# 3 Deadly Women Who Almost Got Away With Murder

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 18 Oct 2025, 25 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO1474395281.mp3

Join me as we discuss 3 deadly women who almost got away with murder. 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill True Crime Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8dVJtzeHcJgd_Z0bHrJTHQ Lazy Chill History Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillHistory Lazy Chill Zone Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillZone 👇 Support My Work: 🛍️ Merch: https://lazy-chill-zone-shop.fourthwall.com ❤️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lazychillzone 👇Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/lazychillzone/ 👇 Podcast links: ⚡History Video Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/7km5pLWpYWEj1mrPpEfRUr?si=0FHYnZf-Qs2FY1GyLevfig ⚡True Crime Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/0klIz08pAr7wR4we0Ia4sk?si=68qZxCeAQkysXzMZrHE0Iw 🍏 True Crime Podcast on Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lazy-chill-true-crime/id1815534472 lazy chill zone, lazy chill true crime, asmr true crime, true crime for sleep, true crime, unsolved mysteries, cold cases, missing persons, murder investigations, serial killers, criminal profiling, forensic evidence, DNA breakthroughs, crime documentaries, historical crimes, criminal psychology, court trials, wrongful convictions, criminal justice system, police investigations, crime scene analysis, infamous criminals, mysterious disappearances, solved cold cases, forensic science, true crime podcast, shocking murders, unexplained deaths, notorious cases, crime history, criminal conspiracies, real crime stories, dark history, homicide cases, unsolved murders, criminal investigations, crime suspects, forensic breakthroughs, chilling true crime, mysterious deaths, high profile cases, true crime analysis, strange disappearances, criminal justice

## Transcript

[0:00] In the quiet town of Windsor, CT during the early 20th century, a
[0:04] diminutive church going widow named Amy Archer Gilligan was
[0:09] seen as a pillar of the community.
[0:12] Known to many as Sister Amy, she ran the Archer Home for the
[0:16] Elderly and Infirm, A seemingly cozy and respectable
[0:20] establishment on Prospect St. In an era when formal eldercare
[0:24] was still a novel concept, she was considered a pioneer,
[0:29] offering what appeared to be a safe haven for the aged and
[0:32] frail. Her public persona was that of a
[0:35] charitable, pious woman raising her teenage daughter Mary
[0:40] against the odds. To her neighbors and fellow
[0:43] parishioners, the idea that she could be capable of anything
[0:47] sinister was simply inconceivable.
[0:50] Yet behind the facade of compassionate care, a chilling
[0:54] reality was unfolding. The Archer home was becoming a
[0:58] place where the elderly went not just to live out their final
[1:01] days, but to have those days cut unnervingly short.
[1:06] Between 19 O 7 and 1917, a staggering 60 people perished
[1:11] under mysterious circumstances. Under Amy's care.
[1:15] The pattern was alarming. Only 12 residents passed away in
[1:19] the first few years of operation, from 19 O 7 to 1910.
[1:24] However, that number skyrocketed to 48 deaths between 1911 and
[1:29] 1916, and it would be the work of an intrepid investigative
[1:34] journalist that would piece it all together.
[1:37] Amy Archer Gilligan's most effective weapon wasn't the
[1:40] poison she used, but the public perception she so carefully
[1:44] cultivated. Her identity as a harmless,
[1:48] nurturing caregiver provided the perfect camouflage, creating a
[1:53] powerful shield of disbelief that allowed her to operate for
[1:56] years without suspicion. Amy's career and caregiving
[2:01] began alongside her first husband, James Archer.
[2:06] The couple initially looked after an elderly widower in
[2:09] exchange for room and board before establishing their first
[2:12] formal business, Sister Amy's Nursing Home for the Elderly.
[2:17] In 19 O 7. They moved to Windsor and
[2:20] purchased the house on Prospect St. converting it into the
[2:24] Archer home. They offered residents 2 payment
[2:28] options, a modest weekly fee ranging from $7.00 to $25, or, a
[2:34] far more attractive proposition for many, A1 time payment of
[2:38] $1000 for lifetime care. This latter option became the
[2:43] cornerstone of an extremely predatory business model.
