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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 Gsellma n. 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 20 th 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