"The Murder Farm" Belle Gunness Pt. 1

0:00 Unveiling the Monstrous Acts of Belle Gunness Due to the graphic nature of this woman's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under the age of 13. 0:22 Often, when faced with monstrous acts, we try to assign reason to the madness. We look for an explanation as to how a person could commit such atrocities. If we understand the story the way those pieces fell into place, it can make us feel safer in our own lives. 0:41 Then there are stories with unsettling gaps. In the case of Belle Gunness, there are mountains of uncertainty and unexplainable actions throughout her life. At the turn of the 20th century, she was a prolific serial killer motivated by greed. 0:58 But how and why she got started is more of a mystery, one that captures our attention and demands a search for answers. 1:15 Picture a murderer, a gangster, a thief. Did you picture a woman? We didn't think so. Society associates men with dangerous crimes. But what happens when the perpetrator is female? Every Wednesday, we examine the psychology, motivations, and atrocities of female criminals. 1:35 Hi, I'm Vanessa Richardson, and you're listening to Female Criminals, a Spotify original from Park Cast. You can find episodes of female criminals and all other Spotify originals from Parkcast for free on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. This week, we'll meet Belle Gunness, one of America's most prolific female serial killers. 1:56 Early on, she targeted her husband's for life insurance payouts, but as she grew more experienced, she cast a much wider net, luring victims from all over the country to her Indiana farm. Next week, we'll explore the mysterious circumstances surrounding the end of Bell's killing spree. 2:26 From Norway to Chicago: Belle's First Marriage The woman who would become Belle Gunness was born in November of 1859 in Trondheim, Norway, under the name Brunhild, Paul's dad or store chef. Her family lived and worked on a farm owned by a wealthier household, so growing up, Bell was accustomed to physical labor. 2:47 Beyond that, we don't know much more about her childhood. All we know is that by eighteen 8121 year old, Bell was ready to leave her home country behind. And that's where our story really begins. Bell's older sister had already emigrated to America and Bell wanted to follow suit. 3:07 But she had no money of her own and needed someone else to help her. So she pleaded with her brotherinlaw to help pay her way to the States until finally he relented. Before he could change his mind, she left Norway for Chicago. 3:26 In the big city, Bell settled into her new life. She officially changed her name to Bell, which she thought was better suited for the States. And she quickly got a job as a housemaid. Not long after she arrived in Chicago, Bell popped into a department store to pick up some things. 3:43 It was a serendipitous errand run, as she met a security guard there named Mad Sorensen. Like her, he was a Norwegian immigrant, and Bell felt an immediate connection. It helped, too, that he was tall and handsome. 3:59 It was love at first sight. So in 1884, just a few years after making her way to the States, 25 year old Bell married Mads. 4:12 Tragedy and Suspicion: The Sorensen House Fires The marriage was a happy one, but Bell desperately wanted to bring children into the mix. But according to most accounts, she and Mads were unable to have their own. To rectify this, Bell got it in her head that she could adopt her niece, her sister's daughter. 4:28 But neither Bell's sister nor the child wanted anything to do with that plan, and Bell didn't take too kindly to that. Rather than understanding that this was an incredibly difficult thing to ask for, Bell simply stopped talking to her sister altogether. 4:46 Before we continue with Bell's psychology, Please note that I'm not a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist, but we have done a lot of research for the show. At this moment, it seemed that Belle lashed out because she was hurting. She wanted a child so badly, but she just couldn't have one on her own. 5:04 According to a study from Harvard Medical School, women experiencing infertility often feel as if they themself have lost a loved one. The range of emotions includes shock, depression, anger, and frustration, which might explain why Belle lashed out at her sister because she couldn't have a biological child. 5:24 She spiraled through a genuine grieving process. Eventually, though, Bell realized that even if she couldn't have biological children, she could still adopt. She got involved with fostering, and she and Mads were thrilled to have children in the house. 