Was Esther Carlson really Belle Gunness
One of the biggest true crime mysteries is the true fate of female serial killer Belle Gunness.
She was a Norwegian immigrant who immigrated to America. As a young woman, people who knew her growing up said she was a very nice person until an attack caused her to have a miscarriage. It’s said this caused a complete personally change in her as if in her mind the only way to not get her heartbroken was to convince herself she didn’t have one.
She married a few times and always got a life insurance payment from their deaths, which she used to buy and run a farm.
She often put adds in the paper saying she was looking for fellow immigrants for possible marriage. Several times her adds were answered, but it didn’t take long for the people who came to disappear quickly.
Only one man seemed to stay for a long period of time. That being a farm hand named Ray Lamphere. After killing fellow immigrant Andrew Helgelien, she soon learned this was a big mistake.
When his brother came to her farm looking for him, she claimed she never had him in her home. However that didn’t stop Andrew’s brother consistent demand to find out what happened to his brother.
After the police began to question her, a mysterious fire erupted on her farm and inside the barn was the remains of Belle Gunness. Her head burned beyond recognition and beside where the head would have been were a set of teeth. The teeth proven to in fact belong to Belle.
Ray, was believed to have killed the woman, and when question by the police he didn’t bluntly deny it but he told them Belle had a secret on her farm.
When the police searched the farm to their horror they found the pieces of human remains of at least five men. Her own children’s bodies were found burned as well.
During the investigation, it was discovered that the missing head wasn’t the only thing odd about Belle’s remains. The body believed to hers was shorter and less built than Belle’s. At first it was believed that the fire shrink her body, but this was proven false and impossible.
When Ray was questioned, he admitted to helping Belle fake her own death so she could escape after the police visited her home for the first time.
It believed, they found a woman that was as similar to Belle’s as they could find. They killed her removed or burned her head.
What about the teeth. It is believed that was another clever trick to convince people she was dead and had mostly ripped them out herself.
Over the years, sightings were reported all over but no stood out as being a possibility.
Until Esther Carlson was arrested for killing a man for live insurance. At first it was believed Esther was just another killer but people began to notice she looked very similar to Belle.
It was never prove true or false, but we can’t deny the resemblance is very obvious.