Many Marriages, Many Murders
True Crime Historian
Richard O Jones
4.4 • 729 Ratings
🗓️ 2 November 2024
⏱️ 81 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode 148 tells the unlikely story of a German immigrant who managed to wed dozens of women, mostly widows that he met through personal ads in German newspapers in several American cities. Soon as he could get his hands on their money, he’d run. Sometimes, his cons wouldn’t work, and he’d resort to murder.
Theme Music by Dave Sams “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from the Peer Gynt Suite by The Musopen Orchestra
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Popular.com |
| 0:03.0 | Many marriages, many murders. |
| 0:08.1 | The approximately 55 wives of Johann Hock. |
| 0:13.7 | In New York City, a boarding house of German atmosphere conducted at 546 West 47th Street by buxom good-natured Mrs. Catherine |
| 0:24.9 | Kimmerley had a new guest named Henry Bartell. The day after he arrived, he began to flirt with his |
| 0:33.2 | landlady, had not been in the house 20 minutes when he asked to be allowed to peel some potatoes for her. |
| 0:40.3 | He had an inviting eye in a coaxing voice, and soon he was addressing Mrs. Kimmerley as if he were her favorite suitor. |
| 0:49.3 | She was impressed and lent an ear to the purring compliments of the new star border. |
| 0:55.3 | Another admirer in the house, also a middle-aged German, became jealous, |
| 1:00.9 | and whenever she was engaged in a staircase or hallway chat with her suitor, |
| 1:05.7 | he would growl out from his room, |
| 1:07.8 | "'D'Felowl is not good. You stay away from him!' |
| 1:12.7 | Mrs. Kimmerly said, |
| 1:18.3 | the man talked a good deal to her Sunday, and became interested in her, she thought. |
| 1:25.1 | Quote, he was so anxious to talk that I did not know what he was after. Till all of a sudden, |
| 1:29.3 | he told me he wanted to marry me. He told me he'd marry me or never be happy again, and all this before he had known me 24 hours, unquote. It happened, however, |
| 1:36.5 | that Mrs. Kimmerley read the newspapers and was fond of startling crimes. She read about a wife |
| 1:43.4 | poisoner who was wanted in Chicago and studied |
| 1:47.0 | his pictures, the rough half tones of 1905, carefully. She saw a distinct resemblance between |
| 1:55.0 | the mustachioed face of Johann Haq of Chicago and her new admirer. |
| 2:06.6 | Quote, and it suddenly flashed across my mind that this man who wanted to peel potatoes after being 20 minutes in my house, and wanted to marry me after knowing me a day or so, |
| 2:13.3 | was the same man they wanted in Chicago, and I ran to the station house as quickly as I could. |
... |
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