5:42 They settled into a happy life full of youthful energy. But then the Sorensen's house burned down. No one was hurt, but all of their belongings were destroyed in the blaze. Bell was devastated. She and Mads had a good life, but they weren't incredibly well off. 6:01 They both worked hard to make ends meet, and a disaster like this could ruin them. She didn't know what they were going to do until she learned that their insurance payment would net them a tidy sum. There was a silver lining, after all. 6:16 With the money they received, they could buy a new house for the family and still have a decent chunk of change left over. It was enough that Bell and Mads decided to strike out into business on their own. Sometime shortly after their house burned down, they left their jobs and opened a confectionery store. 6:39 Bell and Mads built their shop with high hopes. They thought it would be a way to become rich and free themselves from the traditional jobs they had before. But the truth was, the store was never very successful. In fact, it was losing them money. 6:54 The fate of their new enterprise weighed on the couple, and while there's no way for us to know exactly what they were thinking, it's possible they cursed the insurance money that got them into this mess in the first place. It's speculated that this line of thinking spiraled into a fully fledged plan. 7:11 What if there was another fire? Bell knew that if they could pull it off, they'd get an insurance payout that would cover the store's bills and allow them to start over once again. It had worked out so well the first time, why shouldn't they try to do it on purpose? 7:30 Within a year of the store opening, it burned down. We don't know for sure whether it was Bell or Mads who struck the match. In fact, there's an outside chance the fire was accidental, but given that it happened so soon after the first one, that seems unlikely. 7:49 Not to mention that it came at such a fortuitous time for Bell and her husband. Sure enough, the couple received another insurance payout, and this time they had enough money to buy a new house in a suburb outside the city. But their actions didn't go unnoticed. 8:07 When their first home went up in flames, their old neighbors felt sorry for Bell and Mads, but now they looked at the couple with suspicion. The fires were becoming a pattern, and somehow Bell always seemed to make it out the other side better off. 8:24 But in the years that followed, there was nothing else to raise eyebrows, and people likely forgot about the blazes. Bell and Mads lived a relatively quiet, uneventful life in the suburbs. There were no more fires, no suspicious payouts. In fact, there's hardly anything to note from this period of her life. 8:44 Mysterious Deaths and a Deadly Insurance Plan But then, in 1896, one of the foster children under Bell's care died, and then another in 1898. Officially, the cause of death for both was colitis, which is a chronic digestive disease. 8:59 Not one batted an eye at the diagnosis. Colitis was common enough at the time, and no one dreamed of blaming Bell. In fact, she went on to adopt three more kids, Jenny, Myrtle and Lucy, without any problems. 9:15 But in more recent years, there's some suspicion that Bell might have had a hand in the children's deaths. We don't want to speculate too much here, given that there's no real evidence to back anything up. But for reasons that will become obvious later on, many now suspect that the colitis was caused by strychnine poisoning. 9:37 If that was in fact the case, then that was the first time Bell killed. It's hard to understand why she would want to kill her foster children, but we simply don't know what was going on in the household at that time. Whatever it was, by 19141 year old Bell was restless. 9:57 There's nothing to tell us why, but she wanted another fresh start. She reminisced about the last time she was able to start from square one, how easy it had been to set the fire, get paid, and start over. She wondered if she could set fire to their new house and get the same result, but she had to admit that doing the exact same thing again might raise eyebrows. 10:21 So she tried to think of other ways to get similar results. And then she hit on an idea. Maybe it wasn't a place she had to get rid of, but a person. She realized that her husband had life insurance that she could capitalize on, just like the fire insurance. 10:43 If she wanted it, though, Mads would have to die, and she'd have to make sure it looked like an accident. After she weighed the costs versus the rewards, the allure of the money eventually won out. 10:59 But if she was going to go through with this plan, then she had to make it worth it. Before we continue, a quick disclaimer. Details about Bell's crimes are scarce. We've done our best to pull from various sources to ensure we're painting as accurate of a picture as possible, but there's some parts of the story where all we can do is speculate. 