Women Serial Killers of the 20th Century

by Sylvia Perrini

  Anna arrived in Cincinnati in 1929 at the age of twenty-three. In 1930, she met and married a telegraph operator, Philip Hahn, another German immigrant. Anna and Philip returned briefly to Bavaria to collect Oscar before returning to Cincinnati as a family. Anna and Philip opened two delicatessen stores, but Anna disliked running the stores as she found the work to be too much of a drudge. Anna insured the businesses and, shortly afterwards, one of the stores burned down, and Anna collected the insurance money.

  Two fires in their home, both of which were covered by an insurance company, followed. The insurance payouts may well have been the turning point in Anna’s life. Anna began to pester her husband Philip to take out a life insurance policy. He refused for what reason we do not know. Shortly after his refusal, Philip became ill, and Anna refused to take him to the hospital. Philip’s mother, against Anna’s protestations, had Philip removed to the hospital where he survived his inexplicable illness. Upon his release, Philip and Anna separated.

  With Philip gone, Anna, despite having no experience, set herself up as a nurse for elderly German patients. Ernst Kohler became Anna’s first client in the autumn of 1932. He became exceedingly fond of Anna and made out a new will in her favor. Once he had done this, he rapidly became ill and died on May 6, 1933. Anna quickly cremated his body and, for reasons unknown, kept his ashes on her mantelpiece.

  Anna, in February of 1936, began caring for 72-year-old Albert Parker. She persuaded him to lend her $4,000, a large amount of money in the 1930’s. For this, she wrote him an I.O.U. Albert died on March 27, 1936. The I.O.U was never honored.

  In 1937, Anna began visiting a seventy-eight-year-old Jacob Wagner, a retired gardener. Anna told him that she was a long lost niece of his. Jacob wasn’t convinced but enjoyed her company to such an extent that he went along with it. He died suddenly on June 3, 1937. His friends and neighbors were shocked by his sudden death. The coroner’s report listed his cause of death as heart disease. In his will, he left $17,000 to his "beloved niece" Anna Hahn. After the funeral, a concerned and suspicious friend asked the police to investigate the death and exhume Jacob’s body. This, after later events that unfolded, the police eventually did.

  From Jacob, Anna moved on to care for a Mr. George Gsellman. He died on July 6 1937, shortly after Anna had begun visiting him. Anna received $15,000 from George for her service before his death. Friends and neighbors were extremely concerned about George’s death, informed the police of their suspicions, and asked for George’s body to be exhumed. Again, this was not done until much later.

  At the same time that she was caring for George Gsellman, Anna had started a relationship with a 67-year-old George Obendoerfer. Anna, George Obendoerfer, and Anna’s son Oscar, all travelled to Colorado Springs for a vacation and booked into the Park Hotel. This was to be Anna’s undoing. On the train traveling to Colorado Springs, George had begun to feel unwell. On arrival at the hotel, Anna put George to bed and made off with all his valuables. George, at some point, alerted the hotel staff of his illness and the theft of his valuables. He was transferred to the local hospital. Meanwhile, the hotel made a report to the police about the theft.

  When George died in agony in the hospital on August 1, 1937, the doctors, during the autopsy, discovered high levels of arsenic in his body. They immediately alerted the police. It did not take the police long to link the murder and robbery together. Anna had signed the hotel registry in her name, and the hotel staff gave a clear description of Anna and her son. The police then visited the local pawnshops, and a woman and a boy fitting the description of Anna and her son, were reported to have visited several shops attempting to pawn a considerable amount of diamonds.

  The police gathered from the hotel staff that Anna was from Cincinnati. The hospital confirmed that George Obendoerfer was also from Cincinnati. The Colorado police contacted the Cincinnati police for assistance.

  The Cincinnati police checked their files and only then began to take more seriously the reports they had about the deaths of the elderly gentlemen and Anna Hahn. They found that Anna Hahn had returned from Colorado. Following a request from the Colorado authorities for Anna’s extradition to Colorado Springs for theft, the Cincinnati police arrested Anna. Upon questioning, she denied knowing George Obendoerfer; however, when confronted with her signing of the hotel registry, she claimed that they had just met on the train. The police were skeptical and began an intense investigation. The bodies of Jacob Wagner and George Gsellman were exhumed.

