Murder in My Family

By Ilene Ingbritson Wilson

When the author learned that her great-great-grandmother had been murdered, she began an investigation into her familys history that led her to discover other murders-- lots and lots of murders.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Feb 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490727523

Ilene Ingbritson Wilson

Ilene Ingbritson Wilson was born in Mountain Lake, Minnesota. She attended Jackson High School in Jackson, Minnesota, has a BA degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, and a masters degree from Regis University, Denver, Colorado. She lives in Westminster, Colorado, with a handsome man and two cats.

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Copyright 2014 Ilene Ingbritson Wilson.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-2750-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-2751-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-2752-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014902518

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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CONTENTS

Introduction

1   Revelation

2   Research

3   Under The Ground

4   Selbu, Norway The Old Country

5   The Journey

6   Names

7   Belle Gunness

8   Murder In Bergen

9   Bergen, Minnesota

10   La Porte, Indiana

11   More Murders In Minnesota

12   Paris Green

13   Ole Solem

14   The Investigation

15   The Preliminary Hearing

16   The Grand Jury

17   The Trial

18   The Verdict

19   The Appeal

20   The Minnesota Supreme Court

21   Belle Again

22   Afterward

23   The Solem Children

24   Obituaries

25   Bergen, Minnesota, Today

Author’s Note

The Rosseths

About The Author

We owe respect to the living.

To the dead we owe only truth.

—Voltaire (1785)

My heartfelt thanks to

Dora Mae Burdick,

Norma Loewen,

Sedrick Borsgard, and

Richard Petersen.

INTRODUCTION

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HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT some smells can evoke happy memories? The smell of a fresh spruce tree being brought in for the Christmas season, the smell of hot chocolate, the smell of cotton candy at the fair, the smell of freshly baked bread.

The smell of freshly baked bread brings memories of my Aunt Minnie who lived on a farm just west of Bergen, Minnesota. Every day, she would bake bread in an old black woodstove. The smell of the wood burning and the bread baking had a magical effect on me. I loved it. No card playing was allowed at my home when I was growing up, but I was allowed to play cards at my Aunt Minnie’s. We would sit around her wooden oak table and play Rook for hours while we ate the hot, fragrant bread right from the oven. Happy memories indeed!

All those happy memories in my Aunt Minnie’s kitchen took on a sinister feeling recently when I learned that my great-great-grandmother was murdered in that house. I came to learn about this murder in an unusual way. My cousin learned about it and shared this information with me. Our great-grandmother murdered? In Bergen, Minnesota? Who did it? Why? Why hadn’t we been told?

Norwegians can be very secretive. I have been told that we are also very cliquey. We want to stick with those we know and are comfortable with. We also don’t want to stand out, and we don’t want to be different. In Norway, this is called the tall poppy syndrome. If you stand taller than the others, you will be chopped down to make things level. You do not want to call attention to yourself, and you do not ever want to mention that there was a murder in your family.

As I began the quest to learn more about the murder of my great-great-grandmother, I gradually became aware that there were many secrets that my family had kept from me. I traveled to Norway to try to unravel some of these mysteries. I have now been to the ancestral homes of all four of my grandparents. I feel that I owe it to my family to learn the truth about this murder and to share the truth with them. Along the way, I have also learned about Norway, about the Bergen community where my family settled, and about Minnesota history.

This book is a result of my great love of history and my curiosity about families—how they work together and how, sometimes, they don’t. It is my hope that you will enjoy a trip back in time and that you will learn something about history, about greed, and about luck, especially about luck.

CHAPTER ONE

Revelation

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No, I can’t understand it! I never will!

I can’t comprehend how anything like this—anything so appalling could overwhelm one family.

And that is our family.

A family so distinguished!

Why did it have to strike us?

John Gabriel Borkman

—Henrik Ibsen

(1836-1906)

MY COUSIN NORMA LOEWEN is from Butterfield, Minnesota. She and I are second cousins since her grandmother Gea and my grandmother Thea were sisters. Along with our genes, Norma and I share a love of history and a love of our Norwegian heritage.

Did you know that our great-great-grandmother was murdered? she asked.

No, I had never heard that.

I just picked up the Jackson paper, and in the ‘This Day in History’ section, there is an article about the murder trial.

So many questions flooded my mind: Are you really sure? How can we learn more? Whom can we ask?

Norma promised to do more checking and told me that she would get back with me as soon as she could. When she called later, she had made some phone calls and had done some research at the Cottonwood County Historical Society.

Yes, our great-great-grandmother had indeed been murdered.

Norma was going to photocopy all the articles she could find and mail them to me. I was eager to receive them.

Bergen, Minnesota, where I grew up, is a small Norwegian community in the southern part of the state. Everyone knows everyone. I come from a family of hardworking, church-going people. The men in my family are farmers, teachers, and ministers. Our social life centered around the church. We would go to Sunday school on Sunday mornings, followed by the regular service, then go to church again on Sunday evenings, and again for Bible study on Wednesday nights. There were also youth groups, sewing groups, missionary support groups, and men’s groups. Never did I hear of anyone in my family doing anything illegal, not even a speeding ticket.

It has been years since I lived in Minnesota, but the memories I carry are strong ones. My earliest memories are memories of my family: family reunions, family meals during the holidays, and family members pitching in to help in times of illness or death. When my mother was diagnosed as having cancer, it was my aunts who pitched in and cared for my brothers and me. They cooked, cleaned, did laundry, and