The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1908-05-10
Former Home Of Mrs. Guil-
ness May Be Filled With
Bonesof Murdered Men.
MAY BE LIVING STILL,
THO REPORTED BURNED
Grave Doubt Felt, Even BY One
OF the Examining Physicians,
That the Body Found Was
Really That Of the Al
legedlMurder
Heron Released.
.--

Heron Released.
[speclalto The Times Dspatch.l
r APORTE, IND. May 9.-ThereIis Is
no better way of indicating the
demoniacal qualities now gem
orally ascrlbed to Mrs. Belle
| Guinnesss Whereabouts than by
saying that when it was announced at
nightfall to-day that no more bodiea
had been dug up in that garden OF
death on the Guinness place. every-
body in Laporte was surprised. AL
ways In her lifetime disliked. suspect
ed and feared, the woman has now be-
come in the public mind perfect
paragon OF blood, lust, craft and
treachery. Apparently nobody would
be surprised to learn that every square
yard of her fifty-acre farm is sowp
with the bodies OF her victims.
Meantime, where is Belle Guinness.
Are these fragments of female body
that lie In the morgue. charred 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 multi-
murderer makes good her escape?
All Is sIJstery Still.
There are 80 many circumstances to
| support either theory that the case re-
mains as mysterious as 1t was last
Tuesday, when the murder garden
yielded up It's first GRIM fruit. Mean
time certain things stand out as facts.
hard and brutal facts that cannot be
eeXplaned away. Since little Dan Hud-
| son and Joe Maxson got to work with
| their picks and spades five days ago,
they have dug up what the doctors
say arc the remnants of ten human
\ bodies. Four of them were buried in
a single pit about four by seven feet.
Only three of them have been identi-
fed with any certainty. The first was
in life Andrew x. Nelglean, a middle
aged Norwegian, lured from his home
ar Aberdeen, S. D., by the expectation
Of marriage with the well-to-do wido
u The second was O. C.. Budsbers, an
! elderly farmer from lola, Wis Tho
!, same bait brought him to his death.
The last Of the three identified bodies
was Jennie Olson. an eighteen-year-old
girl. and the adopted daughter Of Belle
4 Guinness.
All the remaining seven whose
i bodies this terrible little garden has
yielded UP We're men, with a single
4 exception. and when that is said, all
4 that Is known of them has been stated.
That all ten OF these were murdered
! there is no doubt. AS to the four
4 whose bodies were found buried bes
4 meath the ruins of the house on the
morning of April 18th there is some
doubt.
. Three of them were children of this
Lucrezia Borgia of Laporte-two girls
and a boy-A1yrtle, aged eleven; Lucy,
nine, and Philip, five In the identity
OF the fourth lies the solution of tho
lproblem.
& Murder For Revenue Only.
M,,ra.,, fa,. ra,,an,,o o,l,, Z, =, /.
. parently The passion that consumed
], Belle Guinness. That several OF leE
! victims were persons from whose
death she could not profit in a Pc
I cuniary way, In no manner contro-
!, yerts this statement. In every case
.. of wholesale murder there have been
I some victims who died because their
) silence was to their slayer more pre-
/ cious than gold. In such a position
! Jennie Olsen doubtless found herself.
, This adopted daughter was q simple
: minded. quiet girl who was known
:. to the neighbors chiefly because she
did more work than any hired man.
; She was pretty. Belle Guinnesss slave,
and yet the mistress feared the slave,
So tile slave died and was buried IN
quick lime in the same death garden
that had received the bodies OF others
who died because they had money.
Z, ls.fat.r BOtNl rl1llSDAnuS EDlCul SuuucniS.
What sort OF woman was this ass
4 tonishing murderess is a hard question.
and yet something can be done toward
answering. She was q Norwegian. who
, lacked about two years of the half-cen-
) ltury mark. She was born in Norway
:, and came to America as a young girl.
I. In Chicago in 1883 she married Max
! Sorenson, fellow-countryman. He
/; died suddenly in 1890. Two years later
! She married Guinness, He died sud
!, denly also.
Death sudden and mysterious attend
!, Led Belle Guinness for many years.
/ When she came to Iaporte SIX years
ago With Guinness. Mrs. Guinness was
a fat, coarse-featured woman. She
stood about five feet seven and weighed
about a20 pounds. She had a big, heavy
: head, n mop OF coarse hairof muddy
! brown, little eyes that Just missed
! being black. huge hands and arms and
( legs, and feet grotesquely small for the
i burden they had to support. Every
!, body who knew her agrees that she
I acquaintances describe her as repul-
: |slve. Some Of her neishbors go further
$ than that. More a devil thanNa wo-
7 man. Is the way William peisslen puts
! 1T and he ought to know. because his
= farm is next to the Guinness place. Il
r All Sorts OF Storlcs.
You may hear any kind OF nebuloua
q tale you like as YOU walk about the
9 streets OF Laporte. Yarns about mys-
terious huggles driving up to the lone
Ily Guinness house In the twilight. never
to be seen again; about screams Of
$ infants having neep heard In the dead
OF night; about mysterious packasSes S
of great size and bnk having been
delivered there BY weird messengers
:, apparently swallowed up by sorcsry
+ the moment their burdens We're de.
= posted,
! ButEont of 1T all comes nor ray
! OF light TO show how death oyertook
!. the victims, Nor Is there anything ia
a show how even the identified were
cont.nusd on Nsght Page.