Herman Drenth aka Harry Powers Birth: Nov. 17, 1897 Death: Mar. 18, 1932 Moundsville. Marshall County,West Virginia Traveling salesman, store keeper, and serial killer, aka Cornelius O. Pierson. Born as Herman Drenth in Beerta, Groningen Province, Holland, and later immigrated to the United States. He was best known under his last alias Harry F. Powers. He became West Virginias most notorious serial killer, and operated a murder farm at his residence near Quiet Dell in Harrison County during the late 1920s and early 1930s. He was known at the time as the Bluebeard of Quiet Dell. At his home were discovered the buried bodies of two women and three children. The victims were identified as Aster Eicher and her three children from Park Ridge, Illinios, and Dorothy Lemke from Northboro, Massachusetts. He lured his prey by writing lonely hearts letters (via matrimonial correspondence agencies) to unsuspecting women. Drenth was a grocery store proprietor in the Broad Oaks section of Clarksburg and also worked at a carpet company. He explained his many instances away from home to his wife as mere business trips. His trial gained state and national media exposure and became quite a spectacle. It was held in a specially constructed courtroom in the old Moores Opera House in Clarksburg. Although suspected of many more such crimes, he maintained his innocence in the courtroom. Nevertheless, there were claims by prison guards that he had confessed to the five murders as well as the killing of salesman Dudly C. White in 1928. He constructed an underground chamber near his garage. There he would throw his widowed victims. Occasionally he would send down into the chamber a bucket where the women would sign checks withdrawing money from their bank accounts. He bound and gassed his victims and watched as they died. When questioned by local police about the many unexplained womens items found in his home, he clammed up, muttering only Youve got me on five, what good would fifty more do? He was found guilty of the murders, and sentenced to death. He was executed (via hanging) in the West Virginia Penitentiary at Moundsville on March 18, 1932. He was buried in Whitegate (Penitentiary) Cemetery, Toms Run, near Moundsville...
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 22:11:50 +0000
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