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Chronicling America is a searchable digital collection of historic newspaper pages through 1963 sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
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Also, see the Directory of U.S. Newspapers in American Libraries, a searchable index to newspapers published in the United States since 1690, which helps researchers identify what titles exist for a specific place and time, and how to access them.
Lured by matrimonial ads from Chicago area newspapers to a farmhouse in rural LaPorte, Indiana, over 40 wealthy suitors meet their ends at the hands of Belle Gunness, one of the century's "most fiendish" murderesses. After a suspicious fire leveled the house, killing her children, authorities would later unearth scores of missing men's bodies from the "murder farm," many beheaded and dismembered. Read more about it!
The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.
The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.
| April 28, 1908 | The house of Belle Gunness in LaPorte, Indiana, burns down in the middle of the night, killing her and her three children. A headless body and suspicious graves mystify police. |
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| May 8, 1908 | Federal authorities order the arrest of Chicago matrimonial agency managers in connection with the suspected murders. |
| May 8-29, 1908 | Investigators unearth over a dozen bodies, mostly men that Belle Gunness lured to their deaths through matrimonial ads. |
| November 26, 1908 | Ray Lamphere, charged with the murder of Belle Gunness and her children, is found guilty of arson. |
