WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.379 Imagine this for a second. You wake up, and it's 00:00:03.379 --> 00:00:05.639 the middle of the night. The air smells like 00:00:05.639 --> 00:00:08.859 smoke. We're in La Porte, Indiana. The date is 00:00:08.859 --> 00:00:12.359 April 28, 1908. And this is a quiet place, you 00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:15.000 know? A rural farm town where everyone thinks 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:17.879 they know everyone else's business. Right. But 00:00:17.879 --> 00:00:22.100 tonight, something is very, very wrong. The sky 00:00:22.100 --> 00:00:25.899 is glowing orange. A farmhouse is on fire. Just... 00:00:26.030 --> 00:00:27.850 Burn into the ground. And when the sun comes 00:00:27.850 --> 00:00:30.190 up and the smoke finally clears, the whole town 00:00:30.190 --> 00:00:32.490 is thinking, okay, this is a tragedy. Horrible, 00:00:32.490 --> 00:00:34.789 heartbreaking accident. Absolutely. They find 00:00:34.789 --> 00:00:36.789 bodies in the rubble, a mother and her three 00:00:36.789 --> 00:00:38.810 kids. The story seems to be written already. 00:00:39.189 --> 00:00:41.399 Mm -hmm. The community is ready to mourn. They're 00:00:41.399 --> 00:00:43.820 ready to write the eulogies. But that's not where 00:00:43.820 --> 00:00:46.159 this story ends. Not even close. Because then 00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:48.880 a man named Allah Helgi Yellen shows up. And 00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:50.740 he is not there to pay his respects. No. He's 00:00:50.740 --> 00:00:53.200 there because his brother, Andrew, is missing. 00:00:53.280 --> 00:00:56.500 And he has this terrible feeling about this specific 00:00:56.500 --> 00:00:59.079 farm. He's looking for answers. And he decides 00:00:59.079 --> 00:01:00.420 the only way he's going to find them is with 00:01:00.420 --> 00:01:02.579 a shovel. And he goes right out back to the hog 00:01:02.579 --> 00:01:05.239 pen of all places. And that's the exact moment 00:01:05.239 --> 00:01:08.140 this whole thing flips from tragedy into, well, 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:10.689 an absolute nightmare. Because when Azel and 00:01:10.689 --> 00:01:12.790 a few other guys start digging into that soft, 00:01:12.829 --> 00:01:15.730 turned -over earth in the pigsty, they don't 00:01:15.730 --> 00:01:18.769 find old farm tools. No. They hit something. 00:01:19.030 --> 00:01:22.469 Yeah. Something soft. A gunny sack. And you have 00:01:22.469 --> 00:01:24.810 to really picture the scene. It's muddy, it smells 00:01:24.810 --> 00:01:28.709 awful, and they pull this heavy, wet sack out 00:01:28.709 --> 00:01:31.489 of the ground. They cut it open. And inside. 00:01:31.569 --> 00:01:33.430 It's not what anyone could have ever expected. 00:01:33.670 --> 00:01:37.079 Inside that sack are human remains. Two hands, 00:01:37.299 --> 00:01:39.560 two feet, and one head. And that was just the 00:01:39.560 --> 00:01:41.819 first one. The first of many. So today, we're 00:01:41.819 --> 00:01:43.920 doing a deep dive into the story that turned 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:46.319 that farm into one of America's most gruesome 00:01:46.319 --> 00:01:49.420 crime scenes. We're unpacking the life of the 00:01:49.420 --> 00:01:52.140 woman they called Hell's Belle, the Butcher of 00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:53.900 La Porte. We're talking about Belle Gunness. 00:01:54.299 --> 00:01:56.519 And the scale of what they found on her farm 00:01:56.519 --> 00:01:58.760 is... It's hard to even wrap your head around. 00:01:58.840 --> 00:02:00.659 This isn't just a murder. It's a mass grave. 00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:02.920 I mean, they literally stopped counting the bodies. 00:02:03.180 --> 00:02:06.590 They did. Some reports say 14 victims. Others 00:02:06.590 --> 00:02:09.129 speculate it could be as high as 40. 40 people, 00:02:09.389 --> 00:02:12.189 that's just, it's a staggering number, even by 00:02:12.189 --> 00:02:14.870 today's standards. And the biggest question of 00:02:14.870 --> 00:02:17.689 all is, did she actually die in that fire or 00:02:17.689 --> 00:02:19.830 did she get away with everything? And that's 00:02:19.830 --> 00:02:21.830 our mission today. We're going to sift through 00:02:21.830 --> 00:02:24.449 the historical records, the newspaper clippings 00:02:24.449 --> 00:02:27.889 from the era, the police investigations, all 00:02:27.889 --> 00:02:29.870 of it. We want to figure out who she was. Was 00:02:29.870 --> 00:02:32.169 she some victim of circumstance who just snapped? 00:02:32.669 --> 00:02:35.150 Or was she a cold -blooded predator right from 00:02:35.150 --> 00:02:37.270 the very beginning? So let's start at that beginning. 00:02:37.650 --> 00:02:40.189 Before the murder farm, before she was even Belle 00:02:40.189 --> 00:02:43.949 Gunness, who was she? Because monsters like this, 00:02:44.050 --> 00:02:46.210 they aren't born, right? They're made. Exactly. 