Latest / Crime and Horror / Family secretly watched for 10 years -- SOLVED Mysteries, Episode 4

Transcript

Family secretly watched for 10 years -- SOLVED Mysteries, Episode 4 · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: There is a subgenre of detective fiction that deals with
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: locked room mysteries, which are about crimes that are seemingly
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: impossible to commit, the standard example being a murder victim
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: found inside of a room that.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Was locked from the inside.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Today, we're going to look at a real life locked
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: room mystery that took almost a decade to solve, and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: when the truth finally came out, nobody believed it.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: It literally sounded like fiction.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format,
• 0:28
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• 0:30
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• 0:32
  Speaker 1: every week. So if that's of interest to you, please
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: replace the light buttons cocoa puffs with similarly shaped dog food. Also,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: All right, let's get into today's story.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: On August twenty second, nineteen twenty two, shots rang out
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: from inside a stately Victorian home in Beverly Hills where
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Dolly and Fred Ostrich lived. Neighbors called police right away,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: and when officers stepped into the front door, they saw
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: the entire house was trashed. On the floor in the
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: living room was Fred, who had been shot to death,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: and next to him were three twenty five caliber shell casings.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: With weapons drawn.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: The police cleared the entire first floor, there was no
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: one down there. They heard screaming coming from upstairs, and
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: so they run up the stairs and they get up
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: there and no one's upstairs.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: And then they heard the screaming again, and.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: They realized it was coming from inside of a closet
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: in the master bedroom. And so as the police are
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: clearing the second floor, they yell out to this woman
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: and they say, who are you What are you doing
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: in the closet? And she yells back, I'm dolly, I'm okay,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: but I'm trapped. And so after the police finish clearing
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the upstairs and their shore it's safe, they go over
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: to the closet door and they do try the handle.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: It's locked. They asked her, do you know where the
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: key is? And she says no, And so before they
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: start trying to break the door down, they did a
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: quick search of the upstairs to see if maybe they
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: could find the key to the closet, and sure, across
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the hall in another bedroom. They found it on the
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: ground and so they took the key back. They opened
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: the door up and out came Dolly. She was okay,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: but obviously very frantic and panicked, and they asked her,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: you know what happened, and she told them a very
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: abrupt and chaotic story.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: She said she had.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Been hanging clothes inside of this big walk in closet
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: and her back was to the door when she heard
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: a fight break out on the first floor, and before
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: she could even turn around to go investigate, she said,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the closet door was swinging shut, and then she heard
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: it lock from the outside, and she didn't get to
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: see who it was that shut the door. The whole
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: thing was a bit of a head scratcher for police
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: because they're thinking, okay, well, you know, was it one
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: person that attacked bread downstairs and then ran upstairs and
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: shut and locked the door immediately afterwards before Dolly could
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: come out and see, or was there two people one
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: person downstairs attacking and one person upstairs shutting and locking.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: The door, or was it more than two people?
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: And despite the house being totally ransacked and there being
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: lots of valuable stuff in their house, Dolly said, the
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: only thing she could tell was miss saying was the
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: diamond encrusted wrist swatch that Fred always wore was not
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: on his wrist when they discovered his body. And why
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: detectives wondered, were these burglars or this burglar carrying a
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: twenty five caliber weapon? Something that small was more likely
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: to be found in a woman's purse than in a
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: home invasion. When police spoke to neighbors, they were quick
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: to say Fred and Dolly fought all the time, and
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: earlier that night they had gotten into a really bad one.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: But as much as police wanted to point the finger
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: at Dolly, it was just impossible for her to have
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: committed this crime, because how could she have murdered Fred
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: and then ran upstairs and locked herself in the closet
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: from the outside, and that also somehow deposited that key
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: across the hall in another room. It just didn't make
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: any sense, But since the police had little else to
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: go on, they dug into the new widow's past. Dolly
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: was born in Germany in eighteen eighty and, following a
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: move to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, just before the turn of the century,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: she married Fred, who was three years older than her.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Fred was driven and successful, but he was also a
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: raging alcoholic and prone to violence. And so as Fred
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: built up his textile empire, opening up factory after factory
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: all across the Midwest, their marriage grew strained.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: He was mean and she was lonely.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: When they moved from Milwaukee to southern California in nineteen eighteen,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: their new neighbors immediately were aware of the fact that
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Dolly and Fred fought loudly and often, and they frequently
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: bickered in public.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Police looked high and low to see if Dolly.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Had maybe taken a lover, but no one had ever
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: seen her with anyone but Fred, and so while they
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: might be miserable, they seemed to be faithful, and so
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: try as they might, the police could find no clues
