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The CREEPIEST Murder Case Ever · The conspiracy

0:00
Speaker 1: It began with a scream in the night, desperately echoing
0:04
Speaker 1: down a quiet Los Angeles street in the summer of
0:06
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty two. There were no signs of forced entry,
0:10
Speaker 1: no suspects, just a horrific crime that had no answers,
0:15
Speaker 1: and what followed was one of the strangest, most jaw
0:18
Speaker 1: dropping true crime sagas in American history. This is the
0:22
Speaker 1: story of Dolly Osterek. Crime, conspiracy, cults, souvidio, killers, and murder,
0:28
Speaker 1: all things that I love to consume and I know
0:30
Speaker 1: you do too. You sick, twisted, beautiful, intellectually find it dreak.
0:37
Speaker 1: I was passed out. I don't know why I did
0:39
Speaker 1: that like that. We have Detective Rupert here. He was
0:43
Speaker 1: away for a little bit because he had surgery.
0:45
Speaker 2: Ruby. Ruby always giving us the side eye.
0:48
Speaker 1: He's like, leave me alone.
0:50
Speaker 2: He ate something he wouldn't supposed to do and he
0:51
Speaker 2: had to have it taking out of his stomach. Poor
0:54
Speaker 2: little guy. Be careful with dog toys, dog like mine.
0:56
Speaker 2: He'll just set him, He'll just seat him.
0:58
Speaker 1: Now.
0:58
Speaker 2: He doesn't get any dating, do you.
1:00
Speaker 1: Nope? Anyway, today we are talking about an insane case,
1:04
Speaker 1: almost unbelievable, especially for the time, but I am looking
1:09
Speaker 1: forward to telling you.
1:10
Speaker 2: Guys this twisted crazy tail.
1:12
Speaker 1: So without further ado, let's unbuckle our seat belts, go
1:14
Speaker 1: mockfig do on the highway, slamm of the bricks and
1:16
Speaker 1: busted this windshield into this.
1:19
Speaker 2: Crazy case together.
1:35
Speaker 1: So Wahlberger or Dolly Coorshell was born on June twelfth,
1:40
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty to German immigrant parents, and it's unclear where
1:44
Speaker 1: exactly she was born, whether in Germany or in the
1:47
Speaker 1: US when her parents immigrated there, but she grew up
1:50
Speaker 1: poor in Milwaukee, Wisconsin area, nonetheless, in a community of
1:54
Speaker 1: fellow German immigrants, and money was tight, and by the
1:57
Speaker 1: age of only twelve, economic necessity pushed her into the workforce,
2:02
Speaker 1: and she would find a job at a textile mill,
2:04
Speaker 1: working alongside about sixty other women sowing aprons and clothing.
2:09
Speaker 1: But despite her poverty, young Dolly was described as attractive, charismatic,
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Speaker 1: and popular among her fellow workers, qualities that would undoubtedly
2:18
Speaker 1: shape her entire life. And that brings us to Fred
2:21
Speaker 1: William Osterich, who was born December eighth, eighteen seventy seven,
2:26
Speaker 1: making him about only three years older than Dolly, yet
2:30
Speaker 1: he was still her boss and he was the son
2:33
Speaker 1: of German immigrants as well who had achieved business success.
2:37
Speaker 1: And Fred was a hard nosed, hard drinking businessman who
2:41
Speaker 1: eventually owned the textile mill where Dolly worked. And he
2:45
Speaker 1: was described as a skin flint with an iron will,
2:48
Speaker 1: which means he was gruff, demanding, and distant, a man
2:53
Speaker 1: who worked hard and drank harder because Fred kind of
2:57
Speaker 1: spent more time at the bars with his friends than
2:59
Speaker 1: at home, and he was kind of known for being cruel, moody,
3:03
Speaker 1: and indifferent to those around him, especially his workers. And
3:07
Speaker 1: he was also described as a stern, unsympathetic figure, swell guy,
3:11
Speaker 1: the kind of man who commanded respect through fear rather
3:15
Speaker 1: than fondness. But Fred would take notice at Dolly's charms
3:19
Speaker 1: over the years working in his family's textile mill, and
3:23
Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety seven, when Dolly was about seventeen years
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Speaker 1: old and Fred was around twenty years old, the unlikely
3:29
Speaker 1: pair got married. So the pretty most likely underaged factory
3:33
Speaker 1: girl caught the eye of her employer, a tale as
3:36
Speaker 1: old as time, especially for back then. But Dolly was
3:40
Speaker 1: now out of poverty and into a world of relative comfort,
3:44
Speaker 1: and as his wife, she became popular among the factory workers,
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Speaker 1: often acting as a peacemaker who would follow behind him
3:52
Speaker 1: to soothe the wounded egos of the criticized and anxious employees. God,
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Speaker 1: I feel bad for these employees, my God, because Fred
3:59
Speaker 1: was just known to scold them all the time. So
4:02
Speaker 1: she just kind of, you know, made them feel a
4:04
Speaker 1: lot better about it, you know, when he got in
4:06
Speaker 1: trouble by one parent, and then your dad would come
4:08
Speaker 1: along and be like.
4:09
Speaker 2: You want to get McDonald's ice cream.
4:11
Speaker 1: So she became a sort of four lady, helping resolve
4:14
Speaker 1: labor disputes between Fred and his workers. So on the surface,
4:18
Speaker 1: the oaster X marriage was stable enough and they were
4:21
Speaker 1: living the American dream, but cracks would soon begin to
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Speaker 1: form behind closed doors. So the oaster X lived in
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Speaker 1: affluent life in Milwaukee. Fred's business thrived and the Oasterick
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Speaker 1: Manufacturing Company employed roughly sixty workers as mentioned prior, and
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Speaker 1: they would have one child together, a son named Raymond
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Speaker 1: Ostericht who was born in nineteen hundred. But a nineteen
4:44
Speaker 1: ten tragedy would strike when Raymond died just shy of
4:47
Speaker 1: his tenth birthday, and he would be buried at Holy
4:50
Speaker 1: Trinity Cemetery in Milwaukee. So the sudden loss of their
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Speaker 1: only child just devastated them and created a pretty big
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Speaker 1: rift between Fred Dolly that would struggle to heal.
5:02
Speaker 2: So the marriage, which.
5:03
Speaker 1: Had been happy enough initially, became emotionally bankrupt. And Fred's drinking,
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Speaker 1: already very heavy, increased dramatically and made him more aggressive,
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Speaker 1: and he would often lash out at Dolly in violent
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Speaker 1: arguments that neighbors could overhear. So the home that had
5:19
Speaker 1: once echoed with their child's laughter now just reverberated with
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Speaker 1: shouting and slamming doors. And Dolly herself fell into a
5:27
Speaker 1: deep depression over the loss of her son, and she
5:30
Speaker 1: just craved intimacy and attention that Fred, who was consumed
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Speaker 1: by work and alcohol, could not provide her. So from
5:37
Speaker 1: the early years of their marriage, rumors circulated that Dolly
5:41
Speaker 1: entertained other men during the day while Fred was at work,
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Speaker 1: though these affairs didn't last long, and by nineteen thirteen,
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Speaker 1: Dolly was thirty three years old, wealthy but actually unsatisfied,
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Speaker 1: just trapped in a loveless marriage to an alcoholic manufacturer
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Speaker 1: who showed her very little affection. And that is when
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Speaker 1: Dolly would meet auto son Hoober, now Auto was a
6:03
Speaker 1: teenage sewing machine repairman who sometimes serviced equipment at Fret's factory,
6:09
Speaker 1: and his background stood in stark contrast to Dolly's because
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Speaker 1: he was born Auto Ware in eighteen eighty seven, and
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Speaker 1: that's allegedly, as there is some ambiguity about his actual age,
6:20
Speaker 1: but he was a teenager. But Otto had a very
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Speaker 1: tragic start to life because as a toddler he was
6:26
Speaker 1: left orphaned and placed in the New York Foundling Hospital
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Speaker 1: and Children's Aid Society, and he was adopted by a
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Speaker 1: Milwaukee family named Sonhober, who gave him their name and
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Speaker 1: a chance at a normal life. But despite this, Auto
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Speaker 1: grew up essentially alone, believing he was of German Jewish descent,
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Speaker 1: and he had no real family connections or support system.