11:21 Some things we're sure of, though, like what came next. For the first step of her plan, Bell convinced Mads that his life insurance policy was too small. Egged on by his wife, he took out a larger one, and then Bell waited for the perfect day to strike. 11:41 You see, there was one day where Mads's 2 policies overlapped when the old one had yet to expire, but the new one kicked in. Bell knew that if she timed things right, she could get double the money. 11:57 That day was July 30th, 1900. In the morning, Bell handed her husband a cup of coffee, having no reason to suspect her of anything. Mads down the drink, completely unaware that his wife of 16 years had turned on him. 12:16 But soon he started to feel dizzy. And then he fell unconscious. Bell had laced his drink with strychnine. A short time later, Mads was on the floor, dead. 12:32 Bell called a doctor, playing the role of grieving wife perfectly, but the doctor was suspicious. He even mentioned strychnine poisoning as a possible cause of death. Panicking, Bell quickly called the regular family physician, who overruled the initial diagnosis. 12:49 It wasn't poison, he declared. It was heart failure because the 2nd doctor ruled the death not suspicious. There would be no autopsy. Bell breathed A sigh of relief. 13:02 Belle Moves to Indiana and Marries Peter She had gotten away with it, and a few weeks later she got the life insurance money she'd coveted. Over $8000, or about a quarter $1,000,000 in 2021. But things weren't as simple for Bell as just pocketing the money and moving on. 13:20 After Mads's untimely death, suspicions about Bell soared once more, especially throughout her neighborhood. She couldn't go anywhere without getting looks from passersby who had heard the whispered rumors about her. Soon, it became too much. 13:36 She decided to pack up her things and use the insurance money to find her and her three adopted children a new home. Given everything that had happened, she wanted to move far away from the city, where they could start over without the cloud of suspicion hanging over them. 13:54 She searched far and wide before finding a farm in La Porte, IN about 70 miles east of Chicago. The previous owner, Madam, had used the place as a brothel. When she died, she left her property in ruins with no one to care for its upkeep. 14:11 Given its history, the farm had gone unsold for a while. Bell wasn't scared away by things like a bad reputation. She knew all about that. So in November of 1901, Bell and her daughters, Jenny, Myrtle and Lucy, made the move and got to work, turning the farm into a home. 14:35 But before the family was properly settled in, or any of their new neighbors really got to know them, Bell went out of town unexpectedly. We don't know what prompted her to leave, or where exactly she went when she did, but when she returned, she had a new husband on her arm. 14:54 Peter Gunness was another Norwegian immigrant. Blond hair, blue eyes, tall and handsome. As close of a replacement for Mads as Bell could find it seemed. And the two men had one other thing in common. They had no idea who they had married. 15:12 Peter might have thought he hit the jackpot, but the truth was, just being with Bell put him in grave danger. 15:22 A Word From Our Sponsor: Conspiracy Theories Up next, Bell turns on her new husband. The CIA. They're the first line of defense for the United States. Analyzing intelligence to thwart any possible threats and keep us safe. 15:38 Some of their involvements are made public and others aren't. Hi, it's Carter from Parkcast. And in honor of America's birthday, we're uncovering the cases you were never supposed to know about in the new series Conspiracy Theories, CIA Edition. 15:57 From international assassination plots and mind control experiments to catastrophic cover ups and secret societies, Fit for film sift through the agency's most questioned in controversial affairs. Each week, Conspiracy theories CIA edition exposes the covert operations intended to protect us from conflicts but end up creating conspiracies. 16:21 Where does the truth lie? Where do the lies end? And how much do we really want to know? Follow the new Spotify original from Powercast Conspiracy Theories CIA Edition Listen every Thursday. 16:37 Free and only on Spotify. 16:41 Belle's Cold Calculation Leads to Peter's Murder Now back to the story. In 1901, after the mysterious death of her first husband, 42 year old Bell Sorensen moved to La Porte IN with her three adopted daughters. 