  Jacob Wagner’s autopsy showed death from a large quantity of arsenic and George Gsellman from a large dose of Croton oil. Croton oil was a general remedy used at the beginning of the 20th century to treat bowel problems and other illnesses. Taken in large doses, it causes extreme burning pain in the abdomen, throat, and mouth, along with diarrhea and vomiting, eventually causing an intensely painful death. In East of Eden, a novel by John Steinbeck, Kate uses Croton oil to slowly kill Faye so she can inherit Faye’s whorehouse.

  The press soon latched onto the story of the “32-year-old buxom Bavarian woman who fed a number of her elderly lovers an ‘aphrodisiac’ that turned out to be arsenic”.. They labeled her as “the beautiful blonde killer". Although most of the stories were highly exaggerated and sensational, they attracted the attention of a George Heis.

  Sixty-two-year-old George Heis contacted the police and told them of his near escape with Anna. He told investigators that he had met Anna a year earlier and that they had got along well. George said that he had become suspicious of Anna when he became violently sick after drinking a glass of beer she had poured for him and that he’d never felt in good health since.

  The investigators then heard from Philip Hahn, Anna’s husband. He handed to the investigator’s a bottle of Croton oil he had taken away from Anna when the two were together. Philip had suspected that the cause of his mysterious illness that had caused him to be hospitalized was Anna trying to poison him. “I kept meaning to take it to the police,” he said in an interview with the press in September of 1937.

  On August 10, 1937, the Cincinnati police charged Anna with the murder of Jacob Wagner. Anna Hahn’s trial began on October 11, 1937, at the Hamilton County Courthouse in front of Judge Bell and lasted four weeks.

  Hamilton County Courthouse

  The jury consisted of eleven women and one man. Anna pleaded not guilty. The prosecution claimed that Anna had murdered Jacob Wagner for his money and estate and that greed was her motive. The prosecution paraded through the court a large number of witnesses, which included hospital staff who described in graphic detail Jacob Wagner’s last torturous days. A pathologist testified that Jacob Wagner had easily enough arsenic in his body to kill at least four men.

  In addition, a handwriting specialist testified that Jacob’s will was a forgery. He also testified that the handwriting belonged to Anna. Judge Bell allowed the prosecution to introduce evidence connected to other poisoning cases of Anna’s. This was allowed to illustrate Anna’s homicidal personality. George Heis was called to give his account of Anna and his ensuing illness. Anna sat throughout all the testimony supremely composed, always dressing neatly, and wearing only a discrete amount of make-up.

  The defense had little to offer beyond Anna’s claims of innocence. On October 29, 1937, the jury took just two hours to return with their verdict. Anna sat calmly, as she had throughout the trial, as the jury foreman read out the jury’s decision. The jury found Anna guilty of the murder of Jacob Wagner and recommended that no mercy be shown towards her.

  Anna was led away to the cells to await sentencing on November 10th. Anna was confident she would escape the electric chair as no woman had ever been executed in the state of Ohio. What Anna failed to realize was that when the jury recommended no mercy, it meant that the judge had no choice but to sentence her to death.

  Anna Marie Hahn prison photo

  On November 10th Anna was brought back to court, and Judge Bell asked Anna if she had anything she wished to sa
y to the court. Anna simply replied, “I’m innocent, Your Honor”.. After a moment of silence, Judge Bell sentenced her.

  Anna, on December 1, 1937, was taken to the Ohio State Penitentiary. Her lawyers made appeal after appeal against the death penalty. On March 10th, Anna was still alive and firmly believed that the appeals would eventually spare her. The appeal finally reached the US Supreme Court, which refused to stop her execution.

  Anna then appealed directly to the Governor of Ohio, Martin Davey, but he refused to intervene in the court's decision. Anna’s execution was scheduled for December 7, 1938.

  The day before the execution took place, Anna wrote four letters which she gave to her lawyers.

