The San Francisco call., 1910-10-16
RANCHER DECEIVED
BY MARRIAGE PLOT
Woman Introduces Suitor to
Husband and Children While
Posing as Spinster

OAKLAND, Oct I5.-What the prose-
cutting officials of Alameda county
characterize as the most Incredibly sue
cessful dup1icity that has come to their
notice in years was practised by Mrs.
Anne Koehler, when she lured John
Beck, a wealthy rancfer and superin-
tendent of the Alameda sugar company.
into marrying her. The woman gave
birth of a child during the courtship.
She introduced Beck to her husband and
their five children. And all the time
he thought she twas a single woman,
and in December of last year he went
through a marriage ceremony with her.
Mrs. Koehler who is in the county
Jail awaiting a formal charge of big
amy, refused to make any explanation
Of her actions. Her husband, who also
occupies a cell in the jail. passed the
OF her intentions toward Beck and did
not know she married him, he declared.
MATRIMONIAL AGENCY WORK
Koehler probably will be charged
with conspiracy to defraud Beck, as
District Attorney Donahue believes that
he. was cognizant all along that his
wife and her mother, Mrs. Amelia
Lohenberg of San Francisco. made 1t
a practice to lure men into their matri-
monial agency and fleece them. and
that he assisted in deceiving Beck.
The evidence in the case, according
to Donahue, is that Beck, whose wife
died year and a half ago, met Mrs.
Lohenberg in San Francisco and was
induced by her to consider the question
of marrying young woman who would
care for him. Mrs. Koehler, under the
name of Mrs. Wallace. was introduced
to him as the candidate for matrimony,
though her relationship to Mrs. Lohen-
berg was concealed.
WOMAN POSE DAs WIDOW
Mrs. Koehler was introduced a
widow. AS matter of fact, she was
the widow of man named Wallace,
whom she married in Los Angeles in
1906, and who died two months after
the wedding She was Koehlers wife
at the time she married Wallace, ac-
cording to information that has come
to light as the result of Donahue's S
investigations.
Beck. who is 45 years of age, met
the woman, who gives her age as 80, in
June of 1909. They were not married
until December He visited her at, the
home of her mother and at the home
of Koehler, ia Cole street, San Fran
cisco. Her five children she accounted
for by saying that they weer the Off
spring of her sister, whose husband
Koehler was.
MONEY TO AID MOTHER
In October she told Beck that her
mother was i'll and would have to go
to a hospital She got $500 out of him
to pay for the operation. AT the same
time she told the rancher that she
could not see him for while, as she
had to nurse her mother. She went to
hospital in San Francisco and gave
RI a
Beck.
All this time, Beck says, she was
obtaining money from him on one pre-
text or another. The operation was
one. The lifting of a chattel mortgage
on her furniture was another and in
all she obtained about So, 900 before the
wedding in December.
MONEY CAUSES TROUBLE
She wanted still more after the mar
riage, and money got to be a matter
of irritation between herself and Beck
before the final rupture. This separa-
tion came as the result of Beck's dis
covery that his wife was also Koch
ler's wife and that she would leave
| him to consort with Koehler in San
Francisco.
1t is probable that Mrs. Lohenberg,
who is now in King City, Monterey
| county, will be brought to San Fran
| cisco TO Stdn0 an investigation as tO
| her part in the marriage of Beck to
Mrs. Koehler. The trials proba bly, will
| be held in San Francisco, as 1t was
| there that the wedding Of Beck and
! Mrs. Koehler took place, and the pre-
! lininaries that may be constituted
| conspiracy occurred. Mrs. Lohenbers
was in trouble with the San Francisco
authorities a year ago because of the
matrimonial agency she conducted, but
| she was acquitted of any crime.