16:58 She bought a farm and immersed herself in everyday ranch life. Then one day she left town suddenly and returned with a new husband, Peter Gunness. While we don't know where Bell found Peter, it seemed that there was genuine affection between the two. 17:16 They bonded over their shared tragedies. Both had spouses who recently died, although unlike Bell, Peter didn't murder his and he had no idea what his new wife was capable of. All he knew was that he was struggling to raise his two young kids on his own, and he no doubt wanted a feminine hand in their upbringing. 17:39 So when Bell came along, it seemed like a dream come true. He fit right in on the farm, too. He was a hog farmer and butcher by trade, so he wasted no time throwing himself into the daily work, and Bell was pleased to have someone to help shoulder the workload. 17:58 But during his first week on the farm, another tragedy struck. Peter's youngest daughter died. In this case, it seemed the death was brought about by natural causes. Although with Bell, there's always a lingering suspicion that she just might have been involved. 18:17 As Peter grieved his daughter's death, he was glad to have his new wife to turn to for support. Around this time, they got pregnant. Bell couldn't believe it. After all this time, she was finally going to have a biological child of her own. 18:34 It should have been the happiest period of her life, but for some reason over the next eight months, things soured between Bell and Peter. At least they did on Bell's part. She started to see him not as a husband, but as another potential source of income. 18:50 She realized she could repeat exactly what she did with Mads and come away with another small fortune, far from being romantic about her new husband. Bell was incredibly cold and calculating, this one against the common misconception that women are too emotional, and also proved another point. 19:12 When it comes to killing. Studies have shown that women can often be more levelheaded than men. We can see that in how often they use poison and MO. That requires a great deal of premeditation, whereas male killers are more likely to use a weapon like a gun that's easily discharged in the moment. 19:31 And according to research by criminologist Belinda Parker, women are far more likely to kill for gain, like getting more money, which usually comes from a place of premeditation. Whatever the genesis of her actions, it's clear that Bell didn't act out in a moment of rash emotion. 19:49 She thought carefully about what she wanted. Then she put a plan in place to get things done. It's speculated that one night in December 1882, as Belle was cooking dinner, she prepared a special drink for her husband. 20:08 She put it to the side and waited until after the meal. Once her daughters had all gone to bed, she offered Peter and after dinner a parity he took it without question. What he didn't know was that she had laced it with Strick 9. 20:24 Bell watched him drink, waiting with bated breath for the drug to take effect. Peter had no idea what was happening as he started to lose consciousness. He hadn't heard the rumors about Bell's first husband and probably thought she had just given him a really strong drink. 20:43 Soon enough, Peter passed out and it was time for Bell to finish the job. She took a meat cleaver and smashed it into his head with all her might. All it took was one hit, a fatal blow. 21:00 Just like that, Peter was dead as he lay on the floor. Bell staged the crime scene to make it look as though a meat grinder had fallen off a high shelf and hit him in the head. Then she ran to the doctor for help. 21:18 She gave her sob story about how she had walked into the kitchen and found her husband dead. She insisted that it must have been an accident. The doctor believed her story hook line and sinker. He ruled the death accidental and Belle got the $3000 payout she had expected. 21:38 She cashed the check, pleased that she had once again gotten away with it all. But the people of LaPorte weren't so quick to buy her story. Many of them had known Peter, and he didn't strike them as a clumsy man. He was an experienced butcher who would have been careful with his equipment. 21:57 The local suspicions eventually convinced the coroner to look into the case a little more closely. Once the authorities became involved, the doctor's initial ruling was overturned. This was no accident. 22:12 The coroner declared that Peter. Was murdered. Immediately following that decision there was an inquest. A jury looked into Bell, trying to figure out if the Norwegian woman could really be responsible for the death of her husband. 