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Speaker 1: So when Auto entered Dolly's life, he was about seventeen
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Speaker 1: years old, and he was a young, shy man with
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Speaker 1: little experience with girls, and some sources claim he may
6:58
Speaker 1: have actually even been as young as fifteen at this point.
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Speaker 1: But he found steady work as a sewing machine repairman
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Speaker 1: and did occasional repair jobs at Fred Ostrich's factory.
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7:10
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7:11
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8:45
Speaker 1: So one day in the fall of nineteen thirteen, Dolly
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Speaker 1: phoned her husband at work complaining that her home sewing
8:51
Speaker 1: machine had broken down, and Fred dispatched young Auto to
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Speaker 1: the Ousterig house to fix it, and, as the most
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Speaker 1: common version of the goes, Dolly would greet Auto wearing
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Speaker 1: nothing but silk stockings and a silk robe, with a
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Speaker 1: generous dab of perfume and little else. She's thirty, by
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Speaker 1: the way, mid thirties and he's fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old.
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Speaker 1: That's not good, and Auto, still a virgin, blushed furiously
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Speaker 1: at the sight of the voluptuous housewife's lack of clothing,
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Speaker 1: and he tried to focus on fixing the machine, but
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Speaker 1: Dolly's robe kept accidentally falling open, revealing tantalizing glimpses of
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Speaker 1: her figure, and this would become a regular occurrence of
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Speaker 1: Dolly trying to seduce Auto, and she would eventually be
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Speaker 1: successful again at what exact age, We're not totally sure,
9:48
Speaker 1: you know, could be eighteen, we don't know, but either way,
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Speaker 1: way too young. But there is another version of events,
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Speaker 1: one that Auto himself would later put forward, and in
9:58
Speaker 1: his telling, his relation Dolly began more innocently and gradually,
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Speaker 1: and according to Otto's later testimony, he had actually met
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Speaker 1: Dolly earlier through her son Raymond, Oh God, because Auto
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Speaker 1: was a friend of young Raymond's and would visit the
10:15
Speaker 1: aster at home to play or help out just there.
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Speaker 1: That's just awful, and Dolly had shown the boy kindness
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Speaker 1: and motherly affection during those visits. So after Raymond's untimely
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Speaker 1: death in nineteen ten, the grieving Dolly found comfort in
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Speaker 1: Auto's continued visits, and over time, Dolly's feelings for the
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Speaker 1: teen deepened from a maternal concern into something a little
10:40
Speaker 1: bit more intense, if you know what I mean, if
10:42
Speaker 1: you're picking up what I'm laying down. And one rainy afternoon,
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Speaker 1: as the story goes, Dolly and Auto took shelter together,
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Speaker 1: and in that moment of shared loneliness and sympathy, their
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Speaker 1: friendship turned physical and a romantic affair blossomed. So whether
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Speaker 1: one believes the first version or Auto's more sympathetic second version,
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Speaker 1: the outcome was the same. Dolly and Auto became lovers,
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Speaker 1: and their lust quickly ignited into a full blown obsession.
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Speaker 1: So at first, Dolly and Auto met wherever they safely could,
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Speaker 1: and Dolly would slip away during the day to meet
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Speaker 1: with Auto in cheap hotel rooms or at his boarding house.
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Speaker 1: But before long the lovers grew reckless, and they began
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Speaker 1: meeting in the Austerix's own bedroom whenever Fred was away
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Speaker 1: at work.
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Speaker 2: That's pretty bold, and.
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Speaker 1: He visited so often that neighbors started to notice, and
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Speaker 1: they would ask, who's that guy that's been coming over,
11:37
Speaker 1: and Dolly would just introduce Otto as a vagabond half
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Speaker 1: brother who was down on his luck, and that would
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Speaker 1: seemingly satisfy the neighbors. But there would be some whispering
11:48
Speaker 1: around the town, as you do in a smaller city,
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Speaker 1: and Fred, preoccupied as he was, began to hear said whispers,
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Speaker 1: and by early nineteen fourteen, Fred grew suspicious of his
11:59
Speaker 1: wife behavior, and one Sunday, Fred took the step of
12:03
Speaker 1: hiring a private investigator to actually follow Dolly, and Dolly
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Speaker 1: got wind of this and panicked, and one evening, while
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Speaker 1: she and Otto were taking a stroll in a public park,
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Speaker 1: Dolly suddenly told him that they were being watched, and
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Speaker 1: in a frightened whisper, she revealed that Fred had hired
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Speaker 1: detectives to tail her, and if they were caught together
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Speaker 1: it could be disastrous. So without waiting to find out
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Speaker 1: the truth of it, Dolly decided to flee, and that
12:28
Speaker 1: night she packed a bag and the lovers ran off together,
12:31
Speaker 1: boarding a train to Saint Louis, and for about a week,
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Speaker 1: the couple hold up in a Saint Louis hotel, hiding
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Speaker 1: from Fred's wrath and savoring their time together. But they
12:40
Speaker 1: had left quickly, and they left with little money, and
12:44
Speaker 1: after several days of dodging hotel bills and surviving a
12:47
Speaker 1: little more than their passion, the reality of their situation
12:51
Speaker 1: started to set in, and they were nearly penniless in
12:54
Speaker 1: a strange city, and Dolly realized she couldn't sustain this
12:57
Speaker 1: runaway fantasy. She kind of like came back to reality,
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Speaker 1: and when the money finally ran out, Dolly just realized
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Speaker 1: that Auto is a deadbeat, you know, at this point,
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Speaker 1: nineteen twenty year old that isn't going to give her
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Speaker 1: all the stuff she wants and returned back to Milwaukee
