Woman Conceals Lover In Attic For Decades, But That Was Only The Start Of Their Sordid Tale

Dolly and her husband, Fred Oesterreich, ran away from sinister happenings at their Wisconsin home, hoping for a bright new chapter in Los Angeles. They moved into a two-story house with a pleasant front porch and glittering windows, hundreds of miles away from the ghost that had made Fred's life a living hell. But Dolly only cared about one feature of the new LA home: the attic, which was just big enough to hide her deepest, darkest secret...

Dolly has a secret

Dolly hadn’t always had secrets. In her younger years, she was known for being charismatic and funny, the life of the party. So when she married the wealthy Fred Oesterreich in 1897, they seemed to complement each other perfectly...until the honeymoon phase hit an abrupt end. 

Trying to cope

The couple settled into married life, but Fred and Dolly were both unsatisfied. Fred worked long hours, and Dolly spent most days wandering around their spacious Wisconsin home with nothing to do. After a while, the couple found some, well, destructive ways to cope. 

Sex and alcohol

Fred tried to drown his unhappiness in alcohol. Dolly, on the other hand, tried to drown her unhappiness in other men. Even so, Dolly would end each affair feeling more unsatisfied with her life than ever before. She got to thinking: what if she needed something a little more...permanent?

Mrs. Robinson

One fateful day in 1913, Dolly called Fred at work and told him her sewing machine was on the fritz. She asked if he wouldn’t mind sending over one of his repairmen to fix it. But when 17-year-old Otto Sanhuber knocked on the door, he didn’t find a broken sewing machine.