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: that suggested anything darker or more dangerous than a.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Petty and meaningless marriage.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: The case hung open, and suspicion continued to trail Dolly,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: even though it was physically impossible.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: For her to have committed the crime.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Now free from her unhappy marriage, Dolly moved into a
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: new home in Los Angeles, and she took up with
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: her a state lawyer, Herman Shapiro, who was handling her
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: husband's million dollar estate. But just like her late husband,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: her new boyfriend, Shapiro worked long hours and he was
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: not around much, so she was lonely all over again.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: So she went out and got another boyfriend, a guy
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: by the name of Roy Clumb, and she began.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Seeing the men at the same time.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: A year after Fred's death, Captain Herman Klein of the
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Beverly Hills Police Department dropped by Dolly's estate lawyer slash
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: boyfriend's office. Detectives were still suspicious of Dolly, even though
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the case still made no sense, and so Captain Klein
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: goes into Shapiro's office and wouldn't you know it, Sitting
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: on the desk is this beautiful diamond encrusted wristwatch that
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: looks an awful lot like the watch Dolly claimed was
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: the one thing stolen from her house on the night
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: of her husband's murder. When the captain asked Shapiro how
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: he got this watch, Shapiro told him that Dolly had
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: given it to him as a gift.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: But I know you're.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Going with this because I thought the same thing too.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: I know about the.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Missing diamond watch and the night of the murder. I
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: asked Dolly about it when she gave it to me,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: and she told me that that was actually a mistake.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: The watch was never missing, and she later on found
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: it tucked underneath a sofa cushion in the living room.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: The captain was not buying this, and so as soon
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: as he left Shapiro's office, he immediately confronted Dolly about
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: the watch.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: And Dolly said, ah, you know what, that's right.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I did find the watch, but I didn't think it
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: was that important, so I didn't tell you guys. The
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: captain couldn't believe what he was hearing, and shortly after
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: the newspapers found out about this new twist in this
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: totally bizarre case, and they went wild with it, putting
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: all the heat back on Dolly. Spooked by the headlines,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Dolly's second boyfriend, Roy Clumb, came.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Forward to the police and said, I have a confession
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: to make. Dolly made me hide one.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Of her twenty five caliber pistols and I threw it
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: in the Labria tar pits. And then before police could
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: even go get that gun, one of Dolly's neighbors came
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: forward and said, yeah, I got a confession to make.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Dolly asked me to get rid of a twenty five
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: caliber pistol, and I buried it in my backyard. So
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: police went out and recovered both weapons, but they were
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: so badly rusted they couldn't confirm if they were, in
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: fact the murder weapons. And Dolly had an excuse when
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: the police confronted her with these guns.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: She said, oh, yeah, those old things.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: I had those in the house for years, but you know,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: given the the circumstances of my husband's death, just felt
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: a little awkward keeping.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Him around the house, so I had some friends get
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: rid of them. The police were not buying this, and.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: So in July of nineteen twenty three, they arrested Dolly
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: for killing Fred. But despite these new developments, the facts
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: of the case had not changed. It was still physically
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: impossible for Dolly to have committed this crime. She was
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: locked in the closet from the outside, and so with
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Dolly in jail awaiting trial, investigators tirelessly hacked into her
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: story to try to find holes in it, but they
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: had no success, and so after every theory that might
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: connect her to the crime was ultimately discarded, they had
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: to drop the murder charges and Dolly was released. Seven
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: years went by and the crime was largely forgotten about.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: And then in nineteen thirty, Dolly and her state lawyer
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: boyfriend Shapiro, they broke up, and Shapiro immediately called the
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: police and said, you know what, I haven't been entirely truthful.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: I know a lot more about what happened to Fred
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: than I've led on, And in fact, I have someone
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: in the office with me right now that can tell
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: you the whole story. Investigators flew to Shapiro's office that
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: go through the doors, and sitting inside is a man
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: they never knew existed.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: His name was Otto sand Hubert. He was a.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Quiet, small sewing machine repairman slash aspiring dime store fiction writer,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: and the story he would tell them would be more
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: bizarre and lurid than any investigator could have imagined. It
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: began almost a decade before the murder, when Otto was
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: a teenager. He had worked for Fred in one of
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: his Milwaukee factories. One day in nineteen thirteen, Dolly complained
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: to Fred that her sewing machine was broken, and so
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Fred asked one of his employees, who he knew was
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: a sewing machine repairman. The then seventeen year old Auto
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: if he would go over to his house and.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Fix the sewing machine for his wife.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Dolly knew her husband was going to send Auto specifically
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: to their house, and she was very attracted to Auto,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: and so when Auto showed up, all she had on
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: was a silk robe, stockings, and heavy perfume. Thus began
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Dolly and Otto's affair, which at first they conducted in