22:28 It didn't help that Bell's 14 year old daughter Jenny supposedly confessed to a classmate that Bell had murdered, Peter. But when the jury called Jenny to repeat her story, she refused to testify against her mom. 22:43 In the end, despite the mountain of suspicion, there was nothing to prove that Bell was at fault. She was let off, and Peter's death was eventually ruled an accident. 22:57 Revolving Door of Farmhands and a Daughter's Demise But though that was surely a relief, there was something else bothering Bell Now she was back to taking care of the farm on her own. Peter's brother had come to take away Peter's second child. But Bell still had her three daughters and a newborn baby to look after. 23:14 Between all the kids and the farm, she needed help to keep the property running. So she decided to hire some farm hands. Bell employed several young men over the next few years. They came and went with such frequency that it was hard to keep track of them. 23:30 And in town, the revolving door of strapping men set tongues wagging. There was wild speculation that Bell was sleeping with her hired help, and it seems this was true. Bell did seem to have a strange allure over her farm hands. 23:47 Between her good looks and her fortune, she was a catch. Many of the men believed they'd be the ones to win Bell over and become her next husband. And it's entirely possible that she indulged some of them and began affairs, but it was never more than a physical thing. 24:06 None of them stuck around for long, though, either because Bell dismissed them or they grew tired of her games. One by one, they each left the farm. At the time, the men felt dejected and resentful, but they had dodged the proverbial bullet. 24:25 They should have been thanking their lucky stars that Bell didn't take a more serious interest in them, but the cycle changed in the fall of 1906 when Bell hired 19 year old Amil Greening. 24:42 Emil immediately took to the farm work and Bell was happy enough with his efforts. But unlike his predecessors, Emil had no interest in Bell. His eyes were set on 16 year old Jenny. All of a sudden Bell was jealous of her daughter. 24:59 She was used to the men she hired being only interested in her. Her jealousy soon evolved into paranoia as she worried that Jenny might divulge her secrets to Emil. Specifically, that Bell had been responsible for murdering her two exhusbands. 25:15 But instead of getting rid of a meal, Bell decided that Jenny was the problem. She didn't trust that her daughter would remain loyal, so she had to go to college. Jenny didn't want to go, but her mother insisted, devastated at the thought of being away from her sweetheart, Jenny told Emil she would write to him all the time. 25:40 Faithfully, he promised he'd wait for Jenny to return. But then, a few days later, Jenny left unannounced. Bell told Emil that Jenny had thought it would be easier that way to just leave without all the dramatics. 25:58 Emil accepted the story, not having any reason to doubt Bell. But the real truth was Bell had ruthlessly killed her daughter. Just like she'd done before, Bell poisoned Jenny, and the girl died, either from an overdose or a fatal blow to the head. 26:17 Once she was unconscious, then Bell buried the body. But unlike before, where the deaths were publicized, Bell swept this one under the rug. There was no uproar over Jenny's mysterious disappearance. Everyone believed she was off at college, after all. 26:35 When Jenny disappeared, Emil tried writing to his sweetheart, but his letters went unanswered. Heartbroken, he eventually gave up on waiting and left the Gunnis farm. 26:48 The Newspaper Ad and a String of Disappearances That was just fine by Belle. She didn't want any reminders of what she had done. She only wanted to look forward to her future, and that new future centered around finding a new husband. 27:04 But he needed to be a man of means. She hoped to secure more money to pay off the rest of her mortgage. Plus, she wanted someone from her home country, someone who understood her and her values. The only problem was, there weren't any Norwegian men hanging around LaPorte County. 27:21 Not since she had murdered Peter, at least. So she decided to look elsewhere. She placed an ad in Norwegian newspapers that read personal. Comely widow who owns a large farm in one of the finest districts in LaPorte County, Indiana, desires to make the acquaintance of a gentleman equally well provided with a view of joining fortune. 