00:02:46.349 --> 00:02:48.550 To understand the end, you have to go back to 00:02:48.550 --> 00:02:51.430 the origin. She was born Brynhild, Paul's daughter, 00:02:51.590 --> 00:02:54.349 Stursef. Brynhild, quite a name. A very Norwegian 00:02:54.349 --> 00:02:57.949 name. She was born November 11, 1859, in Silbo, 00:02:58.030 --> 00:03:01.789 Norway. And life in rural Norway in the mid -1800s. 00:03:02.189 --> 00:03:04.590 That had to be tough. Oh, incredibly tough. This 00:03:04.590 --> 00:03:06.789 was not a life of comfort. She was the youngest 00:03:06.789 --> 00:03:09.189 of eight children. Her parents were tenant farmers. 00:03:09.810 --> 00:03:12.610 Life was defined by hard physical labor. Just 00:03:12.610 --> 00:03:15.849 to survive. To get by. The records show that 00:03:15.849 --> 00:03:18.509 by the time she was a teenager, maybe 14, she 00:03:18.509 --> 00:03:21.009 was already working on neighboring farms. Doing 00:03:21.009 --> 00:03:23.689 what kind of work? Mostly herding and milking 00:03:23.689 --> 00:03:26.840 cattle. But this is a really crucial piece of 00:03:26.840 --> 00:03:28.659 her background because it tells you about her 00:03:28.659 --> 00:03:30.780 physicality. Right. She wasn't learning needlepoint 00:03:30.780 --> 00:03:33.580 in a parlor somewhere. Not at all. She was outdoors. 00:03:33.960 --> 00:03:36.280 She was handling large animals. That kind of 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:39.319 work builds incredible physical strength. But 00:03:39.319 --> 00:03:42.139 it also, you know, it desensitizes you. To what? 00:03:42.500 --> 00:03:46.120 To the realities of farm life. Blood, muck, birth, 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:48.000 and slaughter. It's all just part of the daily 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:50.939 routine. Life and death are just... Exactly. 00:03:51.379 --> 00:03:53.740 It creates a certain kind of pragmatism. And 00:03:53.740 --> 00:03:55.900 she was clearly saving up for something bigger. 00:03:56.039 --> 00:03:58.740 She had her sights set on America. Classic American 00:03:58.740 --> 00:04:01.500 dream story. It was the era of mass migration 00:04:01.500 --> 00:04:04.560 from Scandinavia to the Midwest. She worked for 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:06.780 years to save up the money for a ticket, and 00:04:06.780 --> 00:04:09.199 she finally made the trip in 1881. And she arrives 00:04:09.199 --> 00:04:12.439 at Castle Garden in New York, which was the precursor 00:04:12.439 --> 00:04:16.139 to Ellis Island. And that's where Brynhild disappears. 00:04:17.079 --> 00:04:19.600 She steps off the boat and rebrands herself. 00:04:19.860 --> 00:04:23.319 She becomes Belle. A new name for a new life. 00:04:23.480 --> 00:04:25.639 A much simpler, more American sounding name. 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:28.759 Yeah. But she doesn't stay in New York. She heads 00:04:28.759 --> 00:04:31.259 straight for Chicago where her sister Nellie 00:04:31.259 --> 00:04:35.180 was already living. And this is where her resume 00:04:35.180 --> 00:04:38.439 starts to take a very dark turn. A very specific 00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:41.459 and in hindsight a very disturbing turn. Because 00:04:41.459 --> 00:04:43.500 the job she gets isn't what you'd expect. It's 00:04:43.500 --> 00:04:45.860 not domestic service or factory work. Well, she 00:04:45.860 --> 00:04:47.680 did a little domestic work at first, but then 00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:49.899 she lands a job in a butcher shop. And let's 00:04:49.899 --> 00:04:51.740 be clear about what that means. She's not wrapping 00:04:51.740 --> 00:04:54.480 sausages at the front counter. No, she is in 00:04:54.480 --> 00:04:56.939 the back, cutting up animal carcasses. Okay, 00:04:56.980 --> 00:04:59.620 let's just pause on that image. Physically, what 00:04:59.620 --> 00:05:02.300 did she look like? She was imposing. The sources 00:05:02.300 --> 00:05:05.259 say she stood about 5 '7". Which was tall for 00:05:05.259 --> 00:05:07.939 a woman back then. Very tall. And she weighed 00:05:07.939 --> 00:05:11.519 somewhere between 200 and 250 pounds. She was 00:05:11.519 --> 00:05:14.240 not a small person. She was immensely strong. 00:05:14.519 --> 00:05:16.980 You'd have to be to do that kind of work. Absolutely. 00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:21.500 And now she's acquiring a very specific technical 00:05:21.500 --> 00:05:24.740 skill. She's learning how to efficiently dismember 00:05:24.740 --> 00:05:27.899 large mammals. She's learning anatomy, how to 00:05:27.899 --> 00:05:30.740 separate joints, how to use cleavers and saws 00:05:30.740 --> 00:05:33.220 with precision. It's not just about brute force. 00:05:33.439 --> 00:05:35.660 It's a skill. You have to know where to cut. 00:05:35.740 --> 00:05:38.310 It's a skill set? You learn how to take a large, 00:05:38.350 --> 00:05:41.389 heavy thing and break it down into manageable, 00:05:41.589 --> 00:05:44.569 portable pieces. And as we're about to see, this 00:05:44.569 --> 00:05:46.790 wasn't just a job for her. It was training. It 00:05:46.790 --> 00:05:48.810 was an apprenticeship. That's a terrifying thought. 