Category: Flappers and Fatalities

It’s 1925!  The first Motel in the United States opens in San Luis Obispo, Ca.  The Great Gatsby is published, The Grand Ole Opry begins broad casting, Mount Rushmore is dedicated, AND our good friend Clarence Darrow, from the Emma Simpson story is defending John Scopes in Tennessee in what is known as the “Scopes Monkey Trial”.

September 29, 1925 in the fashionable Philadelphia area called Germantown, a handsome 35-year-old man is being wheeled out of a house with a bullet shot in his right temple.  He is followed by a young, beautiful, hysterical woman.

The man is Maurice E. Felt, “Gene”, a real estate magnate and former builder and owner of large movie theaters who later sold them for a small fortune.  Gene was married to Mary and had a 10-year-old son, Cornelius.  It was NOT Mary that was following him from the house.  It was Lillian Emanuel.

Lillian met Gene in 1916 when she worked as a multiplex telegraph operator for her father.  She was recently divorced.  A year later he bought a house for her in Highland Park which was a very stylish neighborhood. The house was built to her specifications.   Besides her butler, Washington Booker, she lived alone.   Gene visited her every Tuesday and Saturday nights.   Washington also took care of the black riding horse that she had.  Some of the neighbors complained about having a horse stabled in their neighborhood, but the horse died and that ended the controversy.  Lillian then bought a car.  Washington is also the one that bought a revolver for Lillian.  At first, he bought and automatic revolver, but that scared Gene and he had Washington buy a regular revolver.  However, they didn’t know very much about guns, so they kept the automatic bullets instead of buying bullets that fit the new gun. 

In 1924 Lillian Emanuel had a baby boy named Hunter and Gene bought her a house on Queens Street in Germantown, another stylish neighborhood, the deed to the house was in Lillian’s name.   She lived there with her son, Hunter and his nursemaid, Ellen Galbraith.

On the night of the shooting, Lillian and Gene had been out to dinner and then went for a ride in Gene’s automobile.  They returned to Lillian’s home.  They were discussing Gene’s upcoming trip to Europe.  Gene told Lillian that he was afraid to leave her alone unprotected.  Lillian responded that she wasn’t unprotected that she had the gun he had had Washington buy for her.  Gene asked Lillian where she kept it and she said inside the bedside table.  He then ran up the stairs to the bedroom and Lillian heard a shot.  She raced up the stairs and found Gene lying on the floor, bleeding from the temple with the gun lying on the floor by his right hand. 

He said, “Lillian, I didn’t think it would be so hard.  But everything will be all right.” 

With that statement he lapsed into unconsciousness.  Lillian screamed for Miss Galbraith the nurse, while she was waiting, she wiped Maurice’s face with a towel and got blood on her hands.  The nurse finally made it down from her third-floor room they managed to get him on the bed when he murmured “Water”.  Miss Galbraith picked up the gun from the floor and laid it on the bed and ran to the bathroom where she got him some water.

Lillian screamed at Ellen to call a doctor.  But after several attempts, no doctor would come to the house, so they called the Germantown Hospital which sent to surgeons to the house.  The surgeons said they would have to call the police, but Lillian pleaded with them not to saying that it was an accident.

They took Gene to the hospital where he never regained consciousness and died the next day.

May Felt, the widow, refuses to see any of her friends, she will only see Gene’s brothers and their wives.  “Don’t mention that woman here!  I can’t bear to think about it.  I’ve tried to believe it was an accident, but I can’t, I can’t.  I want to forget everything except Maurice.  It is too terrible a thing to have happened, ” she told the press as they surrounded her apartment building. 

Lillian Emanuel attended a brief hearing.  She was free on bail of $2,500 for the charges of assault and battery by shooting.  But Maurice had died, and so the District Attorney got a warrant for Lillian’s arrest for Manslaughter.  The police looked all over and couldn’t find Lillian, her attorney William Gray said that he would appear with her on the following day and the police had to be satisfied with that.  It turns out that Lillian was in her own house being guarded by two policemen.

Lillian was being arraigned for Manslaughter.  Lillian arrived at the courthouse wearing all black.  She collapsed and had to be carried to the seventh floor where she was photographed, think mug shot, by the police.  Edna, Lillian’s sister accompanied her to the hearing. 

Lillian is held on suspicion of manslaughter.  She is taken to Moyamensing prison.  And get this!  She was assigned to the same cell that Catherine Rosier had occupied in 1922. 

She was held in a waiting room with other prisoners and when her name was called, she was led into a brightly lit room and told to step up onto a large turntable. 

In the room there are 100 masked men.  As she revolved, she was asked her name.  Captain Wood of the detective squad said, “Boys, this is the woman accused of shooting Maurice Felt.  Do any of you know her?”  The detectives all answered NO.  Lillian was so terrified by the experience she had to hold onto the turntable and had to be carried from the room.  In her cell she collapsed.  Her attorney, William A. Gray was horrified.  He accused the police of putting her in the “stick-up” room to break her.

Lillian’s sister Edna Wyckoff takes little Hunter to care for while Lillian is in jail.  Lillian’s father, Harry V. Emanuel, chief operator for Western Union Telegraph, came forward and admitted he was Lillian’s father.  Lillian’s parents were divorced, and each sent letters to her in jail, but neither had visited her. 

Lillian returns to court before Judges Bartlett and McDevitt in Common Pleas Court to continue the fight to get her released on bail.  She is sent back to Moyamensing Prison to await trial.  Lillian had been denied bail. 

The bail hearing lasted six hours with a surprise testimony by Fred Felts, Maurice’s brother.  Fred testified that a week before Maurice was dead, Fred had been trying to get Maurice to leave Lillian and Lillian told them, “If he doesn’t come up with a lump of money, I’ll knock him off.”  He also testified to a life insurance policy in the amount of $25,000 with Lillian as the beneficiary. 

Ellen Galbraith the nurse, testifies at the bail hearing.  “I had just put Forrest to bed, I heard a sound that I thought was a tire bursting.  I wouldn’t have noticed except it frightened the baby and made him cry. 

“I went to his bed and tried to quiet him.  I don’t know how long after this, but it was only a few moments at the most, that there was a noise like someone falling downstairs.  It was a heavy thud.  Then there was silence. 

” Another few moments passed, and then I heard Miss Emanuel’s step on the stairs.  I heard her run from, I believe, the second floor to the first and then back again.  Then I began to grow a little uneasy.”

So, no bail.

William Gray, Lillian’s attorney plans to take Lillian’s case to either the Superior Court or the State Supreme Court in order to get Lillian released from prison on bail.   He stated, “I will appeal today to a Judge of the Superior Court or a Justice of the Supreme Court to fix bail for Lillian Emanuel.  “There is not an element of first-degree murder in this case.  The Commonwealth has failed utterly to show one iota of evidence to connect this woman with the murder of Gene Felt.” 

The Coroner’s jury meets.  These inquests normally don’t last long, but this one lasted all day, and ended around 9:00 p.m. 

The lengthy hearing turned into a battle between Assistant District Attorney Charles F. Kelly and Coroner Patton.  Most of the argument was due to Coroner Patton calling Edward F. Logan and his sister Mary Logan the owners of the Spruce Eagle Inn, testifying that at the time Fred Felt says that Lillian made her statement about knocking Gene off, they were having dinner at the Spruce Eagle, some 15 miles away. 

Mr. Logan says he remembers it because Lillian sent her steak back as being under done.  Steaks are rarely sent back at the Spruce.  Edward was to take his family to the 9:30 movies but told them to go without him because he himself was going to cook a new steak for Lillian. 

After he took Lillian home, Gene returned to his office and Gray had a witness testify to that.  He also had a witness that heard Felt threaten suicide if Lillian ever left him. 

