Crime, Conspiracy, Cults and Murder - Ep. 25 | The Most GRUESOME Female Serial Killers

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

In today's episode, we dive into the crimes and minds of the most gruesome serial killers. And not just your typical serial killers... We're talking FEMALE serial killers, so unbuckle your seatbelts, and let's go Mach 5 down the highway! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello everybody and welcome back to my YouTube channel or welcome to my YouTube channel. I'm Call me Chris, you can call me Chris and I just wanted to say Happy Holidays oh Merry Christmas whatever floats your boat I'm very happier here you bring me an immense Amount of joy and I also love the shirt that you're wearing or should I say sweater I know you're wearing a sweater without further ado today we are talking about crime conspiracy serial killers cults and murder. Today we are talking about serial killers murder and a little bit of conspiracy as well,

a little crime, a little bit of everything today, honestly, and it's going to be about something I haven't yet talked about, I don't think, and that is female serial killers. And we're going to be talking about three today. Because the phenomenon, phenomenon, phenomenon, holy shit. Because the phenomenon of serial killers has long been a subject, intrigue, often blanketed in myths that lean heavily towards male perpetrators. However, women's serial killers challenge these narratives, revealing a complex blend of motives, methods, and societal influences that often go overlooked. And this video delves into the psychological, sociological, and historical dimensions of female

serial killers. So without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts, go muck five down the highway, slam on the brakes, and bust through this windshield because we're women drivers into those female serial killers together. Without further ado, let's get into our first serial killer, Jane Toppin, aka Jolly Jane. So the story of Jane Toppen, born Anora Kelly on March 31st, 1854, begins in tragedy. Born to impoverished immigrants in Boston, Anora's life unraveled very early.

Her mother, Bridget Kelly, succumbed to tuberculosis, leaving her and her siblings in the care, of her unstable father. Her father, Peter Kelly, known as Kelly the Crack, which is quite the nickname. I feel like you gotta do a lot to get that nickname. But he was a tailor by trade and a chronic alcoholic. And Peter's behavior veered into legend after claims that he had attempted

to sew his own eyelids shut. And whether this incident occurred or not, it symbolizes the absolute chaos of the Kelly household. So if we're talking nature versus nurture, for Jane, it's not looking good for the nurture side of things. Or the nature, really. Both parents weren't all sound of mind, so. But in 1863, six-year-old, Anora and her sister, Delia Josephine, were surrendered to the Boston Female Asylum, an institution for destitute girls. And the asylum's records describe the Kelly girls as having been rescued from a truly miserable home.

And while Delia later drifted into a life of alcohol, and Lady of the Knightism, if you know what I mean. Anora's trajectory would take a far, far darker turn. In 1864, Anora would be indentured to Anne C. Topin. A stern widow from Lowell, Massachusetts. And though never formally adopted, she took the Topin's surname and became known as Jane Topin. And life with Mrs. Toppen was far from nurturing.

Jane was berated for her Irish heritage and forced to suppress her accent and subjected to harsh discipline because of it. And her foster sister, Elizabeth Topin, became a symbol of everything Jane lacked. Privilege, beauty, and status. And this envy would later fester into murderous intent. And by her late teens,

Jane had cultivated two distinct personas. To the outside world, she was very charming and vivacious, earning the nickname Jolly Jane, for her very cheerful demeanor. But beneath the surface, she was manipulative and very deceitful. And at 18 years old, Jane received $50 upon completing her indenture, but chose to remain in the Topin household, working as a servant for another decade. And her simmering resentment towards Elizabeth, her step-sister basically, deepened as Jane's life stagnated.

But in 1885, Jane finally broke away to enroll in nursing school at Cambridge Hospital. And her natural charisma that she had through school and everything endeared her to patients and doctors alike. Yet her fellow nurses were less enchanted. Jane's manipulative tendencies would start to emerge in the form of gossip, lies, and petty theft. Actions that alienated her colleagues. And it was during this time that Jane's fascination with life and death began to serve this. So basically, what I'm getting from Jane is that she is kind of a, just a narcissistic, doesn't really care about anybody else, doesn't really have empathy.

I think we're leaning towards, like, just a narcissist. and probably some sort of sociopath as well, because we're gonna see very quickly here that she does not give a friggin' rat's ass about people's lives. Because at Cambridge Hospital, Jane began experimenting on her patients, many of whom were elderly or terminally ill.

