Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men

by Harold Schechter

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  1. Chicago Tribune, May 8, 1908, p. 1.

  2. See The Federal Reporter: Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Court of Appeals and Circuit and District Courts of the United States, Vol. 177 (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co., 1910), pp. 679–84.

  3. Pamela Ilyse Epstein, Selling Love: The Commercialization of Intimacy in America 1860s–1900s (diss., New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 2010), pp. 127–28.

  4. Clifton R. Wooldridge, Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World (Chicago, IL: Chicago Publishing Co., 1908), p. 119.

  5. Chicago Tribune, May 9, 1908, p. 1.

  6. Wooldridge, p. 132.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  1. Chicago Inter Ocean, May 8, 1908, pp. 1 and 2; Chicago Daily Journal, May 9, 1908, pp. 1 and 3.

  2. Chicago Inter Ocean, May 9, 1908, p. 1.

  3. Chicago Daily News, May 8, 1908, p. 1.

  4. Ibid.; La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 8, 1908, p. 1.

  5. Los Angeles Herald, May 10, 1908, p. 1; Chicago Tribune, May 10, 1908, p. 1.

  6. Washington Herald, May 9, 1908, p. 3.

  7. Washington Herald, May 13, 1908, p. 3.

  8. Washington Herald, June 6, 1908, p. 3.

  9. Washington Herald, May 22, 1908, p. 3.

  10. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 11, 1908, p. 2.

  11. Paducah Evening Sun, May 15, 1908, p. 5; Washington Times, May 9, 1908, p. 2; Salt Lake Herald, May 12, 1908, p. 3; Washington Herald, May 22, 1908, p. 3; Hinton, pp. 47–52.

  12. Hinton, p. 35; “Coroner’s Inquisition, Unidentified Person, Gunness Farm, Henry Gurholt?, Deposition of Witness Martin Gurholt, Exhibit ‘B.’”

  13. New York Sun, May 12, 1908, p. 5; Hinton, p. 43.

  14. Hinton, p. 36.

  15. Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 10, 1908, p. 1.

  16. Chicago Inter Ocean, May 8, 1908, p. 2.

  17. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 9, 1908, p. 3.

  18. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 20, 1908, p. 1.

  19. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 16, 1908, p. 4.

  20. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 11, 1908, p. 1; Salt Lake Herald, May 12, 1908, p. 1.

  21. Chicago Tribune, May 10, 1908, p. 3.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Chicago Inter Ocean, May 8, 1908, pp. 1 and 2.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  1. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 9, 1908; Chicago Tribune, May 7, 1908, p. 3

  2. See, for example, Grand Forks Daily Herald, May 19, 1908, p. 1.

  3. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 9, 1908, p. 5, and May 11, 1908, p. 3.

  4. Chicago Examiner, May 24, 1908, Sunday magazine, p. 6.

  5. “A Symposium on Mrs. Belle Gunness,” The Phrenological Journal and Science of Health Magazine, Vol. 121, Number 8 (August 1908), pp. 251–53.

  6. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 8, 1908, p. 7.

  7. Harold Schechter, The Devil’s Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century (New York: Random House/Ballantine Books, 2007), p. 139.

  8. Chicago Tribune, June 3, 1908, p. 1.

  9. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 18, 1908, p. 1.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  1. Dr. Walter S. Gaines, letter to Charles S. Mack, July 13, 1908, filed in the archives of the La Porte Historical Society Museum. See also La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 9, 1908, p. 1.

  2. See Langlois, p. 1.

  3. A. I. Schutzer, “The Lady-Killer,” American Heritage, Vol. 15, Issue 6 (October 1964), pp. 36–39 and 91–94.

  4. Ibid., p. 37.

  5. Chicago Daily Journal, May 8, 1908, p. 3.

  6. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 9, 1908, p. 3; La Porte Weekly Herald, May 21, 1908, p. 5.

  7. For an excellent account of the Bender case, see Robert H. Adleman, The Bloody Benders (New York: Stein and Day, 1970).

  8. See, for example, the Chicago Daily Tribune, May 10, 1908, p. 2.

  9. Chicago Daily Tribune, May 9, 1908, p. 8.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  1. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 9, 1908, p. 1; New York Times, May 10, 1908, p. 2; Chicago Inter Ocean, May 10, 1908, p. 1; Chicago Examiner, May 9, 1908, pp. 1 and 2.

  2. New York Times, May 10, 1908, p. 2; Chicago Examiner, May 9, 1908, p. 2.

  3. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 9, 1908, p. 2.