The star witness was Dr. William Wadsworth, coroner’s physician, and expert in post-mortem examinations.  Dr. Wadsworth testified that there were powder burns on the wound and that Gene could have easily shot himself. 

All of the circumstantial evidence brought by Kelly, was repudiated by Gray.  He was so fierce that he often got applause from the onlookers.  Lillian was so distraught that she fainted twice. 

Then the coroner’s jury with little or no deliberation, announces through the foreman, “Maurice Felt died at the hands of person or persons unknown to this jury.”

When the verdict was announced, Lillian stood up, shouted “I’m Free!” and fainted. 

When she woke up she shouted, “Gene, Gene, I’m free!  I’m free! I knew you would be with me! You were near me the whole time!”

After the Coroner’s Jury ruled.  Lillian left and spent the night at her father’s home.  It was planned that Lillian would go to her sister’s home the next day, getting out of Philadelphia and all the notoriety.  A conference was planned for D.A. Kelly, Isaac Levy –  Mrs. Felt’s attorney and William Gray to decide if Lillian Emanuel would be tried for murder, regardless of the coroner’s ruling.  “The matter of further prosecution of Miss Emanuel rests entirely with District Attorney Rotan,” stated Kelly. And District Attorney Rotan said no. So Lillian was free!

Lillian’s attorney made a plea to Mrs. Felt’s attorney, Isaac D. Levy, not to block the $25,000 from the life insurance so that Forrest, the 18-month-old baby could get an education and a good start in life.  Felt’s widow, Mary withdraws her claims against the $25,000 insurance policy that Maurice left for Lillian.  The widow will receive hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Lillian sells her house in Germantown for $22,500.  With the Life insurance policy for $25,000 that would give her $725,000 in today’s money.  She then changes her name, packs up her son Forrest and moves to Washington, DC.  Her sister, Edna moved with them.

And that’s how a poorly cooked steak saved a woman’s life!

This is the story of a love triangle between The Beautician, The Movie Star, and The Crook.

Pearl Haworth married Teddy Spector, whose real name was Isadore Irving Spector, when she was just 15 and working in a stockbroker’s office, after a very short courtship.  They were married in Buffalo, NY.  After 18 months, Teddy leaves Pearl telling her, “I’ve got plenty of brains and I’m not going to waste them fussing around here!”  Those words would come back to haunt him.

Teddy goes off and lives his life for the next 15 or so years and on March 28, 1931 Teddy marries movie star Olive Borden. 

Olive moved to Hollywood in 1923 when she was 16.  Her mother came with her. Her father had died when she was just a baby.  Olive and her mother moved from Mount Washington, Maryland where her mother was a restaurant manager.  Olive’s aunt lived in Los Angeles and they moved in with her. 

She was a pretty girl with brown eyes and blue-black hair.  When Olive and her aunt were attending a cabaret that was being filmed by Al Christie, a producer, he hired Olive on the spot as an extra.  After that it was a little slow finding parts and their income was quickly evaporating. 

They opened a candy store near the University of California.  Olive sold lollipops and penny candy to the college students.  The candy store was not a success and soon closed. 

Then a casting director for a comedy studio, Hal Roach, featured Olive in some comedic shorts and she worked as a bathing beauty for Mark Sennett.  Her break came when she was given a part in “Dressmaker from Paris”.  She then supported Tom Mix in “The Yankee Senor”. 

In 1925 she signed a contract with Fox Films.  Her first starring role was that of a Polynesian girl.  For the next three years she got billing over other stars like Marie Dressler, Jack Pickford, Jack Oakie, Neil Hamilton, and George O’Brien. 

Olive Borden lived in Beverly Hills, she bought 5 mink coats, 3 cars, had a 5-year contract at $1,500 per week.  Between 1926 and 1927 she starred in 11 movies.  She fell in love with fellow actor, George O’Brien.  They were together for over three years until George took a trip to Europe.  When he returned they were no longer seen together. 

Fox wanted Olive to take a cut in pay, which she refused and suddenly, her roles began diminishing, she went to New York to star on Broadway, but the play never came out of rehearsals.  There she met Teddy Spector, a stockbroker, and eloped with him Harrison, NY, she couldn’t act in films them because her contract barred her from being married.  And then the trouble began.

Pearl all this time has been happy owning and operating a beauty salon called the Rouge Box.  Opening the paper one morning she saw a picture of Teddy and his new bride Olive Borden.  The only problem was that Pearl was still married to Teddy, they had never been divorced.

So why did Teddy commit bigamy?  He told Pearl that Olive threatened to jump off a 10-story building if he wouldn’t marry her.  When a woman threatens to jump if you don’t marry her, you marry the girl!  The marriage went well for about a year.  Olive had theater engagements in vaudeville and Teddy worked as a broker on Wall Street.  Then in April 1932 Pearl sees a picture of Olive and Teddy her long lost husband that left her 18 months after their marriage and hadn’t been heard from since.

Pearl files for divorce and heads to the District Attorney, Walter E. Ferris, to let him know about the bigamy.  On May 15, 1932, the grand jury throws the case out.  Pearl has no proof other than her marriage license, and on Teddy’s marriage license with Olive he states that it is his first marriage.  Also, when he married Pearl the marriage license said that Teddy’s place of birth was New York and his father’s name was Clayton.  On the Olive license, it says he was born Patterson, NJ and his father’s name was Arthur.

On May 22, Pearl and District Attorney head back to the grand jury with a picture of Teddy that Pearl had and the pictures from the newspapers that showed the same man albeit a little older, and the grand jury indicts him.  Pearl describes Teddy as ” a tall good-looking brute, who certainly has a fast line.” 

In July 1932 Pearl finally gets her divorce, uncontested.  She was not granted any alimony but did receive court costs of $51.62.  The oddest thing about the divorce was that Justice Almon W. Lytle signed an order that Teddy could not remarry as long as Pearl was alive without a court order.   

Pearl confronts Teddy saying, “How is it that as brainy a man you would marry a woman while he was still the husband of another.”  Repeating Teddy’s farewell speech back to him!

In November 1932 Olive gets an annulment and Pearl testifies.  After her annulment from Teddy, she remarried an electrician for a railroad, John Moeller.  For seven years Olive Borden was a housewife in Long Island.  Her father-in-law lived with them. 

The marriage broke up and in 1941 Olive joined the WACs and worked as an army chauffeur.  After the war she moved back to Los Angeles.  In 1946 she went to work for her mother the Director of the Sunshine Mission for Women and Children.  The mission was located on Skid Row. 

Olive took over the management of the kitchen.  The first Thanksgiving she prepared over a dozen turkeys for the residents.  In 1947 she became ill, it turned out to be pneumonia and she died in the mission at the age of 40.  As she was dying, she told her mother, “I have found the one thing Hollywood couldn’t give me — Happiness.”

I could find no further information on Pearl.  Hopefully, she went back to Buffalo and ran the Rouge Box and lived happily ever after.

Teddy is another story.  Teddy gets arrested several times for running a “bucket shop”.  For example, Teddy was arrested for trading a client’s securities in American Telephone and Telegraph (known as AT&T today) for oil royalties owned by the Standard Oil Company, guaranteeing the client $77 a month for 50 years.  Teddy kept the money from the sale of the stock and never invested in oil royalties. This was known as violating the Martin Act.  Teddy paid the client $2,000 and was released.  He had never gone to prison until…

In March 1937 Teddy marries model Betty Ryan.

Betty almost eloped at the age of 17 to a very handsome male model.  They got hungry and stopped at a hot dog stand before heading to the justice of the peace when they were stopped by the police, Betty’s parents had sent them as Betty was underage.  The couple vowed to marry when Betty turned 18, but it never happened, their work got in the way. 