Using her access to morphine and atropine, she manipulated their dosages to observe their effects on the nervous system. So she was basically just experimenting on these people that were going to die soon, which isn't justified at all, but she just, that was the only way she could, like, hide what she was doing because they were going to die soon anyway, so nobody really cared, especially given the time. And these mixes of medication basically led to induced sleep from the morphine, which is also called placid sleep, while atropine caused agitation and hallucinations. So these people would literally be just hallucinating and thinking they're going crazy while also sleeping, but nobody would really be able to tell, except for, james.

And Jane took a very macabre pleasure in alternating between these states, toying with her victim's consciousness. So they would literally wake up, think they're in a whole different realm, fall back asleep, wake back up. So she was torturing them, but only she knew. So she took a very strange, almost sensual pleasure from this. And her first known victim at Cambridge was Amelia Finney. And she was a surgical patient.

Jane would give Amelia a bitter-tasting medicine that induced unconsciousness. As Amelia drifted in and out of awareness, she later recalled Jane climbing into bed with her and kissing her face. So she not only poisoned her patience, she also essayed them while they were unconscious. Amelia would survive but dismissed the incident as a bizarre dreamt, until Jane's crime came to light later in the years. I can't even believe that, just thinking that you dreamt that and seeing her like in the paper, like years and years later, to me like, but Jane's experiments at this time did not go unnoticed and colleagues began to suspect her of reckless administration of opiates. And she would be dismissed from Cambridge Hospital and dismissed

from Massachusetts General Hospital by 1890. But undeterred, she transitioned to private nursing, where her charm amassed her growing lethality. And Jane Toppins' career as a private nurse basically gave her unparalleled access to vulnerable victims, many of whom were elderly. or terminally ill or convulsing. She would basically just capitalize off her patient's trust and the lack of medical oversight at the time, using her position to administer fatal doses of morphine and atropine, often masked in everyday substances

like honeyati mineral water or food. And her choice of poisons reflected both availability and her grim fascination with controlling life and death. Morphine derived from opium is a very powerful sedative that suppresses the central nervous system. An atropine, on the other hand, is an alkaloid, derived from plants like deadly nightshades and has stimulant effects on the nervous system.

And the combination of the two just created a very potent and unpredictable interplay of symptoms that Jane found both intriguing and lethal. So like the patients were literally like, oh, so let's talk about some of her victims. First of all, the Dunhams. Yes, that's plural. Specifically Israel Dunham and Lovely Dundham.

And these would be Jane's first confirmed murders. And they were actually her landlords. She went just right to the closest people to her at the time. And nobody badded in I. And it would be Israel and Lovely who were a couple. So in 1895, she poisoned Israel, claiming his frailty made him a nuisance. And two years later, she killed Lovely, Israel's wife, citing similar frustrations.

And after their deaths, Jane, this bitch, would move into their home, taking what she deemed was owed to her. And Israel and Lovely would both die of morphine overdoses specifically, where they both basically died peacefully in their sleep, and it suppressed their breathing until their bodies could no longer sustain life. But Jane's motives were macabre and sedgely, you know, uh, motivated. But she clearly wanted to gain other things from her victims, aka a whole freaking house. which is insane. And this brings us to her next victim,

which was Elizabeth Brigham. And this was perhaps one of her most personal murders because this was her foster sister. And Jane would invite Elizabeth to join her on a Cape Cod vacation, where she slowly poisoned her with strychnin, or strychnen. And Jane would later confess

that Elizabeth was the one of the first person she killed purely out of hatred. Because the jealousy and the bitterness that had festered for decades just culminated in Elizabeth agonizing death. And strychnin, I'm probably saying that wrong, I'm sorry, but it's basically a potent neurotoxin, which causes severe and agonizing muscle spasins and convulsions,

and victims often die from exfixiation due to the inability of the diaphragm to contract. So she was just slowly dosing her, so this death specifically was very, very drawn out. And the next set of murders would be the Davis family. So in 1901, Jane would take on her most audacious endeavor. The systemic destruction of the Davis family, of Catamette, Massachusetts. And she was originally hired to care for the elderly, which was Alden Davis, after the death of his wife, Maddie Davis, whom Jane had already murdered.

