Harry F. Powers: The Bluebeard of Quiet Dell
Early Life and Assumed Identities
Harry F. Powers was a Dutch-born American serial killer who murdered two women and three children near Quiet Dell, West Virginia, during the summer of 1931. Born Harm Drenth on November 17, 1892, in Beerta, the Netherlands, he immigrated to the United States with his family in 1910. He later adopted the name Harry F. Powers and used numerous aliases, including Cornelius O. Pierson, Joseph Gildow, John Schroeder and A. R. Weaver.
Powers eventually settled near Clarksburg, West Virginia. In 1927, he married Luella Strother, a woman who owned property and operated a grocery store. He reportedly met her after answering a personal advertisement. Although married, Powers continued corresponding with women through matrimonial agencies and “lonely hearts” advertisements. He presented himself as a prosperous and respectable bachelor or widower who wanted marriage, companionship and a stable family life.
The Lonely Hearts Scheme
Powers placed advertisements in publications read by lonely women and replied to women who advertised for husbands. He commonly claimed to be a successful civil engineer, businessman or wealthy professional. His letters were affectionate and carefully written to create the impression that he was sincere, financially secure and prepared to marry.
His true purpose was financial exploitation. Powers attempted to identify women who possessed savings, property or valuable personal belongings. After gaining their confidence, he persuaded them to travel with him, withdraw money or ship their possessions to addresses he controlled. The five confirmed victims were killed after being drawn into this scheme.
Investigators later found that Powers had corresponded with a large number of women throughout the United States. His automobile contained trunks filled with letters, photographs and personal information from potential victims. Authorities believed he was maintaining several false romantic relationships simultaneously and may have been planning additional robberies and murders.
Asta Eicher and Her Children
Using the name Cornelius O. Pierson, Powers began corresponding with Asta Eicher, a widowed mother living with her three children in Park Ridge, Illinois. Eicher believed that she had found a dependable man who wanted to marry her and help care for her family.
Powers arrived at the Eicher home on June 23, 1931. He soon persuaded Asta to leave Illinois with him, while the children temporarily remained in the care of a family acquaintance. Powers later returned for Greta, Harry and Annabel, claiming that he was taking them to rejoin their mother.
Before leaving Park Ridge, Powers attempted to obtain money from Asta’s bank account. He sent one of the children to the bank with a check, but the bank refused to honor it because the signature appeared to have been forged. Powers then hurriedly removed the children from the area. When neighbors questioned the family’s disappearance, he claimed they had gone to Europe.
Asta and her children were taken to Powers’s property at Quiet Dell. Investigators concluded that all four were killed there during July 1931. The surviving evidence did not establish a reliable individual date of death for each family member. Asta and her daughters were strangled. Twelve-year-old Harry Eicher suffered fatal blows to the head, apparently inflicted with a hammer.
Dorothy Pressler Lemke
Powers also corresponded with Dorothy Ann Pressler Lemke, a widow from Northborough, Massachusetts. He convinced her that he intended to marry her and represented himself as a financially successful man living in Iowa. Lemke agreed to leave Massachusetts and begin a new life with him.
Before departing, Lemke withdrew approximately $4,000 from her bank account. Powers arranged for her trunks and belongings to be shipped, but instead of sending them to Iowa, he directed them to an address connected to Cornelius O. Pierson in Fairmont, West Virginia.
Lemke traveled with Powers in late July 1931. She was taken to the Quiet Dell property and strangled. When her body was recovered, a belt remained tightly wrapped around her neck. Authorities believed she was the last of the five confirmed victims to be killed, although surviving records do not establish a completely certain date of death.
Confirmed Victims
- Asta Eicher, approximately 50: A widow from Park Ridge, Illinois. She disappeared after leaving with Powers in late June 1931 and was murdered at Quiet Dell, West Virginia, during July 1931. She was strangled. Her body was discovered on August 27, 1931.
- Greta Eicher, 14: Asta Eicher’s daughter. Powers removed her from the family home in Park Ridge in July 1931 and transported her to Quiet Dell. She was strangled during July 1931. Her body was discovered on August 27, 1931.
- Harry Eicher Jr., 12: Asta Eicher’s son. He was taken from Park Ridge with his sisters in July 1931. Powers killed him at Quiet Dell by striking him in the head, apparently with a hammer. His exact date of death is not firmly documented, but the murder occurred during July 1931. His body was discovered on August 27, 1931.
- Annabel Eicher, 9: Asta Eicher’s youngest daughter. Her first name also appeared in some records as Anabel or Annabelle. She was transported from Illinois to Quiet Dell and strangled during July 1931. Her body was discovered on August 27, 1931.
- Dorothy Ann Pressler Lemke, approximately 50: A widow from Northborough, Massachusetts. She left Massachusetts with Powers in late July 1931 after withdrawing approximately $4,000. She was strangled with a belt at Quiet Dell, probably near the end of July 1931. Her body was discovered on August 28, 1931.
The Murder Property
Powers had constructed an unusual set of rooms beneath or beside the garage on his Quiet Dell property. The structure was frequently described as a subterranean murder chamber. It contained small enclosed rooms with heavy construction intended to reduce the amount of sound that could escape.
