Serial Killer Belle Soren Gunness Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Serial Killer Belle Soren Gunness - Term Paper Example Belle Soren Gunness killed her victims in cold blood: boyfriends, suitors, husbands and two daughters, Lucy and Myrtle. The authorities at that time wondered what reasons might have motivated her to commit the crimes but after investigations and follow-ups, they established that her apparent motive of killing involved ripping people of their belongings such as collecting life insurance, cash, and valuables (Segrave, 1992). The secondary motive for killing involved the elimination of witnesses. She eventually disappeared on April 28, 1908. Gunness’ character and the nature of being are very strange throughout her biography. The place of her birth is not well established. In fact, her death has not been established as well. Her origins have been matters of debate. Most of her biographers have spoken and written contradicting stories with many claiming that she was born in 1859, November 11th in Norway near a lake called selbu. A stonemason named Paul Pedersen Storset fathered her and her mother was called Berit Olsdatter. Among her eight siblings, she was the youngest. They lived in a cotter’s farm 60 km southeast of a town called Trondheim, the largest city situated in central Norway. To matters that made her character change. According to Anne Berit Vestby, an Irish TV documentary journalist aired on September 4, 2006, that she had faced a very bad experience in her early life. In 1877, Gunness had attended a dance event when she was pregnant. While in the dance, she was attacked by a man, a stranger to her, who kicked her on the abdomen. This experience caused her miscarriage, and unfortunately, the man who hailed from a well-off family was never prosecuted (Schmid, 2005). What followed were series of deaths and arsons, crime and frauds that escalated over time. In 1884, she got married to Mads Albert Sorenson and they lived in Illinois. Shortly after the marriage, their home and store burned down and the claimed the insurance money which they were granted. Sorenson then died of what was perceived as heart failure. Strangely, this occurred on the day when his two life insurance policies had overlapped.