So, in 1937 Betty married Teddy, who was going by Teddy I. Stewart at the time.  Teddy neglected to tell Betty about the bigamy and his problems with the law.   During their honeymoon, Teddy was arrested again. 

This time Teddy was arrested with 74 other people for selling fraudulent land in Texas for oil.  They cleared over $5,000,000, which in today’s money would be almost $100,000,000.  Some of the property had used up oil wells, but most had no oil, and some were imaginary plots that didn’t even have any land.

Betty did her duty and visited him in prison, but when he was released, she divorced him, October 15, 1941 in Reno.

And that’s the end of the information that I could find on Teddy.  Betty remarried Phil Ammidown, a society architect.

If you liked the story, why not buy the PDF eBook?

Part Two

So, what about Ausley?  In April 1923, Ausley is re-captured in Omaha.  He was using the alias of Albert Ohse and has an unknown woman with him.  He writes a letter to Mabel telling her how much he loves her. 

Ausley told reporters, “Mabel’s one girl in a million.  They don’t make many like her.  I jumped my bond to go to New Orleans and play the races to get my money to help her, but you can’t beat the ponies.”

Ausley is extradited to Cleveland, but then word comes from California.  Ausley is wanted for murder in California.  He allegedly shot and killed James E. Goldy in a dice game in Los Angeles.  After a quick trial with little details, he was convicted of first-degree murder without a recommendation for mercy, Ausley was sentenced to hang.

He wrote a letter to Mabel:

“Dearest Mabel,

My last thought will be of you.  I am only sorry I must leave you.  I still have some friends, and they have provided me with a few dollars. 

If you need some money for stuff to eat, I will be glad to send you some.  If you get out all right, go back to my mother.  She will be glad to take you.

With love from your husband,

Ausley.”

While Ausley was awaiting his execution, Mabel Champion spoke to the press, “I knew him since I was a tiny tot in pigtails.  And I loved him.  God how I loved him. 

“He turned the magic key of love in my heart.  And the whole world opened as a fairyland when he asked me to become his wife.

 “Nothing can ever make me turn from my husband.  I know him better than the police can ever hope to.  He is not bad.  Just weak.  Drink was his evil.  It cursed him whenever he let it blot out his real friends. “

On August 15, 1924, Ausley was hanged at San Quentin prison in front of 33 witnesses.  According to all he approached the gallows bravely.

 Mabel was devastated.  She was inconsolable for weeks. 

March 30, 1925, a small heavily veiled woman carrying 2 suitcases calmly walked out the back door to the Marysville Reformatory, walked to a hotel, had the clerk call a taxi for her, and was never seen by the authorities again.

Police are on the hunt for Mabel Champion.  Because of the inefficiency of the night matron, Mabel had a 10 hour start plus an additional 8 hours because the Cleveland police weren’t notified for 8 hours after Mabel was found missing. 

The police did find that she took a taxi from Marysville to Springfield.  She walked into a hotel and had the clerk call a taxi for her and Guy Sewell picked her up and drove her to Springfield.  Mabel had her breakfast at 4:00 am!  An hour later she was at the hotel. 

The escape wasn’t discovered until 4:00 in the afternoon.  Mabel got the keys from Mrs. Kissinger, a matron, to Mrs. Kissinger’s room.  Clothing and two suitcases along with $10 were missing from the room.  Prison officials say that she packed the 2 suitcases with clothes and calmly walked out the back door. 

The county prosecutor tells the press that they think that Mabel is headed to California to get revenge for Ausley’s execution. 

Mabel is seen in Akron, OH.  The tip was given to the police from Judge C.G. Washburn of the appeals court.  The judge had taken a bus from Elyria to Akron and saw Mabel Champion on the bus.  He got off the bus and tried to follow her, but she walked so slowly he had to pass her.  He went to the corner hoping to find a police officer there, but when he turned around Mabel had vanished. 

After a 24 hour of searching the Akron police give up on looking for Mabel.  They had also received information from the Cleveland police that Mabel was on a train headed to Indianapolis.  The train was supposed to arrive in Indianapolis at 1:55, but the Indianapolis authorities didn’t see her at the station. 

Mabel was however in Indianapolis.  She went to a beauty parlor under the name Kitty O’Brien and had her dark brown hair bleached blonde and got a perm too!!

August 1925 was the last anyone ever heard from Mabel Champion.  She wrote a letter to the prosecutor of her case Edward Stanton.  The letter was post marked Kenosha, WI purportedly from Mabel.  The letter said: 

“My dear Mr. Stanton: 

What would you give to see me back in Marysville? 

Why don’t your wise “dicks” clean up the Lakewood murder. (apparently another case going on               in Cleveland.) 

Next to Chi, dear old Cleveland is the easiest burg on the map. 

Well, ta-ta, I’m on my way. 

Get busy.” 

The letter was signed Mabel.  Stanton said it is the second letter that he has received.

Mrs. Kissinger was fired for incompetence.  And the prison had no other escapes until…

Velma West escaped from the same prison with three friends in 1939 in much the same manner!

Part One

Imagine driving in a car in 1922 from Indianapolis to Cleveland all in one day.  You’re tired, you’re hungry and your friends suggest you go out to dinner.  So, you head to Downing’s restaurant in Cleveland.  Your husband’s been drinking, even though it’s during prohibition, so he’s a little unsteady on his feet.  A drunk man approaches you as you go into the restaurant and demands a drink. 

Your husband blows him off and you and your friends go into the restaurant.  The man follows you and starts a fight with your husband knocking him to the ground.  What’s a woman to do?  You reach in your husband’s coat, pull out a gun and shoot the man attacking your husband three times.  While your husband yells, “Go get him!”  And then the police arrive, and your husband denies you’re his wife let alone that he even knows who you are.

Finally, days later your husband admits you’re his wife and that the gun you used to shoot the drunk was his.

That’s what happened to Mabel Champion, 22-year-old beauty.  By the way Mabel is also known as the Sphinx because she never spoke to the press or the police about the case.  When Mabel was arrested, and they searched her purse and found a switchblade they asked her what she used it for, her reply, “Oh, I peel peaches with it.”

Thomas O’Connell

There were questions about exactly who the dead man was.  The police had different names, Connell, O’Connell, Connelly, and first names of Edward, Ed, Tom, and Thomas.  It was found that his name was Thomas C. O’Connell.

Theresa O’Connell Thomas O’Connell’s wife and his brother George traveled to Cleveland from Highwood, Connecticut, a suburb of New Haven.  Thomas was a Yale graduate and had worked in stained glass until he entered the Carnival business several years before the shooting. 

Theresa was from Cleveland and the couple had lived there for several years.  Thomas had been living in their cottage at Geneva-on-the-lake.  Mrs. O’Connell spoke to the press, “Drinking was my husband’s only fault.  We had always been happy together and never had any trouble of any kind before. I cannot understand it all.”  Thomas’s father was a Deputy Sheriff in Heywood CT.

Who was Mabel?

It was found that Mabel using the names Teddy O’Brien, Inez Parker and Marie Champion had a criminal record of sorts in Cleveland.  She was charged twice with robbery charges by men, both of whom later dropped the charges.  She also had a record in Indianapolis where Mable had robbed and stabbed another man. Mabel had jumped bond in that case. 

Ausley, Mabel’s husband was arrested as well as Mabel.  The charges against Ausley were that he hit O’Connell four times with a chair after he fell to the ground shot.

The police begin taking statements and   George Linn, a patron of the restaurant tells police that Mabel said to him, “Don’t mind him.  He’s drunk.  I did it.” 