  On the day of the execution, Anna dressed in a tan colored flowered silk robe, blue cotton pajamas, black shoes, and tan silk stockings rolled down to her ankles. The right leg of her pajamas was cut, and a small patch of hair on the back of her head was shaved off, so electrodes could be attached to her skin. Anna was in such an emotional state, she barely noticed what the prison officials were doing to her. When the prison authorities arrived to escort her to the death chamber, she could barely walk. On entering the execution room and seeing the electric chair, Anna fainted. Officials revived her with ammonia and carried her to the chair, to which they strapped her. All the time she was crying and pleading for help.

  Ohio State Penitentiary electric chair

  No one replied to Anna; the officials just hastily fastened the electrodes to her skin and then placed a black mask over her head. Anna continued to cry and haltingly recited the Lord's Prayer. Then Anna abruptly stopped praying; her hands clenched and her body arched straining against the straps that held her. Her body began jerking and convulsing while the electric current raced through her body. Anna Hahn was pronounced dead at 8:13:30 pm on December 7th, 1938.

  One of the letters Anna wrote the day before her execution was her confession to the murders of the four men. This she sold to a newspaper in exchange for her son to receive a quality education.

  Anna’s son, twelve-year-old Oscar, was placed with a foster family somewhere in the Midwest. The newspaper kept its promise to Anna and never revealed Oscar’s whereabouts and paid for his education.

  CAROLINE GRILLS

  A cure for boredom?

  Caroline Grills née Mickelson was born in 1890 in Balmain, Sydney, Australia to George (a seaman) and Mary Mickelson. On the 22nd of April 1908, Caroline, at the age of eighteen, married Richard William Grills, a real-estate agent. When Caroline’s mother Mary died, her father remarried a woman called Christina.

  During their marriage, Caroline and Richard had five sons and a daughter. Caroline seemed happy and content with life. She had a wide circle of friends and a large extended ever-growing family as her children grew, married, and had children of their own. Caroline was known affectionately as Aunty Carrie. All who knew her liked Caroline; she had a happy-go-lucky character and a smile almost invariably on her face. Physically, Caroline was small, barely just over four feet tall (1.22 meters,) plump, fair-haired, had a fresh complexion, and wore thick-rimmed glasses. She was a typical fifties house-proud housewife who enjoyed cooking, baking, and helping out with her grand-children.

  When her house became overrun with rats, she immediately set about eliminating them by buying a large quantity of “Thallrat”. Caroline discovered that she rather enjoyed watching the rats writhe around in agony before finally dying. It increased the smile on her face.

  In 1948, when Caroline was fifty-eight, her father died. In his will, he left his house on 13 Gerrish Street in the Sydney suburb of Gladesville to Caroline, with the stipulation that Caroline’s step-mother, Christina Mickelson, enjoy a life-long tenancy. In short, this meant that Caroline was unable to occupy the house until after Christina’s death. Although Christina was in her eighties, for her age, she was in excellent health. To Caroline’s annoyance, it did not look as if she would be able to move into the house any time soon.

  Caroline began frequently visiting Christina, telling other relatives that she worried about Christina living alone. On every visit, she would be laden down with homemade cakes and would make her stepmother endless cups of tea. To friends and relatives, Caroline appeared totally selfless in her caring and concern. Within a few short months, Christina’s health began to fail, her hair began to fall out, her eyesight began to fail, and she eventually died. Because of Christina’s age, no one was suspicious as to her cause of death. Immediately after the funeral, Caroline and Richard moved into the house.

  Caroline, as she had with the rats, had rather enjoyed watching Christina suffer and die. It relieved her boredom and gave her a strange sense of power. She began visiting a relative of her husband’s, an Angelina Thomas. Angelina had a cottage in Leura in the Blue Mountains, which Richard was to inherit upon her death. Once again, armed with home-made cakes and biscuits, Caroline would drop in on Angelina and make her endless cups of tea. It was not too long before Angelina’s health began to fail, with her hair falling out, her eyesight deteriorating, and her eventual death. Like Christina, because of Angelina’s age, no one was suspicious.

  Caroline now found herself with a rather comfortable life: a smart house in Sydney’s suburbs and a weekend retreat in the mountains. Nevertheless, despite the large family of children, grandchildren, in-laws, nephews, and nieces, Caroline was bored.