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Speaker 1: to face her furious husband and swore that she would
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Speaker 1: never see Auto again. And for Fred's part, he was
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Speaker 1: absolutely humiliated, but pragmatic about the whole situation, thankfully for Dolly,
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Speaker 1: because especially at this time, divorce was unthinkable. It was
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Speaker 1: very looked down upon, and he preferred to just pretend
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Speaker 1: that nothing happened. So Fred seemed to be okay with
13:38
Speaker 1: it and took Dolly back and their life resumed. Hey, guys,
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15:04
Speaker 1: from nineteen fourteen to nineteen eighteen, the Austerix moved frequently
15:08
Speaker 1: around Milwaukee, and they actually ended up living in four
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Speaker 1: different houses. And every time they moved, Dolly got really
15:14
Speaker 1: excited about the prospect of getting a new house, and
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Speaker 1: she would always be very meticulous about what the house
15:21
Speaker 1: looked like exactly because now getting back into the life
15:24
Speaker 1: of money, she was able to just kind of pick
15:26
Speaker 1: whatever she wanted and Fred didn't seem to care, so
15:29
Speaker 1: he always let her choose the house. And as time
15:32
Speaker 1: went on, Fred's drinking started to worsen and his angry
15:36
Speaker 1: outbursts became an even more regular occurrence, and neighbors would
15:40
Speaker 1: frequently overhear the couple's violent arguments. So the marriage was
15:43
Speaker 1: just becoming more and more increasingly volatile, and I'm sure
15:48
Speaker 1: the thought of the affair in the back of his
15:49
Speaker 1: head didn't help. So Fred would spend more time away
15:53
Speaker 1: from home at bars and business meetings, while Dolly just
15:57
Speaker 1: stayed home, just looking like a lonely one, often seen
16:01
Speaker 1: sitting alone in that big house for long stretches by
16:04
Speaker 1: her neighbors. But they seemed to persevere nonetheless, and in
16:08
Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, Fred actually decided to expand his business westward
16:13
Speaker 1: by opening a factory on the West coast, and he
16:15
Speaker 1: announced that they would have to move to Los Angeles,
16:18
Speaker 1: and Dolly would agree. She loved getting new houses and
16:21
Speaker 1: nothing was keeping her in Milwaukee, so she was all
16:24
Speaker 1: about it. So, just like back in Milwaukee, Fred gave
16:27
Speaker 1: her the reins for picking the house, and Fred didn't
16:30
Speaker 1: question her at all, as he was probably just relieved
16:32
Speaker 1: that Dolly seemed enthusiastic about the move. So the couple
16:36
Speaker 1: then packed up and headed to California. So for a
16:39
Speaker 1: short while upon arriving in Los Angeles, Fred and Dolly
16:42
Speaker 1: stayed in a hotel as they hunted for the perfect home,
16:45
Speaker 1: and Dolly dragged Fred to house after house, turning each
16:49
Speaker 1: one down until she found exactly the right one, and
16:51
Speaker 1: finally she discovered a very large, two story mansion at
16:56
Speaker 1: eight five eight North Andrews Place and sometimes it's reported
16:59
Speaker 1: as eight five eight North Andrews Boulevard, but nonetheless it
17:02
Speaker 1: was in the Silver Lake Lafayette Park area and the
17:06
Speaker 1: house sat on a pleasant street overlooking Sunset Boulevard, and Fred,
17:10
Speaker 1: happy with the upscale address and expansive property, purchased the
17:14
Speaker 1: home and in early nineteen nineteen they settled into their
17:17
Speaker 1: Los Angeles mansion and to the outside world this new neighborhood,
17:21
Speaker 1: the Austerex seemed like a wealthy couple living the California dream,
17:26
Speaker 1: and Fred's West Coast factory expansion prospered, and he seemed
17:29
Speaker 1: reinvigorated by the sunshine and opportunity of la So things
17:33
Speaker 1: were kind of looking up and publicly, Dolly and Fred
17:36
Speaker 1: were now living in a fine house and hosting occasional
17:39
Speaker 1: get togethers for new friends and business associates, and Dolly
17:43
Speaker 1: was regularly noticed just on his arm at dinner parties.
17:46
Speaker 1: They looked like a really happy couple, and she was
17:49
Speaker 1: the chatty, lovable wife and he was the gruff but
17:52
Speaker 1: successful factory owner. However, again, as time went on, people
17:57
Speaker 1: observed that all was not well behind closed doors, because Fred,
18:02
Speaker 1: like he always does, started drinking again, and the neighbors
18:05
Speaker 1: noticed the volumes of their fights. They got pretty loud,
18:09
Speaker 1: and things just kind of seemed to get worse and
18:11
Speaker 1: worse again. And by this time Dolly and Fred were
18:15
Speaker 1: sleeping in separate bedrooms allegedly, and now visitors could feel
18:19
Speaker 1: the tense atmosphere pervading the home. And that's the same
18:23
Speaker 1: time that Fred and Dolly started to occasionally complain to
18:27
Speaker 1: their friends about odd occurrences in the house, like hearing
18:31
Speaker 1: things in the walls and thuds on the ceiling and
18:35
Speaker 1: food disappearing seemingly, But there were also things that could
18:39
Speaker 1: be explained away, like the fact that it was just
18:42
Speaker 1: the house settling, or it was animals that got into
18:46
Speaker 1: the walls, or it was from maybe Fred's excessive drinking,
18:50
Speaker 1: because when he was home alone sometimes he would hear
18:52
Speaker 1: it and Dolly wouldn't. And Fred even went to see
18:55
Speaker 1: a doctor to make sure he was all right, but
18:58
Speaker 1: the doctor would find that nothing was wrong with it,
19:00
Speaker 1: you know, besides the fact that he was a raging alcoholic,
19:02
Speaker 1: and he would send him home and Fred's friends just
19:05
Speaker 1: dismissed his concerns as alcohol fueled paranoia.
19:08
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20:36
Speaker 1: supporting the channel, and let's get back to it. So
20:38
Speaker 1: on the night of Tuesday, August twenty second, nineteen twenty two,
20:41
Speaker 1: Bred and Dolly Osterek return home around eleven thirty pm
20:45
Speaker 1: after spending the evening with friends, and they reportedly were
20:49
Speaker 1: quarreling as they were walking into their home. So as
20:52
Speaker 1: they entered the house, Dolly noticed a fur neck piece
20:55
Speaker 1: had been left out on the chair, and she was
20:58
Speaker 1: pretty meticulous about keeping her home clean, so she picked
21:01
Speaker 1: it up, kind of ignored the whole fight that she
21:03
Speaker 1: was having with Fred, and went upstairs to their bedroom
21:06
Speaker 1: to hang it up in the closet while Fred headed
21:09
Speaker 1: toward the rear of the house. But moments later, Dolly
21:13
Speaker 1: heard a commotion downstairs and thought maybe Fred had slipped
21:16
Speaker 1: on the rug or something, so Dolly started to turn
21:19
Speaker 1: around to go downstairs to see what was wrong with
21:21
Speaker 1: her husband, but that's when she felt something on her
21:23
Speaker 1: back and she was suddenly shoved back in the closet
21:27
Speaker 1: and the door was slammed and locked, So Dolly was
21:31
Speaker 1: locked in the closet while she heard her husband struggling downstairs,
21:35
Speaker 1: and for a moment, Dolly thought that Fred was maybe
21:38
Speaker 1: playing a joke on her, but that wasn't really like Fred,
21:42
Speaker 1: and she knew it just had to be somebody that
21:44
Speaker 1: has maybe gotten into the house. And moments later that
21:48
Speaker 1: thought would be proven because she would hear four gunshots. So,
21:53
Speaker 1: panicking and absolutely frantic, she took off her shoes and
21:57
Speaker 1: started pounding on the door with them, and she was
22:00
Speaker 1: screaming for Fred, but he didn't come, and then she
22:04
Speaker 1: started to get lightheaded and she would pass out in
22:07
Speaker 1: all of the commotion, and next door one of their neighbors,
22:10
Speaker 1: Clara Martin and missus Fanny Lawson, were jolted awake by
22:14
Speaker 1: the sound of several gunshots shattering the stillness at approximately
22:18
Speaker 1: eleven forty pm, and this was immediately followed by a
22:22
Speaker 1: woman's piercing scream.
22:24
Speaker 2: Oh.
