Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-05-08


case, arrived here at 315 p. M. today
They brought with them photographs
of their father and information con-
corning his movements before his de-
parture from lola.
Matt, who is 29 years old, and his
brother. his elder by two years, told
something of the trials through which
they have passed.
my father said before he left lola
that he was coming to La Porte to
work a farm here" he said in broken
English.
"He said he brought with him all
the letters he had received from Mrs.
Guinness and also several hundred dol
lars in money. After his arrival here
he raised $1,000 by selling a mortgage
note through the Farmers State Bank
Of lola. We have had no word from
him and have been working the family
farm ever since he left in March, 1907.
We had a letter from Mrs. Guinness
which was addressed to my father and
read as if he had left La Porte for
lola. l believe this letter was written
for the purpose Of throwing investiga-
ton off the track. l am sure that my
fathers body was one of those dug
up on the farm. There is no trace of
the $1,000 which he had in his posses
sion in April of last year l believe
that woman killed my father and took
his money!
The Budsberg boys were accompa-
MED from lola by Edwin Chaplin. a
business man Of that town. They left
yesterday afternoon, following a sum-
mons sent through the Farmers State
Bank by Sheriff Shutter of La Porte
comfy.
La Porte, Ird., May THE CHASTITY
story of the private graveyard at the
farm of Mrs. Belle Guinness, a mile
north OF La Porte, is still in it's early
chapters. Today the estimates of the
number of persons murdered at the
place through the lure of a matrimo-
NAL bureau, run all the way from II
to 90 >,
The examination yesterday of four
dismembered bodies wrapped in burlap
brings the total of victims known to-
have been murdered to nine. Including
the bodies supposed to be those of
Mrs. Guinness and her three children,
discovered after the fire which burned
the farmhouse on April %, the total
of deaths to be investigated and ac-
counted for is 10.
There was scant doubt that Sheriff
Shutter today would discover evidence
of murder in two more suspected
graves as yet unopened.
All suspicious parts of the premises
are to be dug up with especial atten-
ton to the soft spots beneath rub
htct, hon, to1, Co. ty,r- r1,l
have been found to conceal bodies.
Ray Lamphere, who is in Jail here,
still protests his innocence. Prosecut-
ing Attorney Smith. however, says he
has positive proof that Lamphere had
guilty knowledge of the Guinness
murders if he had not indeed partici-
pated in them.
The prosecutor is in possession of
letters, written in Norwegian, which
he is carefully guarding These letters,
written to Andrew Helgelein by Mrs.
Guinness are said to contain refer
ences which indicate Lampheres guilt
That he killed Mrs. Guinness and her
children and set fire to the house in
order to prevent any revelation that
might involve him, is the theory of
the prosecution.
In his cell Lamphere was asked con-
corning a secret room in the Guinness
country mansion to which no one was
ever admitted except Mrs Guinness
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 au-
thorities believe was the chamber of
horrors whose walls must have been
spattered with the blood of the i'll
fated victims of the woman's greed
for gold and passion for blood.
Il never was in that roOm," Lam
phere said. Il knew that there was a
room in the house that was always
kent locked and there was also room
in the basement, a sort of ice box that
no one ever knew much about 1t
was a big place, capable of accommo-
dating several persons"
So many bodies have now been
found that the authorities believe the
woman saved her victims and disar-
ttculated the bodies in groups and
buried them that way. sewed up in
gunny sacks, adding choloride of lime
to the earth to aid in disintegation
Additional light on the methods of
Mrs. Guinness was shed by Ask X.
Heglelein brother Of Andrew Helgel-
Elm OF Mansfield. S. D., whose dismem-
befed corpse is among the nine thus
far found. Helgelein told the coroner
that not only had his brother been in
communication with the woman, but
also that she had written to him af-
ter Andrews disappearance, in an at
tempt OF have him visit this city.
sell your brothers stock and come
mere and we will hunt your brother
together" was the gist of the epistles
written in Norwegian and as yet only
partially translated
The investigators here believe that
Mrs. Guinness established communi-
cation with her victims through all
matrimonial advertisement printed in
papers in the Northwest, such prom
Use accounting for her relations with
oieb Budsberg, the farmer of lola,
Wis. 1t was reported that lola men
would bring with them copies of the
advertisements which brought him to
Mrs Guinness and eventually to his
DEATH