After the discovery that she had been embarking for years in the early1900s, on one of Indiana’s most gruesome murder sprees, Belle Gunness has been considered among the most notorious female killers in U.S. history.

Many aspects of the life and crimes of Belle, a Norwegian immigrant, remain a mystery, including the total number of her victims, who included men, women and children. Experts suspect that more than 40 victims, including the dismembered bodies of Norwegian men who responded to a "lonely widow" advertisement that she placed in newspapers, were buried on her 43 – acre farm near La Porte in northern Indiana.