IN IN - "Lady Bluebeard" Belle Gunness - 100 year mystery

[golfmom]

 

[AmandaBrown23]

I cant wait to find out the truth.

 

[golfmom]

I cant wait to find out the truth.

I know Amanda! I keep googling the case every couple of weeks or so because I think that they are so close to finding out if it was Belle that died in the fire or if she had a body double and got away.

 

[AmandaBrown23]

I been checking too I dont think the body they have is hers but I just cant wait know for sure!

 

[Tranaice]

I'm anxiously awaiting the results too. I don't think it was her that burned in the house.

 

[BhamMama]

Belle was a devious women, she amassed a "fortune" and then faked her death and left with the money.

250K in 1908, OMG, if anyone cares to do a bit of calculation to see what that would be in 2008 value probably a lot of money. Belle did not kill all of those people to NOT enjoy her "ill gotten" gains somewhere really nice.

But who knows if the "lookalike" was actually Belle......

The only year I could find info for was 1913.

If in 1913 I bought goods for 250000, the price in 2008 dollars would be, 5444444.44.

I'd have to know the CPI for 1908 to determine the prices. If by going by historical prices that I could find, the dollar in 1908 was worth 2.8-3.0?. Based on the fact that the CPI for the dollar in 1918 was 45.10 and the rate of inflation was 17.4%, that made the dollar worth 2.2.

That was at the end of WWI so prices were down and we know that inflation had not risen at a great rate until WWI started. I base that on the fact that war costs money of course and the money came from the federal government, which priced goods and services and the dollar had been around since 1881 in it's current form at a steadily rising rate.

In other words, she was filthy rich.

I'd be totally surprised that after going through that trouble to gain that amount of cash that she'd kill herself. I also don't think it was an accident and I think she killed her daughters because they knew or had a hand in what was going on. She sounds the greedy sort who didn't want to share.

 

[Greywing]

Vintage whodunits .... just love them! The controversy will rage on as the question remains ... Will they have DNA from a source that is irrefutably Belles?

 

[AmandaBrown23]

I found this update, its taking foreverrrrrrr!!

http://groups.google.com/group/alt....ad/4cb251ae58769df2/9da7080db5ef9d6e?lnk=raot

 

[Boyz_Mum]

I found this update, its taking foreverrrrrrr!!

http://groups.google.com/group/alt....ad/4cb251ae58769df2/9da7080db5ef9d6e?lnk=raot

Thanks for the update AmandaBrown!

 

[CaliKid]

It does seem like it's taking forever, but since this new person came forward to give her mDNA, hopefully it will speed up. I can't wait to find out- I read about Belle at the Crime Library, and I don't think she died in that fire either. I also wonder if new autopsies were performed on the children's bodies and if they identified whether the fire killed them or they were dead before being burned.

 

[tntsparty]

I don't understand how they could have thought the headless body in the fire was Belle's - how did they explain the missing head - she couldn't have cut her own head off. Strange case - hopefully they will figure it out soon.

 

[tapu]

ok... I see now why she sent out pictures that looked better than her....

:yuck:

 

[AmandaBrown23]

I have read that the results for this should be in by May or June but I couldnt find anything. Does anyone else know?

 

[Boyz_Mum]

I have read that the results for this should be in by May or June but I couldnt find anything. Does anyone else know?

The last thing I found was the article about a female relative and mitochondrial DNA- no update to indicate the tests were completed. I didn't know that Wikipedia had a page for Belle, there was nothing new there either.

 

[Blackwatch]

From what I've read about Belle she got pregnant in Norway by the son of the owner of the farm on which she worked. He then proceeded to beat her until she miscarried the child. After that, I believe she was unable to have children of her own, and none of the dead children were actually hers.

I agree with the poster who said she did not cut off her own head. No doubt she did move on to whatever life she chose.

 

[evelyn24]

Belle was a devious women, she amassed a "fortune" and then faked her death and left with the money.

250K in 1908, OMG, if anyone cares to do a bit of calculation to see what that would be in 2008 value probably a lot of money. Belle did not kill all of those people to NOT enjoy her "ill gotten" gains somewhere really nice.

But who knows if the "lookalike" was actually Belle......

Current data is only available till 2008. In 2008, $250,000.00 from 1908 is worth:

$6,034,276.91 using the Consumer Price Index

$4,430,195.38 using the GDP deflator

$26,082,317.07 using the unskilled wage

$34,474,872.68 using the nominal GDP per capita

$118,348,710.78 using the relative share of GDP

http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/

Anywhere from 4 million to 118 million depending on what you're using to measure. I averaged it out to about 37 million using all the indicators above. That's pretty wealthy.

 

[Boyz_Mum]

evelyn24, thanks for doing the math. No matter how I look at the figures (4 million to 118 million) it's an awful lot of money.

I tend to think Belle faked her death....

 

[believe09]

She definitley faked her death imo-so then the question becomes did the people ID her correctly as the other woman in CA who died in custody??

 

[Kimster]

http://www.laportecountyhistory.org/belleg1.htm

 

[Claudette]

If anyone is curious and no one has answered it yet, according to an inflation calculator website:

"What cost $250,000 in 1901 would cost $64,63,485.70 in 2010. "

Holy guacamole!