The Dark & Chilling Case of Anna Marie Hahn

Hello everyone, today we are going to look at a

case

from the United States, so sit back while we move to Ohio in the 1930s. Anna Marie Hahn was born on July 7, 1906 in the small town of Wesen, in southern Bavaria, located approximately one kilometer from the German city. border with Austria she was the youngest of 12 children of which 8 were boys at the time of Anna

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's birth her parents had already lost three children two more would die in combat during the First World War she was very ill as a child and spent five months In the hospital due to blood poisoning, everyone thought she would not make it, but surprisingly she survived as the youngest girl.

Her parents spoiled her and, as she grew up, she became a difficult child. She never completed high school and spent most of her adolescence. going to parties and socializing and it became more difficult her parents sent her to live with her sister in Holland they thought that a new country and a new environment could help her be more respectable and help her with her disciplinary problems, it didn't happen and instead To become a more respectable member of the community, she had an affair with a doctor from Vienna or so she claimed. No records have been found of a Viennese doctor with the name she gave her, but she had an affair with someone when she became pregnant and after she returned.

At home she gave birth on May 31, 1925 to her son whom she named Oskar. This was highly frowned upon in 1920s Germany and became the center of all the local gossip in the small Bavarian town. Her parents decided that it would be best if Oscar stayed in her care and Anna should go to the US to seek new opportunities. She agreed to this idea, but ultimately had to wait a long time to get her visa. On February 11, 29, she entered a second class cabin on a ship bound for New York, her final destination being Cincinnati, as her parents had arranged for her to stay with her elderly uncle and aunt named Max and Anna Daschle, both in their 70s.

Anna needed to earn some money, so she decided to offer her services as a live nurse. two older men in the German community of Cincinnati She was an attractive woman and considered herself a generous and caring person, so the fact that she had no training or experience in nursing did not bother her, she went to the microbreweries in the open air free Germans. and she would sing old Bavarian beer ballads moving from table to table to smile sweetly at her elderly admirers. She soon began working for a 71-year-old retired banker named Charles Oswald. He soon began to fall in love with her charming manner and became very fond of her.

Her employment relationship ended. Suddenly, when he discovered that Anna had transferred 27 shares of Union Gas and Electric shares into her name and also transferred $700 to her bank account from his, she said that he had given them to her and that she was never charged with any crime, He sold the shares and started working. As a waitress at the hotel, she soon after met fellow German immigrant Philip Horn, who worked as a telegraph operator and after a brief courtship they married in 1930. Anna then returned to Germany to look for her son Oscar and the three settled down. at home.

Cincinnati Philip had always wanted to own his own business, so the couple saved money and eventually managed to open two delicatessens. They moved into a large house and rented rooms to 62-year-old Ernest. When they arrived at his house, he was already very sick. Anna cared for him but he died shortly after and in his will she left him his large pension. There was a suspicion that he may have been poisoned, but his death certificate said he died of throat cancer. Arthur Voss had an office on the first floor of the house. Nana's farm is very convenient as she was able to steal blank prescriptions, allowing her to stay stocked with medications for her new nursing business.

Anna didn't feel that she and her husband were producing enough income to maintain the lifestyle she wanted, so she came up with another plan to make money. A suspicious fire broke out in her store. The fire didn't cause much damage, but the insurance company still paid him $300. She must have been careless with the matches. The other two fires broke out in her house. The insurance company ultimately paid him a settlement of more than $2,000 for the fires. This was 1930s America, during the Great Depression, and in 1933 there was high unemployment in Ohio. Anna and her husband decided to sell the delicatessen and this was soon followed by the loss of her house because they were unable to make the mortgage payments shortly after this and her elderly relatives died suddenly and left her the house. she.

Anna had a suitable home again and she was happy and she had the knowledge so her family was safe. The death of her uncles was followed on August 14, 1935 by the death of Anna's first patient, Charles Oswald. He died at the age of 77 and left her all her assets without her knowledge. There were no assets left of her like her. I had stolen them all over the previous six years and decided it would be a good idea to insure her husband's life and asked her to accept a twenty-five thousand dollar life insurance policy, but Philip refused, saying it was in good condition. health, so the policy payments would be a waste of money shortly after he became desperately ill and, against his wife's wishes, his mother took him to the hospital.

He survived her mysterious illness. Her turbulent marriage began to go downhill and the couple eventually separated. Anna was now alone. she and she was left with no choice but to return to caring for older men in June 1936. She began caring for 81-year-old George. However, George became suspicious of Anna when one day he served her a mug of beer that caught the attention of a fly immediately after tasting it. the beer, the fly also died. George asked Anna to drink some, which she refused. He dispensed with her nursing services, but did not inform the police of her suspicions, which meant that Anna simply left to find more patients to care for her next.

Client Albert Parker, a 72-year-old retired gardener, died mysteriously in March 1937 and left his entire estate to Anna. The coroner's report listed the cause of death as heart disease. While caring for Albert Anna had befriended a neighbor named Mrs. Refrigerator and given her ice cream. After the second time she gave her ice cream, the elderly woman became seriously ill. and was admitted to the hospital while receiving medical attention, someone stole a bag from her home containing cash and jewelry and her next victim. It was Jacob Wagner whom she claimed to have been a long lost niece. Jacob didn't believe she had any relatives of hers, so he didn't believe her, but soon accepted her as his own.

