At the request of the Pilgrim Fathers Insurance Company, the police proceeded to exhume the bodies of Sarah Jane’s other insured relatives: Moses and Lizzie Robinson, Annie, Prince, and Tommy Freeman, and her ex-landlord Oliver Sleeper. They had all died of arsenic poisoning.
On March the 5th, 1888, Sarah Jane was again arrested and charged with the murders of Prince, Annie, and Tommy Freeman, Moses and Lizzie Robinson, and Oliver Sleeper. At her trial the jury took less than an hour to find Sarah Jane guilty of murder in the first degree.
Sarah Jane was sentenced to hang on November 16, 1888.
Sarah Jane’s lawyers appealed the case to the Supreme Judicial Court. The appeal was denied. A petition was launched to commute Sarah Jane’s sentence to life in prison. Five hundred people signed it. Included in the signatures were seven jurors that had convicted her and seventy-six ministers.
The governor of the state commuted Sarah Jane Robinson’s sentence to life imprisonment in solitary confinement.
Sarah Jane died in prison on January 3rd, 1906 at the age of 67 from complications following a long illness.
JANE TOPPAN
Jane Toppan was born in 1857 and named Honora Kelley. She was the second eldest daughter of Irish immigrants. Her sister, Delia Josephine, was two years older than her. When she was a small child Bridget Kelley, her mother, died from tuberculosis. Her father, known as "Kelly the Crack," was Peter Kelley, an eccentric and an alcoholic. There is a story that when he was a tailor, he sewed his eyelids closed. Whether this is true or not is unknown, but it demonstrates how people perceived his eccentricity or possibly insanity.
Peter Kelley, shortly after his wife died, took Delia and Honora to a Boston orphanage and never saw them again. Reports from the orphanage state that the young girls were, “saved from an extremely miserable home.”.” In 1864, at the age of just seven, Honora was sent to live in Lowell, Massachusetts in the home of Ann Toppan as a servant. Honora, although never officially adopted by the Toppan family, took their surname and changed her Christian name to Jane. She spent her years with the family in the shadow of Elizabeth, her privileged and pretty foster sister. Jane claimed in later years that Ann Toppan abused her.
Jane’s sister, Delia, remained at the orphanage until 1868. Delia was eventually found a place in New York, at the age of twelve, as a servant. When old enough, she left domestic service and became a prostitute and alcoholic. A few years later, Delia was discovered dead in wretched conditions.
Jane, in 1885, enrolled to become a trainee nurse at the Cambridge Hospital. It was during her training that Jane started experimenting with her patients. Her experiments involved altering the patients' prescribed dosages of atropine and morphine. Jane would spend much time on her own with her “special” patients and would make up false charts and medicate them so they would drift in and out of consciousness before dying. On occasions, she would go so far as to climb into their beds with them. No one knows whether she participated in sexual activities with these patients.
Jane earned considerable respect during her time at Cambridge as a ward sister. She was known as a “jolly” nurse and seen as a good sport. In 1889, Jane Toppan was endorsed for a placement at the Massachusetts General, a hospital with a prestigious reputation. Here, she carried on her activities but was dismissed within a year. Jane returned to her previous job at Cambridge Hospital but within months was fired for irresponsibly prescribing opiates.
Jane then began private nursing and seemed to be successful, despite grumbles of minor stealing.
In 1895, she murdered her landlords and in 1899, Jane gave Elizabeth Toppan, her foster sister, a fatal amount of strychnine. At some point in 1901, she was employed to nurse an elderly widower, Alden Davis, who lived in Cataumet. She lived in the house with the family. Alden Davis’s wife had been, unknown to the family, killed by Jane.
Within weeks of moving into the house, Alden Davis and both his daughters had died.
Jane returned to Boston where she started to make moves on Elizabeth’s, her foster sister’s, husband. She poisoned her sister who died and poisoned him slightly, so she would be able to nurse him and return him to good health. In her mind, he would then realize what a terrific nurse she was. Her plot didn’t work, and she was thrown out of the house.
Meanwhile in Cataumet, the relatives of Alden Davis requested a toxicology report on the daughters of Alden Davis. This toxicology examination concluded that they had died from poisoning. On October 26th, 1901, Jane Toppan was placed under arrest for murder.