And Jane had moved into their home at this point, so clearly she has a f***omotive. She's moving in on this family. And over the next six weeks, she would kill Maddie Davis. Davis, who was 62, by poisoning them with morphine and atropine in July. And then she would poison Genevieve Gordon, who was 33. And Jane would claim that Genevieve died by slur slide overcome with grief over her mother's death, who she just killed previously. And then she would kill Alden Davis, who was 64, and he would succumb to Jane's

concoctions on August 8th. And last, she would kill Minnie Gibbs, who was only 40, poisoned Shurbaned. shortly after her father's death. And Jane later admitted to manipulating the family's trust, so they would never suspect her. And she would even attend the funerals while feigning grief, while reveling also in her complete control. But Jane's greatest achievement of killing an entire family

made other people very suspicious, thankfully. And this suspicious pattern of deaths within the Davis family led to Captain Gibbs, Minnie's father-in-law, to request toxology tests. And traces of morphine and atropine were found, prompting an investigation. Finally! And Jane would be placed under surveillance and arrested on October 29, 1901. And in custody, Jane would confess to 31 murders,

though authorities suspected the true number exceeded in the hundreds. And her motivations ranged from practical to removing nuisances or securing jobs, to being deeply personal, such as her hatred, towards Elizabeth. So basically just whenever she was inconvenienced, if her, if you fucking accidentally tripped her bumped into her off on the side of the road, she'd just be like, hey, can I come over?

I'm just gonna make you a little drink, a little drink of honeyadi water or whatever the hell it is. And Jane would also admit to derive sensual pleasure from watching her victims die. A revelation that horrified, even seasoned investigators. And something that is also very uncommon in female serial killers, specifically. There's only like a few accounts of this actually being the case.

So Jane's trial would begin in June 1902. And despite her protests of sanity, she argued that she knew her actions were wrong and thus was not insane. And a jury declared her not guilty by reason of insanity. So she basically just got off. Even though she said like, I'm not insane, I knew exactly what I was doing and I liked what I was doing and they still ruled her insane. and she would be committed to taunton insane hospital for life. And for the next 36 years, Jane would live in the asylum, where her mental state deteriorated completely. She became very paranoid, refusing food for fear of being poisoned.

Oh, sucks to be a little paranoid about that, doesn't it? Yet she remained very unapologetic and occasionally boasting of her crimes to visitors. And on August 17th, 1938, Jane Toppen died of old age at 84, taking the full extent of her crimes to the grave. And Jane Topin's story was one of the most chilling examples of betrayal in caregiving. Trusted by her victims, she exploited their vulnerability to satisfy her own twisted desires. A figure of Victorian American dark underbelly. Jolly Jane stands as a stark reminder of how appearances can deceive and how power in the

wrong hands can destroy. But yeah, Jane, Jane is, it's scary. It's very scary with the whole caregiving thing. It's also very, or more common with female serial killers to be in that caregiving role. As we will see, as I will continue to do more female serial killers as well. But it is, it's very scary. Like, I'm already scared of hospitals, man. Now I'm going to worry about getting Tug Award by morphine and atropine.

Fine. Anyway, let's talk about the next serial killer, which is Bell Gunnus, aka the butcher of Laporte. Belle Gunniss was born Brinhild Paul's dadder Storseth on November 11th in 1859 in Selbu, Norway. Hence, the really long, interesting name. And she would be the youngest child of eight in a poor tenant farming family. And her parents, Paul and Barrett Storseth, worked tirelessly to sustain their large family. Hey, here's a, here's an option.

Don't have that many kids. I guess contraception wasn't really, uh, wasn't really much of an option either. I'm trailing off, sorry. Brinhild's childhood, though arduous, showed little sign of the horrors that she would inflict on unsuspecting victims later in her life. And at 17, a traumatic event may have marked the beginning of her transformation. Brinhild, then pregnant, was assaulted by her father of her unborn child.

And the resulting miscarriage was devastating. And a month later, the man died under mysterious circumstances, marking what many believed to be her first act. act of murder. But again, this is all alleged. It is not concrete. We don't have that in like criminal reports, but there are a lot of claims of this specific thing. So I feel like it's worth stating. And in 1881, Brinfield emigrated to Chicago, where she joined her sister, Nellie Larson. And upon arrival, she anglicized her name to Bell Peterson and began working as a domestic servant before taking a job at a butcher shop. Yeah, you're saying where this is going?

It's not good. It's not good. And standing six feet tall and 200 pounds and incredibly strong, it set her apart from the crowd to say the least. And she was industrious, but those close to her noted a very cold, calculating edge to her personality. And in 1884, Bell would marry Mads Sorensen, Norwegian immigrant. And the couple opened a candy store. Oh, fun! And the business struggled, and a year later, it mysteriously burned down.

