Hell's Princess

For over a century, there’s been a mystery about the identity of one of the most notorious female serial killers of the twentieth century, Belle Gunness. Did she die in a fire, or did she fake her death and escape?

Schechter’s book-length study leaves no stone unturned. If anyone could fully address this mystery, I knew he could. He’s a foremost authority on true crime. For me, any book he writes is a must-read.

Although I knew this story well, Schechter brought more to it than I’d seen before. I was fascinated with the details of the reports from mental… show more.

Belle Sorrenson Gunness is a rare female serial killer who was exceptionally predatory. This Norwegian-American had insured her first husband and two of her children before killing them in the early 1900s to enrich herself. She bought a pig farm in LaPorte, Indiana, which she soon turned into her personal graveyard. The twice-widowed Belle published matrimonial ads, and those men who answered arrived, one after another, before each disappeared. She’d warned them not to reveal where they were going, but Andrew Helgelein did. When Andrew’s brother announced he was coming to look for him, Belle’s six-year spree abruptly ended in… show more.