feet.
Only three Of them have been iden.
titled with any certainty. The first
was In life Andrew X. Helgelien,
middle aged Norwegian, lured from
his home at Aberdeen, 8. d., by the
expectation of marriage with the well
to do widow. The second was o. c..
Budslevc, an elderly farmer from lola,
Wis. The same bait brought him to
his death. The last of the three idcn.
titled bodies was Jennie Olson, IL
year.old girl and the adopted daughter
OF Belle Guinness.
All the remaining six whose bodies
this terrible little garden has yielded
up were men, with single exception,
and when that Is said all that is known
of them has been written.
That all ten of these were murdered
there is no doubt. As to the four
whose bodies were found beneath the
ruins Of the house on the morning of
April 2s there is some doubt. Three
of them were children of this Lucretia
Borgia Of Laporte-two girls and q
boy-Myrtle, aged IL, Lucy, nine. and
Philip, five. In the identity OF the
fourth lies the solution Of the prob
lem.
Murder for Revenue Only
Murder for revenue only was appar-
emily the passion that consumed Belle
Guinness. That several Of her victims
were persons from whose deaths she
could not profit In a pecuniary way In
no manner controverts this statement.
In every case Of wholesale murder
there have been some victims who died
because their silence was to their slay.
er more precious than gold. In such
position Jennie Olson doubtless
found herself. This adopted daughter
was simple minded, quiet girl who
was known to the neighbors chiefly
because she did more work than any
hired man.