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: a pretty typical way, meeting secretly in hotels, but when
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: that became burdensome, they moved their relationship back into the
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Ostrich home, with Auto needing to sneak in and out
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: around Fred's schedule. But it wasn't long before nosy neighbors
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: were asking Dolly, you know who's that strange man coming
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: around your house all the time, and she would say, Oh,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: that's my vagabond half brother.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: But Dolly and Otto knew.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: They couldn't continue in this way, but instead of breaking
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: it off or returning to secret hotel liaisons, Dolly decided
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: that Auto should take up residence in the Ostrich home
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: in a secret hideaway in the attic. That way, no
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: one would see him coming or going. Auto, who had
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: no family to miss him, quit his job at the factory,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: moved into the secret room and then never left. Pretty quickly,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Auto and Dolly fell into a routine where when Fred
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: would leave for work for the day, Auto would come downstairs,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: they'd spend time together, and then Auto would clean the
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: house and then make bathtub gin before Fred came home.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Otto would sneak back upstairs to write pulp stories about
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: lust and adventure, and he would read newspapers and magazines
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: by candlelight.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Around this time, Fred started complaining.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: To Dolly about strange noises in the house. He also
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: started to notice they were running through food a lot
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: faster than normal, and a couple times he thought he
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: was short a cigar. But no matter how much Fred complained,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Dolly was always able to convince him that everything he
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: was hearing and seeing was in his head.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: And so over the next five years.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: They would live in four homes in Milwaukee, and always
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: these strange sounds and oddities about the house would follow them,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: but Fred never investigated.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: In nineteen eighteen, Fred told.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Dolly he wanted to move to southern California, and so
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Dolly hunted down a house with an attic a rarity
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: in the area, and she sent Otto ahead. When Fred
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: and Dolly arrived, Otto was already ensconced in the attic,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: and Fred moved in right beneath him. By the time
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Fred and Dolly got in their final argument on the
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: night of August twenty second, nineteen twenty two, Otto had
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: been secretly living with them for almost a decade. On
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: that deadly night, Otto was in his secret room listening
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: to drunk Fred getting louder and angrier and clearly getting
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: physical with Dolly, and so worried that he might kill
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: his lover, Otto leapt out of the attic and ran downstairs,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: carrying two twenty five caliber pistols.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: He runs into the living room and he.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Confronts Fred, and Fred is astounded to see his formerly
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: teenage sewing machine repairman, who abruptly quit the factory so
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: suddenly and completely, now standing in his living room, and
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: so Fred lunged at Otto, and Otto just started shooting.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: It was then that Dolly hatched the scheme that had
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: almost let them get away with it. Knowing the police
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: would be there any minute, Dolly staged the house to
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: look like a robbery. She told Otto to lock her
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: inside of the closet and then ordered him to go
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: back up into the attic, and so when the police
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: got there, Otto was crouched silently right above their heads.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: After the killing, Auto moved in with Dolly in her
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: new house, and even though they could have had a normal,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: open relationship, Dolly ordered Otto to go live in the
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: attic of this new house as well. It wasn't until
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: a year later, when Dolly was briefly arrested after the
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: police found out about the hidden guns, that Otto was
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: forced to come out of the attic. While Dolly was
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: sitting in jail for these gun charges, she begged her
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: a state lawyer boyfriend, Shapiro, to go get groceries for
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: her vagabond half brother Otto, who lived in her attic.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: She said, when you delivered them, make sure you go
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: to the bedroom and knock on the ceiling. That will
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: let him know it's safe to come out. But when
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Shapiro arrived and followed the procedure and Otto came out,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Otto was so darbed for human interaction and conversation that
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: he wound up telling Shapiro the whole insane story. But
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: instead of going to police, Shapiro told Otto that he
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: should just leave, and he did. He went and became
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: a janitor and he got married. The secret held until
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Dolly and Shapiro broke up for good, at which point
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Shapiro called the police. Dolly and Auto were arrested, and
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: the press went insane. They called this the Batman case
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: because Auto was living like a bat in a cave.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: This was before Batman the comic was a thing.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Auto was convicted of manslaughter, but the statute of limitations
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: was up, so he was allowed to walk free. As
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: for Dolly, she was allowed to walk free too, because
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: the jury hung on her.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Conspiracy to commit murder charges.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: After the trial, Auto disappeared and nothing more is known
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: about him. As for Dolly, she stayed in la and
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: she died in nineteen sixty one at the age of eighty,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: two weeks after marrying yet again.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: So that's going to do it, guys.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: If you found the secret in today's episode, let us
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: know in the comments what it is and where you
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: found it. So give us the time stamp, and if
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: you're the first to do that, we will pin you
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: at the top of.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: The comments section.
• 12:58
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