22:26
Speaker 1: So, the neighbors tried to call the Ostrik house, but
22:28
Speaker 1: the telephone rang unanswered and they could hear muffled cries
22:32
Speaker 1: and far away pounding, and one neighbor, John Ashton, peered
22:36
Speaker 1: through a window and saw a man's body on the floor,
22:40
Speaker 1: so he sprinted off to summon the police. So acting
22:43
Speaker 1: Chief of Police Al Slattin and officers A. W. Stole
22:46
Speaker 1: and Walter A. Aubrey arrived just before midnight, and they found
22:51
Speaker 1: the front and side doors locked, but a pair of
22:53
Speaker 1: French doors leading from the side veranda into the living
22:57
Speaker 1: room were standing a jar, So entering cash, the officers
23:01
Speaker 1: discovered Fred Austrich's body sprawled in a shadowy corner of
23:05
Speaker 1: the living room, and he was lying on his side
23:07
Speaker 1: with his head nearly touching a door. An officer stole
23:11
Speaker 1: allegedly knelt by the body and pronounced dead shot through
23:14
Speaker 1: the heart because Fred had been fatally three times. So
23:19
Speaker 1: as police surveyed the scene, they heard a faint thumping
23:22
Speaker 1: and muffled cries from upstairs, so officer Aubrey followed the
23:26
Speaker 1: sounds to the second floor bedroom, where he found the
23:29
Speaker 1: door of the closet firmly shut and the handle wouldn't
23:33
Speaker 1: budge because it was locked. But from the inside a
23:35
Speaker 1: woman's voice whimpered for help, and the key they saw
23:38
Speaker 1: lay on the hallway floor several feet from the closet door,
23:42
Speaker 1: so the officers quickly unlocked the door and swung it open,
23:45
Speaker 1: and inside, in a disheveled heap, was Dolly alive, but
23:49
Speaker 1: obviously traumatized, and they saw shoe marks on the walls
23:52
Speaker 1: where she had kicked and pounded. So they carried the
23:55
Speaker 1: frantic woman to the bed, and Dolly's face was a
23:59
Speaker 1: portrait of hysteria, and she sobbed and cried Fred, Where
24:04
Speaker 1: is Fred? And police would have to tell her that
24:06
Speaker 1: her husband was now deceased, so police investigated the area
24:10
Speaker 1: and noted several details. At the crime scene, three empty
24:13
Speaker 1: twenty five caliber shell casings were found near Fred's body,
24:17
Speaker 1: a fourth spent shell lay a short distance away, and
24:20
Speaker 1: the fourth bullet was later found embedded in the living
24:23
Speaker 1: room ceiling, suggesting one shot had missed its mark and
24:27
Speaker 1: lodged overhead. And Fred's diamond pocket watch and his diamond
24:31
Speaker 1: studded Elks club pin were missing. Yet approximately fifty thousand
24:36
Speaker 1: dollars worth of jewelry a fortune at the time, was
24:40
Speaker 1: untouched in the house was left completely untouched, and only
24:45
Speaker 1: loose change remained in Fred's pockets, and also Dolly having
24:49
Speaker 1: been locked in the closet. So Lieutenant Hermann Klein and
24:52
Speaker 1: his partner, Detective Lieutenant Raymond Cato, took charge of the
24:56
Speaker 1: whole case, and at this point, lacking an obvious suspect,
25:00
Speaker 1: police considered several theories for Fred's murder, and the first
25:03
Speaker 1: was the most practical, and that was burglar's because perhaps
25:07
Speaker 1: intruders had broken in and killed Fred and taken very
25:11
Speaker 1: valuable stuff, and maybe after killing Fred they got spooked
25:14
Speaker 1: and decided not to steal anything else and run for it.
25:18
Speaker 1: And then there was a thought of any business rivals
25:21
Speaker 1: that Fred might have had, because Fred was a wealthy manufacturer,
25:24
Speaker 1: so did he have enemies, but by all accounts he didn't,
25:29
Speaker 1: and he had business associates, but none with a motive
25:32
Speaker 1: to kill him, none that that would benefit from killing him.
25:36
Speaker 1: And then there was Dolly herself. And there was always
25:38
Speaker 1: technically motive for a partner to kill another partner in
25:43
Speaker 1: terms of not liking them or gaining money, but she
25:48
Speaker 1: was shoved in a closet and it was locked behind her,
25:51
Speaker 1: and they found it was impossible for her to do that.
25:54
Speaker 2: So the investigation would go on.
25:57
Speaker 1: For weeks, but it would slowly turn cold, and Dolly
26:01
Speaker 1: would have to move on with her life without her
26:04
Speaker 1: husband and without knowing who killed him. So after Fred's
26:08
Speaker 1: death and Fred's funeral, Dolly was left alone. But she
26:12
Speaker 1: was now a very rich woman because she would inherit
26:16
Speaker 1: his estate, which was valued around five hundred thousand dollars
26:20
Speaker 1: at the time, which was equivalent to roughly seven million
26:23
Speaker 1: dollars today, and that's a lot of money. And Dolly,
26:26
Speaker 1: not wanting to be in the same house that her
26:28
Speaker 1: husband was killed, would move out of the house on
26:31
Speaker 1: North Andrews, and she would purchase a new home. So
26:34
Speaker 1: Dolly was a wealthy, grieving widow who was rarely seen
26:38
Speaker 1: in the company of anyone, and she would live a quiet,
26:41
Speaker 1: reclusive life mourning her husband. But in June nineteen twenty three,
26:46
Speaker 1: about a year after the murder, a man named Roy H.
26:50
Speaker 1: Clum came forward to the police with a startling confession.
26:54
Speaker 1: And that's that Roy was allegedly a lover of Dolly's.
26:57
Speaker 1: And he told detectives that shortly after Fred's murder, Dolly
27:01
Speaker 1: had begged him to dispose of a gun for her,
27:04
Speaker 1: and she gave him a twenty five caliber pistol, saying
27:07
Speaker 1: it resembled the burglar's gun and that she did not
27:11
Speaker 1: want to get in trouble if police found it. So
27:14
Speaker 1: Clumb dutifully threw the pistol into the sticky black tar
27:18
Speaker 1: of the Laybree tarpits in Los Angeles, Labria. I'm not
27:22
Speaker 1: sure if I said that right my bed. And when
27:24
Speaker 1: this news broke, another neighbor of Dolly's from her old
27:27
Speaker 1: neighborhood went to the police with a similar story, saying
27:30
Speaker 1: that Dolly had given this neighbor another twenty five caliber
27:33
Speaker 1: pistol after the murder, asking him to bury it in
27:37
Speaker 1: his backyard because it too looked like the killer's weapon,
27:41
Speaker 1: and the neighbor had complied, hiding the gun under a
27:44
Speaker 1: rose bush. So on July twelfth, armed with these revelations,
27:48
Speaker 1: police arrested Dolly for the murder of her husband, but
27:51
Speaker 1: the evidence wasn't as strong as they'd hoped, and investigators
27:54
Speaker 1: were able to recover both guns, one from out of
27:57
Speaker 1: the tarpits and the other dug up from beneath the
27:59
Speaker 1: neighbors rose bush, but both weapons were badly corroded from
28:03
Speaker 1: their hiding places, and police firearms experts confirmed that each
28:07
Speaker 1: was the same caliber as the gun that killed Bred,
28:11
Speaker 1: but because of the rust and the damage, neither gun
28:13
Speaker 1: could be definitively proven to be the exact murder weapon.
28:17
Speaker 1: So although the evidence seemed pretty damning, they were lacking
28:21
Speaker 1: solid forensic links between Dolly and the guns, and the
28:24
Speaker 1: district attorney eventually decided the case was too weak, so
28:28
Speaker 1: on January sixteenth, nineteen twenty five, DA Assa Keys moved
28:32
Speaker 1: to dismiss the murder charge and Dolly would walk free. Also,
28:36
Speaker 1: that type of gun was pretty popular at the time
28:40
Speaker 1: and it wasn't odd that people would have that gun
28:43
Speaker 1: or multiples of that gun, so it wasn't crazy to
28:46
Speaker 1: think that she really thought that the police would pin
28:48
Speaker 1: it on her, so she hid those guns. So after
28:51
Speaker 1: her release, Dolly resumed life in Los Angeles, and she
28:55
Speaker 1: soon began a relationship with her attorney because she found
28:59
Speaker 1: comfort in him that case, and the attorney was Hermann, Shapiro,
29:03
Speaker 1: So Dolly and Shapiro grew close and eventually moved in together.
