Anna Marie Hahn

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Anna Marie Hahn
First degree murder
Criminal penaltyDeath
Details
Victims5
Span of crimes
May 6, 1933 – August 1, 1937
CountryUnited States
State(s)Ohio, Colorado
Date apprehended
1937

Anna Marie Hahn (born Filser; July 7, 1906 – December 7, 1938) was a German-born American serial killer.

Biography

Early life

Anna Hahn was the youngest of twelve children though five of her siblings had died by the time Anna was born.[1] Her father, George Filser, was a furniture manufacturer, and the family was considered to be well-off financially.

At age 19, she became pregnant with her son Oskar, and told her family that the father was a

Cincinnati, Ohio, Hahn met fellow German immigrant Philip Hahn; they married in 1930. Hahn briefly returned to Germany to retrieve Oskar, then she and her husband started a family.[2]

Murders

Hahn allegedly began poisoning and robbing elderly men in Cincinnati's German community to support her

will.[3]

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 on July 6, 1937, she received $17,000.[4]

Hahn killed her last victim, Georg Obendoerfer, on August 1, 1937, after he traveled to Colorado Springs, Colorado, with her and her son.[5] 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". Hahn's 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.[4]

Investigation

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. Hahn was a prime suspect, and was soon arrested.[4]

Hahn shortly after her arrest

Hahn was convicted after a four-week trial in November 1937.

Sentenced to death, she went to the electric chair at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus on December 7, 1938.[6][7] She was buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery
in Columbus.

See also

References

  1. ^
    OCLC 1002903879
    .
  2. OCLC 63116896
    .
  3. ^ "Anna Marie Hahn". Serial Killer Central. February 1, 2005. Archived from the original on December 21, 2010. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
  4. ^ a b c Lohr, David. "Arsenic Anna: The True Story of Anna Marie Hahn". Crime Library. Archived from the original on September 4, 2009. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
  5. The Daily Times. Beaver, Pennsylvania: Calkins Media
    . August 11, 1937. Retrieved January 17, 2010.
  6. Time, Inc. November 15, 1937. Archived from the original
    on February 18, 2009. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
  7. E.W. Scripps Company
    . December 8, 1938. Retrieved January 17, 2010.

Further reading
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