Oh, I smell insurance claim. And the insurance payout allowed them to purchase a home, which also burned down under suspicious circumstances. Mm, insurance claim. You could see at this time, insurance claims weren't really looked into that much. They're like, oh, it burned down, here's all the money. Here's all the money back. That's weird.

That's weird. All the houses are burned down in this town. It's very strange. And around this time, the couple began to foster children. And two of these children were named Caroline, and Axel, and they would both die within two years of one another. Reportedly from acute colitis. And symptoms of colitis were severe abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea, mirroring those of,

wait for it, poisoning. Taking a little note from Jane's book. And both children were, wait for it, smell it, insured, yep, and Bell collected a sizable payout for each of their deaths. What you, bitch? I, it's just so gross. Like, it makes me so mad. But on July 30th, 1900, Mad Sorensen would die under unusual circumstances as well.

And Bell claimed he had complained of a headache and she gave him quinine for relief. Quining, I'm not sure to pronounce that either. And by day's end, he was dead. And his death coincided with the one day overlap of two life insurance policy netting Bell $8,000, equivalent to $250,000 today. And nobody's saying anything. Everyone's dying around Bell and everybody's just like, hmm, shame. And though the family doctor did suspect poisoning, no autopsy was conducted.

And with her newfound wealth, Bell relocated to a farm in Laporte, Indiana, where her killing spree would escalate dramatically. So in 1902, Bell married Peter Gunnis, a widower with two young daughters. And just a week after the wedding, Peter's infant daughter died while in Bell's care. And the following December, Peter himself succumbed to what Bell described as a freak accident. And the freak accident was that a sausage grinder fell from a high shelf onto his head. As it does, as you do. I mean, there are freak accidents here and there.

But despite the suspicious nature of the death, Bell was not charged, and she collected $3,000 in life insurance. But neighbors began to whisper at this time, and a local coroner suggested foul play, describing Peter's death as beyond unlikely, thank you, coroner. But Bell remained untouchable. And shortly afterward, her foster daughter, Jenny Olson, who had confided to classmates about Bell's crimes, vanished completely. She just vanished. She just phanosed out of the air. And Bell claimed

that Jenny had gone to a finishing school in California. But her body would later be found buried on the property. And by 1905, Belle had perfected her deadly scheme. She placed matrimonial advertisements in Chicago newspapers seeking men of means

who were interested in sharing her life and farm life. And her ads would describe her as a hard-working widow seeking a kind and wealthy partner who's like, okay with dying the day after our wedding and after signing the life insurance policy. And men responded eagerly, traveling to Laporte with large sums of cash, often their whole life savings. And Bell's weapon of choice was Stricknine, a potent neurotoxin, which actually Jane used once before as well. And its effects on the body were brutal and highly

visible. Stricknine would block the glycine receptors in the spinal cord, leading to extreme muscle contractions and spasms. So the victims would experience violent convulsions, lock jaw, and respiratory distress, often dying from exfixiation, like I said before. And why she used it was because strickening was just a readily available pesticide at the time. And its symptoms could mimic natural conditions like tinnitus or seizures. And Bell would also use to mix it up a little arsenic, which is also a common poison. So let's get into her matrimonial ad responder deaths. I guess. And the first one is Henry Gerholt. And Henry was a farmhand from Wisconsin, and he had answered one of Bell's matrimonial advertisements. And he was described as a quiet

and unassuming man, and Henry saw the promise of a prosperous farm and hardworking wife as the fulfillment of his dreams. And after a series of letters, Bell persuaded him to travel to Leport with all his life savings, which she framed as an investment in their future together. And upon arrival, Henry was greeted with warmth and hospitality. So Bell would offer him a very hearty, delicious meal during which she likely slipped strickeningine into his food or drink. She just wasted no time. And accounts suggested that Bell usually liked to poison her victims first, rendering them incapacitated and very vulnerable. And once Henry would succumb to the effects of the poison, she would drag his unconscious and

lifeless body into her basement. And there she would dismember. And there she would dismembering him with great precision because she was a master at butchering alongside one of her previous husbands, Peter Gummis. And Henry's remains would be later discovered in a shallow grave near Bell's hog pen, one of her favorite sites of disposal. And the grave would contain fragments of his dismembered body, evidence of Bell's cold and calculated approach to eliminating any trace of her victims. And the next hopeless, romantic death would be John Moe. John Mow. Mo, a farmer from Minnesota, was another unfortunate soul who fell prey to Bell Gunness's deadly scheme. Drawn in by her letters, which painted her as a loving widow seeking companionship,

