ANNA MARIA ZWANZIGER: POISONOUS SERIAL KILLER

“Arsenic is my truest friend,” Anna Zwanziger told authorities after she had been apprehended for poisoning eight and killing four, including an infant. The 51-year-old chubby woman was then led to the guillotine. She had no remorse, no feeling as she walked with guards away from her jail cell. With her head held high, she perfectly understood her punishment for her crimes.

Born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1760, Anna Maria Schonleben was destined to a life of hardship and desperation. As a young woman, she was seen by others as ugly, unmistakably repulsive, and oddly missing a sense of dignity and morality. Her body was misshapen, leaving her with a noticeable hump in her back and one leg shorter than the other. Anna also had to live with poverty and destitution. By all means, her life had begun and continued to be difficult and lonely.

When a man named Zwanziger showed interest in her, Anna readily accepted his marriage proposal and changed her name. As a married woman, she believed she would be respected and cared for, but soon found that her chosen mate was a drunken bastard, often leaving her for weeks at a time as he went on long drinking binges. Finding her life undeniably insufficient and completely loveless, Anna Zwanziger dreamed of another life. One in which a true and decent man would not only sweep her off her unbalanced feet, but adore her with all her faults.

When her husband died, leaving not a penny behind, Anna sought work at a local factory making toys. She had decided to earn her own living until she could find a suitable man to support her. Realizing that she could attain a greater chance at wooing a man by becoming a domestic servant, Anna quickly left her job and searched the want ads for a much needed housekeeper. Her plan was to charm a man while cooking and cleaning for him, showing him that she could be the perfect wife if given the opportunity.

At 40-years-old, Anna Zwanziger found a potential mate, a judge by the name of Glaser, who was searching for a domestic servant for his modest estate. Glaser was attractive in his middle age, often smiling and in pleasant spirits. Anna immediately set her sights on her new employer. To the dismay of Anna, she soon discovered that Glaser was married, but separated from his wife. Anna did not let this information deter her resolve to somehow snare Glaser.

Anna devised a plan to rid Glaser’s wife from his life entirely. Considerately, Anna invited Glaser’s wife to tea, telling the other servants in the home that she wished to reunite the separated couple. Glaser’s wife enjoyed her tea greatly, asking for a second cup, which Anna provided with a smile. Later in the night, Glaser’s wife died of unknown causes; her servants reporting to the doctor that she had been in immense pain throughout the night. Anna grinned to herself when she heard the news of Glaser’s wife’s death, hiding the tin of arsenic in the pocket of her maid’s uniform.

Ready to accept Glaser’s marriage proposal, Anna prepared her hair and rubbed a bit of rouge on her lips to entice her new husband. Days went by without a word from Glaser, Anna believing he was just mourning the death of his wife. Weeks passed, but Anna remained vigilant Glaser would soon realize his love for her. She shined his shoes, scrubbed his floor, and washed his windows with the utmost care. Glaser would soon notice all the hard work and reward Anna with a kiss and a ring, she was sure of it. Months later, Anna finally lost all hope in Glaser’s interest in her. Though he was polite to his servants, he treated Anna no different than any of the others. Feeling cheated and angered by his brush off, Anna vowed revenge. Visitors came to see Glaser one evening, sharing a bit of whiskey and conversation. Anna refilled all of their glasses, adding arsenic for each guest to consume. Days later, Anna overheard that the visitors had all been sick, but had recovered easily. Anna left the Glaser home soon after, abandoning the glamour of marriage she had hoped would come from Glaser.

Anna’s next job was domestic work at Judge Grohmann’s home in a countryside estate. As she began her work cooking and cleaning, she found Grohmann to be slightly less dashing than Glaser, but had already decided to make Grohmann her new groom. The servants she worked with were also not to Anna’s liking, but she tried to make Grohmann her one and only passion. When a young woman started visiting with Grohmann in the back quarters of the home, Anna came to understand that not only was she in competition with this woman, but she was losing any affection Grohmann might have given Anna. One month later, Grohmann assembled his friends and family in the living room of his home to announce his engagement to the young woman visiting. Anna, enraged, immediately poisoned her fellow servants food in some attempt to satisfy her vengeful feelings. The servants all survived before Anna left the Grohmann estate for good.

Judges seemed to be some kind of a draw or fascination for Anna, for when she moved on to her next job, it was for another judge named Gebhard. Although he was already married, Anna made up her mind to remedy that. Gebhard’s wife was very sick with an unknown illness, which made it much easier for Anna to poison her slowly but surely. Not two weeks after Anna began putting arsenic in the woman’s food; Gebhard’s wife passed away, a very painful and debilitating death. Anna further went on to poison several other servants and the judge’s infant child with a biscuit covered in arsenic. Anna couldn’t care for a child after she and Gebhard were married, after all. All but one of servants survived, and the infant sadly died.

The servants, recovered from their poisoning, went to Gebhard privately begging him to have the food analyzed in the home. Something was wrong, they said, and Anna was the only one that was healthy in the home. With suspicion thick in the home, Anna decided that she had stayed her welcome and left before it was discovered that all the sugar containers and salt shakers were filled with deadly arsenic.

On October 18, 1809, Anna was arrested for the poisoning and for four murders. She had sent several letters to the Gebhard home, telling her master that she had loved the infant and wanted to resume her work. Anna waited six months in jail before admitting her crimes. She said, "Yes, I killed them all and would have killed more if I had the chance." She told her executers with a smile before being beheaded, "It is perhaps better for the community that I should die, as it would be impossible for me to give up the practice of poisoning people." Anna Zwanziger died husbandless with the blade of the guillotine crashing down on her neck in July 1811.