Dolly Oesterreich - The woman who kept her lover in the attic.
Walburga ‘Dolly’ Oesterreich was a housewife in her thirties married to Fred Oesterreich who owned the Milwaukee apron factory. Fred had to work long hours to grow his business and thus was very successful.
Dolly had often been rumored to have lovers over when Fred was away for business and him being quite older could not satisfy her needs.
One fine autumn day in 1913, Fred introduced Dolly to Otto Sanhuber, a 17 year old sewing machine repairman who worked at the factory, the same place where Dolly was employed prior to marriage. She invited Otto to come fix her machine, where she greeted him with provocative clothing, hence began the bizarre tale that spanned over two decades.
At the onset of the affair they conducted the relationship in the usual meeting in hotels secretive manner, but after a while it became a burden and they would get together at the house on the Oesterreich bed. No matter the era, neighbors being people started questioning who the young man was and why would he be often seen leaving the house. Dolly told them he was her “vagabond half-brother.”
Even though she had fended the question temporarily Dolly realized she’d been drawing too much attention. She suggested that Otto should move into the attic in the Oesterreich resident. Not having much family Otto quit his job and started spending all his time in the attic except when Dolly needed him.
The downside of the arrangement being Otto could never leave the attic. He remained there and started writing pulp fiction stories that he someday hoped to have published.
Dolly and Otto carried on with the odd relationship for five long years. So when Fred informed Dolly in 1918 that he thought they should sell the house and move to Los Angeles, things seem to have come to and end.
Instead, Dolly found a house with an attic and sent Otto there early.
Things continued as is, except the change of location for four more years, until the fateful day of August 22, 1922. Otto heard a huge argument between Fred and Dolly, assuming Dolly might be in danger, emerged from the attic and burst into the room where the argument was taking place. He also had two .25 caliber pistols with him just in case. Fred upon laying eyes on him recognized Otto from the factory and was fuming with rage. An intense struggle took place between the two men, and the guns went off.
Fred had been shot.
They knew the neighbors have had to heard the gunshots and will report them, devised a plan. Dolly handed all the cash and gold form the house to Otto as well Fred’s diamond watch which he took with him into the attic and locked Dolly in the closet and tossed the key.
The police were not convinced of the story about the burglary but could not explain how she locked herself in the closet, released and acquitted Dolly.
Under normal circumstances being a widow, she could now open up her relationship with Otto, but Dolly had something different planned. She got Otto a typewriter where he could write his stories and had him move into the attic again, while she got herself a new lover - Herman Shapiro, her lawyer.
Shapiro got a little suspicious when he was given a diamond watch eight years later in 1930 which was reported stolen but Dolly explained she found it in the yard later on. But by now Shapiro too had started working long hours, enter Roy Klumb.
One of the primary reasons she took Roy as her lover might have been to dispose of the murder weapon. Dolly convinced him the get rid of the gun as it resembled the murder weapon and she did not want any trouble. Roy tossed it in the LaBrea tar pits while Dolly sweet-talked a neighbor into hiding the other one in his backyard.
So when Dolly eventually broke up with Roy, he went to the police with the story. The gun was pulled from the tar pits, and Dolly was taken into custody. Her neighbor dug up the other gun as well, but the weapons had corroded and even though them being .25 they could not be tied to Dolly.
While in prison Dolly confided in Shapiro that her “vagabond half- brother” had been living in the attic so if he could check-in on him and get him food“. Starved for a normal conversation Otto quickly confessed his true relationship with Dolly and his involvement in the murder.
Shapiro got Dolly bailed out and banished Otto from seeing her ever again. Turns out a man living in the attic was not a deal breaker. Until seven years later then things went from bad to worse, Shapiro went to the police with all that he had gathered against the murder.
Warrants were issued for both Otto and Dolly, Otto was arrested and the case was famously dubbed “The Bat-man”. The jury found him guilty of manslaughter, but the statue of limitations had run out and Otto Sanhuber was a free man. Dolly too was released after a hung jury.
The case was dropped in 1936. Dolly died in 1961 at age 80 but not before finding a new lover after the trial with whom she actually spent the last 30 years of her life, I guess learning from all that transpired over the past 2 decades.
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