Under interrogation, Jane confessed to thirty-one murders. She claimed that she climbed into bed with her patients as she experienced a sexual thrill from being near someone so close to death. Jane said of her behavior that she wanted:
On June 23rd, 1902 in the County Court at Barnstable, Jane was found to be not guilty as she was insane and was committed to spending the rest of her days in the Insane Asylum in Taunton.
In newspaper reports she was called the “Angel of Death.” The New York Journal claimed that she had confessed to her lawyer:
Jane spent her last years frightened of being poisoned by the hospital guards and threatened them with “revenge.” She remained at Taunton until her death of natural causes in 1938, when she was eighty-four-years-old.
BELLE GUNNESS
Belle Paulsen entered the world on November 11, 1859 in Norway, the youngest of eight children. Her father Paul was a stonemason. When Belle was a teenager and a poor farmhand, she became pregnant by the son of a wealthy man. The boy, not wishing to be forced into marriage, took her to a lonely spot and hit her so badly she miscarried. People close to her at the time said that this experience changed her personality dramatically. The boy who beat her died not long afterward. The death was attributed to stomach cancer. In the light of how Belle’s life panned out, many now wonder if cancer really was the cause of the boy’s death.
Belle’s older sister Nellie had immigrated to America and had married a man named John Larson in Chicago. Belle decided to follow her once she had earned enough money. Belle, with her hourglass figure, blonde hair, Nordic smile of white teeth, and flashing blue eyes sailed to the United States in 1881, and her sister found her work as a maid. In 1884, Belle married Mads Sorenson a shop security guard in Chicago, Illinois. They decided to open a cake shop together, which ended up being a dismal failure. One night, the shop inexplicably burned down. The insurance payout on the shop enabled them to purchase another home.
Belle and Mads shared four children together; two of the children caught acute colitis as babies and died. Their lives were insured. Myrtle, Lucy, and a foster daughter Jennie Olsen, who was ten, were recorded as living with Belle in a 1900 Chicago Census.
Belle as a young woman
Soon after the Census was conducted, Mads died of heart failure. The July day he died happened to be the day two of his insurance policies overlapped. One doctor who examined him had thought he had died of strychnine poisoning. However, Mads’ doctor, who had been tending to him for heart problems, put the cause of death down as heart failure. Belle claimed the insurance check of $8,500 (approximately $300,000 today) the day following Mads’ funeral. Mads’ family were convinced that Belle had poisoned her husband and demanded an inquiry. However, nothing appeared to come of their request.
Belle invested the insurance money in a farm on the edge of LaPorte, Indiana, an area popular with Scandinavians, sixty miles from Chicago. The house she purchased had belonged to a Madame, “Mattie Altie.” The residents were pleased when Belle moved into the farm and restored the house to a family home. It was a two-storied high, six bed roomed, square house, built of red brick, with a large cellar. Kerosene lamps littered the house keeping it well lighted. The house sat perched on the edge of an orchard on one side and a shallow swamp and wood on the other.
Shortly after moving into her new house with her children, Myrtle, Lucy, and Jennie Olsen, Belle was introduced to Peter Gunness. Peter was a Norwegian-born recent widowe
r with a baby son. He was a tall, bearded, handsome, blonde hog farmer and an experienced butcher. They married in LaPorte on April 1st, 1902. Shortly after the wedding, Peter's son died while alone at home with Belle. Peter, to overcome his grief, put his all into the farm. On the land, he set up a hog farm and taught Belle how to rear and butcher the hogs. Belle was five feet, eight inches (173 cm) tall and weighed over 200 pounds (91 kg); physically, she was a strong woman and was well able to cope with the hard work that running a farm entailed. Peter and Belle Gunness became regulars in LaPorte on trade day, selling their cattle for meat and trading manure for tools. They were much liked and respected in the community.