John withdrew a significant portion of his savings before setting off to Laporte. And I should, I should say that her letters were, were so convincing. She was extremely manipulative. Like, I, I don't want to, like, seem like, these men are all just, like, really dumb. She was just very, good at what she did, and it's extremely unfortunate. And Bell would welcome John, very warming and charming with him, with her hospitality and promises of life together on the farm. She just painted this perfect picture of them, living their perfect life together. However, her demeanor would change once John handed over his money, as she does. And Bell, again, would prepare a meal and lace it with poison immediately. And as John would grow drowsy and incapacitated, she would deliver a fatal blow.

likely with a blunt instrument, ensuring there was no chance of survival. And a carpenter who actually worked on Bell's home later testified that John's trunk remained untouched in the parlor, alongside several other unclaimed belongings from her victims. So she literally just had them walk in and then she killed them, like almost immediately. And John's body, like the ones before him, was taken into the basement, taken apart, and also buried in shallow graves scattered across her property. And the next victim would be Andrew Helgelia. and Andrew would be a Norwegian farmer from South Dakota,

and he holds the distinction of being Bell's last known victim. And Bell and Andrew exchanged a series of letters over several months, during which Bell skillfully manipulated his emotions, convincing him that they were destined to be together, and in one letter, she urged him to come prepared to stay forever, a chilling foreshadowing of his fate. And in January 1908, Andrew liquidated his assets, bringing over $3,000, a small fortune,

at the time to Laporte. And his stay, like the others, at Bell's farm, would be very brief. And after ensuring Andrew had cashed his checks and handed over the money, Bell likely used her signature combination of poison and blunt instrument to end his life. And Andrew's body would be later found wrapped in a burlap, in buried on Bell's property. And unlike the other victims, his disappearance prompted suspicion. His brother, Isle, uncovered the letters between Bell and Andrew, and traveled to Laporte and determined to.

to find out what the hell happened to his brother. And Alice Persistent would ultimately expose Bell's horrifying deeds. But I think we should go back in time one year in 1907 because it's relevant because Ray Lamfeer, a former farmhand of Bells in La Port, Indiana on her property, played a pivotal role in the previous crimes and the crimes to come. So again, hired by Gunniss in 1907, Lamphir was quickly drawn into her orbit, becoming her lover, despite being far from a suitable suitor in her eyes, because the guy was poor. He had no money. All he had was love. But that wasn't enough for Gunniss. And she would soon move

him into her place, living on the second floor, kind of where the farm hands stay. And his devotion would just turn into jealousy as he watched other men, wealthy potential suitors, lured by Gunn's matrimonial ads, arrive at the farm only to mysteriously vanish. And Lamphir's descent into anger and instability worsened as he was replaced as a farmhand by Joe Maxen and forcibly evicted from his quarters. And over the next three months, Lamphir became an endless source of grief for Bell Gunniss, or so she says. She wrote multiple letters to the local sheriff, Albert Smutzer, complaining that Lamphir was playing the part of a creepy ex-lover and was prowling on her property and peeking through her windows. And in March, Bell would try to get Lamphir declared insane.

which failed. And she then had him arrested and fined for trespassing. And days after that, he was arrested again and quitted. Though by this time, nearly every Laporte city official was aware that Lampere seemingly had it out for this poor widow. And Guddis continued to voice her suspicions of Lampier. Even on April 27th, she visited her attorney, Melvin E. Lilliter, and asked to have her will drawn up. Hmm, suspicious? And she seemed extremely anxious.

Very good actress, in my opinion. And she would tell the lawyer what she had been telling everyone in town. Ray Lamphir was causing her more and more trouble. And she was afraid he was going to do something dangerous. Quote unquote, I want to prepare for an eventuality. She reportedly told her lawyer, quote unquote, I'm afraid that fool Lamphir is going to kill me and burn my house. And the lawyer signed the will.

And after the meeting, Belle Guinness went shopping and came home with cakes, a toy train, and two gallons of kerosene. Kerosene's very flammable, people. Very flammable. And according to Schecter, she treated her family that evening to a very large meal of meat and potatoes and spent the night sitting on the floor, playing with her children, and their new toy train. Which brings us to the next morning on April 28th, 1908. Bell's farmhouse erupted in flames under suspicious circumstances. Hmm. Who just bought kerosene the day before and said that somebody else was going to light her house on fire?