00:05:48.889 --> 00:05:51.689 So she's in Chicago. She's working. She meets 00:05:51.689 --> 00:05:54.329 a man. In 1884, she marries her first husband, 00:05:54.490 --> 00:05:56.689 Mads Sørensen. And on the surface, they seem 00:05:56.689 --> 00:05:58.889 to be building a life. They opened a candy store 00:05:58.889 --> 00:06:00.990 together. Sounds very quaint, doesn't it? A candy 00:06:00.990 --> 00:06:04.430 store. But this is where the pattern starts to 00:06:04.430 --> 00:06:07.860 emerge. A pattern of... Let's call it fire and 00:06:07.860 --> 00:06:10.100 finance. The candy store burns down. It does. 00:06:10.220 --> 00:06:12.439 The business was supposedly struggling and then 00:06:12.439 --> 00:06:14.500 suddenly a fire. And then their home burns down. 00:06:14.740 --> 00:06:17.399 Yep. Not long after. And in both cases, what 00:06:17.399 --> 00:06:20.199 was the result? An insurance payout? A nice insurance 00:06:20.199 --> 00:06:23.480 payout. Now you have to remember, this is the 00:06:23.480 --> 00:06:26.860 late 19th century. Insurance fraud via arson. 00:06:27.399 --> 00:06:29.920 It was common. It was even called Scandinavian 00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:32.199 lightning in some circles. There were no databases, 00:06:32.420 --> 00:06:35.319 no easy way to track claims. OK, so burning down 00:06:35.319 --> 00:06:37.560 a building for cash is one thing. But what happened 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:40.480 inside that home? That's something else entirely. 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:43.259 This is where it gets really dark. They had two 00:06:43.259 --> 00:06:45.399 infant children who died. Both of them. Both 00:06:45.399 --> 00:06:48.629 of them. The official cause of death was listed 00:06:48.629 --> 00:06:51.470 as acute colitis, which is basically an inflammation 00:06:51.470 --> 00:06:53.730 of the intestine. But the neighbors had their 00:06:53.730 --> 00:06:56.129 doubts. Oh, yeah. There was a lot of gossip. 00:06:56.509 --> 00:06:58.490 First, people were saying they never even saw 00:06:58.490 --> 00:07:00.529 Belle look pregnant. So there were questions 00:07:00.529 --> 00:07:02.829 about where these children even came from. They 00:07:02.829 --> 00:07:04.930 might have been foster children or informally 00:07:04.930 --> 00:07:07.990 adopted. Possibly. But more to the point, the 00:07:07.990 --> 00:07:10.889 symptoms of colitis, cramping, vomiting, they 00:07:10.889 --> 00:07:13.050 look a lot like the symptoms of certain kinds 00:07:13.050 --> 00:07:15.550 of poisoning. Like what? Like arsenic or strychnine. 00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:18.160 Things you could buy at any general store to 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:21.139 kill rats. Readily available. And let me guess. 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:23.220 The children were insured. Of course they were. 00:07:23.319 --> 00:07:25.879 And Bell collected a check after each death. 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:28.899 It's so cold. It's so transactional. She's turning 00:07:28.899 --> 00:07:31.439 lives into cash. But the biggest, most brazen 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:34.100 act of this Chicago period was the death of her 00:07:34.100 --> 00:07:37.500 husband, Mads. Oh, this one. This incident on 00:07:37.500 --> 00:07:42.259 July 30th, 1900. This is a masterpiece of cold, 00:07:42.379 --> 00:07:45.920 calculated planning. If you wrote this in a novel, 00:07:45.980 --> 00:07:47.800 people would say it was too convenient to be 00:07:47.800 --> 00:07:49.939 believable. It's all about the timing. Explain 00:07:49.939 --> 00:07:52.939 the insurance situation he had. Okay, so Mads 00:07:52.939 --> 00:07:55.620 had two separate life insurance policies. One 00:07:55.620 --> 00:07:58.779 was an older policy that was set to expire on 00:07:58.779 --> 00:08:01.779 July 30th, that very day. The other policy was 00:08:01.779 --> 00:08:03.800 a brand new one, and it was set to begin on. 00:08:03.899 --> 00:08:06.240 Let me guess, July 30th. The exact same day. 00:08:06.620 --> 00:08:09.379 So for one day and one day only, both policies 00:08:09.379 --> 00:08:11.620 were active. They overlapped. So if he dies the 00:08:11.620 --> 00:08:14.040 day before, she gets one payout. If he dies the 00:08:14.040 --> 00:08:16.259 day after, she gets the other. Precisely. But 00:08:16.259 --> 00:08:19.019 if he dies on that specific single day. She gets 00:08:19.019 --> 00:08:21.480 both. She gets both. And what do you know? On 00:08:21.480 --> 00:08:24.139 July 30th, 1900, Mads comes home from work complaining 00:08:24.139 --> 00:08:26.579 of a headache. A headache. Belle says she gave 00:08:26.579 --> 00:08:29.100 him some quinine powder for the pain. A little 00:08:29.100 --> 00:08:31.639 while later, she checks on him and he's dead. 00:08:32.080 --> 00:08:34.480 And the official cause of death? Cerebral hemorrhage. 