Belle Sorenson Gunness (1859 - 1908?) is believed to be the second biggest female serial killer in history, unlike many serial killers she often had financial motives, collecting life insurance benefits from many of her victims. It is estimated that she killed more than 40 people over several decades. Much mystery surrounds Gunness' early life, although it is often reported that in 1877 aged just 18 she attended a country dance whilst pregnant where she was kicked in the abdomen and lost her unborn child. Accounts state that her personality changed significantly after this tragedy, particularly as the man was charged; apparently as he was rich and influential. She subsequently worked on a farm for three years in order to save money for a trip across the Atlantic to America, this followed the lead of her older sister. Her sister was later to state that Belle was "crazy for money".

Gunness married a Norwegian man in Chicago and soon after they opened a confectionery store. The business venture was not a success and within a year the store had burnt down in mysterious circumstances. Belle claimed that a kerosene lamp had exploded and started the fire, however no lamp was ever found but insurance money was paid and the money was used to purchase the couple a home in Austin, Chicago. This home was later to be destroyed, again by a mysterious fire, in 1898; the couple again collected insurance money and purchased another home. Within two years her husband had died, on July 30th 1900, the only day that two life insurance policies on him overlapped. The first doctor to visit him thought he had died as a result of poisoning however the family doctor, who had been treating him for an enlarged heart, decided that the death had been caused by heart failure. She applied for insurance money of $8,500 dollars on the day after his funeral, whilst Sorenson's relatives claimed that Gunness had killed him for the money. She used the money to buy a farm in Indiana and moved there with the couples three daughters, one of whom was adopted. It was later established that Gunness and Sorenson had four offspring together, but that two had died in infancy; suffice to say that those two children were also insured and that it is now believed that they too were poisoned.

Shortly after purchasing the farm in La Porte, Indiana, the property's boathouse and carriage house burnt down. Later Belle was to meet a Norwegian named Peter Gunness who lived in her village (it was at this stage that Belle acquired her famous surname) and they married on April 1st 1902. By this stage Belle was working a lot quicker, and money had clearly gone well and truly to her head, within a week of the ceremony Peter's infant daughter had died whilst in the house alone with Belle. By the end of the same year Peter had a "tragic accident", this time a sausage grinding machine had fallen from a high shelf onto his head, killing him instantly. Peter's death gave Belle yet more money, this time another $3,000, however the local coroner reviewed the case and announced that he had been murdered. Belle's 14 year old daughter Jennie had also been overheard telling a classmate that her mum had killed him with a meat cleaver. Unbelievably, she was acquitted of all charges by the coroners jury, possibly as they sympathised with her hardship as a pregnant lady.

Belle subsequently employed a farm hand called Ray Lamphere in 1906 to help run her farm, in the same year her adopted daughter Jennie fell out of sight, Gunness told curious villagers that Jennie had been sent to a finishing school in Los Angeles. Jennie had in fact been killed and her body was later to be found on Belle's farm. At the same time Gunness placed an ad in the matrimonial columns of all Chicago daily newspapers and those of other cities, she stated that she was a widow who desired to make the acquaintance of a gentleman with equal wealth to join fortunes. The result was a train of suitors, armed with wallets full of cash and deeds to their properties. Each would never be seen again, whilst Belle would deposit regular large sums of money into her bank account.

A turning point came when Belle's farm hand Ray Lamphere became jealous of all the men visiting her, as he was deeply in love with her, he did anything that she asked no matter how gruesome. She fired him in February 1908 before subsequently trying to get him declared insane, an effort which failed. Lamphere presented a significant threat to her now and she told a lawyer that Lamphere presented a threat to her and her children's safety, she also told this lawyer that Lamphere had threatened to burn her house down so she wanted to make a will that left her entire estate to her three remaining children. After writing the will she went to the bank in La Porte and paid off her mortgage.

Joe Maxon, who had been appointed Ray Lamphere's replacement after his dismissal, awoke in the early hours of April 28th 1908 after smelling smoke in his room. He jumped from his second floor room and ran to town to get help, but by the time it had arrived the farmhouse was nothing but a heap of smouldering ruins. The floors had collapsed and four bodies were found in the cellar, although Belle's body could not be identified as it had no head. Next to this corpse were her three children. Lamphere was arrested for Arson, although he denied the claims, before dozens of people began to score the ruins for evidence. But was Belle Gunness really dead? several neighbours and old friends were called to identify the body, all of whom said that the body was definitely not Gunness. The authorities determined that the body was not that of Belle Gunness and had in fact been a woman 5 inches shorter than her, a subsequent examination of the body found that the woman had in fact been poisoned. Did Belle Gunness in fact stage her own arson?

After Joe Maxon had informed investigators that he had been ordered to fill depressions in the earth on Belle's land, investigators became suspicious. They subsequently began to dig and found the bodies of her adopted daughter Jennie Olson, the bodies of two unidentified children, and the bodies of Ole. B Budsberg, Thomas Lindboe, Henry Gurholdt, Olaf Svenherud and Olaf Lindbloom as well as numerous bodies that could not be identified. In total there were remains of more than 40 men and children buried on her property. Days before Lamphere's death he confessed that he helped to dispose of many bodies for Gunness but never killed himself, he stated that the body found in the fire was definetly not Belle's and that she had made her escape. He stated that she had murdered 42 men by his count and had accumulated more than $250,000, most of which was withdrawn from her account just days before the fire. For several decades there were reported sightings of Gunness across America, as late as 1931 there were sightings of Gunness alive and well in Mississippi. In 1931 a woman known as 'Esther Carlson' was arrested in Los Angeles for the poisoning of a man for money. Two people claimed to recognise the lady as Gunness but 'Carlson' died whilst awaiting her trail and this was never proved.

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