Belle was in her late thirties and pregnant when Peter Gunness died in 1904. In what Belle claimed was a tragic accident, a large iron meat grinder had fallen off a shelf onto his head, causing a lethal head injury. An inquest into his death, which many found suspicious, was held. There appeared to be no reasonable explanation as to how the meat grinder could have fallen. Neither the sheriff nor the coroner was satisfied. Jennie Olsen, who was now fourteen, told a school friend:
Jennie was called to the coroner’s court and refused to admit to having said such a thing. However despite the coroner’s and sheriffs doubts, a verdict of accidental death was determined. Belle received a payment of $3,000 from the life insurance company.
Jennie Olsen
A few months later when the new baby Philip had been born, Belle told her neighbors that Jennie, her adopted daughter, had gone to school in L.A. to finish her education. Many of her neighbors were impressed at Belle’s generosity toward her foster child.
Belle, 48, and her three children, Myrtle, Lucy, and Philip
Belle mourned Peter for a while and then took up with her handyman, Ray Lamphere, whose duties now included sleeping with his employer. Belle was still an attractive curvaceous woman with a 48-inch bust. In the first years of the 20th century, Belle started a scheme to bilk men who used the “Lonely Hearts” columns of the American press. A series of advertisements were placed in the Chicago papers:
A series of men arrived in LaPorte; sometimes, they were seen escorting Belle and then each would disappear never to be seen again. Many middle-aged men answered Belle’s ads. One, a man named John Moe, arrived at Belle’s home from Minnesota. He disappeared within a week of his arrival. The next to come was George Anderson from Missouri.
During supper with Anderson, Belle asked him if he would help pay her mortgage. Anderson said he would gladly pay her mortgage if they married. In the middle of the night, Anderson woke to see Belle hovering over his bed, holding a candle with a malevolent look. She left the room without saying a word. As he watched her, he thought he saw a hammer hidden in the folds of her dress. Anderson quickly departed the house, taking an early morning train back to Missouri.
Mr. Budsberg, a widower, was her next guest. On April 6th, 1907, he called into the local bank to mortgage his Wisconsin land. This gave him immediate access to many thousands of dollars in cash. Mr. Budsberg's sons worried about their father’s disappearance and, when they discovered by looking through his papers where he had gone, they wrote to Belle; she replied that she had never set eyes on their father.
And so it continued: a constant flow of middle-aged men coming to visit Belle. Despite the comings and goings of the various men, Ray Lamphere continued to live and work at the farm.
Some of the men the towns-people got to know and if they asked Belle where so and so was, she would lament to her neighbors about her rotten luck in her search for love. Many felt sorry for her, as she had suffered one disappointment and heartbreak after another. Many others admired Belle for her hard work, as she was frequently spotted late at night digging in the hog pen.
In 1908, Andrew Hegelein of South Dakota answered one of these advertisements and received a gushing romantic invitation to visit with Belle. As a postscript, she mentioned that she would be grateful for $1,000 to help with a pressing mortgage payment. Andrew and Belle corresponded regularly before he came to visit. The last letter before his visit is below:
In due course, Andrew arrived and brought with him a check for $2,900, his life savings. The day following his arrival, he and Belle visited the local Bank and deposited the check and shortly, after Andrew was never seen again in LaPorte. Belle then assumed correspondence with her next male amour. Meanwhile, Ray Lamphere had started to become a nuisance to her. She also received letters from Andrew’s brother, Asle Helgelien, who wished to know the whereabouts of his brother. Asle, it seemed, was determined to come to LaPorte as it seemed it was the last place from where Andrew had been heard. Was it fear of Asle's forthcoming visit and the ongoing nuisance of Ray that prompted Belle’s next actions?
Belle confided in the local sheriff, Mr. Smutzer, that her handyman, Ray Lamphere, was acting strangely, drinking too much, and that she was worried about his threats to burn her farm down. She had fired Ray Lamphere when Andrew had arrived, and Ray was annoyed and deeply jealous of her new lover and refused to leave Belle in peace. When he showed up with protestations of love, she had him arrested for trespass. Belle also visited a lawyer in the town, Mr. Leliter, who she confessed to fearing for her life and that of her children’. She confided in the lawyer that Ray Lamphere was threatening to kill her and had told her that he would burn her house down. She asked the lawyer to draw up a will leaving everything to her children.