[2:47] The sharp increase in deaths after 1910 coincided directly
[2:51] with a period of intense financial pressure for Amy.
[2:55] Her husband James died that year, officially from Bright's
[2:58] disease, a kidney ailment. Conveniently, Amy had taken out
[3:03] an insurance policy on him just weeks before his death, and the
[3:07] payout enabled her to keep the home afloat.
[3:10] Now a widow, she was solely responsible for her daughter's
[3:14] expensive tuition at the Campbell School for Girls and
[3:17] had back taxes to pay. Suddenly, the lifetime care
[3:22] residents became liabilities. Her solution was simple and
[3:26] ruthless. Shorten their lifetimes.
[3:29] This business strategy was made possible by the fact that elder
[3:33] care was an entirely new and unregulated industry.
[3:37] There was no government oversight, no inspections, and
[3:41] no one to question the escalating death toll.
[3:44] Each time a resident who had paid the $1000 fee died, a bed
[3:49] was freed up for a new client, turning a long term financial
[3:52] obligation into an immediate and substantial profit.
[3:58] Notably, her second marriage followed the same deadly
[4:01] pattern. In 1913, she wed Michael
[4:04] Gilligan, A wealthy widower with four adult sons.
[4:08] Just three months later, he was dead, with the cause listed as
[4:13] severe indigestion. He left his entire estate of
[4:17] over $4000 to Amy in a will that his sons contested and which was
[4:22] later found to be a forgery. For years, Amy's system worked
[4:27] perfectly. Most of her residents were
[4:30] elderly, infirm, and had few close relatives to ask
[4:34] questions. That changed with Franklin
[4:37] Andrews. At 60 years old, Andrews was
[4:41] much healthier than most residents, actively doing chores
[4:45] and yard work around the property.
[4:47] While it's not known why he chose to live there, it's
[4:51] speculated that he thought the $1000 for life deal was
[4:54] spectacular given his age. Crucially, he maintained a close
[4:59] relationship with his family, often writing to his sister,
[5:02] Nellie Pierce. In May 1914, after a day of
[5:07] painting a fence, the robust Andrews suddenly collapsed.
[5:12] He died two days later, the official cause of death listed
[5:15] as a gastric ulcer. A familiar diagnosis at the
[5:19] Archer home, Nellie Pierce's suspicion was the catalyst that
[5:23] brought Amy's evil empire down. While sorting through her
[5:27] brother's belongings, she discovered letters in which Amy
[5:30] was pressuring him for money. This clear financial motive was
[5:34] enough for Nellie to contact not only the local District Attorney
[5:38] but also a local Hartford newspaper.
[5:42] Her complaint landed on fertile ground.
[5:45] A local correspondent named Carlin Gosley had already grown
[5:49] disturbed by the sheer number of obituaries he'd been assigned to
[5:52] write for residents. Acting on his own initiative,
[5:56] Gosley had begun checking the poison registers that all local
[6:00] drug stores were required to keep by law.
[6:03] He discovered that Amy Archer Gilligan was a frequent
[6:06] customer, purchasing large quantities of arsenic under the
[6:10] pretext of eliminating rats and bedbugs.
[6:13] With this information, the newspaper launched a full scale
[6:17] investigation. In an era before modern
[6:20] forensics and organized state police forces, the newspaper's
[6:24] reporters acted as the primary investigators.
[6:27] They meticulously reviewed years of death certificates and
[6:31] performed A comparative data analysis, contrasting the death
[6:35] rate with that of other facilities in the region.
[6:39] The results were damning. The death rate at Amy's home was
[6:43] disproportionately and astronomically higher.
[6:47] The newspaper had effectively built the case, providing the
[6:50] undeniable evidence needed to force an official police
[6:53] investigation. The state police, armed with the
[6:58] journalist's findings, took over.