Mabel appears in arraignment court and asks for a continuance so that she can hire attorneys and speak to her husband.  Both were granted.  No bail was granted to Mabel.  Ausley was arraigned soon after and was released on $5,000 bail which he paid.

Mabel’s court date was delayed several times.  Once for her attorneys to prepare, once for a death in one of the attorney’s family, once because a key witness for the prosecution was ill, and once because another key witness for the prosecution had disappeared.

Finally, October 24, 1922 the trial begins.  Mabel’s attorneys, Walter D. Meals and John Orgill, had a whole new wardrobe made for her specifically for the trial.  It was fashionable, conservative, and black. 

The first panel of jurors was exhausted with 7 women and 4 men tentatively accepted.  A second panel of 50 prospects was called.  Ausley was not in the courtroom. 

Mabel finally said something to the press, “Mabel Champion is my right name, my home is in Texas.  I was married in Brownsville, TX when I was 16 years old.”

Ausley fails to appear in court for the second day.  “I don’t know where he is.  He was so nice to me while I was in jail, bringing me books and candy.  I’m sure he’ll be back soon.” Mabel answers the questions of the police. 

The jury is finally set, it contains seven women and five men.  This is one of the first time that one of our bad girls have had women on the jury. 

The prosecution begins.  William Conklin the cashier at the restaurant testifies, “I saw Mabel shoot Thomas O’Connell taking deliberate aim.  O’Connell said, ‘For God’s sake, don’t shoot!’ ” 

Then he heard Ausley shout, “Shoot him, Mabel!”  Conklin said he heard 2 more shots as he ran to the phone to call the police. 

Joseph Shimendle, a chauffeur, testified that he heard Mabel yell, “Step aside Daddy and I’ll fill him full of lead!”

Continuing, “Mrs. Champion produced the gun from her bosom walked over and got her coat from the wall, held it over her arm.  She shot once at O’Connell and as he wheeled around, she fired twice more.” This brought gasps from the audience. 

Prosecution rests its case.  The arresting officers were the last to testify.  Sergeant Snyder testified that Mabel had tried to trick them into believing that Thomas O’Connell had cleared her of any wrongdoing from his hospital bed.

Ralph Pearson of the YMCA testified for the defense, that Mabel had shot O’Connell in self-defense as he had struck out at her as she tried to break up the fight between Ausley and O’Connell.

Ausley was supposed to testify next.  He has apparently skipped out on his bond, as he hasn’t been in court and no one can locate him.

For once Mabel opens up to the press, “I am fighting my battle alone for one reason, back in the west in a small town far enough from the big cities to prevent them from gaining access to the news of the day, are an old man and an old woman. 

“One is my father and the other my mother.  Rather than cause them pain as I did when at the age of 16, I married Champion.  I have made up my mind to fight this out alone.”

Mabel begins, “Ausley had a bottle of whiskey.  O’Connell without hat or collar was standing in front of the restaurant.  He asked for a drink, and my husband gave it to him.  We then went into the restaurant and sat down at the table.  We gave our order and then O’Connell lurched into the room and came toward our table.  There was a quarrel.  O’Connell wanted more whiskey.  He tried to beat my husband when he refused to give it to him, and then he scuffled with me, and the gun discharged.  I did not mean to kill him, and I did not aim the gun.

“I didn’t mean to shoot him.  But it was the dead man’s life or my husband’s.  And in the scuffle, the gun I somehow got hold of, went off.   That’s all there is.  I’ve had plenty of time to think it over.” 

 Mabel for the first time did not wear black, but a dark blue suit. 

Edward C.  Stanton gave his statement to the jury.  He asked for the death penalty and described Mabel as, “a cold-blooded murderess – a clever shrewd woman from Texas, where they shoot from the hip and are quick on the trigger.” 

The defense immediately objected to by this as there was no evidence of “hip shooting” which was sustained.  He then presented O’Connell’s blood-stained clothes as evidence as a rebuttal to Mabel’s testimony.  Edward Stanton had Captain Daniel Stanton the firearms expert of the Cleveland police testify that the shots could not have been shot from close range. 

He testified, “The revolver which pierced this shirt, and this suit of underwear could not have been closer than three feet from the injured man, or there would have been powder marks on the suit.” 

In the defense’s summation they pictured Mabel as “the little peacemaker – trying in vain to prevent trouble.”

They described O’Connell, “A Paris apache of the worst type, he dug with his own hands the pit into which he now lies.”

The jury is given the case late in the afternoon, but can’t come to a decision, it was reported that it was 10-2 for conviction of first-degree murder with no mercy, which meant the electric chair.  The 2 holdouts consisted of one woman and one man.  The jury was sent to a hotel for the night.

Mabel is to serve 20 years with no parole in Marysville Reformatory.  The jury convicted her of manslaughter not first-degree murder, 28 hours after it had started deliberating.  Mabel who was 22, was the youngest woman ever convicted of killing.  Mabel lost her composure that she had had throughout the trial burst into sobs.  The women on the jury joined her in crying as did many of the women in the audience. 

Mabel is granted a stay of execution for five days pending the appeal trial.  The appeal trial is a gamble on Mable’s part, she was close to being executed in the electric chair and was lucky to get manslaughter.  Mabel is granted a new trial from the court of appeals due to three errors made by the judge in the original trial.  The prosecution immediately appealed to the state supreme court.

On January 16, 1924, The Ohio state supreme court upheld Mabel’s conviction in the lower court and a new trial is denied.  Mabel entered Marysville Reformatory to begin her 20-year sentence.

John Oesterreich, Fred’s brother, began receiving death threats over the phone and through letters telling him to stay away from Dolly’s trial and to not testify.  The District Attorney immediately began an investigation.

The state is putting their case together and gathering witnesses.  One of the witnesses is Alvie Judkins of Milwaukee.  Alvie was Dolly’s paid companion hired by Fred when he was out of town on business.  Her testimony was two-fold; 1.  She will testify that as soon as Fred left Dolly told Alvie to leave, and 2.  There were a lot of domestic arguments. 

Alvie was all set to go when she began receiving anonymous letters threatening her life and the life of her husband if she went to Los Angeles to testify.  She agreed to go to Los Angeles and testify if Los Angeles would pay for the trip for her, her husband, and her attorney.  They agreed so the Judkins headed out.

Otto Sanhuber was also scheduled to testify, subpoenaed by the prosecution.

Monday, August 4, 1930, Dolly’s trial begins.  Judge Carlos Hardy will preside as he did in Otto’s trial.  James P. Costello, deputy district attorney was prosecutor and Jerry Giesler was the defense attorney.

August 4, 1930 was also the day Dolly was supposed to go to court for the case that Herman Shapiro filed against her.  The civil case was postponed until November.

The prosecutions witnesses except for Alvie Judkins were the same as in Otto’s trial.  They were Cora Norton, the next-door neighbor; Roy Klumb that threw the gun in the tar pits, the undertaker, the police investigators from 1922.

Dolly barrels into the courtroom with a huge smile, dressed in black with a black hat that partially covered her face.  The trial began with a bitter argument between the prosecution and the defense in jury selection.  The defense was willing to forego a jury trial and the prosecution insisted on a jury trial.  Judge Hardy ruled in favor of the prosecution.

Then the defense wanted to ask the prospective jurors whether the verdict from Otto’s trial would affect their decision in this trial since a manslaughter verdict would set Dolly free, and the prosecution wanted no reference to the Sanhuber trial given to the prospective jurors.  Judge Hardy agreed with Giesler, the defense attorney. 

Giesler also asked the prospective jurors if their opinion would be changed if they knew that Dolly had “sinned morally”.  Costello asked if Dolly’s promiscuousness could be considered as leading to the motive of the murder.  He followed up by asking about capital punishment.