00:08:34.639 --> 00:08:38.879 Yeah. A stroke. Ah. Which, you know, it's plausible 00:08:38.879 --> 00:08:41.799 it happens, but given the timing, that quinine 00:08:41.799 --> 00:08:44.220 powder sounds incredibly suspicious. But nobody 00:08:44.220 --> 00:08:47.919 could prove anything. Not back then. No toxicology 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:51.320 screens. It was her word, and it passed. And 00:08:51.320 --> 00:08:53.460 financially, it was a home run for her. She collected 00:08:53.460 --> 00:08:57.220 on both policies a total of $5 ,000. And five 00:08:57.220 --> 00:09:00.980 grand in 1900 is, that's a lot of money. It's 00:09:00.980 --> 00:09:02.860 a fortune. It's equivalent to something like 00:09:02.860 --> 00:09:05.480 $180 ,000, $200 ,000 today. More than enough 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:07.500 to start over? It was enough to leave Chicago 00:09:07.500 --> 00:09:10.980 behind, buy that farm in Indiana, and start the 00:09:10.980 --> 00:09:13.320 next even deadlier phase of her life. This is 00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:16.190 where you see her motive is just. It's pure greed. 00:09:16.309 --> 00:09:18.169 It's a business transaction. She liquidated her 00:09:18.169 --> 00:09:20.870 husband on the day of his maximum value. So she 00:09:20.870 --> 00:09:22.950 takes that blood money, moves out to La Porte, 00:09:22.950 --> 00:09:25.330 Indiana, and buys a pig farm, a fresh start. 00:09:25.549 --> 00:09:27.610 And of course, a fresh husband. Peter Gunness. 00:09:27.669 --> 00:09:30.690 They get married on April 1st, 1902. April Fool's 00:09:30.690 --> 00:09:32.929 Day. You cannot make this stuff up. It's like 00:09:32.929 --> 00:09:35.049 she's mocking the whole institution. And the 00:09:35.049 --> 00:09:38.870 bad luck starts almost immediately. Within one 00:09:38.870 --> 00:09:41.500 week of the wedding. Peter's infant daughter 00:09:41.500 --> 00:09:45.039 from a previous marriage dies. While alone in 00:09:45.039 --> 00:09:49.220 Belle's care. Unknown causes was the official 00:09:49.220 --> 00:09:52.080 finding. But just think about what that does 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:54.960 to Peter. He's now grieving. He's vulnerable. 00:09:55.220 --> 00:09:58.000 He's isolated on this farm with this woman. And 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:00.740 he's next. He didn't last long. Just eight months 00:10:00.740 --> 00:10:03.679 later, Peter Gunness is dead too. In the story 00:10:03.679 --> 00:10:06.919 she tells about his death. It's just bizarre. 00:10:07.039 --> 00:10:09.639 It almost defies the laws of physics. It's completely 00:10:09.639 --> 00:10:11.639 unbelievable. She claimed that he was in the 00:10:11.639 --> 00:10:13.480 kitchen, reaching up for something on a high 00:10:13.480 --> 00:10:16.960 shelf, and a heavy cast iron meat grinder fell 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:19.559 off the shelf, hit him squarely on the head, 00:10:19.620 --> 00:10:22.299 and crushed his skull. A falling meat grinder? 00:10:22.539 --> 00:10:24.720 I mean, those things are heavy, but for it to 00:10:24.720 --> 00:10:27.159 fall with enough force to kill a grown man instantly, 00:10:27.220 --> 00:10:30.220 wouldn't he have moved? Or hurt it? It's a ridiculous 00:10:30.220 --> 00:10:33.539 story. It requires this perfect, magical trajectory 00:10:33.539 --> 00:10:36.440 for the grinder and for Peter to just stand there 00:10:36.440 --> 00:10:38.100 and let it happen. It sounds like something a 00:10:38.100 --> 00:10:40.360 child would make up. And the local authorities, 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:43.480 they weren't buying it, were they? Not for a 00:10:43.480 --> 00:10:46.639 second. This wasn't Chicago. The district coroner 00:10:46.639 --> 00:10:49.519 was extremely skeptical. He actually convened 00:10:49.519 --> 00:10:52.500 a coroner's jury, an inquest, because he was 00:10:52.500 --> 00:10:54.740 sure it was murder. They looked at the wound. 00:10:55.200 --> 00:10:57.679 The angle of impact didn't seem consistent with 00:10:57.679 --> 00:10:59.779 a falling object. It looked like he'd been hit 00:10:59.779 --> 00:11:01.559 with a swung object. But they couldn't prove 00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:04.120 it. They couldn't. Bell put on the performance 00:11:04.120 --> 00:11:07.620 of a lifetime. The grieving widow, cursed with 00:11:07.620 --> 00:11:12.000 terrible luck, crying, wailing. And without modern 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:14.000 forensics, without blood spatter analysis or 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:16.240 anything like that, it was just her word against 00:11:16.240 --> 00:11:20.679 a dead man. So the case was closed. Yeah. And 00:11:20.679 --> 00:11:23.960 she got another payout. Another $3 ,000 in insurance 00:11:23.960 --> 00:11:26.720 money. So now she's a two -time widow. She's 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:29.620 got cash. She's got the farm. But she wants more. 00:11:29.779 --> 00:11:32.559 And this is where her strategy evolves. She stops 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:35.159 marrying local men. Probably because she was 00:11:35.159 --> 00:11:36.840 running out of them and people were getting suspicious. 