[7:00] Investigators confirmed Amy had purchased 10 ounces of arsenic,
[7:05] enough to eliminate over 100 people, just before her husband
[7:09] Michael's death. Authorities secured permission
[7:12] to exhume the bodies of Franklin Andrews, Michael Gilligan and
[7:17] three other former residents. The autopsies confirmed the
[7:21] reporter's darkest suspicions. All 5 victims had lethal doses
[7:25] of arsenic or strychnine in their systems.
[7:30] Amy Archer Gilligan was arrested on May 8th, 1916.
[7:35] Her first trial in 1917 was a national sensation, ending with
[7:40] a guilty verdict, and she was given an appointment with the
[7:43] gallows. However, her lawyer successfully
[7:47] appealed the conviction and she was granted a new trial in 1919.
[7:52] This time, she changed her plea to insanity, with her daughter
[7:57] testifying that she was addicted to morphine.
[8:00] The jury found her guilty, but this addiction was considered a
[8:04] factor in her sentencing, and somehow she only received life
[8:08] in prison. In 1924, she was declared insane
[8:12] and transferred to the Connecticut Hospital for the
[8:15] Insane, where she remained until her death in 1962.
[8:21] Fortunately, the horrific revelations about this deadly
[8:24] woman LED directly to meaningful public policy reform.
[8:28] In 1917, Connecticut passed new legislation requiring the state
[8:33] licensing and regular inspection of all elder care facilities,
[8:37] creating protections that endure to this day.
[8:41] In a truly bizarre twist, Amy Archer Gilligan's disturbing
[8:45] spree would go on to inspire the comedic play Arsenic and Old
[8:49] Lace. This play was in turn adapted by
[8:52] Frank Capra, the guy who went on to direct It's a Wonderful Life
[8:57] into a movie starring Cary Grant in 1944.
[9:01] Personally, I have to wonder if Amy Archer Gilligan ever found
[9:05] out about the movie while she was in her lockdown psychiatric
[9:08] ward. Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here
[9:15] reminding you to take a moment to subscribe and hit the
[9:18] notification bell and also turn on all notifications.
[9:22] Also, don't forget to hit that hype button and hype this video
[9:25] up since it allows the video to be more visible both to new
[9:29] viewers and to subscribers who don't hit the notification bell.
[9:36] In the pre dawn chill of April 28th, 19 O 8A farmhand named Joe
[9:41] Maxon woke to the smell of smoke choking the air of the small
[9:45] farmhouse in La Porte IN the home of his employer, a stout
[9:50] Norwegian widow named Belle. Gunness was ablaze.
[9:54] Maxon's frantic calls to Belle and her three young children,
[9:58] Myrtle, Lucy and Philip, were met with a terrifying silence.
[10:02] Swallowed by the roar of the inferno, he barely escaped with
[10:06] his life. By the time the fire was
[10:09] extinguished, the house was a ruin of charred timber and ash.
[10:15] In the smoldering basement, investigators made a grim
[10:18] discovery. 4 bodies. Three were unmistakably the
[10:23] children huddled together. The 4th was an adult woman,
[10:27] presumed to be Belle. But there was a horrifying
[10:30] problem that twisted this tragedy into a dark and enduring
[10:34] mystery. The woman's body was missing its
[10:37] head. This single gruesome detail was
[10:41] the opening chapter to one of America's most monstrous true
[10:44] crime sagas, a story of a predator who used the guise of
[10:48] love to operate a business of death.
[10:52] Long before she arrived in LaPorte, Belle Gunness, born
[10:56] Brunhild Storseth in Norway, was already honing her craft.
[11:01] She immigrated to the United States in 1881, a physically
[11:05] imposing woman standing nearly 6 feet tall and weighing over
[11:09] £200, a strength she would later use to lethal effect.
[11:15] Settling in Chicago, she married Mad Sorenson in 1884 and began
[11:20] what can only be described as a criminal dress rehearsal.
[11:24] A series of convenient fires at their candy store and later
[11:28] their home resulted in handsome insurance payouts.