On June 5, 1937, Jacob, age 68, died while in her care and left her seventeen thousand dollars in her will. This was soon followed by the death of 67-year-old George Castleman on July 6, 1937, who left Anna $15,000 on August 1, 1937. Doctors at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs contacted local police . Regarding the sudden death of George, 67, he had fallen mysteriously ill a few days earlier and doctors were unable to determine what had made him ill and one was unable to save him after interviewing medical personnel known to the police for the deceased. from Cincinnati and had stayed at the Parc Hotel while visiting Colorado with two companions.

At the same time a strange event had occurred at the hotel, as the owner had reported a theft of diamonds worth about three hundred dollars. Investigating officers wondered if the two incidents were linked. Investigators visited the hotel and, looking at the cash register, saw that George had arrived with a lady named Anna Marie Haun and her young son named Oscar. Investigators decided to visit local pawn shops to see if the jewel thief might have tried it. To sell the diamonds, fortunately, a lady had approached the owner of a pawn shop and fit Anna's description perfectly. With this information, authorities expanded their search for Anna and soon discovered that a woman had unsuccessfully attempted to use a Bank of Cincinnati passbook in George's name.

The fur detectives were sure that the lady at the hotel, the pawn shop and the bank was the same person. Colorado detectives issued an arrest warrant for suspicion of grand theft and contacted their Cincinnati counterparts for assistance. Anna had returned home and shortly after arriving in Ohio, Cincinnati investigators brought her in for questioning when she asked what she knew about George's death. Anna replied that the man is a perfect stranger to me; However, when she was reminded that he had signed the hotel log book on behalf of the three of them. she changed her story. I met George on the train from Denver.

She said he was Swiss. I felt sorry for him and was just trying to help him. The police doubted his story. They continued to investigate George and discovered that they had come to Ohio from Russia many years ago. He had previously worked as a shoemaker, had three children and had recently separated from his wife. According to the family, George was in excellent health and had been dating Anna. Apparently they went to Colorado because Anna wanted to show him the ranch she owned in Colorado Springs. Faced with this new evidence and she admitted to the detectives that she knew George saying that they had met in a shoe store but that they were in a relationship, she said that she was going to Colorado and that by coincidence she had met him on the train to save expenses.

They decided to share a room, but shortly after arriving, George became ill and went to seek medical attention. Anna claimed to have had no further contact with him after that, investigators continued to doubt her claims and decided to further investigate her background in search of answers for an autopsy. A report came in from Colorado revealing that arsenic was found in George's body and soon the police began to link her nursing business to the mysterious deaths of elderly gentlemen in her care. Orders were given to exhume several other bodies and four types of poison were discovered. There was arsenic and Croton oil in the corpses.

Anna was questioned again by the police and when she was questioned she seemed outraged at the suggestion that she had anything to do with the deaths of the men she cared for and she claimed that she had comforted them in her twilight. years and since they were so grateful to her they left her money and property in her will, what Anna didn't know was that the police had already searched her house and found a large amount of poison. Her husband Philip had informed the officials how his wife had stolen blank prescriptions from Dr. Voss Anna's twelve-year-old son Oscar had confirmed that he had gone to Colorado with his mother, and George said that George had started getting on the train after Anna had given him something to drink.

Colorado police wanted Anna to be tried there. but the Cincinnati police decided that they had enough evidence to charge her and on August 4, 1937 she was arrested and charged with the murder of one of her patients named Jacob Wagner. Hans's memorial trial began on October 11, 1937, and she pleaded not guilty. The jury was made up of 11 women and one man. From the beginning, the prosecution insisted that Anna had killed Jacob Wagner out of greed, pointing to her money and his inheritance as the motive for the murder. Many witnesses were called, including handwriting experts, pharmacists, and others whom the prosecution had served.

She also presented the court with evidence that included the internal organs of Jacob Wagner and Albert Parma. The newspapers dubbed her the beautiful blonde murderer and she enjoyed all the press attention throughout the trial. He gave interviews to reporters from inside his cell explaining in detail how he patiently cared for the frail gentlemen in his care, often holding their hands for hours while sitting with them on their sick beds. When the trial ended, the jury took only two hours to issue the verdict. Anna stood motionless while a jury foreman read the verdict of guilty with no recommendation for clemency.

On the day of sentencing, Anna was brought in front of the judge. He asked her if she had anything she wanted to say. I replied: I am innocent, your honor, the judge paused before sentencing her to death in the electric chair on March 4, 1938. Anna was transferred to a higher state penitentiary on December 1, 1937. Her lawyers appealed the sentence and His execution date of March 4, 10 passed and his

case

went through the Ohio court system several times before being taken to the United States Supreme Court who after reviewing the case agreed with a sentence handed down by the state. of Ohio and refused to block his execution on Wednesday, December 7, 1938.

Anna wrote four separate letters which she later delivered to her lawyer at eight o'clock in The night she entered the chamber and sat in the electric chair, she was 32 years and was the first woman to die in theelectric chair in Ohio on December 17, 1938, and his lawyer only announced the letters and had given him the night of his death. The execution had been sold to the Cincinnati Enquirer and the money was placed in trust for Anna's son the next day, the newspaper announced, but they would publish the letters over the next two days. The letters spoke of her life in Germany and her eventual immigration to Germany.

In the United States, she later began to recount her circumstances, but claimed that it ultimately led her to a life of crime and a then-12-year-old son was placed with a foster family in the Midwest. The newspapers kept her promise to Anna and never paid for her education. By revealing his name or whereabouts to the public, the only thing that was revealed about Oscar was that he actually lived a normal life and eventually fought for the Navy during World War II. Hello everyone and thank you very much for listening as usual, please leave any opinion or comment you can.

I have and see you in the next briefcase.