00:11:37.100 --> 00:11:39.279 And she starts importing her victims. This is 00:11:39.279 --> 00:11:41.639 the start of the Lonely Hearts scam. Exactly. 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:44.399 This was a whole genre of crime back then. If 00:11:44.399 --> 00:11:46.379 you were lonely, especially in a rural area, 00:11:46.600 --> 00:11:48.519 you'd turn to the personal ads in the big city 00:11:48.519 --> 00:11:51.929 newspapers. So around 1905, Bell starts placing 00:11:51.929 --> 00:11:53.970 ads in Norwegian language papers out of Chicago. 00:11:54.289 --> 00:11:56.009 And what were these ads like? What was the bait? 00:11:56.289 --> 00:11:58.250 They were designed to attract a very specific 00:11:58.250 --> 00:12:01.669 profile. A middle -aged man, probably a Scandinavian 00:12:01.669 --> 00:12:04.590 immigrant like yourself, maybe a widower, lonely, 00:12:04.789 --> 00:12:10.070 and most importantly, with money. With cash savings. 00:12:10.450 --> 00:12:12.769 The ad would promise a comfortable life on a 00:12:12.769 --> 00:12:15.190 beautiful farm with a loving wife. But there 00:12:15.190 --> 00:12:17.090 was always a catch in the letters that followed. 00:12:17.770 --> 00:12:20.330 The requirement. Bring your life savings. Yes. 00:12:20.429 --> 00:12:22.529 She'd write things like, we need to pay off the 00:12:22.529 --> 00:12:24.429 mortgage together, or we need to invest in more 00:12:24.429 --> 00:12:27.149 livestock. She framed it as a test of their commitment. 00:12:27.470 --> 00:12:29.429 If you really want to build a life with me, bring 00:12:29.429 --> 00:12:32.250 your cash to prove it. It's so predatory. Let's 00:12:32.250 --> 00:12:34.289 talk about some of these men by name, because 00:12:34.289 --> 00:12:37.210 they weren't just numbers. Henry Gerholt. Henry 00:12:37.210 --> 00:12:40.370 Gerholt was a farmer from Wisconsin. He entered 00:12:40.370 --> 00:12:43.330 an ad, traveled to La Porte, and at first it 00:12:43.330 --> 00:12:44.870 seems like things were going great. He actually 00:12:44.870 --> 00:12:46.970 wrote a letter home to his family. What did he 00:12:46.970 --> 00:12:49.539 say? He said he liked the farm, said Bill was 00:12:49.539 --> 00:12:52.279 a good woman, he was happy. And then he made 00:12:52.279 --> 00:12:55.480 a very specific request. He asked his family 00:12:55.480 --> 00:12:58.519 to mail him his seed potatoes. Seed potatoes. 00:12:58.820 --> 00:13:01.460 He was planning to plant a garden. He was planning 00:13:01.460 --> 00:13:04.019 to stay. He was literally putting down roots. 00:13:04.159 --> 00:13:07.120 It shows you he had no idea he was in any danger, 00:13:07.240 --> 00:13:09.179 and that was the last anyone ever heard from 00:13:09.179 --> 00:13:11.600 him. So when the family doesn't hear back, they 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:14.299 contact Bell. And she's just completely dismissive. 00:13:14.299 --> 00:13:17.340 She says, oh, Henry, he ran off with some horse 00:13:17.340 --> 00:13:19.320 traders, just packed up and left for Chicago. 00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:22.320 But he left his things behind. Crucially, yes. 00:13:22.759 --> 00:13:25.620 He left his trunk and his heavy fur overcoat. 00:13:25.899 --> 00:13:28.980 And in the Midwest, in the early 1900s, a fur 00:13:28.980 --> 00:13:31.820 coat is a valuable, essential item. You don't 00:13:31.820 --> 00:13:33.659 just leave it behind. Then you have the case 00:13:33.659 --> 00:13:37.220 of John Moe. John Moe from Minnesota. He corresponded 00:13:37.220 --> 00:13:39.980 with Bell for months. This wasn't a quick thing. 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:42.879 She groomed him. And when he finally came to 00:13:42.879 --> 00:13:45.679 the farm in 1906, he did just what she asked. 00:13:45.860 --> 00:13:48.620 He liquidated his assets and brought a large 00:13:48.620 --> 00:13:50.620 amount of cash with him. And then he vanished. 00:13:50.860 --> 00:13:53.559 Just like Henry. But this time, there's a witness 00:13:53.559 --> 00:13:56.679 of sorts. A carpenter who did odd jobs on the 00:13:56.679 --> 00:13:59.539 farm. What did he see? He was inside the house, 00:13:59.639 --> 00:14:03.279 and he noticed John Moe's trunk. But it wasn't 00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:05.860 just John's. He told people later that he saw 00:14:05.860 --> 00:14:08.000 more than a dozen trunks stored in the house. 00:14:08.139 --> 00:14:10.360 A dozen just sitting there. That's like a collection 00:14:10.360 --> 00:14:13.100 of trophies. Or just practical storage. But it 00:14:13.100 --> 00:14:15.480 speaks to the sheer volume of men passing through 00:14:15.480 --> 00:14:18.100 that farm. They'd arrive, hand over their cash, 00:14:18.299 --> 00:14:20.679 and then they would just cease to exist. And 00:14:20.679 --> 00:14:23.080 because so many were immigrants or drifters, 00:14:23.179 --> 00:14:25.539 no one would notice for months, maybe years. 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:27.940 She was exploiting their isolation. She weaponized 00:14:27.940 --> 00:14:30.409 it. But that kind of operation can only last 00:14:30.409 --> 00:14:32.309 for so long. Eventually, someone's going to come 00:14:32.309 --> 00:14:34.090 looking for their loved one with more determination. 