[11:32] Tragedy seemed to follow the couple, but profit was never far
[11:36] behind. Two of their infant children,
[11:40] Caroline and Alex, perished from what was diagnosed as acute
[11:44] colitis, a condition with symptoms remarkably similar to
[11:47] poisoning. Disturbingly, Bell had insured
[11:51] both children and collected on the policies.
[11:54] And trust me when I say it, Bell knew the insurance and outs of
[11:57] life insurance. The final act of her Chicago
[12:01] chapter came on July 30th, 1900. Her husband, Mads, died of a
[12:07] supposed cerebral hemorrhage on the one and only day that two of
[12:11] his life insurance policies overlapped, netting Bell a
[12:14] massive payout. With neighbors growing
[12:17] suspicious, she took her money and her remaining children and
[12:21] moved to the quiet, isolated farmland of LaPorte, Indiana,
[12:25] ready to scale up her operation. Her new life began with an old
[12:29] pattern. In 19 O2, she married a local
[12:33] widower, Peter Gunness. Within a week, Peter's infant
[12:38] daughter from his previous marriage perished of unknown
[12:41] causes while in Belle's care. Less than a year later, Peter
[12:47] himself was dead. Belle's explanation was almost
[12:51] comically absurd. A meat grinder and a jar of hot
[12:55] water had supposedly fallen from a high shelf and crushed his
[12:59] skull. Despite A coroner's inquest, she
[13:02] was cleared and yet again she collected another large
[13:06] insurance payout. Now a 2 time widow with a
[13:09] valuable farm, Bell launched her most audacious scheme.
[13:14] She began placing matrimonial ads in Norwegian language
[13:17] newspapers across the Midwest, presenting herself as a comely
[13:21] widow seeking a reliable man to join fortunes.
[13:26] The ads were a masterstroke of predatory marketing, targeting
[13:30] lonely, financially stable immigrant men who would see her
[13:34] as a trustworthy, kindred spirit.
[13:37] Her one condition was that any serious suitor must visit her
[13:40] farm in person and bring his life savings and cash to prove
[13:44] his sincerity. I'm going to go ahead and call
[13:48] that a major red flag. For the men who answered her
[13:53] call, Bell's farm was the end of the line.
[13:56] Her method was as systematic as it was brutal.
[14:00] Suitors would arrive with their cash, be welcomed with a warm
[14:04] meal, and then served a final cup of coffee laced with
[14:07] strychnine. If the poison didn't finish the
[14:10] job, her formidable strength and a cleaver or hammer did.
[14:16] She then dragged the bodies to her cellar, where let's just say
[14:19] that her experience working in a Chicago butcher shop proved
[14:23] invaluable. From there, the men made their
[14:26] way into makeshift graves around the property.
[14:30] The list of the lost grew steadily.
[14:33] John Moe from Minnesota, who arrived with his savings and was
[14:37] never seen again, though his trunk remained in Bell's house
[14:41] with a dozen others. Henry Gerholt was from
[14:45] Wisconsin, and he wrote home cheerfully about the farm before
[14:48] vanishing. Andrew Helgelian, a farmer from
[14:53] South Dakota, was added to the list as well, and his
[14:57] disappearance would be her undoing.
[15:01] Even her foster daughter, Jenny Olson, who had grown suspicious
[15:04] of Peter Gunness's death, was slain after Belle claimed she'd
[15:08] sent the girl away to school in California.
[15:12] Belle had transformed her pastoral farm into an efficient
[15:15] industrial scale slaughterhouse. She was fueled by greed and
[15:20] shielded by the societal expectation that a woman,
[15:24] especially one who was a mother who lost her own children, could
[15:28] never be such a monster. Bell's carefully constructed
[15:33] world began to crumble from 2 directions at once.
[15:37] The first was Asli Helgelian, the brother of her final known
[15:41] victim, Andrew. When his brother's letters
[15:44] stopped, he refused to accept Bell's dismissive replies and
[15:49] traveled to LaPorte to investigate himself.
[15:52] The second was Ray Lamphere, Bell's recently fired farmhand
[15:57] and spurned lover. Consumed by jealousy over the
[16:00] parade of suitors, Lamphere became a liability.
