Murder
Cases - Female G
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Griffin, Jane
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Gunness, Belle
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Groesbeek, Maria
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Griffin, Jane
Jane Griffin was a housewife with a violent and uncontrollable temper.
She was in the kitchen preparing evening meal, she was slicing the chicken
when she remembered that she had been unable to find the key to the cellar.
With the knife still in her hand she went upstairs to ask the maid if she
had the key or knew where it could be. Jane and the maid had already had
a quarrel earlier in the day which had put Jane in a bad mood with her.
This time when the maid shouted back at her Jane lunged at her with the
knife plunging the blade into the girls heart. Jane Griffin was tried and
quickly found guilty, she was hanged for her crime in 1720.
Groesbeek, Maria
Maria Groesbeek, after seventeen years of marriage decided that she had
tired of her husband and knowing there must be more to life started an
affair with another man, when she asked her husband for a divorce
he refused. She could only see one way out and that was murder
so she bought some ant powder which she knew contained arsenic and poisoned
him. As the death was suspicious an autopsy was performed and the
arsenic detected. She was tried at Bloemfontein Court in South Africa
for the murder of her husband, Christiaan Buys and found guilty and
sentenced to death. She was hanged on the 13 November 1970
Gunness, Belle
Belle Gunness was the original gold digger. By placing classified ads Belle
lured wealthy Chicago men to her house. Once there she would rob and kill
them with the help of her accomplice Ray Lamphere. Belle's criminal career
started with the accidental deaths of her first two husbands and two of
her children. Coincidentally, with each death she collected insurance money
which kept her afloat until her next rash of bad luck.
Once she settled in La Porte, Indiana, she started with her deadly lonely-hearts
venture. On April 28, 1908, her house caught fire and was burnt to the
ground. Arson was suspected and Ray, her farm hand and presumed lover,
was arrested and accused of both setting fire to the house and also for
the murder of Belle and her children. Ray maintained that the female body
found in the embers was not Belle. The body was missing a skull but next
to it they found Belle's dentures. She had in fact faked her own death
and escaped with a bag full of money.
As the investigation broadened they started digging up the ranch. When
they did so they found plenty of human bones and dismembered bodies wrapped
in gunny sacks and doused with lye.
They also discovered that many of Belle's suitors had been fed to the
pigs accounting for the numerous bone fragments found in and around the
pig pen. Estimates as to how many people she actually murdered ranged from
fifty to a hundred but it will never be known for sure. Belle was seen
many times around the country but never brought to justice.
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For more information contact:
Gregg Manning