Weird. And built up this persona that Lamphir is an evil asshole that was going to kill her. Hmm. Neighbors rushed to the scene, but found the building consumed by fire. And Joe Maxton, her new farmhand, had been in the house and tried to save them, but the house was already engulfed with flames, so he was left on leaving the house and just hoping that they had also gotten out of the house. But it seemed they hadn't.

Because among the charred remains, authorities discovered the bodies of Bell's three children. Myrtle, Lucy, and Philip. And a headless woman presumed to be Bell herself. Hmm. However, discrepancies in the web, and his corpse raised immediate questions. The body was significantly shorter and weighed far less than Bell's known six-foot structure and 200 pounds.

And the missing head made positive identification absolutely impossible, fueling the speculation that Bell had staged her death to escape capture, which makes the most sense to me. The heads, why is the head gone? Ooh, decap it. Like, it just doesn't make, like, it's just the perfect cover up. And then her building this, Lempier, maybe you've done it, and then, It's just all stupid. Anyway, I'll continue.

And as investigators combed to the ruins, Bell's former farmhand, given that she's quote unquote dead, Joe Maxon came forward with a chilling testimony. He revealed that Bell had asked him to spread kerosene around the house shortly before the fire and hinted at plans to take care of everything. And him not knowing what this means did what he was asked, because that's what he did. And this confession combined with the discovery of the buried bodies,

on the property painted a very damning picture. And in total, authorities would uncover the remains of 11 bodies, all decapitated, dismembered, and buried in shallow graves. That she also had Joe Maxton dig out, not knowing, him not knowing, what he was digging for. The most haunting discovery was the burlap-drapped body of Andrew Helgling, whose disappearance had triggered the investigation with his brother, basically starting this whole thing based off the letters he saw that he wrote back and forth with Bell.

And after the fire, number one suspect was Lamphere, because Bell had been like basically painting this whole picture that he was just an evil guy that was out to kill her when, let's be real, like he's obviously a cover-up, but it is a different time, I'll give him that. But the jury still believed there was convincing evidence that Lamphir had started the fire. And his only saving grace came when a chemist found traces of strychnine in the bodies of the burnt children. Evidence that Guinness's kids had not died from arson, but from the same poison preferred by their mother, though the testifying doctor refused to declare strictine was the cause of death, unfortunately. But it's just, it's all just so obvious, man. It's just so obvious that she killed her kids, burnt the house down, and also just killed a random woman and decapitated her that kind of looked like her and just fled.

But that evidence helped acquit Lempier of any charges of murder, but it failed to protect him from the charges of arson, a crime that carried up to a 21 year sentence. And after just one year in prison, Lampere died of tuberculosis. But before his death, he confessed to his pastor saying he had witnessed the murder of Andrew Helgleen and had demanded hush money from Gunniss. And she fired him instead. So, like, there's the motive for Gunniss to just do everything that she obviously did.

And when Lampere returned to the house to take back his personal belongings, that's when Gunniss charged him with those trespassing charges and began defaming him in public. So she was just trying to cover her own ass. And today, many believe that Gunniss was probably responsible for the fire. With her old farmhand turned against her and Al Helgeline breathing down her neck. Gunnus knew her ruse was up. So she destroyed everything with a fire.

Everything makes sense. But that's just one of the many theories. But Bell's ability to systemically murder and dispose of her victims was such efficiency, just horrified the nation. And the case became a media sensation with thousands flocking to Leport to witness the gruesome excavation of the murder farm. But the mystery of her death continues to fascinate everyone.

Some believe Bell perished in the fire. Who? Who? Who? While others contend, she escaped, living under a new identity. Me, me and you, because I know you're smart. Sightings of her were actually reported for decades after this, but none were substantiated. 2008 DNA testing on the headless corpse failed to confirm its identity due to sample

degradation, leaving her ultimate fate unresolved. But her tale remains a stark warning of how appearances can deceive and a reminder of the darkness that can lurk behind even the most idyllic facades. What a bitch. But that brings us to our final serial killer, which is Leonardo Chenchuli. Sorry if I'm saying that wrong, I I looked it up and that's how they said it. Also known as the soap maker of Correggio. Sounds nice, doesn't it? It's not.

