Connecticut western news., 1908-05-14
DIGGING UP CORPSES
Indiana Woman's Farm Yields
 Many Dead Bodies.
HER OWN DEATH REPORTED

Doubt About HeadIess Remains Being
 Those of Woman Suspected of Whole
 sale Murder - End Comes In Sam.
 Way to All Victims.
 Laporte, Ind, May 13.-The interest in the case of Mrs. Belle Guinness, on whose farm ten bodies were dug up centers in the possibility of identifying one of the bodies as her own. She Is believed to have murdered the others, among them her own three young chtl dren. Digging still continues on the farm.
 There is now suspicion Mrs. Gun. ness may not have died in the fire which destroyed the farmhouse on April 2S. Doubt exists over the head less body of a woman found in the ruins, and 1t is thought Mrs. Guinness may have had a body brought here from Chicago and after firing the house made her own escape. She Is believed to have enticed men with matrimonial advertisements and then to have rob bed and murdered them.
 It was discovers that a seldom vis- ited cemetery a few miles away from her farm had recently been robbed of body A laborer passing through it found a disturbed grave and an empty coffin. Chief of Police Cochran and two detectives are Investigating
 They heard, though not authoritative ly, that it was woman's body which had been stolen. If this proves to be so, they and many others firmly be- lieye the first theory-that Mrs. Gun ness left corpse without head to impersonate her while she fled after the house was fired.
 .Es Murderess a Norwegian.
 What sort of a woman was this astounding 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 1883 she married Max Sorenson, fellow coun- tryman. He died suddenly in 1S90 Two years later she married Guinness. He died suddenly also. As will be seen, death, sudden and mysterious, at tended Belle Guinness for many years
 In all there are fifteen deaths which may be traced to Mrs. Guinness. The bodies of two men, one girl and two small children were found first. Two of the bodies found later were those of a man and a woman, and two were so terribly dismembered and hacked as to make it difficult to determine the sex. I'M. l.. Atx autopsy It is believed Mrs. Guinness fired the house and that if she did not deliberately wait for death in the flames that she was responsible for the death of the woman whose body may have been carried to the house to be taken for her own. In the flames the three small children of the woman were burned almost to cinders. This gives thirteen, and in addition the two husbands of the woman met sudden death. The first, Max Sorensen, drop ped dead, supposedly from heart dis ease. His relatives alleged that he had been poisoned, but an order to exhume the body was not carried out r.@
 Joseph Gunness, the second hus- band, died from injuries on the head. His wife said a meat grinder had fallen on him from shelf, and the explanation was accepted by the au thorities. -.
 Search will be made in the ruins of the house, as it is believed bodies were buried in the basement Ten bodies have been found. ... .-... 1 An examination of the nine bodies shows that all the murders were wrought with short, heavy spike and | that all the blows which killed the ten persons were delivered from be- hind. Several small holes were found in the back of each skull.
 Two of the nine mutilated bodies were identified with reasonable cer l tainty. Antone Olson of Chicago view ed the body supposed to be that of Jennie Olson, sixteen years old, foster daughter of Mrs. Guinness, and pro- nounced 1t to be that of his daughter A sister of the girl, Mrs. Leo Olander of Chicago, confirmed the fathers iden- l tification.
 Identifies Corpse as Brother.
 Ask K. Helgelein, whose inquiries re- garding his missing brother, Andrew, led to the first discov cries on the death haunted farm, became sure that the largest and best preserved of the corpses is that of his brother. Against this identification, however, is the re- suit of the autopsy performed on this body by Dr. J. H. Meyer. He found conditions which, to his mind, proved that the man perished long after An drew Helgelein disappeared last Jan uary. Dr. Meyer said that the corpse showed evidences of having been in the ground less than two weeks. Ask Helgelein, however, refused to be con vinced by these findings, and his cer- tainty led the coroner to accept his identification for the present.
 Roy Lamphere, who is held on a charge of first degree murder as a re- suit of the fire that destroyed the Gun ness home and caused the deaths of Mrs. Guinness and her three children.