The sun., 1908-05-10
An Appalling List Of Victims
That She Murdered for
Revenue Only,
IS SHE ALIVE THE QUESTION
Laporte Insists She Capped Her
Career Of Crime by Killing
Her Children

Ruins Of Her Bome--nere Il . CaSs
Against Lsmphere. the Drunken No
Account, VINO Was infatuated With Her
and Rhom She Feared--TheTe Nai
Danger OF Her Grimes 1Belns Dlsco'.
cred and She Had Made Her Win-no
Death Garden Has Welded Ten Bodies,
OF which Three Only Are KnOWn--Iet.
tiers showing How She Lurod Men With
the Tenderest Words-Ths Theory ~
an AccOmpice Has Some support
LAPoRTE Ind, May 9.--Thers is no better
way Of indicating the demoniaosl qualities
now generally ascribed 10 Mrs. Belle Gun
ness hereabout than by saying that whs,
1t was announced at nightsll to-day that
no more bodies had been dug up In that
garden Of death on the Guinness place
every body in Laporte was surprised.
Always in her lifetime disllked, sus-
pected and feared the woman has now
become in the public mind perfect paragon
Of blood lust, craft and treaohery. Appar.
emily nobody would be surprised 10 learn
that every square yard Of her fifty acre
farm is sown with the bodies Of her victims
Meantime where is Belle Gunnessl Are
those fragments Of a female body that
lie in the morgue, ohsrred past recognition,
really hers or are they the remains Of
still one more Of her victims intended to
throw dust in the eyes Of the police until
the multimurderer makes good her eso0pe'
There are 30 many circumstances to
support either theory that the case remains
to-day 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 Hudson and Joe
Maxson got to work with their picks and
spades five days ago they have dug uo
what the doctors say are the remnants Of
ten human bodies Four Of them were
buried in single pit about four by seven
feet.
Only three Of them have been identiAsi
with any certainty, The first was in life
Andrew K Helgelein. middle aged Nor
wegian. lured from his home at Aberdeen.
s. D., sby the expectation Of marriage
with the we'll to do widow. The second was
0. c. Budsbsrg, an elderly farmer from
lola, Wis The same bait brought him to
his death The last Of the three identified
bodies was Jennie Olson, a fifteen-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 besn
written.
That all ten Of these we're murdered thees
is no doubt. As to the four whose bodies
we're found beneath the ruins Of the houss
on the morning Of April 2s there is soms
doubt. Three Of them we're children Of this
Lucretia Borgia Of Laporte-two girls and
boy--Myrtle, aged H. Lucy, o, and Philip.
S. In the identity OF the fourth iivS the So
luton Of the problem.
MURDER FOR REVENUE ONLY.
Murder for revenue only was apparently
the passion that consumed Belle Guinness.
That several Of her victims we're persons
from whose deaths she could not profit In
peouniary way in no manner Oontroverts
this statement,
In every case Of wholesale murder there
have been some victims who died because
their silence was 10 their slayer more pre-
cious than gold. In such position Jennie
Olson doubtless found herself. This
adopted daughter was q simple minded.
quiet girl who was known 10 the neighbors
chiefly because she did moro work than any
hired man.
She was Belle Gunness's slave. And
yet the mistress feared the slave, So the
slave died and was buried In quicklime In
the same death garden that had received
the bodies Of others who died because they
had money.
What sort OF a woman was this astound.
ing murderer That is a hard question.
and yet something can be done toward
answering, She was a Norwegian who
lacked about two years Of the half century
mark. She was born in Norway and came
to America as young girl, In Chicago In
1888 she married Max Sorenson, q fellow
countrymany He died suddenly In 1890.
Two years later she married Guinness, He
died suddenly also. AZ win be seen, death,
sudden and mysterious, attended Belle
Guinness for many years.
When she came 70 Laporte ak years ago
with Guinness. Mrs. Guinness was q fat.
coarse featured woman who stood about
feet and weighed about 10 pounds She
had big. heavy head mop Of ooarss
hair Of a muddy brown, little eyes that
Just missed being black, huge hands and
arms and legs, and feet grotesquely small
for the burden they had to support.
Everybody Wbo knew her agrees that
she was far from attractive. Most OF her
acauaintances describe hor as repulsve
Some OF her neighbou g. further than
'':sl :M~. than e..vo~.ns-i..t he