27:46 No replies by letter considered unless sender is willing to follow answer with personal visit. Triflers need not apply. U next Belle welcomes several suitors to her farm, but none of them leave to tell the tale. 28:06 Now back to the story. In 19 OH 647 year old Belle Gunness placed ads in Norwegian newspapers calling for potential suitors. It wasn't entirely clear whether she truly desired one of these men to become her husband, or if she simply planned to suck them dry and then dispose of them. 28:31 Either way, she was ready to welcome them to town. It didn't take long before the 1st letters arrived, and shortly after that John Moe showed up on the Gunnis farm in LaPorte, Indiana. John was a Norwegian immigrant who had enough money to pay off Bell's mortgage, which was exactly what she wanted. 28:52 She convinced him to hand the cash over to her, and then within a week of his arrival, he disappeared. Bell told anyone who asked that he had left LaPorte. But he never made it back to Minnesota. We now know that Bell killed him, likely by her favorite method of strychnine poison. 29:13 But as with most of her victims, the only person who really knows what happened was Bell herself. So from here on out, all we know is who showed up on the farm and who never left. The one thing that is clear is that Bell was after these suitors Money. 29:32 She wouldn't even entertain the idea of marrying them if they were poor. In fact, when one guy showed up and admitted that he had no money to offer, she promptly sent him packing. He was dejected, but his lack of money was what saved him from the murderous between 1906 and 1908, a string of men arrived at the farm who weren't so lucky. 29:59 Based on what we know, here's how things seem to go most of the time. Imagine you're a Norwegian immigrant and you just read a fascinating ad in the newspaper. There's a widow in Indiana who owns a farm and is looking for a husband to help her run it. 30:15 You think it sounds right up your alley, so you write the woman a letter introducing yourself. You wait to see if you've impressed her, and then finally she responds and she invites you to come visit. You pack up your things and head to LaPorte. 30:32 When you arrive on the farm, you're immediately taken by Belle's good looks and charms. You can really see yourself being her husband. She flirts with you and you think that she's on the same page. You go to the bank together at her suggestion, and you withdraw a large sum. 30:50 You think it's a little odd, but you're pretty sure you're going to marry this woman, so why does it matter if you give her some money to help her with her farm? The two of you returned to her home where she pulls you into the kitchen and whips up a home cooked meal, seemingly grateful for your contributions. 31:07 You kick your feet up, relaxed. She hands you a drink and you take it with pleasure. You could get used to this, but then you start to feel a little dizzy and then everything's blurry. You can't make heads or tails of what's happening, but as you slip into unconsciousness. 31:26 You see her coming at you with something heavy in her hand, then she's raising it high in the air and the last thing you see is her bringing it crashing down towards you. 31:41 This pattern happened over and over again. 31:45 Poison, Dismemberment, and a Jealous Farmhand Suitors came from all across the country. There was Ola Budsberg, A widower from Wisconsin who signed over thousands of dollars to Bell. A man named John Mcjunkin left his wife to come meet Bell. Henry Gerholt, another Wisconsin native, arrived with $1500 and plans to marry her, and all except one of them disappeared from Gunnis Farm. 32:12 The lucky man who came and went was George Anderson, and like the others, when he arrived at the Gunnis Farm he had every intention of wooing Bell and marrying her. But in the middle of his first night there, Anderson startled awake to find Belle in his room. 32:30 Her face hovered above him, and her expression was so terrifying that he got dressed and fled in the middle of the night. He was the only known suitor who got the jump on Bell and left before she could stop him. But as time went on, Bell got more experienced and more methodical, so that didn't happen again. 32:52 Eventually, she was a seasoned pro. Bell's killing methods were in line with other female serial killers. By using poison to render her victims unconscious, it was easier for her to off them. But what made her unique was her disposal methods. 