The Colorado statesman., 1908-05-09
DEATH HOUSE
AT LA PORTE
MISSING WOMAN BELIEVED TO
HAVE BEEN GUILTY OF
MANY MURDERS.
MORE BODIES FOUND
SUSPECTED MURDERERS MAY
NOT HAVE BEEN BURNED
AS WAS THOUGHT.

La Porte, Ind.-A sixth body has
been dug from the back yard of the
Guinness house of death" by Coroner
Mack. This makes a total of eleven
victims of violent death in the long
list of crimes charged to Mrs. Belle
Guinness, who was burned to death d
week ago with three of her children.
The sixth body was dug from grave
beside the two holes from which the
first five bodies were taken. 1t was
found under cover of cobblestones
and was but two feet beneath the sur
face.
1t had evidently been buried for
year or more More human bones were
found, indicating thirteenth victim
of this amazing series of murders.
Expressmen say that within the past
six months they had delivered half
dozen trunks at the Guinness home.
Ray Lamphere, who is under arrest,
declares that Mrs. Belle Guinness was
the master mind of the murder asy-
lum"
The police charge that he was her
accomplice and killed her in jealous
rage, then set the house on fire.
Police suspicion was first aroused
when the bodies of four persons were
recovered from the ruins of the Gun
ness, which burned down on April 2Sth.
They could not be identified, but are
believed to be those of Belle Guinness,
forty-four years old, and her daughters,
Myrtle Sorinsen, eleven years old,
Lucy Sorinsen. nine years old and
their half brother, Philip Guinness, five
years old.
All of the bodies were burned so that
recognition is practically a guess.
Further search was made and in the
yard of the home the police unearthed
four bodies, three men and one girl.
| These were so decomposed that identi-
! fication could not be made with accur-
acy.
All of the victims brought Mrs. Gun
ness money through insurance or in
cash.
Two of her husbands died under sus-
picious circumstances. The life of the
first. Max Sorinsen, was insured for
$500, and that of the second, Gun
ness, for $4,000. The companies paid
the money over to her.
That Mrs. Guinness was contemplate
ing still another murder is the belief
of the officers, based on the receipt of
a letter on Wednesday by Executor
Fogle to Mrs Guinness estate ad
uGeSSeu 10 MIS-
The letter is written in Norwegian
and is from Carl Peterson of Waupaca
Wisconsin. He writes that he is sorry
he cannot meet her requirements as
to his financial conditions, but that he
is respectable and worthy in every
way.
Twice in her career she destroyed
property belonging to her and in both
cases she collected insurance from the
fire underwriters.
Today it is even intimated that the
woman herself may not be dead-that
she procured a female corpse. set fire
to her own house and then fed, leav
ing the world to believe she had per
ished in the flames.
The first body dug up was that of
Andrew Helgelein. wealthy bachelor
of Aberdeen, South Dakota, who came
here in January and disappeared about
February 1st. 1t was found about four
feet under ground.
The limbs and head had been sawed
off and placed in gunny sacks, which
then had been sewed up. The body
was nude.
In a second excavation at the depth
that of Jennie Olson, an adopted daugh-
ter of Mrs. Guinness who disappeared
in September, 1906, was discovered
The girl was nearly seventeen years
old and was reported by Mrs. Guinness
to have gone to Los Angeles, Califor-
mia, to attend college, although there
are no witnesses in La Porte who saw
her go away Below the skeleton were
pieces of mattress and a thin layer of
earth.
Continued digging brought the
searchers to more sacks which con-
tanned the dismembered body of a large
man. Decomposition had reduced the
body to such a state that the only fea-
lures recognizable as such were a dark
mustache and dark hair.
Beneath this body was another layer
of earth under which were found the
bodies of two children, apparently
about twelve years of age.
There are several more suspicious
places in the grounds about the ruins,
and it is the intention of the authori-
ties to resume the search.