This one's really, really bad. So Leonardo Ken Chuli was born on April 14th, 1984 in Montella, Avalino, Italy, into an environment of hardship and despair. Her birth was marred by animosity. Her mother was allegedly forced into an unwanted marriage after being graped and arbored resentment toward Leonardo, blaming her for her misfortunes.

And this talk about, toxic dynamic just haunted Leonardo throughout her youth. And from an early age, Leonardo exhibited signs of psychological distress. She allegedly attempted slur slide twice as a young girl, leaving her with a grim outlook on life. And when she married Raphael Pensardy in 1914, against her mother's wishes, Leonardo claimed her mother cursed their union, a notion she carried with her for the rest of her life. And the couple really struggled to find stability. After a brief imprisonment for fraud in 1927, Leonardo and Raphael moved frequently, seeking refuge from misfortune. And the 1930-Urpena earthquake, which destroyed their home in Lacedonia, was the final push that led them to settle in Correggio-Rigio-Amelia.

And there, Leonardo opened a modest shop, becoming known as a kind and very friendly neighbor. However, beneath the facade of a doting mother and local confidant, darker fears consumed her. Leonardo would endure 17 pregnancies, but the majority ended in tragedy. Three were miscarriages, and 10 of her children died young. Only four would survive until adulthood. And her obsessive protectiveness towards her children was just fueled by fortune tellers, grim prophecies that she would marry and bear children, but that all her offspring would die. So she basically put all of her thought and hope into these fortune tellers,

which was very common at the time, especially in Italy. And another Romani palm reader at the time had told her, in your right hand, I see prison. In your left, a criminal asylum. And these predictions, combined with her losses, led Leonardo to believe that supernatural forces governed her fate. And by 1939, with World War II looming, Leonardo's eldest son Giuseppe announced his intention

to join the Italian Royal Army. And he was her favorite child. And she became consumed by the idea that his safety required an extraordinary act of sacrifice. You see where I'm going with this. It's not good. And her love, already twisted by grief and superstition, just drove her to a horrifying conclusion. And that was to protect Giuseppe. She must offer human lives.

What? So Leonardo's victims would be three middle-aged women from her community in Correggio. And each sought her assistance to escape the monotony upggy. their lives. And Leonardo used her reputation as a helpful neighbor to lure them into her trap. So Faustini, Setti, a lonely 73-year-old spinster, often confided in Leonardo about her desire for companionship. And in 1939, Leonardo convinced Faustini that she had found her a suitor. A wealthy man living in Pola, which is modern-day Croatia. And she instructed Faustina to keep the arrangement secret and even helped her write farewell letters and postcards to her family.

And they were to be mailed upon her arrival in Pola. She was just covering all of her bases where she could. And Faustina also sold all of her belongings and withdrew her savings, which was about 30,000 liar, trusting Leonardo to arrange her marriage to her suitor in Pola. And on the day of her supposed departure, Faustina would visit Leonardo to thank her. And Leonardo would offer her a glass of wine,

laced with a sedative, and waited until Faustina fell unconscious. And then with cold precision, she would strike Faustina with an axe killing her instantly. And Leonardo dragged the lifeless body into a closet where she dismembered it into nine parts. She would meticulously collect the blood into a basin to use for her macabre recipes. And the disposal process reflected an unsettling blend of practicality and ritual. Using caustic soda, a corrosive chemical, she would boil the body parts into a very viscous mush. I'm sorry.

And this mixture would be poured into buckets and discarded into a septic tank. And Leonardo dried the blood in an oven and incorporated it into tea cakes. And in her memoir later, called an embittered soul's confession, Leonardo described the gruesome disposal process as such. I threw the pieces into a pot. Added 7 kilos of caustic soda and stirred the mixture until the pieces dissolved into a thick, dark mush. I poured this into several buckets and emptied them into a nearby septic tank. The blood, after coagulating, I dried in the oven, ground into powder and mixed with flour, sugar, chocolate, milk, and margarine to make crunchy tea cakes.