The jury picking took three days, and the jury took their seats at the opening of court on Thursday, August 7, 1930.  Several prospects were dismissed because of their disapproval of Capital Punishment.  And get this!  The jury consisted of six men and six WOMEN!  Yes, there were women on this jury!  What a difference 1930 is from 1922!

Alvie was not coming to testify.  At the last minute, the city decided it was too expensive to bring three people from Milwaukee to Los Angeles.

Once again Herman Shapiro is MIA.  Costello find that he is in New York.  Costello called both Herman’s attorney and his sister.  Finally, his sister admitted that Herman was in NYC.  Costello told the sister to let him know that he would get a warrant issued and that he would also take it up with the California Bar and get him disbarred. 

Another disappointment for the prosecution was that private detective Phillip Stover fell and broke his leg and could not travel to Los Angeles.  Stover was one of the private detectives that Fred had hired to follow Dolly and Otto around.

Deputy district attorney Russel gave the opening remarks, basically recapping the shooting and locking Dolly in the closet. 

Next the Cora and Flora show continued with the previous next-door neighbors repeating their catty remarks about Dolly for the third time.  This time they added that Dolly was intoxicated, something new for a new trial!

Testimony follows with the Medical Examiner testifying to Fred being killed by three bullets shot downward.

Shapiro it was found was now in Saint Louis.  He demanded that the city of Los Angeles pay his air fare, or he would not return to Los Angeles, this did not go over well with Costello who sent him heated telegrams.  Shapiro responded with his own telegram – sent collect!

“Burton Fitts, District Attorney:  Understand Costello desires my testimony in the Oesterreich case.  Am here on business that will take another month to conclude.  Cannot understand your need of me because relationship of attorney and client that existed between defendant and myself would bar my testimony.  This is apparent because my testimony was inadmissible in the Sanhuber case.  In addition, I have your promise.  Therefore, my absence should cause the state no embarrassment.  However, if matters develop requiring my presence wire me funds covering round trip aeroplane fare from Saint Louis and I will appear upon eighteen hours’ notice.”

Costello had Judge Hardy issue a bench warrant for Herman the next day.

Police that were first on the scene testified with nothing new to add, same for the medical examiner, and the county surveyor.

Roy Klumb also testified adding nothing new to his testimony.  He did repeat his testimony from Otto’s trial that Dolly had once told him that she had a lover that she was afraid would kill her husband.

John Farber testified about burying the second pistol under his rose bush.  Nothing new.

New witness, the cook from next door testified how he heard fights with cursing between the Oesterreichs prior to the shooting. 

The next new witness was John Farber’s wife a friend of Dolly’s.  She testified that Dolly and told her not to be surprised if she heard Dolly and Fred were getting a divorce.  Dolly was fed up!

A bank teller testified that Dolly and Otto once had a joint checking account.

Otto testifies next.  Keep in mind Otto is testifying for the PROSECUTION.  Otto really had nothing new to add, he did blame Dolly for starting their affair. He told the story of being in the attic during the scuffle and the shooting, her heard Dolly in her closet.  Otto heard her call out, “Fred, are you trying to fool me?”

He said he then heard her running downstairs, scream, run back upstairs and faint in her closet.  Otto was on the stand for two days and relayed no new information.

The jury then took a road trip to the house where Fred was killed. 

Costello asked for a three-day (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) recess as he had witnesses coming in from Milwaukee and was granted it.  The defense was thrilled as Dolly was to be their only witness and that gave them plenty of time to prepare her.

Surprise!  Guess who came from Milwaukee after all?  That’s right Alvie! Her testimony really woke up the audience!  Alvie testified that she was employed by Fred at the manufacturing plant as an office girl.  She testified that Fred was suspicious of Dolly and hired Alvie to be her companion when he went out of town on business trips.  Dolly was having none of that!  She sent Alvie home after the first night and called her back the day before Fred was to return, remember Otto first lived in the attic in Milwaukee.        

When the Oesterreichs were getting ready to move to Los Angeles, Dolly said to Alvie, “ I don’t know why I’m going to California with him.  You know what I think about him.”

Alvie replied, “Why don’t you divorce him?”

“No, there is only one way to get rid of him and it isn’t divorce”, was Dolly’s answer.

After Fred died Dolly returned to Milwaukee to take care of some or the estate business.  Alvie spoke to her several times.  “Tell me who did it,” Alvie asked her several times.

“Don’t ever ask me that question”, responded Dolly.  “I sweat blood while they were questioning me.  But don’t forget this:  I’m a fox!  I’m so hard now that I could shake hands with the devil! “

“But lots of foxes are caught, “ Alvie answered her.

“Not me!  Don’t ever answer any questions about me if you don’t want to get in trouble”, was Dolly’s final answer.

With that Alvie’s testimony was finished, the prosecution rested, and court was dismissed.

Monday, August 18, 1930 the defense begins.  Jerry Giesler starts by making a motion to dismiss because if Dolly is guilty of any crime it is as an accessory after the fact.  The motion was denied.

Dolly takes the stand.  With tears streaming down her face, for the first time since the shooting, she throws Otto under the bus.  Costello, the prosecuting attorney theorized in cross examination that while Otto and Fred were struggling, Dolly went and got the second gun and shot and killed Fred.

Closing arguments begin.  Jerry Giesler, the lead defense attorney threw Dolly’s morals under the bus, saying, “she did not commit that crime even though she is guilty of other sins.  We asked no sympathy for this woman.  Her own actions have condemned her as an unmoral woman whose sins will bring their own punishment in time.  But regardless of she may have violated the moral law, she cannot be convicted of murder on that account.”  His closing arguments lasted over five hours.

Saturday, August 23, 1930, at 9:45 am the case was given to the jury.  Two days later the jury sends notice to Judge Hardy that they are deadlocked.  Rumor has it that the jury is 9-3 to convict.  The judge tells them to go back to their hotel and relax and come back the next morning at 9:30 to reconvene.  They reconvene and manage to switch one of the 3 so it was 10-2 to convict of second-degree murder. 

Judge Hardy delayed the jurors lunch hour while he discussed the situation with the two lead attorneys.  The attorneys argued as you would expect, defense for a mistrial, prosecution for more discussions.  At the close of business Monday, Judge Hardy regretfully called a mistrial.  The jury was deadlocked at 10-2 for conviction.  All six women, by the way, voted for conviction. 

The trial had lasted three weeks and had been very expensive.  Between all of Herman Shapiro’s antics and the witnesses from Milwaukee, the state had paid a lot of money.  A new trial was set for October 14, 1930.  And then it was postponed until November 17 and her civil suit with Shapiro was postponed until January 22. 

District Attorney Castello has made a motion that when the case is called on the 17^th that it will be put off the calendar.  That means that there will be no second trial but if some new evidence comes to light, he will be able to reopen the case and put it on the docket.  Castello did this because of the hung jury in the August trial and the fact that so close to the holidays the Milwaukee witnesses did not want to come back to Los Angeles for weeks.

Judge Hardy and Jerry Giesler were not happy.  Judge Hardy gave Castello until December 15, to decide whether to drop the charges or go back to trial. In the meantime, Dolly was released on her own recognizance.  So, on December 8, 1930 the charges against Dolly were dropped. 

Jerry Giesler got a lot of publicity from Dolly’s trials.  Front page publicity and became known as the attorney to the stars!  He defended Charlie Chaplin, Alexander Pantages, Errol Flynn, Bugsy Siegel, Robert Mitchum,  and Marilyn Monroe.  Jerry died from a heart attack in 1962.

Herman Shapiro was a well-known attorney in Los Angeles and even paired up with Jerry Giesler on several cases.  In 1936 he was elected to the bench in Whittier.  That’s all I could find on Herman.

