The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1938-12-08
MERCY ANGEL
dies IN CHAIR
AT Ohio PEN
Anna. : Hahn Pleads For
: .HelpxinsLas tnMomentsj
Carried to Execution !.

| OHIO ENlNTENIlAhl, W.
fIUNBUS, Ohio, Dec. 3. 3 (UP)-
! Mrs Anna Marie Hahn, 32-year-
| old "Blonde Borgia" who. pc,
| friended old men and poisoned
them for their money, was exc
cnted last night in the state
death house-tirst woman
I to die in the electric chair in
The self-styled "angel of mer-
CIV" died sobbing and praying as
| the heavy bolt of electrlcity
| cracked through her body at 81 l
y, M, EST, strapped to the
wooden chair i'll the execution
chamber, $50 feet from the death
| cell where she waited until the
hour before her death for a court
reprieve.
Mrs. Hahn had been convisted
of numbering 78-year-old Jacob
Wagner, a roomer at her home in
Cincinnati and one of the four
men she was accused Of poison
| ing.
She died with the Lords Pray
er on her lips.
Shortly before the current
passed through her, she screamed
last incoherent plea for mercy.
She had collapsed before she en-
tered the white-walled death
chamber and was carried to the
chair in the arms of two matrons.
A minute before the current
was turned on she turned her
white, agonized face to the prison
attendants who were strapping
the electric belts to her legs and
screamed:
Don't do this to me"
| DR.. Geo. w. keil, Ohio peniten-
tiary physician, pronounced her
dead at 8:l3 l-2 p. m, two and a
half minutes after the current
was switched on.
The final minutes Of her life
were spent pleading for a last
sight of her l2-year-old son, Os-
car, who tried vainly all day to
see Gov. Martin l.. ,Davey- and
make a last plea for her HE.
AS the attendants carried the
+ doomed, woman to the chair, she
moaned over and over: Don't do
it! Don't do. it" $780, =
She writhed as; the guards adj
justed straps to her legs. War
den Jas. L. Woodward and a
guard held her in the chair. until
she, sank with moan and did not
move again until the shock OF
electricity hit her.
| There was stark terror in her
eyes as she looked from side to
side with the attendants half
dragging and half carrying her
across the flood. Once she scream
ed t".Oww in pain--apparently as
the electrode was being fixed.
An instant before she. died her
voice rose as she screamed:
/ Won't somebody please helr
me-anybody, anybody"
The black death mask was
placed over her face. Her mumbl'
cd cries still were audible as the
signal was given to tarn on the
current.
In the room were score, OF
people,, including witnesses who
were mostly newspapermen. Be-
side her stood Warden Wood.
ard, a kindly, gray-heared man
who has shown exreme consider
alton for the attractive widow
! during her 81 days in the death
cell. -. g. 49,.
r Once she cried to him: ."War'
den, don't let them do this tc
! NE"
i I'm sorry, Mrs. Hahn" the
warden answered in a low voice
"There is nothing l can do"
! The last face she saw before
=. the mask was pulled over hel
eyes was that of Father John A
Sullivan, prison chaplain who hac
administered final communion {
few minutes before. Mrs. Hair
was born Catholic in Fuessen
Bavaria. . .r-
J After the execution, Mrs
- Hahn's body was taken to a Co
lumbus mortuary and JOSEPH
Hoodin, one of her lawyers, ar
ranged to communicate with hel
family at Fuessen. Bavaria, re
garding it's disposition. .
The execution of the woman
who called herself an "angel o.
mercy" and was called "Blond'
Borgia" by the prosecutor wh'
conyisted her, Dudley NJ Outcalt
ended more than year of lega
effort to safe her life. ..
She was convicted in Novem
Der, 1887, but not until the It'll
/ hour appeal for a writ of habea.
corpus was rejected by Judge
Underwood did her lawyers de
spair of. saving her from tn,
chair. ..
| Disease sometimes causes 'ele