And these cakes were served to her unsuspecting neighbors and even consumed by her son. Giuseppe. So gross. And that brings us to her next victim, which was Francesca Soavi. A 55-year-old widow sought Leonardo's help to find stable employment. And Leonardo exploited Francesca's aspirations

claiming to have secured her a teaching position at a prestigious school in Pia Senza. Why does everybody think that this old lady, or middle-aged, whatever, this lady has all the ins and has like all the ins at all these

different places. It's just to make any sense. Anyway, Francesca followed Leonardo's instructions, writing postcards detailing her plans, which were to be mailed from Piacenza. So again, she's just covering all of her tracks, making sure that there's a paper trail, that she was actually going to leave, and making sure that she doesn't actually look like she's involved. And on September 5th, 1940, Francesca visited Leonardo to finalize her preparations. And Leonardo, adhering to her ritual, offered drugged wine before killing her with the max. And Francesca's dismemberment, and disposal would follow the same method as Faustinas. And Leonardo would take 3,000 liar from Francesca,

justifying the murder as necessary sacrifice for Giuseppe's safety. And Francesca's disappearance, like Faustinas, went unnoticed at first, allowing Leonardo to continue her spree unchecked. And Leonardo's final victim would be Virginia Caciopo. Sorry if I'm saying these names wrong. I think I'm saying them right, but I might be saying them wrong, so I apologize. And Virginia was a 53-year-old widow and a former soprano who had once performed at La Scala. And reduced to living in poverty, Virginia

trusted Leonardo when she promised her a lucrative job as a secretary to a prominent impassario in Florence. Again, how does she have all these ends? She's not, she's literally just a housewife. What is happening? And Virginia's elegance and stature made her a very distinctive victim. And on September 30th, 1940, she arrived at Leonardo's home, hopeful for a fresh start. And Leonardo would repeat her gruesome routine, offering drugged wine and then killing Virginia with an axe. However, Virginia's body held special significance for Leonardo. Leonardo would boil her remains using melted fat to create soap.

Her flesh was fat and white. When it had melted, I added a bottle of cologne. After a long time on the boil, I made some most acceptable creamy soap. I gave bars to neighbors and acquaintances. The cakes too were better. That woman was really sweet. She made soap and tea cakes out of her. She made soap and tea cakes out of her.

And she gave it to her neighbors. Can you imagine being one of those neighbors and finding out after her? Virginia's murder would yield 50,000 liar, jewelry and public bonds cementing Leonardo's belief that her actions were justified once again. But Virginia's sudden disappearance in September 1940 led her sister-in-law to become very suspicious. And witnesses had seen Virginia entering Leonardo's home, but never leaving,

prompting the sister-in-law to report the matter to the police. Thankfully. And authorities would launch an investigation and search Leonardo's home. And during the search, the discovery of bloodstains, human remains, and the tools for dismembering her victims were found. And these gruesome findings confirmed Leonardo's connection to the disappearances of Virginia, Francesca, and Faustina. And Leonardo confessed in chilling detail, providing investigators with precise descriptions of her methods.

This bitch did not hold back. And she showed no remorse and even correcting the authorities on minor details and justifying her actions as sacrifices to protect her son Giuseppe. She was truly, like, in her mind thinking that this was going to keep Giuseppe alive. So, I mean, it's insanity at that point. And Leonardo's trial in 1946 captivated Italy completely. On the stand, she remained defiant, even boastful about her actions, and at the point she interrupted proceedings to clarify, Wait, wait, I gave the copper ladle, which I used to skim the fat off the kettles to my country during the war. Italy needed metal.

Thanks! What? The court would find her guilty of three counts of murder, thankfully, and she was sentenced to 30 years in prison and three years in a criminal asylum, fulfilling the prophecy foretold by the Romani palm reader decades earlier, which is pretty interesting. But Leonardo's actions just reflect deep-seated psychological issues, likely influenced by trauma and superstition. And her obsessive belief in protecting Giuseppe suggests delusional thinking tied to maternal fixation. And her meticulous methods and lack of remorse indicates traits of psychopathy, including lack of empathy and manipulative tendencies. And Leonardo would die on October 15th, 1970 at the age of 76 of cerebral hemorrhage in a woman's asylum in Pazuli.

And that is it for my three female serial killers of the day, horrifying. It's interesting how all of these women used poisoning to a certain degree. They always say poisoning is a woman's tool for murder. And it kind of makes sense. I mean, like physically we are much weak. weaker than men for the most part. There's some strong, you know, females out there, hopefully not killing anybody. But it's, uh, the psychology of it is just very interesting and the motives are very interesting as well. But yeah, if you guys want me to cover any other crime conspiracy cults, murders, serial killers, let me go down below. Eileen Warnos is on my list, so don't worry about that. But any other ones, let me know down below. If you like the video, please like the video. And also, I hope you're having happy holiday season. Take care of yourself. Be safe. Please. Also, don't hitchhike. Side note.

And I love you. And I'll see your beautiful face in the next video. All right. Bye.