  4. Chicago Evening American, May 9, 1908, p. 1.

  5. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 9, 1908, p. 1.

  6. Ibid., p. 7.

  7. Grand Forks Daily Herald, May 10, 1908, p. 3.

  8. Columbus Enquirer Sun, May 12, 1908, p. 2.

  9. Aberdeen Daily American, May 18, 1908, p. 1.

  10. The Bellingham Herald, May 26, 1908, p. 1.

  11. Duluth New Tribune, May 16, 1908, p. 3; Belleville New Democrat, June 1, 1908, p. 1; Lexington Herald, May 19, 1908, p. 1; Saskatchewan Sunday Tribune, June 14, 1908, p. 2; Columbus Enquirer Sun, June 10, 1908, p. 1.

  12. Chicago Evening American, May 9, 1908, p. 1.

  13. Hinton, p. 95.

  14. Ibid., p. 94.

  15. Chicago Inter Ocean, May 10, 1908, p. 1; Chicago Tribune, May 10, 1908, p. 1.

  16. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 9, 1908, p. 1, and May 10, 1908, p. 1; Scranton Republican, May 10, 1908, p. 1.

  17. Chicago Tribune, May 10, 1908, p. 2.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  1. Chicago Inter Ocean, May 11, 1908, p. 1.

  2. La Porte Weekly Herald, May 14, 1908, p. 14.

  3. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 11, 1908, p. 1; New York Times, May 11, 1908, p. 2.

  4. Chicago Inter Ocean, May 11, 1908, p. 1.

  5. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 11, 1908, p. 1.

  6. La Porte Weekly Herald, May 14, 1908, p. 3.

  7. Chicago Inter Ocean, May 11, 1908, p. 1.

  8. New York Times, May 11, 1908, p. 2.

  9. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 11, 1908, p. 1; La Porte Weekly Herald, May 14, 1908, p. 14; New York Times, May 11, 1908, p. 2.

  10. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 13, 1908, p. 2; Chicago Inter Ocean, May 11, 1908, p. 1; Hinton, pp. 64 and 65.

  11. La Porte Weekly Herald, May 14, 1908, p. 3.

  12. La Porte Weekly Herald, May 21, 1908, p. 2.

  13. See, for example, the advertisement for the Lyric Theater in the Concordia (Kansas) Daily Blade, November 23, 1908, p. 4.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  1. La Porte Weekly Herald, May 21, 1908, p. 4.

  2. Chicago Inter Ocean, May 11, 1908, p. 2.

  3. Chicago Daily Journal, May 11, 1908, p. 1.

  4. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 14, 1908, p. 8.

  5. Salt Lake Herald, May 15, 1908, p. 3.

  6. de la Torre, p. 51.

  7. Chicago Daily Journal, May 13, 1908, p. 2.

  8. La Porte Weekly Herald, May 14, 1909, p. 8.

  9. Ibid.

  10. New York Times, May 25, 1908, p. 3.

  11. de la Torre, p. 52.

  12. Anon., The Mrs. Gunness Mystery! A Thrilling Tale of Love, Duplicity & Crime. Being a recital of the strange story of the career of Mrs. Belle Gunness. It tells in detail everything regarding her career of crime; how she, by representing herself as a charming and rich widow, lured matrimonial victims to her farm, only to murder them in cold blood. Also containing accounts of other noted murder mysteries, including the Bender Case, the Holmes Castle Mystery, and others (Chicago: Thompson & Thomas, 1908), pp. 10–13.

 
13. Ibid., pp. 44–45.

  14. Ibid., pp. 68–69.

  15. Ibid., p. 81.

  16. Ibid., p. 176.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  1. Holbrook, p. 140; de la Torre, p. 48.

  2. Chicago Daily Examiner, May 10, 1908, p. 1; La Porte Herald Weekly, May 21, 1908, p. 1. Accounts differ in the number of watches found in the ruins, with some newspapers putting the total at eleven.

  3. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 11, 1908, p. 1.

  4. Ibid., May 23, 1908, p. 1; Chicago Inter Ocean, May 28, 1908, p. 3.

  5. Chicago Daily Tribune, May 16, 1908, p. 3; La Porte Weekly Herald, May 21, 1908, p. 4.

  6. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 13, 1908, p. 4.

  7. Chicago Daily Examiner, May 20, 1908, p. 3; Chicago Inter Ocean, May 20, 1908, p. 2.

  8. Chicago Daily Tribune, May 20, 1908, p. 6.

  9. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 19, 1908, p. 1.

