Hell's Princess

The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men

By: Harold Schechter

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

“A deeply researched and morbidly fascinating chronicle of one of America’s most notorious female killers.” - The New York Times Book Review

An Amazon Charts bestseller.

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". Some were hired hands. Others were well-to-do bachelors. All of them vanished without a trace. When their bodies were dug up, they hadn’t merely been poisoned, like victims of other female killers. They’d been butchered.

Hell’s Princess is a riveting account of one of the most sensational killing sprees in the annals of American crime: the shocking series of murders committed by the woman who came to be known as Lady Bluebeard. The only definitive book on this notorious case and the first to reveal previously unknown information about its subject, Harold Schechter’s gripping, suspenseful narrative has all the elements of a classic mystery - and all the gruesome twists of a nightmare.

©2018 Harold Schechter (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Storyline bounced around

I found the subject matter interesting however sometimes it was hard to follow the timelines. The storyline seemed to bounce around a lot.

captivating!!

wonderful, spellbounding, couldnt wait to listen Everyday!! I am sharing with my friends! Thank You

Fascinating!

As an Indiana native and resident, I knew a bit about Belle Gunness and her "murder farm." This book brought to life details and mystery that I had not heard, in a way that kept me on the edge of my seat.

Haunting True Story Read

Finished this book in 2 days. Wonderfully researched book! Have recommended to all my friends and family. The Author keeps you through the whole book.

Found out what happened to my great uncle

This was a really good book - well written, with no bias. I enjoyed it a lot. PLUS, I was surprised to find out the family "story" was a fact. Olie Budsberg was actually a victim of this horrible woman. Highly recommend this book, even if you don't have a great uncle that was a victim

Intrigue and horror

This telling of the Gunness murderess captivated my imagination and left me searching for answers until the very last page. Schechter’s detective work on Belle’s life and her journey into the serial killer history books allowed for a clear and informative narrative to form without pushing his own theories, or subjective conclusions into the subject matter. A truly fascinating account of a very disturbing story.

a gory story raised from the past

very well researched and written account of the mystery of iniquity. looking forward to the movie.

Lost horror story

Very interesting detailed account of what was the greatest true crime story of its day. Amazing to think that this case was a point of fascination the world over at the time, and yet is rarely discussed today. Schechter does a workmanlike, journalist’s job of reporting every detail and probably repeats himself a bit too often, but those readers who just can’t resist a tale of this kind won’t be put off. Gunness was a beast, a sadistic serial killer of the worst kind, killing mostly for money, sometimes for convenience, and doubtless for pleasure. The fact that her bestiality is so at odds with the polite manners and genteel images of womanhood of the early 20th century, adds a cringeworthy flavor of misogyny to the contemporary comments re the case. On the 6cat scale of true crime literature, this gets a hearty rating of EEK.

It just makes you think...

Great narration with a mysterious ending. Makes you think about how she got away with it all. Have to put yourself in a lonely, turn-of-the-century, foreign man's head and the evil in her obviously demented mind.

Well done

I had heard of Belle Gunness before coming across this book, and when I saw how well it was rated, I thought it would be a good way to learn more about her. It was.

The book is well researched, the story told in an interesting, journalistic style. The narration was the hiccup for me. I really liked Hillgartner’s style for this book, but at the same time, the tone of it lulled me too much at times and I found myself not really paying attention, carried away by the sound of his voice.

I would read another book by Schechter without hesitation, and I would listen to another narrated by Hillgartner with only slight hesitation, knowing I’ll likely have to force myself to pay attention now and then. I recommend this book if you like mysteries and true crime. She was very, very bad.