  In the summer of 1949, Caroline and Richard joined John Lundberg, Richard’s brother- in-law, and his sister Evelyn for a few days break in Woy Woy, a Central Coast resort. This was a resort people visited for the clean air, the bush, the sun, and for general relaxation. While there John, a fit healthy man in his early sixties, became ill. Upon his return home, his condition steadily worsened. Carline would pop over to the house daily bringing homemade treats and making endless cups of tea. However, John became weaker, his sight became poor, his hair began to fall out, he became mentally confused, and he eventually died in October of 1949.

  When Caroline’s boredom struck again, she chose to lavish her attention on her dead brother’s wife, Mary Anne Mickelson. When Mary Anne became ill, Caroline took it upon herself to visit daily with homemade treats of casseroles and soups to help keep up Mary Anne’s strength. These she would patiently spoon-feed to the weakening Mary Anne, as well as make Mary Anne plenty of warm, comforting cups of tea. The rest of the family looked on with admiration at Caroline’s seemingly un-endless selflessness. Mary Anne, in the months before her death in February of 1950, became bedridden, bald, and blind.

  When Caroline’s boredom next kicked in, she chose as her next victim the newly widowed Evelyn Lundberg, her husband Richard’s sister. Evelyn lived on Great Buckingham Street in Redfern, an inner-city suburb of Sydney. Evelyn’s married daughter Christine and husband John Downey, a tram driver, lived across the street from her. Frequently, Caroline, Richard, Evelyn, Christine, and John would get together to play cards. Evelyn began to feel ill and was alarmed at the fact that many of her symptoms were the same from which her husband John had suffered. Weekly, her condition began to deteriorate, and she began to suffer from cramps in her legs, loss of her eyesight, and loss of hair. Caroline visited Evelyn daily, taking with her plenty of homemade treats and made her endless cups of tea. With the loss of her eyesight, Evelyn also experienced acute depression. Her daughter Christine had her mother hospitalized; here, she began to show slow signs of recovery.

  When Evelyn was in the hospital, both Christine and John began to feel unwell. Aunt Carrie began to visit them daily, seemingly concerned for their welfare. In September of 1952, as John and Christine began to lose their hair and their eyesight worsened, they heard on the radio about a murder case where a woman, Yvonne Fletcher, had killed two of her husbands with rat poison. As John and Christine listened, chills ran up their spines as they realized they were suffering the same symptoms as those being discussed on the radio.

  The following day, John and Christine reported their suspicions to the police. The police
said they needed evidence and asked the Downey’s to bring them samples of the food that had Caroline supplied. This they did but all the tests proved negative.

  On April 13, 1953, when Evelyn was home from the hospital, Caroline as normal came to visit. Christine offered to make the tea, and Caroline offered to carry a cup out to Evelyn who was sitting on the porch, still barely able to walk and blind. It was then that John saw Caroline remove something from the pocket of her dress and drop it into Evelyn’s cup. John managed, without Caroline noticing, to swap Evelyn’s cup for his. He poured the contents into a sealed jar and delivered it to the police. The police analyst confirmed that the tea had a deadly dose of the poison thallium.

  Thallium is fatal to humans in doses as small as one gram. Its salts are colorless, odorless, tasteless, and soluble in water. It attacks the nervous system, lungs, heart, kidneys, and liver. The symptoms of thallium poisoning include hair loss, muscular cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea. Poisoning by thallium can be treated if it is identified within six hours of ingestion.

  On May 11, 1953, the police arrived at Caroline’s house in Gladsville and arrested Caroline for the attempted murder of Mrs. Evelyn Lundberg, her sister-in-law, and Evelyn’s daughter Mrs. Christine Downey. As the police investigated further, they charged Caroline Grills with four murders and another attempted murder.

  Police found traces of thallium in the pocket of the dress Caroline had worn on the day she had attempted to give Evelyn the cup of tea containing the fatal dose.

  Caroline went on trial in Sydney’s Central Criminal Court at the beginning of October of 1953 at the age of sixty-three. She pleaded not guilty and argued that she, “helped to live, not kill.”