Dolly developed a taste for litigation.  She sued a jeweler in 1931 for about $3,500 for jewelry she said she gave him for safe keeping in 1928.  In 1932 she won a case against Herman for $90,000 in real estate. 

In 1935 Herman reported to Castello that he had been receiving death threats and threats of bodily harm and attributed them to Dolly.  He had just won a lawsuit against her for $140.  He showed the investigators where he had broken ribs from a scuffle with Dolly’s business manager Ray Hedrick, remember him?  Dolly and Hedrick were called into the investigator’s office and given a slap on the wrist and told to leave Herman alone.

She was also sued by several people for misrepresenting real estate that she leased to them.  She lost both cases. 

In March 1961 Dolly and Ray Hedrick were married.  Do you really think she was faithful to him for 30 years???   Dolly swore that she was 65 although she had to be in her mid-eighties at least.  Ray said they had been in love for 30 years, and they were marrying now because Dolly was ill and as her husband, he could make medical decisions for her.  And she was very ill and died on April 8, 1961 about two weeks after she married Hedrick.

Hedrick inherited millions in real estate.

Dolly lived a long life. She was wealthy beautiful and had lots of lovers. Unfortunately she was crazy too!

The made for TV movie Man in the Attic, was inspired by Dolly’s story. It starred Anne Archer and Neil Patrick Harris.

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Dolly’s Craziness begins. So, remember Herman Shapiro, the attorney that had Fred’s watch?  Herman had his own problems.  He was divorcing his wife Nellie and she filed suit that she receive all the couple’s assets and funds.  She maintained that she had supported Herman throughout their marriage, set up his law office, and that he never contributed to the household expenses.  She won, so Herman had no home, no office, and no money.  Pretty much just the clothes on his back. 

Shapiro moved in with Dolly in her new house, closed his practice and was promised 50% of everything that Dolly inherited from Fred.  He devoted all his time to Dolly until September 1928.  They started a business together, Automobile Loan Corporation.  This business made loans on car purchases and invested in real estate, including a five-story office building for $150,000 and a $100,000 Spanish style house sitting on five lots for Herman.  That house in today’s money would be about $1.5 million. 

Is Dolly Crazy?

When Dolly was in jail in 1925, she begged Shapiro to take some food to the house and leave it where it could be easily reached.  Dolly told him to scratch on the walls and the man would come get it.  The man was her “half-brother” and lived in the attic.  The food was gone the next day.  Shapiro was amazed, he had no idea anyone else was living in the house with them.

After all this happened, Shapiro went to Dolly’s defense attorney, Frank Dominguez and asked him what to do. 

“What should I do,” asked Shapiro.

“Go and tell him to get out!” answered Dominguez.

Shapiro went back to Dolly’s house and to her closet.  He whistled loudly and saw first a hand and then a head and then an entire man come out onto the top shelf of Dolly’s closet. 

The man known as Walter Klein stepped out.  Klein told Shapiro that he had lived in a secret compartment in the attic in the house where Fred was killed and continued to live there for a year after the shooting.  For ten years he had lived in Dolly’s attics.  Klein told Shapiro that he had heard a fight between Fred and Dolly and was afraid that Dolly would be hurt so he came out and struggled with Fred and finally shot him and locked Dolly in the closet.

Who is Walter Klein?

Walter Klein was really Otto Sanhuber.  He was the adopted son of Mr. and Mrs. George Sanhuber and lived next door to the Oesterreichs in Milwaukee.  He left school at the age of 16 and got a job as a repairman for a sewing machine company.  Over the years he visited the Oesterreich manufacturing company many times to maintain their sewing machines.  He was a small retiring teenager and Dolly fell in love with him!

Dolly’s son had just died, and she was lonely.  She called Fred and told him that her sewing machine at home was broken, so he sent Otto over to the house.  Dolly met him at the door in a silk robe, perfume, stockings, and slippers.  The sewing machine had been conveniently moved to the bedroom, and so it began.

They met at Otto’s boarding house, at cheap hotels and at Dolly’s house.  Soon the neighbors began to gossip about him visiting Dolly all the time.  The gossip soon reached Fred who hired private detectives to follow the two lovers.  Dolly was desperate, she didn’t want to give up Otto, but she didn’t want to divorce Fred either and give up all that lovely money!

She told Fred that she wouldn’t see Otto anymore, and all was forgiven, and the marriage continued on smoothly.  Otto just vanished, or so it appeared.

Dolly asked Otto to quit his job and to move into her attic.  Otto had built himself a secret compartment in the attic of the Milwaukee house.  He didn’t mind because he had Dolly every day, free room and board and he could write pulp fiction, his second passion.  Otto did the domestic chores during the day when Fred and Dolly were at work at the plant.  Dolly suddenly called in sick a lot more than usual.  Fred soon wanted to move to Los Angeles and build another manufacturing company.  What was Dolly to do?  She sent Otto on ahead to Los Angeles where he built another secret compartment in the Los Angeles house before they moved in

After Shapiro kicked Otto out of the house.  He got a few jobs as hotel porter and janitor, but he had problems adjusting to being out in the sunshine all the time.  He finally moved to Canada where he changed his name to Walter Klein, met a woman, Matilda, and married her.  She stayed with him through all the things that followed.

Ray Hedrick – a new lover

Dolly’s craziness continues when she became interested in Ray Hedrick.  She and Shapiro had a falling out and she threatened him and had Ray strong arm him into a waiting automobile.  Shapiro called the police for protection.

The craziness continues with Dolly’s love of lawsuits, you file first, she counter sues, you counter sue and so on and so forth. In 1928, Dolly was sued by Genevieve Hedrick for $300,000 for the alienation of affections of her husband Ray B. Hedrick.  She also filed suit against her husband asking to split their assets, alimony, and a restraining order on Ray buying or selling anything until the suit was settled.

Genevieve was given police protection as she started receiving death threats both written and over the phone from the time she filed the lawsuit.

In her complaint, Genevieve states that she and Ray were happy for 12 years until Dolly came onto the scene.  She claims Dolly plied Ray with liquor and gave him presents and money. 

Ray is a real estate man.  He helped Dolly sell the house where Fred was shot and killed and buy a new house in Beverly Hills.  He also was helping her with some real estate investments that she was either acquiring or disposing of.

Dolly vehemently denied the charges in the lawsuit and especially the death threats that were given to Genevieve.  She then filed suit against Genevieve’s mother, Josephine Stanton, for $500,000 for slander.  Josephine was the one that told the police that Dolly was threatening Genevieve.

Ray then filed a cross-suit against Genevieve because she “pinched, struck, slapped, beat, shoved and kicked him, inflicting serious and painful injuries.”  She also called him names, like “Dutch Blockhead”.

The case was settled privately so I have no information on who got what.

Dolly’s craziness continues by taking revenge on Herman Shapiro. Dolly asked the court for a resolution to dissolve Automobile Loan Corporation, she claims that Herman never gave her an accounting of either the profits or the investments.  Herman countered with a suit for $90,000 for his half of the remaining assets. 

But Herman retaliated and soon filed the affidavit.  He filed an affidavit with the District Attorney’s office about a “vagabond half-brother” who lived in the attic of the Oesterreich’s homes both in Milwaukee and Los Angeles.   This “attic-lover” was responsible for shooting Fred. According to Herman, Otto had been living in Dolly’s attics for 10 years.

Otto’s Arrest and Trial

The police investigated the homes in Los Angeles and had the Milwaukee police investigate the house there.  They found the secret compartments in the attics. 

Otto was arrested at a boarding house where he worked as a janitor on April 7, 1930 – eight years after the shooting, and Dolly with her attorney turned herself in.  Dolly was released on $50,000 bail, but Otto was denied bail and went to jail.

