Johann Otto Hoch

There are types of vampires that get married and would kill their partner by draining their energy.  In real life there is a serial murderer who caused the death of his wives.  Johann Otto Hoch also known as the “Bluebeard Murderer” was said to be responsible on the death of 15 individuals (others believed it was 50).

Johann Otto Hoch immigrated to the United States at a young age where he married several women.  Usually he would take the surname of his last victim.  He would kill them (usually by injecting them with arsenic) and swindling them with money.

He was dubbed as America’s greatest mass murderer at the age of 51.  He was known to have married at around 55 women during the period 1890-1905.  Reports of the media linked him to 25-50 murders but the police were only able to connect him to 15 murders.  And in the end he was only charged with 1 homicide.

On February 1895, he was spotted in Wheeling West Virginia using the name of “Jacob Hoff”.  He married Caroline Hoch on April 1895 and Caroline mysteriously fell into sickness after three months.  Caroline called Rev. Hermann Haas during her final days.  Rev. Haas said that he saw Hoch inject what he believe was a poison to Caroline.  Caroline died days after the incident.  And just like the previous victims, he cleaned out her bank account.

Then as a form of keepsake, he kept the surname of his last victim, “Hoch”. A police inspector named George Shippy received a letter from Reverend Haas about the suspicious substance that he injected to Caroline.  On a deeper investigation Shippy uncovered a connection to a more than dozen missing women and Hoch, but he was not able to form solid evidence.  They exhumed the remains of Caroline but they were surprised to see that all vital organs of the victim were missing.

On the 5th of December, 1904 Hoch married Marie Walker and killed her instantly.  After killing her, he proposed to Marie Walker’s sister on the night of Marie’s death.  They got married after a mere 6 days after the funeral.  Medical authorities were able to found a taint of poison on Marie Walker’s system.  Hoch was charged with murder and his picture was posted on local newspapers.  Other women recognized him such as a landlady who knew him as Henry Bartels.  On his arrest, police were able to confiscate a revolver, wedding rooms and a pen with arsenic.  But Hoch said that the arsenic was intended for him.

The number of his murdered wives and victims continue to remain a mystery up to this day.