29:07
Speaker 1: For a time, it appeared Dolly had found some stability
29:10
Speaker 1: with him, but the relationship did not remain completely peaceful,
29:14
Speaker 1: and by late nineteen twenty eight, Shapiro and Dolly were
29:17
Speaker 1: fighting frequently, and in December, Shapiro sued Dolly, accusing her
29:22
Speaker 1: of cheating him out of twenty six thousand dollars in
29:25
Speaker 1: a real estate deal, and the split was bitter and
29:29
Speaker 1: very public, and Shapiro claimed Dolly had defrauded him, and
29:33
Speaker 1: their partnership fell apart. So by nineteen thirty, after about
29:36
Speaker 1: seven years with Dolly, Shapiro had finally had enough, and
29:41
Speaker 1: in April of that year, a vengeful Shapiro walked into
29:44
Speaker 1: the office of Los Angeles District attorney beeron fits and
29:48
Speaker 1: dropped a bombshell Affidavid, and in this sworn statement, Shapiro
29:53
Speaker 1: revealed the secret that he had kept for Dolly, and
29:56
Speaker 1: that secret was Otto san Hooper, the young young man
30:00
Speaker 1: she had had an affair with years and years ago,
30:04
Speaker 1: and he said he was alive and well and had
30:07
Speaker 1: been living in Dolly's attics for years. In Shapiro's affidavit
30:12
Speaker 1: included every scandalous detail that he knew, and he even
30:16
Speaker 1: claimed that a short time earlier, Dolly and two hired
30:19
Speaker 1: men had attempted to asst him on the street, an
30:23
Speaker 1: incident which left him fearing for his life. So, feeling threatened,
30:27
Speaker 1: Shapiro decided to tell all, and he disclosed that Otto
30:31
Speaker 1: sand Huber had lived hidden in the Austerix Milwaukee attics
30:35
Speaker 1: for around ten years and then in Dolly's Los Angeles
30:39
Speaker 1: attic for another eight years after Fred's murder, so Dolly
30:44
Speaker 1: Austerix's dark secret was finally exposed, and the mild Milwaukee
30:48
Speaker 1: housewife had kept her lover in the attic right above
30:51
Speaker 1: her unsuspecting husband for over a decade and then even
30:55
Speaker 1: after her husband's death. He was almost too outlandish to believe.
31:00
Speaker 1: When confronted by Shapiro's revelations, Dolly could no longer deny it,
31:04
Speaker 1: and the story she eventually told was astonishing. So back
31:08
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirteen, even after Fred discovered the initial affair
31:12
Speaker 1: and Dolly promised to end it, she couldn't stay away
31:15
Speaker 1: from Otto, and according to one account, Dolly urgently insisted
31:19
Speaker 1: he come back to her. And they both knew that
31:22
Speaker 1: if they continued seeing each other openly, Fred would find
31:25
Speaker 1: out again, so they came up with a bold plan.
31:28
Speaker 1: Otto would move into the Austrix attic, so Dolly secretly
31:32
Speaker 1: installed her young lover in the small attic space of
31:35
Speaker 1: their Milwaukee home, and one version of the story later
31:38
Speaker 1: recounted in court described the rather pivotal moment in this way,
31:43
Speaker 1: and that is that one afternoon Fred came home earlier
31:45
Speaker 1: than usual and almost caught Auto in the house, So
31:49
Speaker 1: with no time to escape, Dolly just quickly showed Auto
31:52
Speaker 1: into a tiny storage room in the attic and kept
31:54
Speaker 1: Fred away. But Otto would stay hidden there all night,
31:58
Speaker 1: and by morning Dolly had convinced him that the only
32:00
Speaker 1: way for them to continue the affair was for Auto
32:03
Speaker 1: to literally disappear from sight. Essentially, he would live in
32:07
Speaker 1: the attic, coming out only when Fred was away, and
32:10
Speaker 1: Auto agreed because he was obsessed with this woman and
32:14
Speaker 1: he was very young and impressionable to. Over the next
32:17
Speaker 1: four years in Milwaukee, as the Austerix moved from house
32:21
Speaker 1: to house, Otto lived in the attics of four different
32:24
Speaker 1: houses and whatever Dolly insisted on moving it was because
32:28
Speaker 1: she needed a suitable attic for Auto, and at one
32:32
Speaker 1: address it was later confirmed that a hidden attic cubby existed,
32:36
Speaker 1: accessible by a panel in the third floor bedroom closet,
32:39
Speaker 1: with evidence of occupancy like locks on doors and supplies,
32:43
Speaker 1: et cetera. So every time she was super amped to
32:46
Speaker 1: find a house, she just made sure that it had
32:48
Speaker 1: an attic so she could stuff her lover in it.
32:51
Speaker 2: Just crazy.
32:52
Speaker 1: So Otto's existence in the attic was nocturnal and shadow like,
32:57
Speaker 1: and he and Dolly developed a strict daily bridge to
33:00
Speaker 1: avoid detection. So during daytime when Fred was at work,
33:04
Speaker 1: Auto would quietly descend from the attic through a trap
33:07
Speaker 1: door in the bedroom closet ceiling in some of the houses,
33:11
Speaker 1: and he and Dolly would spend their days together and
33:13
Speaker 1: Auto performed household chores and various duties around the house,
33:17
Speaker 1: making the beds, changing the linens twice a week, dusting
33:21
Speaker 1: and polishing Fred's clothes and shoes that's kind of nice
33:24
Speaker 1: of them, not gonna lie, and washing dishes, cleaning vegetables
33:28
Speaker 1: for dinner, scrubbing floors, so more or less just general housework.
33:32
Speaker 1: He was kind of a living maid too, And of
33:34
Speaker 1: course Auto and Dolly had relations frequently, and Auto would
33:39
Speaker 1: later say in testimony he was just a perfect silent servant.
33:45
Speaker 1: And during the night time when Fred was home, Auto
33:47
Speaker 1: lived in total silence, confined in his cramped attic room,
33:52
Speaker 1: and he would read books by candlelight, and he wrote
33:55
Speaker 1: science fiction and adventure stories which Dolly sent to publishers
34:00
Speaker 1: for him. He was literally a ghost writer kind of thing.
34:03
Speaker 1: But he was literally like a ghost in an attic.
34:05
Speaker 1: He was kind of crazy, very poetic, and he became
34:08
Speaker 1: very skilled at moving about the attic quietly, but sometimes
34:12
Speaker 1: not quietly enough, because those sounds that Fred was hearing
34:16
Speaker 1: that Dolly and their friends were trying to convince him
34:19
Speaker 1: the were alcoholic paranoia, was actually Auto just in the attic.
34:23
Speaker 1: So he was kind of right there, or was he
34:25
Speaker 1: was right that there was something up there still? An alcoholic,
34:29
Speaker 1: but he wasn't crazy. But Auto was completely isolated and
34:34
Speaker 1: for ten years the only human being he spoke to
34:38
Speaker 1: was Dolly, and Dolly, for her part, controlled everything about
34:42
Speaker 1: his life. He was basically her prisoner, and the lack
34:46
Speaker 1: of exercise and sunshine turned the once healthy teenager into
34:49
Speaker 1: a pale, slender shadow of a man. And there was
34:53
Speaker 1: actually one occasion where Fred came home unexpectedly and walked
34:57
Speaker 1: in on Auto in the kitchen eating life over a
35:00
Speaker 1: leg of lamb, and Fred, not knowing it was Auto
35:03
Speaker 1: because he looked so different, gave the guy a beating
35:07
Speaker 1: and threw him out the back door, assuming he was
35:10
Speaker 1: just a hungry burglar who had just snuck in, and
35:13
Speaker 1: Dolly smoothed the incident over and Auto bruised, but undeterred,
35:18
Speaker 1: crept back into the house and up into the attic again.