00:14:34.529 --> 00:14:38.450 And that brings us to 1908, the year it all unravels. 00:14:38.509 --> 00:14:40.929 The pressure was definitely building. And it 00:14:40.929 --> 00:14:44.169 was mostly because of one man, Al Helgelian, 00:14:44.309 --> 00:14:47.169 the brother of another victim, Andrew Helgelian. 00:14:47.289 --> 00:14:50.429 And Al was persistent. He was. And he had proof. 00:14:50.669 --> 00:14:53.309 He'd found the letters between his brother and 00:14:53.309 --> 00:14:55.389 Belle. And what was in them? The whole playbook. 00:14:55.509 --> 00:14:59.480 Yeah. Belle. begging Andrew to come, telling 00:14:59.480 --> 00:15:01.480 him to put all his money, and this is the really 00:15:01.480 --> 00:15:04.000 damning part, telling him to keep his move a 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:06.279 secret from everyone. Don't tell anyone you're 00:15:06.279 --> 00:15:08.720 coming here. That's a massive red flag. A huge 00:15:08.720 --> 00:15:11.840 one. And Belle knew he was getting close. She 00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:13.980 must have felt the net tightening. She even went 00:15:13.980 --> 00:15:16.100 to a lawyer and complained that Azza was harassing 00:15:16.100 --> 00:15:18.600 her, trying to set up a preemptive defense. And 00:15:18.600 --> 00:15:21.279 that's the context for the fire in April 1908. 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:23.860 Exactly. The farmhouse burns to the ground. And 00:15:23.860 --> 00:15:26.279 for a moment, The story is that Belle Gunness 00:15:26.279 --> 00:15:29.019 is the final victim. Right. They find the four 00:15:29.019 --> 00:15:32.019 bodies in the cellar, the three children, and 00:15:32.019 --> 00:15:35.240 a headless adult woman. The assumption is that's 00:15:35.240 --> 00:15:37.799 Belle. The papers run stories about the heroic 00:15:37.799 --> 00:15:40.259 mother who died trying to save her kids. But 00:15:40.259 --> 00:15:44.100 then, Al Helgelian arrives in La Porte. And he 00:15:44.100 --> 00:15:47.539 is not buying it for one second. He finds a man 00:15:47.539 --> 00:15:50.100 who used to work for Belle, Ray Lamphere. And 00:15:50.100 --> 00:15:51.620 they start looking around the farm. They do. 00:15:51.820 --> 00:15:54.639 And they're drawn to the hog pen. Because the 00:15:54.639 --> 00:15:56.919 ground there, it's all uneven. There are these 00:15:56.919 --> 00:15:59.139 soft spots, these depressions in the dirt. It 00:15:59.139 --> 00:16:01.799 looks like it's been dug up recently. To a farmer's 00:16:01.799 --> 00:16:04.200 eye, it's obvious. So they grab shovels. I just 00:16:04.200 --> 00:16:07.360 can't imagine the scene. Digging in the muck 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:10.700 of a pigsty, just hoping to find something. Anything. 00:16:10.960 --> 00:16:13.000 And they hit that gunny sack. And inside. It's 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:15.799 his brother. The sack contains the dismembered 00:16:15.799 --> 00:16:18.090 remains of Andrew Helgelian. Alciel identified 00:16:18.090 --> 00:16:20.590 him right there on the spot. My God, to find 00:16:20.590 --> 00:16:22.769 your brother like that. But that was just the 00:16:22.769 --> 00:16:24.909 start. The police are called and the whole property 00:16:24.909 --> 00:16:27.230 becomes an archaeological dig from hell. They 00:16:27.230 --> 00:16:29.330 started finding those slumped depressions everywhere. 00:16:29.629 --> 00:16:32.429 All over the yard, near the outhouse, down by 00:16:32.429 --> 00:16:34.470 the lake. And the descriptions from the newspapers 00:16:34.470 --> 00:16:38.610 are just, they're so graphic. Burlap sacks filled 00:16:38.610 --> 00:16:41.090 with what one reporter called masses of human 00:16:41.090 --> 00:16:43.529 bone wrapped in loose flesh that dripped like 00:16:43.529 --> 00:16:46.659 jelly. It's horrifying. But from an analytical 00:16:46.659 --> 00:16:49.460 perspective, the condition of the remains told 00:16:49.460 --> 00:16:53.779 a story. How so? Every single body had been dismembered 00:16:53.779 --> 00:16:57.379 in the exact same way. Decapitated, arms removed 00:16:57.379 --> 00:16:59.639 at the shoulders, legs severed at the knees. 00:16:59.860 --> 00:17:02.279 Methodical. Incredibly methodical. This isn't 00:17:02.279 --> 00:17:04.839 a crime of passion. This isn't a frenzied rage. 00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:07.420 This is a process. This is the work of a butcher. 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:09.579 It goes right back to that job in Chicago. It's 00:17:09.579 --> 00:17:12.160 the exact same skill set. She was processing 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:14.119 these men the same way she processed cattle. 