  10. Ibid., May 15, 1908, p. 1.

  11. Ibid., May 21, 1908, p. 2.

  12. Chicago Inter Ocean, May 23, 1908, p. 2; New York Times, May 23, 1908, p. 2. Appended to these six indictments was a seventh, charging Lamphere with assisting Belle Gunness in disposing of Helgelien’s body.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  1. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 21, 1908, p. 8.

  2. Langlois, pp. 23 and 26–27.

  3. de la Torre, pp. 61–62.

  4. Shepherd, p. 126.

  5. New York Times, May 30, 1908, p. 2; Chicago Inter Ocean, May 30, 1908, p. 3; Hinton, pp. 61–62; Shepherd, pp. 125–26.

  6. Shepherd, pp. 125–26.

  7. La Porte Weekly Herald, June 25, 1908, p. 4.

  8. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, May 21, 1908, p. 1.

  9. Detroit Free Press, July 10, 1908, p. 2; La Porte Argus-Bulletin, July 10, 1908, p. 1, and July 11, 1908, p. 1; Spanish Fork Press, July 16, 1908, p. 1; Chicago Inter Ocean, July 18, 1908; La Porte Argus-Bulletin, July 29, 1908, p. 1; Wichita Daily Eagle, October 9, 1908, p. 1.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  1. Chicago Inter Ocean, November 8, 1908, p. 8. For unknown reasons, no transcript of Ray Lamphere’s trial exists. My account of the proceedings draws on the extensive coverage by the La Porte and Chicago newspapers.

  2. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 12, 1908, p. 1; de la Torre, pp. 65–66.

  3. La Porte Weekly Herald, November 12, 1908, p. 7.

  4. de la Torre, p. 63; La Porte Weekly Herald, November 12, 1908, p. 3; La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 10, 1908, p. 1.

  5. Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, March 9, 1905, p. 1; Cincinnati Enquirer, April 11, 1905, p. 1.

  6. Fort Wayne News, January 22, 1906, p. 8; Argos Reflector, January 26, 1998, p. 1.

  7. La Porte Weekly Herald, November 12, 1908, p. 3.

  8. Ibid., November 13, 1908, p. 1.

  9. Ibid., November 10, 1908, p. 1.

  10. Chicago Evening American, November 10, 1908, p. 1; Chicago Examiner, November 10, 1908, p. 1.

  11. Chicago Daily Journal, November 11, 1908, p. 3.

  12. Shepherd, pp. 127–28; de la Torre, p. 50; Boston Daily Globe, June 1, 1908, p. 8.

  13. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 1, 1908, p. 2.

  14. Cincinnati Enquirer, June 2, 1908, p. 2; New York Times, June 3, 1908, p. 3.

  15. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 10, 1908, p. 1.

  16. Ibid., November 12, 1908, p. 1, and November 13, 1908, p. 1.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  1. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 13, 1908, p. 1.

  2. de la Torre, p. 70.

  3. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 12, 1908, p. 1.

  4. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 13, 1908, p. 1; La Porte Weekly Herald, November 19, 1908, p. 1.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  1. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 13, 1908, p. 3, and La Porte Daily Herald, November 13, 1908, p. 8.

  2. Chicago Inter Ocean, November 8, 1908, p. 8.

  3. de la Torre, p. 75.

  4. Indianapolis Star, May 11, 1930, p. 1.

  5. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 10, 1908, p. 1.

  6. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 13, 1908, p. 3.

  7. de la Torre, p. 79.

  8. La Porte Weekly Herald, November 19, 1908, pp. 1 and 3; de la Torre, p. 79.

  9. La Porte Weekly Herald, November 19, 1908, p. 2.

  10. Ibid.

  11. de la Torre, p. 85.

  12. Ibid., pp. 85–86.

  13. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 13, 1908, p. 4.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  1. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 14, 1908, p. 2.

  2. Daniels, p. 722.

  3. Indianapolis Star, December 12, 1912, p. 2; January 20, 1913, p. 8; February 23, 1913, p. 16.

  4. de la Torre, p. 86.

  5. Ibid.; La Porte Weekly Herald, November 19, 1908, p. 2.

  6. Indianapolis Star, August 17, 1940, p. 14.

  7. See, for example, Dental Digest, Vol. XI, No. 5 (May 1905), p. 520.

  8. La Porte Weekly Herald, November 19, 1908, p. 3; La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 16, 1908, p. 3.