35:21
Speaker 1: So in nineteen eighteen, when Fred announced the move to La,
35:25
Speaker 1: Dolly made sure her attic dwelling lover would not be
35:29
Speaker 1: left behind, and she agreed to move only if she
35:32
Speaker 1: could choose the new house, and only if it had
35:35
Speaker 1: an attic, which was very rare for La. But she
35:39
Speaker 1: found the house and Fred didn't even think about it,
35:42
Speaker 1: and they even arranged for Auto to travel ahead of
35:45
Speaker 1: the family, and Dolly sent Auto to La on his
35:49
Speaker 1: own before she and Fred made the move. By the
35:52
Speaker 1: time the Austrics arrived in California, Otto was already secretly
35:55
Speaker 1: installed in the attic waiting for Dolly. So in La
35:59
Speaker 1: the bizarre arrangement resumed without missing a beat, and Otto
36:02
Speaker 1: lived in the attic full time, and Dolly tended to
36:05
Speaker 1: her husband in their public life while satisfying her own
36:08
Speaker 1: needs with Auto in private. And he would have minimal
36:11
Speaker 1: furniture up there, just like a crappy mattress and a
36:15
Speaker 1: chamber pot for his you know p and he obviously
36:19
Speaker 1: had his books and his paper and his pencil, but
36:21
Speaker 1: he really did not have much up there for such
36:24
Speaker 1: a long time, and Dolly would bring him food daily,
36:27
Speaker 1: sneaking meals up to the attic when Fred wasn't around,
36:31
Speaker 1: and they developed a simple signal system. Three knocks on
36:34
Speaker 1: the trap door meant the coast was clear for Otto
36:37
Speaker 1: to come down, and when Dolly was angry with Auto,
36:39
Speaker 1: she would sometimes stop feeding him as punishment. This lady
36:43
Speaker 1: is a psychopath, and in these disputes, his only form
36:47
Speaker 1: of rebellion was to refuse to eat the little food
36:50
Speaker 1: she would bring him. So it was a starvation protest
36:53
Speaker 1: by which he exerted the little control he had until
36:56
Speaker 1: she would forgive him. He said, quote, I'd refuse to eat.
37:00
Speaker 2: It was all I could do. Quote.
37:03
Speaker 1: Just the most toxic relationship I've ever heard of. But
37:06
Speaker 1: the years of confinement took their toll on Auto, and
37:09
Speaker 1: Auto described himself as Dolly's prisoner, utterly dependent on her
37:13
Speaker 1: for every need, and separation from her caused him intense anxiety, saying, quote.
37:19
Speaker 2: When I was away from my attic, the time was
37:21
Speaker 2: tremendously long. I was almost beside myself to get back,
37:26
Speaker 2: he testified, trying to explain his psychological bondage. And modern
37:30
Speaker 2: observers have noted that Auto, being only seventeen when this
37:33
Speaker 2: began and with no family ties, was a prime target
37:37
Speaker 2: for emotional and psychological manipulation. Just a classic case of
37:41
Speaker 2: course of control and trauma bonding in a relationship. An
37:45
Speaker 2: Auto's devotion despite his captivity fits the perfect pattern for
37:49
Speaker 2: Stockholm syndrome, and it was during this time in the attic,
37:53
Speaker 2: Auto armed himself with a bit of a fantasy life,
37:56
Speaker 2: and at some point, he acquired a large revolver, saying
38:00
Speaker 2: it made him feel big, like a cowboy or something,
38:04
Speaker 2: and later he trieded it for a smaller twenty five
38:08
Speaker 2: caliber automatic pistol and eventually bought a second twenty five
38:12
Speaker 2: caliber gun, which he gave to Dolly. So by August
38:16
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty two, Otto had been living in attics for
38:19
Speaker 2: about ten years and he was around thirty four years old,
38:23
Speaker 2: and the fresh faced teen who had come to fix
38:26
Speaker 2: a sewing machine a decade earlier had all but disappeared. So,
38:30
Speaker 2: as it turned out, the original timeline of events for
38:34
Speaker 2: the murder of Fred didn't happen as Dolly had led on,
38:38
Speaker 2: and the night of August twenty second, nineteen twenty two
38:42
Speaker 2: actually went as such. Fred and Dolly did indeed return
38:46
Speaker 2: home at around eleven thirty pm from dinner with friends,
38:50
Speaker 2: and the couple was already arguing as they pulled into
38:52
Speaker 2: the driveway, and they entered the home together. But while
38:56
Speaker 2: they were doing that, from his cramped attic crawl space
38:59
Speaker 2: about the closet, it Otto could hear the loud voices
39:02
Speaker 2: and the sounds of a situation unfolding below, and then
39:06
Speaker 2: he heard Dolly cry out and Dolly had actually tripped
39:10
Speaker 2: over a throw rug and let out a yell in surprise.
39:14
Speaker 2: But Otto, hearing the commotion, thought Fred was attacking her
39:18
Speaker 2: because in the original story, Dolly said that Fred must
39:20
Speaker 2: have tripped on a rug and that's why she wanted
39:22
Speaker 2: to come downstairs, so she just twisted that shit. So Otto,
39:26
Speaker 2: alarmed and believing Dolly to be in danger of physical harm,
39:30
Speaker 2: Otto grabbed both of his loaded twenty five caliber pistols
39:33
Speaker 2: and rushed to the trapdoor and Auto would burst out
39:37
Speaker 2: of the attic and lunge into the living room wielding
39:39
Speaker 2: two guns and shouting stop. And Fred Austerich spun around,
39:44
Speaker 2: completely astonished, and this time he instantly recognized the intruder
39:49
Speaker 2: and it was the same burglar he had once caught
39:51
Speaker 2: eating in his kitchen, and Fred's shock and confusion turned
39:56
Speaker 2: to fury and he said, you you you doing in
40:00
Speaker 2: my house? And enraged, Fred charged at Auto and the
40:04
Speaker 2: two men grappled fiercely, overturning a chair and wrestling across
40:08
Speaker 2: the room, and in the struggle one of Otto's guns
40:11
Speaker 2: went off, once, firing a shot into the ceiling and
40:14
Speaker 2: startled and fearing for his life, Otto pulled the trigger
40:18
Speaker 2: again and again and again in blind panic, and that's
40:22
Speaker 2: when Fred was hit three times, and doctor Frank R. Webb,
40:26
Speaker 2: the autopsy surgeon, would later testify that this downward trajectory
40:30
Speaker 2: was extremely unusual quote, one that could have only occurred
40:34
Speaker 2: once in a.
40:35
Speaker 1: Blue moon, likely the results of Fred falling forward as
40:39
Speaker 1: the shot was fired. So Fred collapsed to the floor,
40:42
Speaker 1: mortally wounded, and he died within moments, if not instantly.
