Re: Heinrich & Anna Eicher, Park Ridge IL
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In reply to:
Re: Heinrich & Anna Eicher, Park Ridge IL
9/03/01
Mrs Asta Buick Eicher and her three children were murdered byHerman Drenth, AKA,Harry Powers.Harry Powers was hanged at the state penitentiary, at Moundsville, West Virginia in 1933.
(Herman Drenth)Harry Powers went by other aliases and had placed ads in many magazines looking to form relationships with lonely women. One of Powers' mail-order girlfriends was a 50-year-old widow from Park Ridge, Ill., to whom Powers paid a visit, going so far as to meet the woman's neighbors.
But Asta Buick Eicher and her three children, a 12-year-old boy and two daughters aged 9 and 14, vanished suddenly from their home the summer of 1931. Neighbors got worried and contacted Powers, whose sudden appearance in the Eicher family's lives had everyone suspicious. He explained that the family was vacationing in Europe.
There was a powerful book written by Davis Grubb titled, The Night of the Hunter.It is loosely based on the character of Harry Powers. The movie, directed by Charles Laughton in 1955, is now considered a movie classic. Robert Mitchum played the charater of Harry 'Powell'. Shelly Winters was the widow he wooed, but her two children escape and are pursued by Mitchum until they land virtually on the doorstep of Lillian Gish's farm.As she takes them in and confronts Mitchum, the suspense is overwhelming.
Linda