00:17:15.009 --> 00:17:17.109 dismantling them to make them fit into sacks 00:17:17.109 --> 00:17:19.829 for easy disposal. So how many bodies did they 00:17:19.829 --> 00:17:22.470 ultimately find? On day one, they found parts 00:17:22.470 --> 00:17:25.789 belonging to five people. The next day, six more. 00:17:26.690 --> 00:17:29.289 After that, it got so chaotic and the press coverage 00:17:29.289 --> 00:17:32.069 was so intense that the official count gets hazy. 00:17:32.150 --> 00:17:33.869 They literally just said they stopped counting. 00:17:34.109 --> 00:17:37.049 So the estimate of 14 to 40, that's based on 00:17:37.049 --> 00:17:38.769 the remains they found and the number of men 00:17:38.769 --> 00:17:41.089 who were known to have gone there. Correct. So 00:17:41.089 --> 00:17:43.410 she goes from being this tragic victim to the 00:17:43.410 --> 00:17:46.329 butcher of La Porte overnight. But the biggest 00:17:46.329 --> 00:17:48.690 question of all still hangs over everything. 00:17:48.930 --> 00:17:51.509 That headless body in the fire. If she killed 00:17:51.509 --> 00:17:54.549 all these men, did she die in the fire? Or was 00:17:54.549 --> 00:17:57.190 that body someone else entirely? And if it was 00:17:57.190 --> 00:17:59.549 someone else, the fire wasn't an accident. It 00:17:59.549 --> 00:18:01.809 was the final piece of the cover -up. This is 00:18:01.809 --> 00:18:04.289 where the hired hand, Ray Lamphere, becomes the 00:18:04.289 --> 00:18:06.509 key witness. Right. He was Bell's on -again, 00:18:06.589 --> 00:18:09.759 off -again lover. and farmhand. Right. And he's 00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:12.160 immediately the prime suspect for the fire. And 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:13.920 he didn't help his case with what he was wearing 00:18:13.920 --> 00:18:16.200 when they arrested him? No. He was caught wearing 00:18:16.200 --> 00:18:18.619 John Moe's overcoat and carrying Henry Gerholt's 00:18:18.619 --> 00:18:20.640 watch. I mean, it's like she dressed him to be 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:23.440 the fall guy. So Ray is arrested and convicted 00:18:23.440 --> 00:18:26.619 of arson. And in jail, he starts to talk. He 00:18:26.619 --> 00:18:29.359 sings like a canary. He confesses to a minister, 00:18:29.460 --> 00:18:32.480 to a journalist. He lays out the whole operation. 00:18:32.839 --> 00:18:35.559 He says Bell lured the men, drug their coffee, 00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:37.640 killed them with a cleaver, and he helped her 00:18:37.640 --> 00:18:39.640 bury the bodies. And what did he say about the 00:18:39.640 --> 00:18:42.579 fire? He claimed Bell specifically asked him 00:18:42.579 --> 00:18:45.019 to burn the house down. But here's the twist. 00:18:45.819 --> 00:18:48.180 Ray swore that the headless body in the cellar 00:18:48.180 --> 00:18:51.099 was not Bell Gunness. Then who was it? He said 00:18:51.099 --> 00:18:54.039 it was a decoy. A woman that Bell had lured to 00:18:54.039 --> 00:18:57.099 the farm from Chicago. Murdered. and planted 00:18:57.099 --> 00:18:59.680 in the house specifically to fake her own death. 00:18:59.920 --> 00:19:02.180 Okay, but that's the word of a convicted accomplice. 00:19:02.200 --> 00:19:04.500 Is there any actual evidence to support that 00:19:04.500 --> 00:19:06.960 theory? There is, and it's pretty compelling. 00:19:07.299 --> 00:19:09.619 The doctor who examined the remains of the headless 00:19:09.619 --> 00:19:12.420 woman testified about it. He noted that the body 00:19:12.420 --> 00:19:16.579 was, at most, 5 '3", and it weighed about 150 00:19:16.579 --> 00:19:20.480 pounds. But Belle was 5 '7", or taller, and over 00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:23.619 200 pounds. Exactly. The body in the fire was 00:19:23.619 --> 00:19:26.039 significantly shorter. and at least 50 pounds 00:19:26.039 --> 00:19:28.539 lighter than Belle Gunness. You don't shrink 00:19:28.539 --> 00:19:31.240 four or five inches in a fire. The skeleton doesn't 00:19:31.240 --> 00:19:33.880 just get shorter. No. And then there's the most 00:19:33.880 --> 00:19:37.079 obvious clue. The missing head. It was never 00:19:37.079 --> 00:19:39.420 found in the debris. Never. And a human skull, 00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:42.619 especially the teeth, is incredibly resilient. 00:19:42.839 --> 00:19:45.279 It doesn't just vaporize in a house fire. The 00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:47.619 fact that it's missing strongly suggests it was 00:19:47.619 --> 00:19:49.660 intentionally removed. Because if you want to 00:19:49.660 --> 00:19:51.640 fake your own death with a body double, the first 00:19:51.640 --> 00:19:53.259 thing you have to do is get rid of the face. 00:19:53.720 --> 00:19:56.799 You have to make identification impossible. So 00:19:56.799 --> 00:19:59.759 Ray's story starts to look very plausible. Belle 00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:02.640 knew Al Hagelin was coming. She needed to disappear. 00:20:02.900 --> 00:20:05.859 So she gets a decoy, kills her, removes the head, 00:20:06.019 --> 00:20:08.220 puts her own dental bridge near the body to throw 00:20:08.220 --> 00:20:11.240 people off. She plants evidence. Yes. They found 00:20:11.240 --> 00:20:13.900 her dental work in the ashes. Then she takes 00:20:13.900 --> 00:20:16.059 the cash she's stolen over the years, and she 00:20:16.059 --> 00:20:18.259 just walks away before Ray sets the fire. And 00:20:18.259 --> 00:20:21.559 Ray Lampert, he died in prison, right? He did, 00:20:21.700 --> 00:20:24.230 of tuberculosis. not long after his conviction. 