[16:05] Bell, in a calculated move, began telling townspeople that
[16:09] he was threatening her pre, emptively framing him for the
[16:13] disaster she was planning. Ashley Helgellion's impending
[16:17] arrival was the final catalyst. Knowing the game was up, Bell
[16:22] executed her end game. She visited her lawyer to make a
[16:26] will, withdrew the bulk of her cash from the banks and set her
[16:29] plan in motion. As Lee's persistence after the
[16:34] fire forced a real investigation, he and Joe Maxon
[16:38] began digging in a garbage pit on the farm, soon unearthing the
[16:42] remains of his brother Andrew in a sack.
[16:45] That discovery opened the floodgates.
[16:48] Sheriff's deputies excavated the property and unearthed up to 40
[16:51] bodies. Ray Lamphere was subsequently
[16:54] convicted, and while in prison, he later confessed that Belle
[16:58] had hired A servant girl and used her corpse as a replacement
[17:02] while she fled. In the end, though, the question
[17:06] of Belle's fate has never been convincingly answered, and some
[17:09] believe that she escaped from justice.
[17:13] However, there were no definitive sightings of Belle
[17:16] after this, and given her extremely distinct appearance, I
[17:21] have to believe that she likely did perish.
[17:24] That said, she could have always fled back to Norway, or perhaps
[17:29] fled across the border to Canada and attempted to fit in with the
[17:33] Scandinavian community under a new identity.
[17:37] But if she did that, this would have meant that she gave up the
[17:41] life of extreme brutality that she was accustomed to, which I
[17:45] just can't see as plausible. It's a scene you could find in
[17:52] any town across Japan on a sticky late summer evening.
[17:55] The cheerful sounds of a community festival, the smell of
[17:59] food cooking over propane stoves, and families strolling
[18:03] between stalls set up under simple canvas tents.
[18:07] In the Sonobe district of Wakayama on July 25th, 1998, the
[18:13] main attraction was Curry. Local housewives had spent the
[18:17] day preparing enormous pots of it in a nearby garage, a
[18:21] communal meal meant to bring the neighborhood closer together.
[18:25] By 6:00 that evening, people began to line up for a taste.
[18:29] But within minutes, something went terribly wrong.
[18:34] The first to fall I'll were among the first to eat.
[18:38] Takatoshi Tananaka, the chairman of the local residents
[18:41] association, suddenly felt a wave of nausea.
[18:46] He and several others, embarrassed to get sick in front
[18:49] of their neighbors, quietly slipped away to their homes.
[18:53] Their discretion had a devastating consequence.
[18:57] Unaware of the problem, the volunteers kept serving the
[19:00] Curry. The first call for an ambulance
[19:03] wasn't placed until after 7:00. By 9 O clock more than 50 people
[19:08] were violently I'll. The initial assumption was a
[19:12] severe case of food poisoning, but the speed and severity of
[19:15] the symptoms suggested something more sinister.
[19:19] By the next morning the terrible truth was clear.
[19:23] Four people were dead. 64 year old Tananaka, 53 year old
[19:28] Takaaki Tanaka, 16 year old Miyuki Tori, and 10 year old
[19:34] Hirotaka Hayashi. In total, 67 people had been
[19:38] poisoned. Investigators initially
[19:41] suspected cyanide, but soon found the real culprit in the
[19:44] Curry on serving trays and in a discarded paper cup, arsenic.
[19:52] As the community reeled in shock, the police investigation
[19:55] quickly zeroed in on one of their own, Masumi Hayashi, a 37
[20:00] year old mother of four and a former insurance saleswoman.
[20:04] The case against the Wakayama woman was entirely
[20:07] circumstantial, but the circumstances were damning.
[20:12] For one, she had the means. Her husband, Kenji worked as a
[20:17] termite exterminator and they had a ready supply of arsenic
[20:21] compounds at their home for his business.
[20:24] She also had the opportunity. The Curry pots had been left
[20:28] unattended in a garage for about 3 hours between when they were
[20:33] cooked and when they were served.