40:47
Speaker 1: So as Fred's lifeless body lay sprawled in the corner,
40:51
Speaker 1: Auto and Dolly realized they needed to do something, so
40:54
Speaker 1: they decided to make the scene look like a burglary
40:57
Speaker 1: gone wrong, and they worked quickly, snatching Fred's valuable diamond
41:01
Speaker 1: watch and chain from his vest, as well as the
41:04
Speaker 1: cash from Fred's wallet in the bedroom, and Dolly handed
41:08
Speaker 1: Auto the items, essentially robbing Fred in order to feign
41:11
Speaker 1: a robbery. And then they implemented the final crucial touch,
41:15
Speaker 1: and that's when Dolly climbed into the bedroom closet and
41:18
Speaker 1: Auto slammed the door, locking her inside from the outside,
41:23
Speaker 1: and he deliberately tossed the closet key onto the carpet
41:26
Speaker 1: a few feet away, and this way Dolly would have
41:29
Speaker 1: an alibi and no one could claim she shot Fred
41:32
Speaker 1: if she was found locked in a closet. And Auto
41:35
Speaker 1: then raced back up into the attic via the closet
41:38
Speaker 1: trap door, taking the guns, the watch, and the money
41:42
Speaker 1: with him, and he pulled the attic hatch shut and
41:45
Speaker 1: retreated into his hidden quarters, awaiting whatever came next. So,
41:49
Speaker 1: from inside the closet, Dolly started screaming and pounding on
41:52
Speaker 1: the doors as loudly as she could because she needed
41:54
Speaker 1: the neighbors to hear her cries, and they indeed did,
41:58
Speaker 1: and the rest is history. So when the news broke
42:01
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty, headlines across the nation blared the sensational
42:05
Speaker 1: tale of the Batman in the Attic, and after nearly
42:09
Speaker 1: eight years of mystery, the truth of Fred's murder was
42:11
Speaker 1: finally laid bare. So on April seventh, police tracked down Auto,
42:15
Speaker 1: who was living under the alias Walter Klein, and he
42:19
Speaker 1: had actually gotten married and had been working as a
42:21
Speaker 1: janitor and porter at a hotel in Vancouver, Canada, but
42:26
Speaker 1: recently returned to the West Coast with his wife, and
42:29
Speaker 1: Auto was arrested in Los Angeles and Dolly, now around
42:32
Speaker 1: fifty years Old was also arrested and both were charged
42:36
Speaker 1: in connection with Fred's death, but the long delayed reckoning
42:40
Speaker 1: had arrived. An Auto's trial began June eleventh, nineteen thirty,
42:44
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles County Superior Court with Judge Carlos S.
42:48
Speaker 1: Hardy presiding, and the charge was first degree murder and
42:52
Speaker 1: District Attorney Fits led the prosecution team, assisted by Deputy
42:56
Speaker 1: DA James Costello and j. Thomas Russell, and Auto was
42:59
Speaker 1: defended by by Earl S. Wakeman and Orville Rogers. Really
43:03
Speaker 1: great names and now about forty two years old. Otto
43:06
Speaker 1: appeared as a strange man in court, and observers described
43:10
Speaker 1: him as sallow complexioned, small, plainly dressed, middle aged man
43:15
Speaker 1: with a receding hairline, round black horn, rimmed glasses, and
43:18
Speaker 1: a nervous twitch. And despite the salacious details of his
43:22
Speaker 1: secret life, Otto had actually married another woman during his
43:25
Speaker 1: years on the run, and he and his wife, Matilde,
43:28
Speaker 1: whom he wed in nineteen twenty four in Washington State
43:31
Speaker 1: under his alias Walter Klein, attended court together each day,
43:35
Speaker 1: and Otto initially pleaded not guilty and also not guilty
43:38
Speaker 1: by reason of insanity, and Judge Hardy read aloud Otto's
43:42
Speaker 1: grand jury confession, in which Otto had admitted to the
43:45
Speaker 1: shooting to the jury, but when Otto himself took the stand,
43:49
Speaker 1: he surprisingly recanted parts of his story, and now he
43:52
Speaker 1: reclaimed that he never left the attic at all the
43:55
Speaker 1: night of the murder, implying that unknown burglars must have
43:59
Speaker 1: killed Fred. And this sudden change did not do much
44:02
Speaker 1: to bolster his credibility, and under questioning, Auto ended up
44:05
Speaker 1: describing in detail his bizarre life in the attic, and
44:08
Speaker 1: he essentially confirmed all the unbelievable aspects of the enragement,
44:12
Speaker 1: all the stuff that we had just talked about. And
44:15
Speaker 1: the prosecution understandably painted Auto as a morally corrupt man,
44:19
Speaker 1: and Deputy d. A. Costello denounced him as a perjurer
44:22
Speaker 1: of his own soul, condemning Auto for his lies and
44:26
Speaker 1: his lured lifestyle. And the press had a field day
44:30
Speaker 1: with the story, dubbing Auto with a variety of nicknames
44:33
Speaker 1: like the Batman, the Batman of Los Angeles, the Ghost
44:37
Speaker 1: in the Garret, and the attic Lover, and reporters noted
44:40
Speaker 1: that the term a batman was inspired by his cave
44:43
Speaker 1: like attic dwelling, similar to a bat that we get it. So,
44:46
Speaker 1: after weeks of trial, the case went to the jury
44:49
Speaker 1: and they deliberated for about four and a half hours,
44:52
Speaker 1: and in the end they rejected the first degree murder
44:54
Speaker 1: charge and found Auto guilty of manslaughter. And this indicated
44:58
Speaker 1: the jury recognized miss mitigating circumstances and perhaps Auto's unusual
45:03
Speaker 1: degree of control by Dolly, or that the killing lacked premeditation,
45:07
Speaker 1: and the judge sentenced Auto to one to ten years
45:10
Speaker 1: in prison under the manslaughter conviction. But in a final
45:14
Speaker 1: twist of fate, however, Otto walked free, and Judge Hardy
45:18
Speaker 1: determined that California's statute of limitations for manslaughter had expired
45:23
Speaker 1: and allegedly, in California at the time, the law required
45:26
Speaker 1: prosecutions for manslaughter to commence within three years.
45:29
Speaker 2: Of the crime. What kind of law is that? Because
45:34
Speaker 2: Fred had been killed eight years earlier. So I get
45:37
Speaker 2: it's just time.
45:38
Speaker 1: It's just like, ah, no big deal, money, You're good
45:41
Speaker 1: to go, walk on by.
45:44
Speaker 2: You know what is that?
45:45
Speaker 1: So, despite the conviction, the judge granted a motion and
45:48
Speaker 1: arrest of judgment, which nullified the verdict and Auto would
45:52
Speaker 1: serve no prison time at all. So he had spent
45:55
Speaker 1: roughly eighteen years living in attics and had killed a man,
45:59
Speaker 1: but he left after the courtroom a free man. Different
46:03
Speaker 1: frigging times did just just wild. But then a few
46:07
Speaker 1: weeks later was Dolly's turn, and she went on trial
46:10
Speaker 1: in August nineteen thirty on a charge of conspiracy to
46:13
Speaker 1: commit murder in her husband's death, and the prosecution team
46:16
Speaker 1: was the same, and now, at fifty years old, the
46:19
Speaker 1: Dolly appeared quite different from the glamorous, young seductress of
46:23
Speaker 1: nineteen thirteen, and she was matro lely and heavy set,
46:26
Speaker 1: and she broke down and sobs on the witness stand,
46:29
Speaker 1: covering her face with her hands. Dolly insisted that she
46:32
Speaker 1: had truly loved her husband Fred throughout their marriage, and
46:35
Speaker 1: she testified that on the night of the murder, they
46:38
Speaker 1: had actually not fought as reported, and even told her Dolly,
46:41
Speaker 1: you look mighty good to me tonight just before they
46:44
Speaker 1: entered the house, and she claimed Fred then slipped on
46:48
Speaker 1: a rug while grabbing at her, which caused her to scream.
