Anna Zwanzinger

Anna Zwanzinger was born Anna Schonleben in August 1760. By 1765 she was an orphan and moved for the next five years between different family members. At the age of 10 she was sponsored by a wealthy guardian and received a decent education. At the age of 15 she was married to a drunken 30 year old lawyer called Zwanziger. The marriage had been arranged by her guardian. The couple had two children together, but it was far from a happy marriage. Anna became a prostitute at one point to support the family as her husband had become unable to work due to his alcoholism.

Anna however still had standards, she maintained to only have had judges and men in powerful positions as her clients and lovers. She left her husband at one stage to be with a lover but Zwanzinger persuaded her back. Zwanzinger had a hold over Anna. When they did finally divorce, they remarried the next day.

In 1796 Zwanzinger died, leaving 33 year old Anna to look after the two children alone. She attempted to open her own store by failed. She fell back into prostitution but fell pregnant and stopped. The baby was sent for adoption by died at an orphanage.

It was around this time that Anna began to show signs of wear and tear. Her mental stability began to waiver, she went into house service but would ignore the wishes of her employers. She felt she was above doing menial work, but needed the money. Over the next two decades she would continue to do housekeeping,  yet the last two years of freedom saw her became an embittered woman who believe she should be the mistress of the house and not the made. She poisoned several women to try to get their husbands to marry her, little did she know she was suffering delusions and was not desirable. 

Anna Zwanzinger had made herself a reputation as an expert knitter and housekeeper, when she was visited by Justice Wolfgang Glaser at her house in Pegnitz, Baireuth, Bavaria. He had asked the 50 year old woman if she would become his house keeper. Justice Glaser went on to explain that he had recently separated from his wife and needed someone to tend his home.

So on March 5, 1808 Anna became a house keeper.

However the appointment appeared short-lived when Frau Glaser returned home to her husband. Yet the reunion did not last long. Though Frau Glaser was a strong and healthy woman, she became suddenly ill on her return on July 22nd.

She was suffering violent vomiting bouts, diarrhoea, pain and nausea. Five weeks later and Frau Glaser was still writhing pain. She expired on August 26, 1808.

A month later on September 25, Anna left the Glaser's service and went to keep house for Justice Grohmann in Sanspaareil. The 38 year old man suffered poor health and spent alot of time in bed. Anna doted on the man and he soon became well, only to be stricken once more.

In Spring, 1809 Grohmann was inflicted with diarrhoea, vomiting and severe abdominal pain. The illness lasted eleven days at the end, he died on May 8, 1809. Grohmann's death was put down to natural causes due to his long-term health issues. Anna was inconsolable after the man's death.

Frau Gebhard, wife of Justice Gebhard had heard of Anna's fine skills as a house-keeper and quickly took her on after Grohmann's death. Frau Gebhard was pregnant and needed help during her confinement. On May 13, 1809, the baby was born and both mother and daughter were well. Yet three days later Frau Gebhard became extremely unwell. She began vomiting profusely and had severe loose bowel motions. She was completely bed-ridden. On May 20, 1809 Frau Gebhard died from the illness, her last words were: "Merciful Heaven! You have given me poison" to Anna. However due to Frau Gebhard's long-term ill health, no one in authority took much notice of her accusation and her death was ruled of natural causes.

By now people were beginning to suspect that it was more than mere coincidence that Anna's employer's kept expiring. However nobody talked about their suspicions. And so Anna continued her employment as a housekeeper to Bavarian Judge Gebhard.

On August 25, 1809 Justice Gebhard dined with two guests, Mr Beck and Mr Alberti. After dinner the two guests were both stricken with a similar illness  to that of Gebhard's wife. A messenger who had come to the house and stayed for a glass of wine also suffered from the gastro illness. 

A porter, Johnny Krause had stopped for a glass of port and only had a small sip. He noticed a white sediment and had heard the gossip about Anna and chose not to drink any more from the snifter. 

Yet there had been enough poison in the small mouthful to cause him a violent reaction.  Others in the household also became sick. One of the kitchen maids, Barbara Waldmann became ill after a cup of coffee made by Anna. Yet again nothing was done, and no-one had seen Anna put poison in any of the vessels. It was all still conjecture. 

On September 1, 1909 Gebhard entertained five friends for an evening with games of skittles.. All of them, including Gebhard became ill after drinking beer.

At the urging of his ill guests Gebhard dismissed Anna from his service the next day. However on September 3, 1809 Anna decided to do some last minute chores before leaving her employment. She took the salt-box from the kitchen cellar and filled it with salt from the barrel in Gebhard's room. Barbara the kitchen maid saw Anna do this. The job was actually Barbara's and she found it unusual that Anna would do it.

She then gave Barbara and another maid a cup of coffee, and the five-month old Gebhard baby some milk and a cookie. All of it laced with poison.

After Anna had left all three of them became hill. The household knew for sure that Anna was reponsible and Barbara remembered the salt barrel. The police were called and the salt was tested. It contained a high amount of arsenic.

Anna was arrested shortly after. When she was searched, two more packets of arsenic were found in her possession. Police then began investigating the other deaths of Anna's employers. Frau Glaser's body was exhumed and arsenic was found in her body.

Anna confessed to the crimes, and was executed by a sword in 1811.

Bibliography: World Famous Gaslight Murders: Colin and Damon Wilson, Magpie books

Written by Jacqui

Copyright © 2002  by [The Crime Web].

Except as provided by the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system  or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the author.
Original Written: February 8, 2002

Updated: February 07, 2002