Letters of Love

by Ashley Nunez Tucked away on the pastures of a 1908 farm house in La Porte, Indiana, lived a woman who’s story no longer has to wait to be told correctly. Director Edward Bass has been working on Belle, a script about America’s own female serial killer way before Annie Wilkes or Aileen Wuornos, for over two years now. Known to many storytellers as Lady Bluebeard, Belle Gunness was estimated to have killed over 50 people some including her own children. The initial inspiration for Belle came from Eva Mayer’s, a La Porte resident, who came across actual love letters written by Belle Gunness. After the death of her second husband, Mrs. Gunness was left to tend to her hog farm and children with only the help of a hired hand. In response to her loneliness, Mrs. Gunness placed ads in newspapers seducing men into traveling to Indiana with pockets full of cash. Bass’ interpretation of the Gunness’ factory line of love letters provides an imaginative clarity to what could have been possible. Funded by greed and blood, Belle is allotted infinite capabilities to what money can buy. There is not one part of this script that Bass has overlooked. Infused with humor, charm, elegance, and a perpetual cycle of evil, Belle Gunness’ grand dreams come to life once more through Bass. Two years in the making and the script is at its best revision yet. Finding links to even the most unlikely of events, Bass shows Belle as a dominant woman in a pre-WWI America. She commands her power as she serves the town with a wholesome image of a mother selling sausages to keep her farm afloat. What sets Bass’ story about Lady Bluebeard apart from others is how one woman reigned over an entire town that allowed her killings to go unnoticed. It’s the makeup of Belle that captivates all audiences into almost rooting for her. The best glimpses of the mastery to her madness are the scenes where Belle interacts with an enslaved love. Letting her guard down to the only man she has an intimate relationship with, Belle is barely weakened by his betrayl. She is a woman who holds her own and only gets stronger as she threatened by an outsider who is desperate to expose her. Taken to a foreign place that infiltrates the very being of everyone touched by Belle, Belle holds true to the mystery of what became of Belle Gunness. Managing to surpass the test of time with inconclusive DNA tests that would place Mrs. Gunness' headless body at the very fire that was claimed to have destroyed her, Belle draws in her audience just likes the real Belle Gunness penned her way into the hearts of men and charmed them to their graves.