Dating for Belle Gunness at the turn of the 20th century doesn’t seem all that different in practice from dating in the 21st. The two-time widow had perfected her system. She would post an ad in the paper (rather than on Bumble), wait for the interested to reply (receiving mail = swiping right), and then enter into a lengthy period of correspondence (endless letters rather than endless texts, of course), before finally inviting her top prospects to meet her in person.
But that’s where things begin to diverge. Rather than meeting for dinner or drinks, Belle would invite the most eligible man of the moment out to her farm in La Porte, Indiana, with the understanding that if the two hit it off, they would be married. It was a system that worked well for her—though not so much for the men.
George Anderson would become known as the one who got away—and not in the proverbial sense of the phrase. In a long line of suitors, George was the only one known to have gone to Belle’s farm with the intention of marriage and to have gotten out alive. The red flag that caused him to flee came the night after he arrived when he woke up suddenly in the middle of the night to find Belle standing over him with a sinister look on her face. He left as quickly as he could with only the clothes on his back.