Hell's princess : the mystery of Belle Gunness, butcher of men

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Title:

Personal Author:

Schechter, Harold, author.

ISBN:

9781477808955

9781477808948

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

xvi, 316 pages ; 24 cm.

Abstract:

"In the pantheon of serial killers, Belle Gunness stands alone. She was the rarest of female psychopaths, a woman who engaged in wholesale slaughter, partly out of greed but mostly for the sheer joy of it. Between 1902 and 1908, she lured a succession of unsuspecting victims to her Indiana 'murder farm.' Some were hired hands. Others were well-to-do bachelors. All of them vanished without a trace. When their bodies were dug up, they hadn't merely been poisoned, like victims of other female killers. They'd been butchered"--Dust jacket flap.

Personal Subject:

Gunness, Belle, 1859-1908.

Subject Term:

Serial murders -- United States -- Case studies.

Women serial murderers -- Biography.

Genre:

True crime stories.

Electronic Access:

Language:

English

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Location
Searching... Hillview Branch	Book	B GUNN	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

"A deeply researched and morbidly fascinating chronicle of one of America's most notorious female killers." -- The New York Times Book Review

An Amazon Charts bestseller.

In the pantheon of serial killers, Belle Gunness stands alone. She was the rarest of female psychopaths, a woman who engaged in wholesale slaughter, partly out of greed but mostly for the sheer joy of it. Between 1902 and 1908, she lured a succession of unsuspecting victims to her Indiana "murder farm." Some were hired hands. Others were well-to-do bachelors. All of them vanished without a trace. When their bodies were dug up, they hadn't merely been poisoned, like victims of other female killers. They'd been butchered.

Hell's Princess is a riveting account of one of the most sensational killing sprees in the annals of American crime: the shocking series of murders committed by the woman who came to be known as Lady Bluebeard. The only definitive book on this notorious case and the first to reveal previously unknown information about its subject, Harold Schechter's gripping, suspenseful narrative has all the elements of a classic mystery--and all the gruesome twists of a nightmare.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Schechter (Man-Eater) recounts the horrifying murders committed by Belle Gunness, who lured approximately 28 men to their deaths on her Indiana farm in the early 20th century. Gunness advertised in national papers seeking a hired hand, and enticed scores of immigrants to join her on the farm, after which she poisoned them, mutilated their bodies, and buried them in her yard. Early in the book, readers learn that Gunness and her children were thought to have died in a 1908 house fire, but Schechter sustains the horror by recounting the subsequent excavation of their bodies, which led police to discover the remains of Gunness's numerous victims ("piles of hacked, rotting skeletons with an occasional fleshless skull"). Ray Lamphere, one of Gunness's surviving workers, was charged with arson and the deaths of Gunness and her children, but investigators struggled to determine if the charred remains found in the house were hers. Schechter draws from press accounts of the crimes' aftermath at the height of yellow journalism; Gunness is breathlessly described in newspapers as "a modern Lady Macbeth," an "Indiana Ogress," and the "Female Bluebeard." With riveting and thorough detail, Schechter tracks the mystery of Lamphere's culpability in the arson and closes with a possibly related murder that took place decades after the 1908 house fire. True-crime fans will be hooked from the start. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

True-crime expert Schechter turns his attention to Belle Gunness, who, between 1902 and 1908, murdered 40 or more people, including her own children, several lovers, and, quite possibly, both of her husbands. And she didn't use the murder method most favored by women of the time, poison; instead, she slaughtered her victims, as though they were animals. And, adding to the horror, no one knows for sure what happened to Gunness. It seems clear she faked her own death, part of a lengthy plot to frame another man for her crimes, and there were reports well into the 1920s of people seeing her in various places, but her fate remains a mystery. Few writers approach true crime with the skill, compassion, and insight of Schechter, who has previously written about such notable killers as Ed Gein, Albert Fish, and H. H. Holmes. His goal is to help us understand not just what his subjects did but also why they did what they did what internal torments and psychological traits drove them to become brutal killers. A sharply written, compelling account from a proven winner.--Pitt, David Copyright 2018 Booklist

Library Journal Review

La Porte, IN, in the early 1900s was a good place to start a new life-and to disappear. It is where Norwegian American widow Belle Gunness, born Brynhild -Paulsdatter Storset, lured an unknown number of lonely, single men to her farm never to be seen again. Schechter (American literature & popular culture, Queens Coll., City Univ. of New York; The Mad Sculptor) tells Belle's story, from her early immigrant years through the deaths of her first husband and children to her publishing "lonely hearts" ads in Scandinavian newspapers. Once the men turned over their money, they were poisoned, butchered, and buried on Belle's land. Nobody knows the true number of her victims, but it is estimated that between 25 and 40 men died at her hands. Ironically, a falling-out with former lover Ray Lamphere led to her undoing, and she, along with her three children, died in a mysterious house fire. Did Lamphere burn down the house? Did Belle? Was the body really hers? Even Lamphere's trial for arson and murder didn't quell all the questions. Long after Belle's apparent death, her legend continues. VERDICT This biography of a prolific and brutal serial killer will be of interest to Midwestern regional history buffs as well as true crime fans.-Deirdre Bray Root, formerly with MidPointe Lib. Syst., OH © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.