[20:36] A witness reported seeing Hayashi near the pots during
[20:39] this critical window. Furthermore, of the women who
[20:43] helped prepare the meal, Hayashi was one of the only ones who
[20:47] didn't get sick. While this pointed toward her
[20:51] involvement, the motive remained a puzzle.
[20:55] Unlike other crimes she was suspected of, Hayashi hadn't
[20:59] taken out any insurance policies on the festival victims.
[21:03] Prosecutors were left to argue a motive of social revenge,
[21:07] claiming she was furious with her neighbors for shunning her
[21:10] and her family. This theory was bolstered by
[21:13] Hayashi's dark history. She and her husband were already
[21:17] embroiled in numerous insurance fraud schemes.
[21:21] She was accused of attempting to eliminate several people over
[21:24] the previous decade, including her own husband, by poisoning
[21:29] them to collect insurance payouts.
[21:32] Her husband, apparently being a bit of a pushover, took this in
[21:36] stride and stayed with Hayashi. This pattern of behavior painted
[21:41] a picture of a cold, calculating individual with a clear
[21:44] familiarity with poison as a tool.
[21:49] With no confession and no direct evidence, the prosecution built
[21:52] its case around a single, highly technical piece of forensic
[21:55] science. They took samples of arsenic
[21:58] from Hayashi's home and compared them to the arsenic found in the
[22:02] poisoned Curry. To do this, they employed a
[22:05] massive particle accelerator capable of analyzing the
[22:08] elemental composition of a substance with incredible
[22:11] precision. At the time, it was a
[22:14] groundbreaking application of high end physics.
[22:16] In a criminal case. The prosecution's experts
[22:20] testified that the elemental fingerprints of the arsenic from
[22:23] Hayashi's home and the crime scene were a perfect match.
[22:27] However, after Hayashi was convicted and condemned in 2002,
[22:32] other scientists began to scrutinize the data and came to
[22:36] a starkly different conclusion. A growing chorus of experts
[22:40] argued that the evidence presented at trial was not only
[22:44] insufficient, but potentially misinterpreted or even
[22:48] manipulated. Critics pointed out that the
[22:51] court had relied on a subjective qualitative pattern recognition
[22:55] analysis while ignoring other methods which were less
[22:59] definitive. More troubling were allegations
[23:04] that police scientists had deliberately altered data to
[23:07] make the samples appear more similar than they were.
[23:11] In fact, a later re evaluation of the raw data from 1998
[23:15] suggested that the arsenic from Hayashi's kitchen was
[23:19] significantly different from the poison used at the festival.
[23:23] Despite these profound challenges to the very
[23:26] foundation of her conviction, all of Hayashi's appeals for a
[23:30] retrial have been denied. She remains condemned,
[23:34] maintaining her innocence. The Wakayama Curry poisoning
[23:40] sent a shockwave of fear across Japan, a nation where the safety
[23:44] of food is a deep cultural concern.
[23:48] The crime's extensive media coverage seemed to inspire a
[23:51] contagion of violence. In the year that followed, Japan
[23:55] was hit by a wave of more than 30 copycat poisonings.
[23:59] Drinks in Nagata were laced with sodium azide, and a man in
[24:03] Nagano died after drinking a can of oolong tea spiked with
[24:07] cyanide. The incident tapped into a
[24:10] latent anxiety reminiscent of the unsolved paraquat attacks of
[24:14] 1985, when poisoned drinks were left on vending machines.
[24:20] For the small community of So Nobi, the aftermath was a second
[24:24] kind of poison. The town was swarmed by a
[24:27] massive media presence, putting the grieving residents under a
[24:31] constant, stressful watch. The summer festival meant to
[24:35] foster unity instead shattered it, breeding an atmosphere of
[24:40] deep suspicion where neighbor suspected neighbor.
[24:44] This was doubly true given that while Hayashi remains
[24:47] imprisoned, a significant portion of people don't believe
[24:50] she was the one who actually did it.

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