On the 28th of April in 1908, Belle’s farm burned to the ground. In the cellar, there were four corpses: the three children and a headless corpse at first thought to be Belle. The coroner thought a falling beam had decapitated the woman and ignored a slight discrepancy: the corpse weighed 150lbs; Belle was nearer 280! Ray Lamphere was found drunk and complained about his lost love. He was charged with arson and murder. As Ray Lamphere swore to his innocence in the local town jail, Asle Hegelein, brother of the vanished Andrew arrived to make his inquiries. He would not believe that his brother had simply vanished.
The Cellar of Belle’s House
At Belle’s house, events soon justified his belief. As workers dug for the missing head, they began to find corpses. There were fourteen men in total, which included the body of Andrew Hegelein, all expertly butchered, wrapped in oilcloth, and buried; some bodies were found in the cellar, others in the hog pen. There was also the body of Belle’s foster daughter, Jennie Olsen, found buried in the cellar. Also found were men's watches and other personal belongings of men who had visited Belle's farm. Many of the bodies found on the property were never identified.
Remains of Andrew Hegelein
Digging up bodies on Belle’s farm
Later it was estimated that the fourteen men represented at least, if not more, than $30,000 in takings to Belle. Sheriff Smutzer requested for more man-power to help in the search, and the burnt out ruins were meticulously panned and sluiced. The plate for Belle’s false teeth was found, and this was seen to close the case. Lightweight or not, the headless corpse must be hers. The head was never found.
As news about the bodies spread, LaPorte turned into a media circus overnight. Sheriff Smutzer began to receive hundreds of letters from families in Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and various other states asking for news of brothers, sons, or uncles who they knew had traveled to LaPorte to meet a woman who had advertised in the papers.
A crate full of bones and body parts found buried on the farm.
Ray Lamphere’s trial opened on the morning of Friday, November 13th.
Ray Lamphere
Ray vigorously denied the charges of arson and murder filed against him. The law accused him of having murdered Belle Gunness; to get a conviction, the prosecution would have to prove the headless body was that of Belle Gunness. His defense depended on the headless woman’s body not being Belle’s. LaPorte citizens who viewed the headless corpse testified that it was not Belle’s body. Doctors who measured the remains of the headless corpse stated the body belonged to a woman of 5' 3" and who weighed no more than 150 pound
s. Belle’s dressmakers were called to the court who testified that Belle was 5'8" and weighed around 180 pounds. A pathologist, who examined the stomach contents of the headless woman, found lethal doses of strychnine. Local banks testified that Belle had withdrawn all her money shortly before the fire.
On November 26th, 1908, the jury found Ray guilty of the charge of arson. They didn’t believe the prosecutors had proved a crime of murder. Ray Lamphere received a sentence of twenty years in Michigan City State Prison. He died of tuberculosis on December 30th, 1909.
While he was dying, he made a full confession to a Reverend Schell. He told the Reverend that he hadn’t killed anyone but merely helped Belle bury some of the murdered men. He related how when one of Belle’s male guests arrived she would make them comfortable, charm them, and cook an exceptional dinner. Then their “after dinner” coffee would be drugged resulting in them falling into a stupor. Ray said that on several occasions Belle poisoned the men’s coffee with strychnine. Belle would then fetch her meat chopper and split their heads. Alternatively, on some occasions, she would wait until the man had gone to bed. Once asleep, she would chloroform them. Belle would then remove the body down to the cellar, fling it on a large table, and systematically dissect it. The remains Belle buried in the hog’s pen or, he even claimed, fed to the hogs. Others were buried in the land surrounding the house. Belle had learned dissection from her butcher husband Peter Gunness.
Ray said that the headless woman was a Chicago prostitute that Belle had lured to her house and poisoned. Once dead, she dressed the body in her clothing, took her teeth plate, and placed it with the body so that people would think the woman’s body was hers. Ray said about the head that Belle had tied weights to it and thrown it into a deep water swamp. She then set the house on fire and fled. Ray admitted that he had aided her. He claimed that she had left the area by a different route than she had told him about and had failed to meet him at their pre-arranged rendezvous spot. Ray thought that Belle had killed around forty-two men and had accumulated something in the realm of $250,000 over the years — a massive amount of money in those days.
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