They asked for and received separate trials and both entered double pleas.  Otto, not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity and Dolly, not guilty and not guilty by reason of once having been in jeopardy on the same charge.

Otto’s trial was first.  Oddly enough, Judge Carlos Hardy had to issue a bench warrant for Herman Shapiro to testify.  He failed to show up when he was assigned to testify.  Our good friend Ray Klumb did show up and testified.  Otto’s attorney tried to make a case that Klumb had killed Fred, but nobody was buying it.  Klumb left the courtroom and immediately filed a slander lawsuit against Otto’s attorney, Earl Wakeman for $100,000.

Otto took the stand and said that Herman could not testify as he had paid him $10 and everything he told him was covered by attorney client privilege.  Otto then testified that District Attorney Fitts promised him immunity from First Degree Murder if he would confess to the grand jury.  Fitts had to testify with the jury excused. 

He testified that Herman Shapiro had coached him in the self-defense story to protect Dolly. Otto then testified that he was locked in the attic at the time Fred was killed.  He heard Dolly run upstairs into her closet then he heard a loud noise and gunshots.  He blamed Shapiro for the murder.

However, Otto made two mistakes in his new version of the murder during cross examination.  The first was that he admitted that he owned the two guns, and the second was that he had thrown and inkwell at a prowler in the Oesterreich home once.  Both statements he previously denied vehemently.

Shapiro was brought back and denied having coached Otto on his story.  Two alienists (psychiatrists) testified that when Otto was under observation at a psych hospital he confessed just as he did to the grand jury, with much the same story.

The case was finally given to the jury.  After seven votes, they found Otto guilty of manslaughter.  As soon as the verdict was read, His attorney, Wakeman file a motion that the statute of limitations had run out on the manslaughter verdict, and Otto should be let go.  And so, he was on July 11, 1930.  Otto disappeared with his wife.  Probably back to Canada but there is nothing that says what happened to him.  Hopefully, he and his wife lived happily ever after.

This is one of the strangest stories I have come across.  Hold on to your horses because we’re up for a wild ride!  This story was the basis for the movie The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom.

Fred Oesterreich was killed in his home.  He was shot 3 times, twice in the heart and once in the temple.  His body was laying in the parlor by the front door.  There were chairs overturned and rugs in disorder, and there was a bullet in the ceiling showing Fred put up a fight. 

Dolly Oesterreich was locked in the closet from the outside.  Dolly told the police that they were out with friends and when they came home a man forced her into the closet where she heard 3 shots and began screaming.  J.W. Ashley a neighbor was out walking heard the screaming and looked in the window and saw Fred’s body.  He called the police.  The police arrived and let Dolly out of the closet where she was crying hysterically.  There was jewelry worth over $50,000 that were left in the house.

Police believe that the murder was done by a six-member robber gang which included one woman.  Early in the morning police officers heard a wild party going on and went into the house, they arrested one of the members who had a .25 caliber pistol that had been shot recently.  None of the “gang” could account for their time during the murder.

Inquest into Fred’s death held at Riedeman Undertaking Company.  Cora Norton the next-door neighbor testified that the murderers were in the house for 15 minutes.  Her niece Flora Rawson was staying with her at the time and substantiated that part of her testimony.   Cora then also testified that the screams she heard could not have come from a closet, “they were too distinct for that.”

This confirmed to lead investigator Detective Lieutenant Herman Cline that the gang was not responsible for the murder, and that somehow Walburga “Dolly” Oesterreich was somehow involved.

Walburga “Dolly” Korschel was born in Milwaukee around 1880.  Dolly was working in a bonnet factory in Chicago when she was 14.  Dolly was always beautiful. There she met Fred Oesterreich, 17, the son of a shoe store owner.  They had a three-year romance and married.  They moved to Milwaukee where they opened their own shoe store.  The store did well, and they opened other stores in surrounding cities.  They also started a small manufacturing company that made Men and Boy’s caps. 

Dolly and Fred moved to Los Angeles in 1918 when Dolly was 30.  They started up a new manufacturing facility Oesterreich Garment Company.  The company did very well, and the couple bought a mansion on North St. Andrew that had once belonged to a movie star. 

And then August 22, 1922 disaster strikes!  Fred is shot and killed, and Dolly is locked in her closet.

Lieutenant Cline becomes the lead detective and suspects that Dolly killed Fred.  Herman Shapiro, Dolly’s attorney, who is helping her settle the estate, admits that he has lived with Dolly in her house since Fred was killed, and that the gold watch he is wearing belonged to Fred, which he turns over to the police.  This somehow leaks to the press and two witnesses come forward.

J.E. Farber and Roy Klumb told the DA about Dolly giving them .25 caliber pistols to get rid of.  Frank Dominguez, Dolly’s attorney labeled Klumb as “Judas Iscariot” as Klumb had tried to sell his story to the newspapers before going to the police. 

Roy Klumb the 23-year-old actor/producer seems to have disappeared.  He was set to be the star prosecution witness and can’t be found anywhere; friends and family say they don’t know.  Klumb supposedly pursued Dolly and asked her repeatedly to marry him.  When she wouldn’t he asked for money and cars.  She gave him $600 to go away and he became furious and tried to sell the story and when he couldn’t do that he went to the police.

A meeting occurred between Deputy District Attorney William J. Clark, head of the homicide squad Detective Lieutenants Herman Cline and Captain George K. Home to present the evidence against Dolly Oesterreich to try her for murder.  The main evidence consists of one rusted pistol and the rusted bent pieces of a second pistol.  All they have is Klumb and Farber’s testimony.

Dolly was arrested and detained in the city jail.  When they wanted to question Dolly her attorney, Frank Dominguez said, “My client will not say a word until I give her permission.  I think it is more important this morning to tell about the rats that run over the cots in the women’s department of the city jail and make the women prisoners hysterical.  My client is so wrought up over the rats frightening her that she cannot even discuss her case.” 

A bail hearing is held because of the rats and Dolly’s failing health. Dolly is released on a $50,000 bond.  That’s about $800,000 in today’s dollars.

Detectives Cline and Captain Home toured the Oesterreich’s home.  They found a second door to the closet that Dolly was locked in from the Dressing Room.  Dolly had sold the house and apparently the new owners put in the second door.  Dominguez said that Dolly wanted to clear the atrocious murder and that she had nothing to conceal.

Patrolman Stoll was the first police officer on the scene and his reports are missing.  The reports contained information about the closet door and the door to the room leading to the closet.  Dolly spent the day listening to a Dictaphone tape that Frank recorded to the ex-con and said, “Where one is not guilty of crime, there is nothing to fear.”  Dolly listened to that sentence over and over.

The trial was postponed or continued ten, that’s right 10 times.  Finally, on January 16, 1925, two and a half years after the murder, Dolly was released.  Judge Carlos Hardy dismissed the case for  on a motion by the District Attorney for insufficient evidence. 

So that’s the end of the story….

Not even close!

In the early 1920s an almost pandemic of anonymous cake murders happened across the country.  Way before people tampered with Tylenol or sprayed ricin they put arsenic in cakes and either mailed them anonymously to people or distracted busy bakers and poisoned restaurant and bakery cakes and pastries.

Imagine going to the Post Office to pick up a package, finding a neatly wrapped round package with no return address.  What a surprise!  Imagine taking it home opening it up and finding a beautiful lacquered Japanese box.  When you open the box are two pieces of cake, Devil’s Food with white icing, that looks like a wedding cake.

This happened to Martha Sterrritt on a Thursday.  Her husband had a notorious sweet tooth and everyone they knew, knew his biggest weakness was cake.  So, Martha put it on the sideboard in the dining room thinking they would have it for dessert.

