Hell’s Princess Review
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Title: Hell’s Princess The Mystery of Belle Gunness- Butcher of Men
Author: Harold Schechter
Series: Stand Alone
Pages: 334
Genre: True Crime
Rating Out Of 5 Stars: 3
Buy it: Amazon / Book Depository / BookOutlet Goodreads Page
My Other Reviews: Tumblr / Goodreads
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““Mrs. Belle Gunness, the grim widow of La Porte, Indiana, with her castle of death and her yard filled with graves,”"
Goodreads/General Synopsis:
In the pantheon of serial killers, Belle Gunness stands alone. She was the rarest of female psychopaths, a woman who engaged in wholesale slaughter, partly out of greed but mostly for the sheer joy of it. Between 1902 and 1908, she lured a succession of unsuspecting victims to her Indiana “murder farm.”
*****My Thoughts*****
As a resident of Indiana I remember growing up hearing about the “Murder Farm” up North. When I found this title on the Amazon Kindle First Reads I decided to pick it up.
I was not overwhelmingly fond of the writing. It had a tendency to come across condescending. The life of Belle Gunness was well researched, the extensive reference guide in the back of the book can attest to that. I was slightly disappointed that the majority of the book was focused more on what happened after her “death” as opposed to her years as one of America’s first female serial murderers. That aside it does give good insight if this is your first time delving into the life of Gunness. Overall it was an interesting read.