00:20:24.750 --> 00:20:27.130 But he stuck to his story until the end. So, 00:20:27.230 --> 00:20:30.289 did she get away? Was she ever seen again? That's 00:20:30.289 --> 00:20:32.490 the million -dollar question. For years after 00:20:32.490 --> 00:20:34.750 the fire, there were reported sightings of Belle 00:20:34.750 --> 00:20:37.130 Gunness, people in Chicago all over the Midwest. 00:20:37.670 --> 00:20:40.609 But none were ever confirmed. She became a ghost. 00:20:41.130 --> 00:20:43.190 A legend. But we have DNA now. They tried to 00:20:43.190 --> 00:20:44.789 solve it recently, didn't they? They did. In 00:20:44.789 --> 00:20:47.170 2008, a team from the University of Indianapolis 00:20:47.170 --> 00:20:49.789 exhumed the headless corpse. The plan was to 00:20:49.789 --> 00:20:52.089 extract DNA from the bones and compare it to 00:20:52.089 --> 00:20:54.430 DNA from the saliva on an envelope flap that 00:20:54.430 --> 00:20:57.049 Bell had licked. Modern science trying to solve 00:20:57.049 --> 00:21:00.369 a century -old mystery. What did they find? Frustratingly, 00:21:00.369 --> 00:21:03.190 the results were inconclusive. The sample from 00:21:03.190 --> 00:21:05.230 the envelope was just too old, too degraded. 00:21:05.250 --> 00:21:07.630 They couldn't get a definitive profile. So we 00:21:07.630 --> 00:21:09.650 still don't know for sure. We still don't know. 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:12.480 The mystery remains. And in the meantime, the 00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:15.900 farm itself became this dark tourist attraction. 00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:18.099 Oh, it was a total media circus. People came 00:21:18.099 --> 00:21:19.900 by the trainload from all over the country to 00:21:19.900 --> 00:21:22.160 see the murder farm. They gawked at the open 00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:25.240 graves. Vendors set up stands selling ice cream 00:21:25.240 --> 00:21:28.279 and popcorn. That's just so ghoulish. Selling 00:21:28.279 --> 00:21:30.940 popcorn at a mass grave site. It speaks to that 00:21:30.940 --> 00:21:33.359 dark public fascination with a story like this. 00:21:33.480 --> 00:21:36.859 It had everything. A mysterious, monstrous woman. 00:21:37.140 --> 00:21:40.160 Gruesome secrets. and an ending that was a complete 00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:42.519 question mark it's inspired so much hasn't it 00:21:42.519 --> 00:21:46.319 books movies ballads novels you name it she's 00:21:46.319 --> 00:21:48.599 become a fixture in american true crime folklore 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:51.460 right up there with lizzie borden or h .h holmes 00:21:51.460 --> 00:21:53.940 so to sum it all up we have a norwegian immigrant 00:21:53.940 --> 00:21:56.059 who starts with the american dream and twists 00:21:56.059 --> 00:21:59.619 it into this this industrial scale nightmare 00:21:59.619 --> 00:22:02.799 of murder for profit her method is what makes 00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:05.839 her so unique The combination of her raw physical 00:22:05.839 --> 00:22:09.460 strength, her butcher skills, and this cold, 00:22:09.539 --> 00:22:12.380 calculating greed. She wasn't the thrill killer. 00:22:12.700 --> 00:22:15.839 For her, murder was a business model. And it's 00:22:15.839 --> 00:22:18.200 the ambiguity of her end that makes her a legend. 00:22:18.339 --> 00:22:20.819 Absolutely. Because if that was her body in the 00:22:20.819 --> 00:22:24.660 fire, then it's a closed, if brutal, loop. But 00:22:24.660 --> 00:22:27.029 if it wasn't. And that's the really chilling 00:22:27.029 --> 00:22:29.009 thought I want to leave everyone with. If Ray 00:22:29.009 --> 00:22:31.769 Lamphere was telling the truth, if that headless 00:22:31.769 --> 00:22:34.450 body was just a pawn in her game. It means Belle 00:22:34.450 --> 00:22:37.109 Gunness got away clean. She walked off that farm 00:22:37.109 --> 00:22:39.970 with a fortune in cash and just dissolved into 00:22:39.970 --> 00:22:43.470 the crowds of 1908 America, free to start over 00:22:43.470 --> 00:22:45.250 somewhere else. That raises the question, doesn't 00:22:45.250 --> 00:22:47.670 it? For how many years afterwards did she live 00:22:47.670 --> 00:22:50.480 out a quiet life? How many people sat next to 00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:53.119 a large, older Norwegian woman on a streetcar 00:22:53.119 --> 00:22:55.440 in some city or bought something from her in 00:22:55.440 --> 00:22:57.799 a shop with no idea they were standing right 00:22:57.799 --> 00:23:00.059 next to the butcher of La Porte? It's a terrifying 00:23:00.059 --> 00:23:02.099 thought. That's all the time we have for this 00:23:02.099 --> 00:23:04.039 Deep Dive. Thanks for listening. We'll see you 00:23:04.039 --> 00:23:04.339 next time.