Belle Gunness - serial murderer

As a 17-year-old farmhand in Norway during the late 1800s, Belle Gunness learned she was pregnant by the son of the landlord. Unwilling to marry her, he beat her until she miscarried. He died a year later of an illness that resembled poisoning, and soon Gunness left for America.

Within three years of emigrating, she married Mads Sorenson. In 1890, Mads became violently ill and died—his death occurred on the only day two life insurance policies on him overlapped, netting his wife $8,500. A physician suspected strychnine poisoning, but the family doctor claimed he treated Mads for an enlarged heart and that caused his death.

Belle took the money and moved to LaPorte, Indiana, where she married Peter Gunness in April 1900 and became stepmother to his children. Soon his young son died (mostly likely caused by poisoning) while he was alone with Belle. In December 1900, an iron meat grinder fell and cracked open Peter’s skull.

Soon after, suitors began arriving with money in hand to marry Belle Gunness and pay off her mortgage. Man after man arrived, always leaving Gunness in the middle of the night. When Gunness secured the money from her potential lovers, she killed them, dismembered them, and buried them in the yard. It was suspected she might have fed some to the pigs.

Text and photo found at my bonez is ur bonez, via. 

A much more detailed biography is available at Wikipedia, which lists over 30 potential victims and indicates that a movie may be released in 2010 based on her life story.