You don’t regularly see the phrase “Norwegian-American serial killer,” but when I went to Wikipedia to double-check something on Belle Gunness, that’s the description of her.
Born Brynhild Paulsdatter Størseth (a serial killer’s name if there ever was one!), Belle moved to the States and took up the fine old art of serial murder in Indiana. She used newspaper personals to lure men to her house, where she would kill them and take all their money. Pretty good work, if you could find it.
(Translated into 21st century: She catfished dudes on Craigslist and stole their stuff after killing them.)
I have a soft spot for Belle for a couple of reasons. First of all, I used her (sort of) in the I Hunt Killers series as both a nom de murder and a red herring. She was a very prolific female serial killer, a rare example of the breed, and thus served as at least a partial inspiration for the grotesque Crow King.
Second of all, she purportedly died in a house fire in 1908, but…they never found the body. C’mon. I’ve read enough comic books to know that this means she faked her own death and probably escaped somewhere out west…and kept killing.
That’s a scheme worthy of Billy Dent.
Here’s a good site if you’d like to learn more about Ms. Størseth.
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