People murdered in Indiana: Lyman Bostock, Belle Gunness, Murder of Shanda Sharer, Anthony Spilotro, Sylvia Likens, Fall Creek Massacre, Nireah Johnson, Scrapper Blackwell, Madge Oberholtzer, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, Burger Chef murders

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 23. Chapters: Lyman Bostock, Belle Gunness, Murder of Shanda Sharer, Anthony Spilotro, Sylvia Likens, Fall Creek Massacre, Nireah Johnson, Scrapper Blackwell, Madge Oberholtzer, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, Burger Chef murders. Excerpt: Belle Sorenson Gunness (born as Brynhild Paulsdatter Størseth, November 11, 1859, Selbu, Norway; died April 28, 1908?, La Porte, Indiana) was a Norwegian-American serial killer. Standing five feet and eight inches (173 cm) tall and weighing over 200 pounds (91 kg), she was a physically strong woman. She killed most of her suitors and boyfriends, and her two daughters, Myrtle and Lucy. She may also have killed both of her husbands and all of her children, on different occasions. Her apparent motives involved collecting life insurance benefits. Reports estimate that she killed more than 40 people over several decades. Gunness' origins, like much of her life story, are shrouded in a web of differing accounts and deliberate inventions. Most of her biographers state that she was born on November 11, 1859, near the lake of Selbu, Sør-Trøndelag, Norway, and christened Brynhild Paulsdatter Størset. Her parents were Paul Pedersen Størset (a stonemason) and Berit Olsdatter. She was the youngest of their eight children. They lived at Størsetgjerdet, a very small cotter's farm in Innbygda, 60 km southeast of Trondheim, the largest city in central Norway (Trøndelag). A Norwegian TV documentary by Anne Berit Vestby aired on September 4, 2006, tells a common, but unverified, story about Gunness' early life. The story holds that, in 1877, Gunness attended a country dance while pregnant. There she was attacked by a man who kicked her in the abdomen, causing her to miscarry the child. The man, who came from a rich family, was never prosecuted by the Norwegian authorities. According to people who knew her, her personality changed markedly. The man who attacked her died shortly afterwards. His cause of death was said to be stomach cancer. Having grown up in poverty, Gunness took service the next year on a large, wealthy farm and served there for three years in order to pay for a trip across the Atlantic. Following the example of a sister, Nellie Larson, who had immigrated to America ea