The Pandemonium Witches: Murders, Mystery, and Mayhem · TPW3MPodcast

S2.E4 - Electric Chair: 1; Woman: 0 - The Poisoning Practices of Anna Hahn

·51 min·3 clips

Anna Hahn was sentenced to death, taken to the Ohio penitentiary, and executed on December 7, 1938.

1. The Pandemonium Witches episode centers on Anna Hahn and the poisoning of elderly men in Cincinnati, Ohio. 2. Kat and Rachel host the show, with Rachel driving the case discussion and Kat reacting to the details. 3. The episode asks how Anna Marie Filzer Hahn, born in Fusen, Bavaria, became tied to arsenic, theft, and an Ohio execution. 4. Anna Marie Filzer was born July 7, 1906, in Bavaria, and her father, George, was a furniture manufacturer. 5. She was the youngest of 12 children, and five siblings had died by the time she was born. 6. At 19, Anna was pregnant with her son Oscar and said his father was Dr. Maxwell Matsitsky, a Viennese physician. 7. The hosts note that no record of Dr. Maxwell Matsitsky was ever found. 8. In 1929, Anna moved to the United States to live with relatives in Cincinnati while Oscar remained in Bavaria. 9. Anna met Philip Hahn, a German immigrant and telegraph operator, and they married by 1930. 10. Anna returned to Germany to bring Oscar back so the three could live together. 11. Philip later developed a mysterious illness and was taken to the hospital by his mother over Anna's protests. 12. By 1932, Anna had left her small bakery and begun work as a home nursemaid for single elderly men. 13. Between 1933 and 1938, five men died while Anna cared for them. 14. Authorities later stopped exhuming bodies after five of them tested positive for arsenic. 15. The episode says Anna poisoned and robbed elderly men in the German community of Cincinnati to support gambling habits. 16. Ernest Koch, also called Ernest Kohler, is presented as the first known victim, and he left Anna a house in his will. 17. The hosts say Albert Parker's death followed an IOU for $1,000, and Jacob Wagner left Anna $17,000 in cash. 18. George Giesemann and George Oben Dofer are named as later victims, with reported inheritances of $17,000, $15,000, or $5,000. 19. The episode's tone is conversational and interlaced with side remarks about baby updates, bluebirds, grammar, and other off-topic jokes. 20. Listeners who want historical true crime, poisoning cases, and courtroom details would likely follow it closely, while listeners seeking a tightly scripted narrative may skip it.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Pandemonium Witches: Murders, Mystery, and Mayhem