33:09 Bell often dismembered and burned the bodies, something more commonly associated with male murderers. As for the reasoning behind her killings, it's likely that she just felt entitled to take what she wanted. Forensic psychologist Catherine Ramsland says. 33:27 Bell believed she deserved to take whatever she could because she had been a victim of an unjust world. She was simply turning the tables and taking her due. She twisted her morality to justify her actions. As long as she gained something from her killings, it was worthwhile and right for her to do it. 33:48 In most cases, this meant money. She believed she deserved to have the fortune no matter what she had to do to get it. And with each death, her financial situation certainly improved. She was bringing in thousands of dollars from each of her victims, but at the same time, Bell was also left alone to maintain her property. 34:11 And as much as she liked not having to rely on anyone else, the truth was that she genuinely needed help. So while she continued to entertain various suitors, she started to look for a farm hand again, someone who could be a constant on the farm. 34:28 She soon set her eyes on Ray Lamphere 30 something Ray was a skilled Carpenter who could really come in handy on the farm. The problem was, he drank a ton, and there was no guarantee that he'd be sober when he showed up to work. 34:44 Despite that, Bell made him an offer. She'd pay him and give him room and board to help her run the farm. He readily accepted, having no idea what might lay in store for him on the Gunnis Ranch the week Ray started work, no suitor was visiting the farm, so he had Bell's full attention. 35:08 One night he fell asleep, only to wake later to find Bell in his room dressed in a long white nightgown. It was an almost identical situation to the one George Anderson had encountered years earlier, but instead of being afraid, Ray was strangely calm as she walked towards him. 35:27 He didn't sense any sort of threat from Bell. She came to a stop right next to the bed. And then she crawled under the covers and pulled him close to her. Ray couldn't believe what was happening, but he was extremely happy about it. 35:45 They stayed like that until the morning when Bell slipped out of the room and resumed life as normal. But from that moment on, Ray was smitten. His passion for her grew with each night she returned to him, but for Bell, Ray was no more than a placeholder. 36:03 When the next suitor arrived on the farm, her attention swung to the new man. She left Ray to tend the fields, never giving him a second thought. Whenever it was time to get rid of one of her gentleman callers, she sent Ray away on an errand so she could conduct her business. 36:22 Still, Ray was obsessed with his employer. He started roaming around town, bragging that he would be the one who married Bell, not one of these out of town suitors. But as time went on, it became clear that Bell had no intention of stopping the suitors from coming, and Ray grew insanely jealous. 36:43 He couldn't stand the thought of her with some other man. He frequented bars around town, drinking more and more, his passions running wild. Some of the locals started to think that he might lash out and do something to Bell up at the ranch. 36:59 Bell wasn't so worried about Ray. At least not yet. She had a new suitor coming to town, a man named Andrew Helgelene. She'd been writing him letters for two years, trying to lure him to her farm. She was sure that if she could just get him there, he would be a worthwhile mark. 37:19 Little did she know Andrew would be the last suitor to ever cross her doorstep. His arrival would drive Ray over the edge and force Bell to commit her final. Desperate scheme Things in La Porte were about to change forever. 37:46 Part One Conclusion and Podcast Credits Thanks again for tuning into female criminals. We'll be back next week with Part 2, where Bell's horrific crimes finally catch up to her. For more information on Belle Gunnis Amongst the many sources we used, we found The Truth About Belle Gunnis, The True Story of notorious serial killer Hell's Belle by Lillian della Torre extremely helpful to our research. 38:10 You can find all episodes of female criminals and all other Spotify originals from Parkcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Female Criminals is a Spotify original from Park. Cast. 38:26 Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler. Sound design by Michael Motion, with production assistants by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Bruce Kittovich. This episode of Female Criminals was written by Alex Burns with Writing Assistants by Joel Callen, fact Checking by Cheyenne Lopez, and research by Mickey Taylor and Chelsea Wood. 38:49 I'm Vanessa Richardson. Hi, it's Carter from Parkcast. Every Thursday on Conspiracy Theories CIA Edition, we are uncovering secrets hidden deep within the archives of the Central Intelligence Agency. 39:09 To bring you a special collection of episodes from shows across our network, follow the new Spotify original from Parkcast Conspiracy Theories CIA Edition. Free only on Spotify.