  9. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 16, 1908, p. 3.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  1. La Porte Weekly Herald, November 19, 1908, p. 3.

  2. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 16, 1908, pp. 1 and 4.

  3. de la Torre, p. 100; La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 16, 1908, p. 8; La Porte Weekly Herald, November 19, 1908, p. 5.

  4. de la Torre, p. 93; La Porte Weekly Herald, November 19, 1908, p. 3.

  5. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 16, 1908, p. 4; La Porte Weekly Herald, November 19, 1908, p. 3.

  6. de la Torre, p. 94.

  7. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 16, 1908, p. 4.

  8. Ibid.

  9. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 16, 1908, p. 8.

  10. Carroll (Iowa) Herald, May 13, 1908, p. 3.

  11. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 17, 1908, p. 1.

  12. Chicago Daily Journal, November 17, 1908, p. 2.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  1. Washington Irving, “Rip Van Winkle,” in Selected Writings of Washington Irving (New York: The Modern Library, 1984), p. 48.

  2. La Porte Weekly Herald, November 19, 1908, p. 5.

  3. Evansville Press, May 12, 1908, p. 1; Pittsburgh Press, May 7, 1908, p. 1; de la Torre, p. 101.

  4. La Porte Weekly Herald, November 19, 1908, p. 5.

  5. Ibid.

  6. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 18, 1908, p. 1; La Porte Weekly Herald, November 19, 1908, p. 5; de la Torre, pp. 103–4.

  7. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 18, 1908, p. 1.

  8. Ibid.; de la Torre, p. 114.

  9. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 18, 1908, p. 1.

  10. de la Torre, p. 116.

  11. Ibid., p. 126.

  12. Chicago Examiner, November 20, 1908, p. 4.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  1. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 20, 1908, p. 1.

  2. Ibid.; Chicago Daily Journal, November 20, 1908, p. 2.

  3. For a capsule biography of Ball, see Fern Eddy Schultz, “La Porte County’s first ‘native son,’” at http://www.heraldargus.com/community/columnists/fern_eddy_schultz/la-porte-county-s-first-native-son/article_fbe8c5f2-51b6-57eb-b1ca-009cdb20059f.html.

  4. Shepherd, p. 178.

  5. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 21, 1908, p. 1; Alexandria Times-Trib
une, November 21, 1908, p. 1.

  6. de la Torre, pp. 134–36.

  7. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 21, 1908, p. 1.

  8. The Daily Republican, November 21, 1908, p. 7.

  9. Shepherd, p. 185.

  10. Chicago Daily Examiner, November 21, 1908, p. 5.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  1. Chicago Examiner, November 18, 1908, p. 6; Indianapolis News, November 21, 1908, p. 3.

  2. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 20, 1908, p. 1.

  3. La Porte Weekly Herald, November 26, 1908, p. 14.

  4. Ibid., p. 15.

  5. Ibid., p. 11.

  6. Chicago Daily Tribune, November 23, 1908, p. 2.

  7. Chicago Daily Journal, November 22, 1908, p. 2.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  1. Chicago Examiner, November 22, 1908, p. 1; Chicago Inter Ocean, November 22, 1908, p. 11; La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 23, 1908, p. 1.

  2. Indianapolis Star, November 22, 1908, p. 5; de la Torre, p. 139.

  3. Cincinnati Enquirer, November 24, 1908, p. 9.

  4. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 23, 1908, 5; de la Torre, p. 144.

  5. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 23, 1908, p. 1; Shepherd, p. 187; de la Torre,

  p. 144.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  1. Chicago Daily Tribune, January 28, 1923, p. 11.

  2. Unity: Freedom, Fellowship and Character in Religion, Vol. XIV, No. 2 (September 16, 1884), p. ii.

  3. See, for example, Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, June 13, 1895, p. 1.

  4. See, for example, The American Law Register, Vol. 51, Philadelphia: Department of Law, University of Pennsylvania, 1903, pp. 465–66.

  5. Robert Loerzel, Alchemy of Bones: Chicago’s Luetgert Case of 1897 (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2003), p. 126; John Buckingham, Bitter Nemesis: The Intimate History of Strychnine (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2008), p. 193; Edward H. Smith, Famous Poison Mysteries (New York: The Dial Press, 1927), p. 183.

  6. Louisville Courier-Journal, November 22, 1908, p. 1.

  7. La Porte Argus-Bulletin, November 24, 1908, p. 1.