The Mistress of Murder Hill

Coroner Mack, an optimist who believed "we can settle this," did admit to one small problem: "The only chance there is anything wrong with the whole affair being that a corpse was placed with the children by their mother, who fled after setting fire to the house." This "chance" was worrying quite a few people. Several things argued against the cellar adult being Belle. The dead woman's size was much smaller than Belle, who had a hefty torso. Of the four bodies found in the cellar, only the adult's was missing a head. Everything in Belle's known character pointed to another of her schemes. To think of Belle as a victim was incredible.

There were two camps of opposing opinion. Here, in a spectacular murder case, much of the opposition was absurdly divided along political lines. Republicans thought she was dead; Democrats believed she escaped. The Republicans included the sheriff, the prosecuting attorney, and one local newspaper. The Democrats included the mayor, the police chief, and another local newspaper. The mayor belonged to the same law firm that was defending Lamphere. The sheriff, as will be seen later, may have had his reasons for wanting Lamphere to pay for Belle's death. Aside from all this, and the fact that it was an election year, there were plenty of pros and cons to keep the average person guessing.

Consider the dead body's size: Belle was about 5 foot 7 and weighed around 200 pounds. The dead body, though stocky, was estimated by a couple of doctors to belong to a woman 5 foot 3 and l50 pounds. Dr. Meyer, who wasn't bothered by this discrepancy, commented: "Ask a housewife how much fat roast beef will shrink when it is cooked in a hot oven. All cooks to whom I have propounded this question agreed that at least one-third of the weight will disappear in the evaporating fat, and some of them say that the shrinkage amounts to one-half."

Next, the missing head: It had not been, and never would be, found. The heads of the three children were where they should have been. Would the larger, adult woman's head have melted in the intense heat leaving the smaller children's heads intact? To this, those who believed Belle dead said that a digger's shovel went into the ground at the spot where Belle's head had lain, thereby destroying it. Besides, her rings were found, along with the buckle of the money belt she frequently wore and the key to her safety deposit box. If the body were not Belle's, where did she get the substitute? In reply, those who thought Belle alive said she was seen driving a strange woman to the farm on the Saturday before the fire, and this woman was never seen again.