Investigators believed Powers brought his victims into this isolated area before killing them. The rooms provided privacy and prevented neighbors or his wife from easily hearing cries for help. Police discovered bloodstained clothing, human hair, personal possessions, a burned bankbook and what appeared to be the bloody footprint of a child.
The bodies were not left inside the rooms. Powers buried the five victims together in a drainage ditch near the garage. The burial site was covered with soil in an effort to conceal the grave.
Discovery of the Crimes
The investigation began after relatives and acquaintances became alarmed by the disappearance of Asta Eicher and her children. Police traced the man calling himself Cornelius O. Pierson and learned that the name was connected to Harry Powers of Quiet Dell.
Powers drew further suspicion when he returned to the Eicher residence and attempted to remove or dispose of the family’s property. Investigators searching the home found correspondence that helped lead them to West Virginia.
Authorities arrested Powers in August 1931 and searched his residence, garage and surrounding land. As news of the investigation spread, large crowds gathered at the property. A local teenager informed officers that he had recently helped Powers dig a long ditch near the garage.
On August 27, 1931, investigators excavated the ditch and uncovered the bodies of Asta Eicher and her three children. Dorothy Lemke’s body was recovered during the continuing excavation on August 28. The remains were wrapped or partially covered with materials before being placed in the grave.
Physical Evidence
The Quiet Dell property contained extensive evidence connecting Powers to the victims. Officers recovered clothing, luggage, documents and other possessions belonging to Asta Eicher and Dorothy Lemke. Lemke’s trunks had been shipped to an address associated with one of Powers’s aliases.
Investigators also found numerous romantic letters exchanged between Powers and women across the country. The collection demonstrated that his relationships were not isolated courtships but part of an organized system of deception. He kept detailed correspondence with women while using different identities, occupations and personal histories.
Evidence from the bodies supported the conclusion that Powers had used more than one method of killing. Asta, Greta, Annabel and Dorothy had been strangled. Harry Eicher had suffered severe head injuries. The confined rooms near the garage, the buried bodies and the victims’ property established a powerful circumstantial case against Powers.
Possible Additional Victims
Investigators considered whether Powers had murdered other women before the Quiet Dell killings. His large collection of correspondence suggested that many women had traveled or planned to travel to meet him. Authorities examined reports of missing women, unidentified bodies and suspicious deaths in several states.
Two deaths were sometimes discussed as possible earlier crimes connected to Powers, including women found dead in Ohio and New Jersey. However, investigators were unable to prove that Powers committed those killings. No additional murder was established with the same degree of evidence as the five Quiet Dell victims.
Because Powers used several aliases, traveled frequently and contacted women over a wide geographical area, the total number of people he defrauded is unknown. His confirmed victim count remains five.
Trial for the Murder of Dorothy Lemke
Powers was tried in December 1931 for the murder of Dorothy Lemke. Because of intense public interest and the need to accommodate spectators, proceedings were held in an opera house in Clarksburg rather than an ordinary courtroom.
The prosecution presented evidence showing that Powers had deceived Lemke with promises of marriage, taken control of her money and belongings, transported her to West Virginia and killed her at his property. Witnesses described Powers’s movements, his aliases and the shipment of Lemke’s luggage.
Powers attempted to deny responsibility and suggested that other men had committed the murders. The defense portrayed the prosecution’s case as circumstantial, but the physical evidence and the pattern of deception strongly connected him to Lemke’s death.
On December 10, 1931, the jury found Harry F. Powers guilty of first-degree murder. The jurors did not recommend mercy, making the death penalty mandatory under West Virginia law. Because the conviction and sentence ensured his execution, Powers was not separately tried for every member of the Eicher family.
Execution
Harry F. Powers was executed by hanging at the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville on March 18, 1932. He was 39 years old. He never provided a complete and trustworthy confession explaining the murders or identifying any additional victims.
His wife did not claim his body. Powers was buried in the prison cemetery, far from the property where the five victims had been discovered less than seven months earlier.
Legacy of the Quiet Dell Murders
The case became one of the most heavily publicized American murder investigations of the early 1930s. Newspapers called Powers the “Bluebeard of Quiet Dell,” comparing him to the legendary figure who murdered a succession of wives. He was also described as a “lonely hearts killer” because he used romantic advertisements and marriage agencies to locate victims.
The murders demonstrated how Powers transformed written courtship into a predatory system. He studied the emotional and financial circumstances of women, created identities designed to satisfy their expectations and isolated them from their communities before attacking them.
The Quiet Dell property was eventually demolished, but the crimes remained part of West Virginia history and American criminal folklore. Powers’s methods later influenced fictional portrayals of deceptive murderers, most notably the character Harry Powell in the novel and film The Night of the Hunter.
Harry F. Powers is remembered as a calculated killer whose promises of affection concealed financial fraud, abduction and murder. His five confirmed victims were not strangers encountered by chance. Each was drawn into his control through a deliberate campaign of trust, false romance and carefully constructed lies.
