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Herman Drenth also known under the aliases Harry F. Powers, Cornelius O. Pierson and A.R. Weaver was a serial killer in the 1930's that was indicted in the United States for the murders of two women and three children outside Clarksburg, West Virginia in an area called Quiet Dell. He lured his victims through Lonely Hearts ads saying he was looking for love but in reality had the intentions of taking the victims money and then murdering them. Drenth was known as the Bluebeard killer of West Virginia because he not only killed for pleasure but for profit as well.

Life of Herman Drenth
Herman Drenth was born in 1892 in the Netherlands. He immigrated as a child with his father, Hiram Drenth, in 1910 to the United States. They lived in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and then migrated to West Virginia in 1926. However, Herman did not want to be an immigrant farmer like his father. He had a higher standard of living and wanted to use the resources and opportunities available in America that were not available his home country to gain money. Herman served in World War I and when he returned he became wealthy by being an Oklahoma oil stock promoter. He also began to use his aliases after returning home from the war.

He married Luella Strother, an owner of a farm and grocery store in 1927 after responding to her Lonely Hearts ad in Lonely Hearts Magazine. Although he was now married, Drenth decided to take out his own lonely hearts ads in order to gain more money and companionship. He posted false information in his ads in an attempt to capture the attention of lonely women. Many women wrote in response to his advertisement. "Postal records later indicated that replies to Powers’ advertisement poured in at a rate of 10 to 20 letters per day." Drenth never revealed how he selected his victims out of all of the women who responded to his advertisement. He also constructed a garage as well as a basement onto his home in Quiet Dell prior to any disappearances which later on becomes the place he murders his victims.

Murders
Herman Drenth using the alias Cornelius O. Pierson began writing letters to Asta Eicher, a mother of three children as well as a widow who resided in Park Ridge, Illinois. Drenth went to visit Asta Eicher and her children, Greta, Harry and Annabel on June 23, 1931 and soon left with Asta for several days. Elizabeth Abernathy cared for the children until she received a letter saying that "Pierson" was going to come pick up the children to join him and their mother. When he arrived, he sent a child to the bank to withdraw money from Asta Eicher's account. The child returned empty handed because the signature on the check was forged. Drenth soon packed him and the children and left with haste. Drenth also told neighbors that were concerned about their disappearances that they were on a trip in Europe. Some time later; Drenth courted Dorothy Pressler Lemke from Northboro, Massachusetts who was also looking for love through the Lonely Hearts ads. He then took her to Iowa to be married and got her to withdraw four thousand dollars from her bank account for his profit. Lemke did not notice instead of sending her trunks to Iowa where "Harry Powers" lived, he sent them to the address of Cornelius O. Pierson of Fairmont, Virginia. Asta Eicher, her children and Dorothy Lemke had disappeared with no explanation.

Herman Drenth's murders began to come to light on August 26, 1931 when police began looking into the disappearances of Asta Eicher and her children. Police began to look into Asta's last known contacts and Cornelius O. Pierson was one of them. The police soon realized that no one named Cornelius Pierson lived in Clarksburg, West Virginia but that the description of his matched the one of Harry Powers. Drenth was soon arrested as a suspect and Sheriff Wilford B. Grimm soon obtained a search warrant for Drenth's home in Quiet Dell. Upon searching the home, police found four rooms under the garage which was the crime scene. Bloody clothing, hair, a burned bankbook and a small bloody footprint of a child were discovered. Many citizens of the town began to arrive at the scene to watch the crimes Herman Drenth committed unravel. Police began to dig up the freshly dug ditch found on Drenth's property. The bodies of Asta Eicher, her children and Dorothy Lemke were uncovered. Evidence and autopsy shows that the two girls and their mother were strangled to death while the young boy was beaten in the head with a hammer. Dorothy was uncovered with a belt wrapped around her neck which was the weapon she was strangled with. Love letters began to show up in Drenth's trunk of his automobile. He had written back to many women and had the intentions of stealing their money and killing them like his most recent victims.

Imprisonment and Trial
After Herman Drenth's arrest, thousands surrounded the county jail he was being held in on September 20, 1931 and demanded that Drenth be given to the mob so they could serve him justice. The Clarksburg Fire Department had the task of trying to get the mob to leave the premises. Tear gas was eventually used. Officials decided to move Drenth to the Moundsville State Penitentiary to keep him safe and calm the crowds of people.

Moore's Opera House was used for the trial of Herman Drenth on December 7, 1931 due to the masses of attending people which only lasted for five days before conviction. An extensive list of people testified against Drenth proving that there was evidence in his home; he had been with the victims, picked up their luggage and so on. Drenth also testified for himself. On December 12, 1931, Herman Drenth was given his sentence to death by hanging which was to happen on March 18, 1932. As quoted in the West Virginia Gazette, Judge John Southern stated, “It is the judgment of the court that you be taken to the state penitentiary at Moundsville, there to be kept and treated in the manner provided by law and then hanged by the neck until dead on March 18, 1932 between the hours of sunrise and sunset.”

Confession
Herman Drenth eventually confessed to killing Asta Eicher, her children and Dorothy Lemke to several prison guards and it eventually came to light that he might have killed over fifty other women previously but not enough evidence was found to charge him of those crimes. It is also alleged that the police questioning him, literally beat a confession out of him when he appeared with two black eyes and several cuts after questioning although he maintained his innocence in court. About watching his victims die, Drenth said, “It beat any cat house I was ever in.”

Death
On March 18, 1932, Herman Drenth was walked to the scaffold at the Moundsville State Penitentiary to be hanged. He was told he could make one last statement but he declined. The guard put a cap over his head and at 9:00 am, the button was pushed that dropped Drenth through the trap door. After eleven minutes of hanging he was pronounced dead by the prison doctor and a doctor who witnessed the hanging.