Will, W.W. Sterrett her husband came home from work at 5:00 pm.  He was an under-manager at Price Waterhouse and the head accountant in the Philadelphia office.  Dinner was going to be at 6:30, but Martha tells him about the cake they received in the mail.  Will talked her into eating it before dinner.

Fifteen minutes later Will began to feel poorly and half an hour later he is throwing up violently.  Martha who was a nurse before they married thinks that Will has been poisoned and calls their family doctor, Dr. John Stangley.  Dr. Stangley isn’t home so she calls another doctor, Dr. Della Williams.  She tells Dr. Williams of her concerns and suggests she brings a stomach pump with her.

By the time Dr. Williams got to the Sterrett’s home Martha was sick as well.  Although, not as violently as Will.  Dr. Williams called the Red Cross and got a nurse to come help.  Sarah Zorris came right away and spent the night as well as Dr. Williams did.

Throughout the night they both got worse so Dr. Stangle and Dr. Williams moved them to the hospital in Bryn Mawr.  Both went into a coma as the hospital doctors tried to find out what poison they had ingested.  They assumed since the symptoms were similar but different, that two different poisons had been used.  The main differences were the time it took for Will to get sick and the violence of it.  Martha took longer to get sick and was not violently ill like Will. 

On Saturday Will died.  Martha was conscious enough that she was told of his death.  She cried and was hysterical, so they had to sedate her. 

The police were brought in on Sunday, the hospital thought that the private practice physicians had notified them and vice versa.  The police brought in the postal inspector as well.  The investigators on the case were Postal Inspector A.M. Simpson, District Attorney Major Butler Windle, Assistant District Attorney H.R. McCowan, and county detective William Mullen.

The first thing they did was to search the Sterrett’s home.  They were surprised to find it in disarray, and even more surprised to find no personal photographs or letters.

They interviewed the neighbors and found that they thought Martha to be aloof. She appeared o be all engrossed in her husband and maintaining their home.   Most of them didn’t even know her first name and called her Mrs. Sterrett.  They said she stayed in the house or took the car on errands.  She didn’t participate in any of the “over the fence” gossip that the other housewives in the neighborhood did. 

Will on the other hand was well liked and popular.  He played golf and was a member of the local golf club.  No one could remember Martha ever going to the club.

One of the neighbors did mention a run-in the Sterretts had with some “foreigners”.  Their dog had bitten these people and they vowed revenge.  The police never found them, with so little information to go on.

Dr. Herbert Bostwick of Norristown complete the autopsy on Will and found that the poison was arsenic.  Also, the poison was in the icing and there was enough from what they found in Will’s stomach to kill a dozen people.  Apparently, they must have tested the contents of the stomach pump since will had been throwing up violently.

The postal inspector took possession of the wrappings to try to track down where it was mailed.  One clue is that there was no sender’s name or address just Philadelphia, PA.  As it was against postal laws to omit this information from a package, it was assumed that it was dropped off in a mailbox, and not taken to a counter in a post office.  The postal worker would not have accepted the package without it.  The label was neatly typed, and it was said the typing was distinctive.

At this point believed that the poisoner was a jealous woman.  None of Will’s family or friends believed this theory as Will was devoted to Martha, came home every night and was not a “lady’s man.”  The police received a type written post card accusing a blonde woman of the poisoning.  The typing on the card was different than the label so the police believed it to be a hoax.  Another typed card was sent to the city pharmacist, Charles Lehman, a good friend of Will, and was turned over to the police. 

The card said, “A blonde woman sent the cake.  She was in love with Mr. Sterrett and desperately jealous of his wife.  She wanted Mrs. Sterrett out of the way so she could have Will Sterrett for herself.  The woman lives in Philadelphia.  Get on the job.”

When D.A. Windle went to Price Waterhouse he came up with a new theory.  Will had audited some company and found that someone was cooking the books and embezzling funds.  Will’s assistant took it as a personal mission to go through all the audits that Will had done in the last few years and report back to the police with any discrepancies.  There were none.

Then, two weeks later, which was the day after Martha was released from the hospital, a friend of Will’s, P. Stewart Clarke received a package in the mail.  The label was typed with a P.O. Box in Lansdowne.  Inside the wrapping was a box from a sporting goods store, and inside the box was a piece of Devil’s Food cake with green icing.  At first Stewart thought that someone was playing a joke, but no one would admit to it.  Stewart turned it all over to the police.  He told them he knew no one in Lansdowne and had no idea who would send it to him.

The cake was sent to the county chemist and tested for poison.  The icing again had more than enough arsenic in it to kill several people.

The police investigated they tested hundreds of typewriters, they went to Youngstown, OH on a tip that a young woman there knew the Sterretts and had a grudge. They tried to find where the wrapping paper, string and label came from.  When asked by the press whether they had found the same paper and string in the Sterrett home, D.A. Windle hesitated before answering, “I can’t answer that.”

Martha recovers and decides to move in with her mother.  They were renting the house, but she sold all the furniture.  The press tried to question her about it, but she wouldn’t answer. 

On December 26, 1922, the crime was officially marked “Unsolved” and put into the cold case file.  The poisoner was never found.

Did Martha kill her husband?  Or was it someone else?

This isn’t the only case of Cake Poisoning.  In 1927, in Indianapolis, the wife of undertaker, J.H. Barr, left him taking his insurance policies with her.  She left behind a cake with arsenic in the icing.  Luckily Mr. Barr didn’t eat it.

In 1930, The Parker family were all poisoned by a cake purchased at the grocery store.

In August of 1922, at the Shelbourne restaurant in New York, six people were killed and 100 made ill from eating pastries made from dough tainted with arsenic.  The pie crust especially was full of arsenic.  The Chief Medical Examiner was convinced that the dough was poisoned with malice intent.  The attorneys for the owners of the restaurant agreed. 

All the ingredients for the pie crust were examined and they were free from arsenic, so the arsenic had to have been added separately. 

The Board of Health revoked the permit for the restaurant to operate and the baker, Charles Abramson was arrested.  Abramson had given a week’s notice and quit working at the restaurant the previous Saturday and told investigators that the baker’s helper Louis normally prepared the dough.  Abramson was earning $85 per week in his new job as opposed to $80 working for Drexel.  He had no motive.  The D.A. released Abramson.

Louis was supposed to report to the restaurant at midnight the previous night but didn’t show up.

The doctors did not expect any more deaths because of the great amount of arsenic used.  It made the eaters so violently ill they rid their bodies of the poison.

It turns out that Mr. Drexel the owner of the restaurant had started his own investigation earlier in the day.  Several diners complained to him that the blackberry and huckleberry pies were burning their throats.  He asked his brother-in-law Frank Rosenthal to taste the pies.  He said they were fine and proceeded to eat more.  Less than a half an hour later Frank was struck with sever pains in the throat and stomach.  A physician was called, and he was saved by pumping his stomach. 

At that point Mr. Drexel took the blackberry and huckleberry pies off the menu and sent them to a local chemist for testing.  It turns out that all of the dough used in all of the pastries had arsenic, with the highest concentration being in the Danish.

This is another unsolved case which did result in something positive.  Because of this incident and the people that sued the restaurant for huge amounts of money, Insurance companies began offering insurance to restaurants, hotels, bakeries and caterers.

January 1920, Eight people died from eating a crumb cake from a Chicago bakery.  The police never arrested anyone.

In New York in November, 1922 four people were hospitalized from eating a poisoned cake they bought at a bakery.  No arrests were ever made.

April 1923, 22 families are poisoned from a cream cake bought in a New York bakery.  No one died, thankfully but many were very sick.

So, I guess the moral of these stories is do not eat a cake sent through the mail, unless you are expecting it. And bake your cakes at home!