Belle Gunness

AKA - Black Widow

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In 1908 one of the most notorious female serial killers in history came to the "land of opportunity", the US from a small village in Norway. The ugly-fat lady settled in La Porte, Indiana where she started (or continued) her career as a "Black Widow". By placing ads in newspapers around the country where she claimed to be "an attractive, rich widow owner of a large farm looking to meet men of wealth"she attracted her victims. After married, she would kill her husband to collect his life insurance and life savings. Many of them were killed with an axe while sleeping other poisoned. Like this she was able to kill around 16 people including her suitors and her two infant children after insuring their lives. Most of them were dismembered and wrapped in sacks and then buried in her garden or basement, or fed to the pigs. After her house was set on fire (allegedly by Ray Lamphere, her recently fired employee) the bodies were found including the headless corpse of a female which they believed to be the one of Belle Gunness. Later they proved they were wrong. After that, some say she was seen in different spots around the country. ___________________________________________ <Oliver Burt's Song>: Belle Gunness was a lady fair, In Indiana State. She weighed about three hundred pounds, And that is quite some weight. That she was stronger than a man Her neighbors all did own; She butchered hogs right easily, And did it all alone. But hogs where just a sideline She indulge in now and then; Her favorite occupation Was a-butchering of men