Anna Marie Hahn
| Anna Marie Hahn | |
|---|---|
 Mug shot of Anna Marie Hahn |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Anna Marie Filser |
| Also known as | Marie Felser, Marie Fisher |
| Born | July 7, 1906 Bavaria, Germany |
| Died | December 7, 1938 (aged 32) |
| Cause of death | Electrocution |
| Killings | |
| Number of victims | 5 |
| Span of killings | May 6, 1933–August 1, 1937 |
| Country | USA |
| State(s) | Ohio |
| Date apprehended | 1937 |
Anna Marie Hahn (née Filser; July 7, 1906 in Bavaria, Germany – December 7, 1938 at the Ohio Penitentiary) was a German-born American serial killer.
The youngest of 12 children, as a teenager she had an affair with a Viennese physician, or so she claimed—no records have been found of a Viennese doctor by the name she gave. They had a son she called Oskar (also spelled "Oscar"). Her scandalized family sent her to America in 1929, while her son remained in Bavaria with her parents. While staying with relatives Max and Anna Doeschel in Cincinnati, she met fellow German immigrant Philip Hahn; they married in 1930. Anna Marie briefly returned to Germany to get Oscar, then the trio set upon life as a family.[1]
Hahn allegedly began poisoning and robbing elderly men and women in Cincinnati's German community to support her gambling habit. Ernst Kohler, who died on May 6, 1933, was believed to be her first victim. Hahn had befriended him shortly before his death; he left her a house in his will.[2]
Her next alleged victim, Albert Parker, 72, also died soon after she began caring for him. Prior to Parker's death, she signed an I.O.U. for $1,000 that she borrowed from him, but after his death the document was either discarded or simply "disappeared."
Jacob Wagner 78, died on June 3, 1937 leaving $17,000 cash to his "beloved niece" Hahn. She soon began caring for 67-year-old George Gsellman, also of Cincinnati. For her service before his death July 6, 1937, she received $15,000.[3]
Georg Obendoerfer was the last to die, on August 1, 1937, after he traveled to Colorado Springs, Colorado with Hahn and her son.[4] Police said that Obendoerfer, a cobbler, "died in agony just after Mrs. Hahn had bent over his deathbed inquiring his name, professing she did not know the man." Her son testified at her trial that he, his mother, and Obendoerfer traveled to Colorado by train from Cincinnati together and that Obendoerfer began getting sick en route.[3]
An autopsy revealed high levels of arsenic in Obendoerfer's body, which aroused police suspicions. Exhumations of two of her previous clients revealed that they had been poisoned.[3]
Hahn was convicted after a sensational four-week trial in November 1937 and sentenced to death in Ohio's electric chair, the first woman ever to be executed in Ohio,[5] which was carried out on December 7, 1938.[6] She was buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery in Columbus.
[edit] References
- ^ Franklin, Diana Britt (2006-10-30). The Good-bye Door. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press. ISBN 9780873388740. OCLC 63116896. http://www.thegoodbyedoor.com/.
- ^ "Anna Marie Hahn". Serial Killer Central. 2005-02-01. http://www.skcentral.com/articles.php?article_id=281. Retrieved 2010-01-11.
- ^ a b c Lohr, David. "Arsenic Anna: The True Story of Anna Marie Hahn". Crime Library. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/women/anna_hahn/index.html. Retrieved 2010-01-11.
- ^ "Indictment Will Be Asked Today In 'Poison Plot'". Daily Times. 1937-08-11. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gKoiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=sa8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=1080,6060273. Retrieved 2010-01-17.
- ^ "German Cooking". Time. 1937-11-15. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758318,00.html. Retrieved 2010-01-11.
- ^ "Mrs. Hahn Begs for Mercy, Then Dies in Electric Chair". Pittsburgh Press. 1938-12-08. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=boUbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NU4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=3104,2889852. Retrieved 2010-01-17.
[edit] Further reading
- Franklin, Diana Britt (2006-10-30). The Good-bye Door. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press. ISBN 9780873388740. OCLC 63116896. http://www.thegoodbyedoor.com/.
- "Anna Marie Hahn," Mind of a Killer (DVD), Kozel Multimedia, 1998.
- 1906 births
- 1938 deaths
- 1933 crimes
- 20th-century executions by the United States
- American female murderers
- American serial killers
- American people convicted of murder
- Executed German women
- Executed serial killers
- Female serial killers
- German emigrants to the United States
- German female murderers
- German people convicted of murder
- German people executed abroad
- People convicted of murder by Ohio
- People executed by electric chair
- People executed by Ohio
- People from Bavaria
- Poisoners
