Diana Franklin - The Good-Bye Door

The Good-bye Door

The Incredible True Story of One of Americas First Female Serial Killers to Die in the Chair

Diana Britt Franklin

T HE K ENT S TATE U NIVERSITY P RESS K ENT , O HIO

2006 by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2006001254

ISBN-10: 0-87338-874-7

ISBN-13: 978-0-87338-874-0

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 09 08 07 06 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Franklin, Diana Britt.

The good-bye door : the incredible true story of one of Americas first female serial killers to die in the chair / Diana Britt Franklin.

p. cm. (True crime series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-87338-874-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Hahn, Anna Marie, 19061938. 2. MurderOhioCincinnati. 3. Women serial murderersOhioCincinnatiBiography. 4. Trials (Murder)OhioCincinnati. 5. ElectrocutionOhioCincinnati. I. Title. II. True crime series (Kent, Ohio)

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication data are available.

In loving memory of Eleanor 19312003

| PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I liken my five years of research into the life of Anna Marie Hahn to assembling a giant jigsaw puzzle that has missing pieces. Sixty-three years after her execution in 1938, I became interested in her story, having seen in a newsletter the briefest of items about her and the electric chair in which she died. I had never heard of Anna Marie Hahn, yet I was drawn to her lifeand her death.

Period newspapers on microfilm made clear this was not a simple Cincinnati murder case. It was big, very big, with widespread national and even international interest. Virtually every detail of her arrest, trial, and execution received colorful coverage in daily newspapers. Such detailed reporting comprised the only record of the case. Not a single official document could be found at the Cincinnati police department or at the Hamilton County district attorneys office. Everything had been destroyed long ago, I was told. It was the same story in Columbus, where she sat on death row for a year in the state penitentiary. Even the prison itself had been torn down. Furthermore, all the principals in the case, such as the attorneys, judge, jurors, and witnesses, had passed on. The only document uncovered was a partial transcript in archives at the University of Cincinnati.

The Good-bye Door, therefore, recreates events in Anna Marie Hahns life largely from the fifteen-hundred-page trial transcript and newspaper accounts, including her twenty-page confession published after her death. Where stories seemed to conflict, I chose the most plausible or combined two or more to be as accurate as possible.

While some of the Anna Marie Hahn story went to the grave with her, I believe The Good-bye Door to be a historically accurate account of her crimes.

Two newspaper reporters among more than a dozen outstanding ones who covered the Hahn case deserve special recognition. (A complete list of journalists appears in the bibliography.) Joseph Garretson Jr. pounded out the Anna Marie Hahn story for the Cincinnati Enquirer, producing up to ten thousand words a day on a manual typewriter. While not quite as prolific, Robert J. Casey, correspondent for the Chicago Daily News, was a master craftsman who rarely allowed the facts to stand in the way of a well-turned phrase. His was brilliant, unfettered work, and absolutely delightful to read.

Numerous librariansGod bless emrepeatedly came to my aid. Deserving special recognition are: Carol Meyer-Keener, retired librarian, Hamilton County Law Library; Marianne Reynolds and staff, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County; Kevin Grace, archivist, Archives and Rare Books, Carl Blegan Library, University of Cincinnati; Cleveland Public Library; Special Collections, Cleveland State University Library; and editorial libraries of the Columbus Dispatch, the Cincinnati Post, and the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Also, the many great librarians at the Columbus (Ohio) Metropolitan Library; Ohio Historical Society, Columbus; Upper Arlington (Ohio) Library; the Center for American History at the University of Texas, Austin; San Antonio Central Library; Chicago Public Library; Baltimore County (Maryland) Public Library; Los Angeles Public Library; Jody Jones, special collections, Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs, Colorado; and the University of Illinois Library at Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.

Others who deserve thanks for making my work easier or more accurate include Judge Raymond Shannon, administrator of the Division of Domestic Relations, Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas; Judge Steven E. Martin, Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas; John Vissman, director of community services at the Cincinnati Post; Martha Hildenbrand Perin, Cincinnati; Amy Stodden, Girls and Boys Town, Omaha, Nebraska; Carol Lee (Hahn) Graves, Bremen, Ohio; Patricia Tansey, Vienna, Virginia; Brian Meyer, Buffalo (New York) Evening News; Ursula Stolzenburg, New York; David Weltner, Columbus; John Glazer, Cincinnati; Marge Stark, Cincinnati; Eleonore Huber and the Filser family, Fuessen, Germany; Margaret Williams, Albany (New York) Times-Union; the family of Ben Hayes and the Ben Hayes Collection, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus; Trisha Brown, Worthington, Ohio; Charles C. Howard, Grove City, Ohio; Jerome Herbort and family, Largo, Florida; Ruth Anne Outcalt, Cincinnati; Ellen Michael, Cincinnati; Mary Hayes, Cincinnati; Bobbie Newbert, Cincinnati; and Elaine Dietrich, Amelia, Ohio.

To Americas foremost true-crime author Ann Rule, and former FBI criminal profiler, Robert K. Ressler, my sincere appreciation for their support and encouragement.

The Good-bye Door is dedicated to Eleanor Franklin, who passed away during the writing of this book. Although she was quite ill at the time, she provided invaluable assistance in my research at numerous Ohio libraries, eagerly reading each draft and offering insightful comments and encouragement. I will always cherish her incredible love and support.

| PROLOGUE
I NEVER DID IT!

A knock on the door of the jury room at 12:06 P.M. summoned the bailiff and electrified the oppressive Cincinnati courtroom. Spectators who had been stretching and chatting quickly took their seats, for the judge had ruled that no spectator would be permitted to stand during the proceedings. For veteran court observers, the summons was the tip-off that the jury had reached a verdict.

Anna Marie Hahn, held in a cell in the womens quarters of the Hamilton County Jail three floors above, was among the first to return to the courtroom, accompanied by Chief Deputy Sheriff George J. Heitzler. She quickly sat down next to her somber defense attorney, Hiram C. Bolsinger Sr., and greeted him with a brief, wry smile. Her ashen face, once cherubic, revealed no emotion and her eyes no sparkle. The short blonde hair framing her soft, rounded features was carefully coifed, every fine hair in its place.

Anna Marie didnt glance at the murmuring visitors crowded into every seat on every bench or at the row of newspaper reporters seated nearby. As she rested her arms on the counsel table, members of the large press corps noted that she clasped a small, twisted, printed handkerchief. She held her knees and feet close together and her back straight, bracing for the worst.