46:52
Speaker 1: So the story is kind of all over the place,
46:54
Speaker 1: and she said otto hearing the scream mistakenly thought Fred
46:58
Speaker 1: was hurting her. And Dolly admitted asking roy clumb to
47:01
Speaker 1: get rid of one of the guns and asking her
47:03
Speaker 1: neighbor to hide the other, and she explained that she
47:05
Speaker 1: only did this because she feared Otto would get in
47:07
Speaker 1: trouble through his affection for her, and she wanted to
47:10
Speaker 1: protect him. And Otto was called as a witness by
47:13
Speaker 1: the prosecution, and his performance on the stand was by
47:17
Speaker 1: most accounts, pretty poor, and he stubbornly clung to the
47:20
Speaker 1: second version of his story that he never left the
47:23
Speaker 1: attict during the murder, despite it having already been discredited,
47:27
Speaker 1: And at times he acted like a child, and at
47:30
Speaker 1: other times he lapsed into a solemn, distant demeanor like
47:33
Speaker 1: an old man. And I blame the adult in this situation,
47:37
Speaker 1: which is Dolly, because she raised this guy basically, not
47:42
Speaker 1: that he's not guilty of killing a man and not
47:44
Speaker 1: doing any jail time. He definitely is, you know. But
47:46
Speaker 1: at the heart of it, I believe Dolly's like the
47:48
Speaker 1: true villain in this.
47:50
Speaker 2: But his whole.
47:50
Speaker 1: Testimony just made clear the depth of his psychological dependency
47:54
Speaker 1: on Dolly, and the jury of twelve, deliberated for about
47:58
Speaker 1: four days, soon became clear they were hopelessly deadlocked, and
48:03
Speaker 1: in the final tally nine jurors voted for a conviction
48:06
Speaker 1: of second degree murder and one duror voted for a
48:09
Speaker 1: lesser charge of manslaughter, and two jurors voted to acquit
48:12
Speaker 1: her entirely, so they could not reach the required unanimous verdict,
48:16
Speaker 1: and it was declared a hung jury and mistrial was announced,
48:20
Speaker 1: and prosecutors initially vowed to retry Dolly and a new
48:24
Speaker 1: trial was set for October fourteenth, nineteen thirty, but after
48:27
Speaker 1: a series of postponements, Deputy D. A. Russell made a
48:31
Speaker 1: candid admission saying, quote, we were pretty certain the shooting
48:34
Speaker 1: occurred as missus O'sterrek related it, and we were unable
48:39
Speaker 1: to find anything additional to show conspiracy. All the exhibits,
48:42
Speaker 1: the shells, bullets, and revolvers had been released to a
48:45
Speaker 1: local attorney several years after the case was dismissed against
48:48
Speaker 1: missus Osterik in nineteen twenty five. A conviction did not
48:52
Speaker 1: seem possible. I prosecuted both cases against missus Osterick, and
48:56
Speaker 1: I feel certain there was no miscarriage of justice vote.
49:00
Speaker 1: In other words, they had no fresh evidence and their
49:03
Speaker 1: physical evidence was gone, making a retrial futile. Yes, I
49:07
Speaker 1: just rhymed, so in December ninth, nineteen thirty the judge
49:11
Speaker 1: ordered the case dismissed, and any remaining indictment against Dolly
49:16
Speaker 1: Ousterich was formally dropped in nineteen thirty six, so she too,
49:21
Speaker 1: walked free, and despite the widely held belief that she
49:25
Speaker 1: had orchestrated her husband's killing, Dolly would never spend a
49:28
Speaker 1: convicted day in prison, and Otto would go on to
49:31
Speaker 1: live his life, reportedly never contacting Dolly after the trial.
49:35
Speaker 1: And Otto would die on March twenty second, nineteen forty eight,
49:38
Speaker 1: at around sixty years of age, and he was buried
49:41
Speaker 1: in Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles under his assumed
49:44
Speaker 1: name Walter M. Klein, and Dolly, freed from legal jeopardy,
49:49
Speaker 1: carried on her life in Los Angeles. Yet in the
49:52
Speaker 1: decades that followed, she developed what some called a taste
49:56
Speaker 1: for litigation, and the former housewife found herself in court frequently,
50:01
Speaker 1: but this time in civil suits, like in nineteen thirty one,
50:03
Speaker 1: she sued a jeweler for thirty five hundred dollars, and
50:06
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty two she won a lawsuit against her
50:08
Speaker 1: former lover, Herman Shapiro, winning ninety thousand dollars in a
50:12
Speaker 1: real estate dispute, and in nineteen thirty five, Herman Shapiro
50:15
Speaker 1: reported siving death threats, which he attributed to Dolly's influence,
50:19
Speaker 1: and over the years others also sued Dully for allegedly
50:22
Speaker 1: misrepresenting real estate. She leased them, but by nineteen fifty eight,
50:26
Speaker 1: when a true crime book titled The Attic Lover was
50:29
Speaker 1: published detailing her case, Dolly's circumstances had declined considerably and
50:34
Speaker 1: she was reportedly living in a modest apartment over a
50:36
Speaker 1: garage in a run down section of Los Angeles, and ironically,
50:40
Speaker 1: she was living in a sort of attic in her
50:43
Speaker 1: final days and for roughly thirty years, Dolly had maintained
50:47
Speaker 1: a relationship with a man named ray Bert Hedrick, who
50:51
Speaker 1: served as her business manager and companion, and in March
50:54
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty one, as Dolly's health deteriorated, Hedrick needed legal
50:58
Speaker 1: authority to make medical decisions for her, and the two
51:01
Speaker 1: decided to marry. And Dolly, who still loved bending the
51:04
Speaker 1: truth that claimed to be only sixty five even though
51:08
Speaker 1: she was actually in her early eighties, she loved lyon Dude,
51:13
Speaker 1: pathological liar and it was reported she almost collapsed after
51:17
Speaker 1: getting her marriage license.
51:18
Speaker 2: That so old and ill she was.
51:21
Speaker 1: But Wahlberger Dolly Austerich died on April eighth, nineteen sixty one,
51:26
Speaker 1: about two weeks after marrying Hedrick, and she was laid
51:30
Speaker 1: to rest at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California,
51:33
Speaker 1: and Hedrick inherited the remaining millions in real estate from
51:37
Speaker 1: her estate and per will drawn up in nineteen fifty
51:40
Speaker 1: three that tellingly made no mention of otto, and Dolly
51:44
Speaker 1: had lived for thirty nine years after the murder of
51:46
Speaker 1: her husband, completely dodging all responsibility for the crime. And
51:51
Speaker 1: that is how this crazy case ends. Just no justice, lying, deceit, manipulation, controlling,
52:02
Speaker 1: just just crazy. The real victim in the story is Fred.
52:07
Speaker 1: Poor guy lost his life because the guy who was
52:10
Speaker 1: just living his actic and his wife is cheating on him.
52:12
Speaker 1: And yeah, he could drink less booze, but man, does
52:16
Speaker 1: he deserve to die? No? But there's still a lot
52:19
Speaker 1: of mystery in this case. Will we know what really
52:22
Speaker 1: happened for real? No? No, everybody's dead now, so probably not.
52:27
Speaker 1: But it does make a crazy case and story nonetheless,
52:32
Speaker 1: And if you know of any other cases like this
52:34
Speaker 1: let me know down below.
52:35
Speaker 2: I will dive into them. But until then, I will see.
52:39
Speaker 1: You, and you better stay safe out there and stay beautiful,
52:42
Speaker 1: all right.
52:43
Speaker 2: I'll see you in the next one. Okay.
52:44
Speaker 1: Bye,