Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - She Can't Stop Sleeping With Men // The Dolly Oesterreich Murder Story

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

Dolly Oesterreich orchestrated one of the most bizarre secrets in true-crime history by hiding her secret lover Otto Sanhuber in her attic for over a decade and helping cover up her husband Fred's murder.

So why did this woman move a teenager into her attic to have an affair with? What is wrong with people? Now, the woman's name is Dolly, and Dolly's about 33 when this story starts, and she's living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Dolly has a problem. She's not happy in her marriage. Her husband works all day, so he's gone all the time. Plus, he's kind of a drunk, and she apparently isn't happy with his, you know, performance in bed. So how does she deal with all this?

Well, she starts smashing with other men, like she'll bring them around during the day when her husband's at work and she'll hook up with them. But one day, in 1913, she meets what she feels like is the perfect partner. So she's at home sewing when suddenly her sewing machine breaks down. And so a repairman shows up to fix it. Now that repair man is this guy, Otto. And Otto, he's only 17, so I guess he's more of a repair boy? Anyway, so Otto shows up to Dolly's house, and she answers the door wearing only a silk robe and stockings. Because, you know, she's trying to seduce him.

And the moment Otto sees her, he thinks she is the cat's meow! And Dolly thinks Otto is the bees' knees. And I don't know if he repaired her sewing machine or not, but eventually they start hooking up. And it doesn't stop there. She keeps inviting him back over and over and over again, and her husband has no idea. that this is happening. Now her husband's name is actually Fred. And eventually neighborhood gossip gets back to Fred and someone tells him, say, I think your wife is doing the hoochy-coochy with the repair boy. And so Fred gets super pissed off and he

confronts Dolly and Dolly says it was a mistake and she promises to break things off with Otto. But she doesn't break it off with Otto. She has no intention of breaking things off with him. And at the same time she doesn't want to leave Fred. So instead, she convinces Otto to secretly move into the attic of their house and live there. That way, they can keep smashing on the DL, and Fred will never find out. So he quits his job, and he moves into her attic, and he starts living there. And every morning, after Fred leaves for work, he'll come out, and he and Dolly will spend the whole day together. Then, in the evening, just before Fred gets home, he'll go back into the attic,

and he'll just stay there, reading books and writing whole ass novels and stuff like that. And believe it or not, this arrangement actually works. Now occasionally, Fred, when he's at home, will hear a noise or something coming from the attic. And he'll also notice that, like, his food keeps disappearing. And every single time, Dolly is there to give him some bullshit excuse. Like, she tells him that he's probably just imagining things because he drinks too much and he works too hard. and I guess Fred believes her. And five years pass, and it's now 1918.

And this affair is still going on. And Otto is still living in the attic. And at this point, Fred and Dolly decide to move to Los Angeles. But Dolly, she isn't about to leave Otto behind. So she insists to Fred that their new house needs to have an attic. And once Fred buys a new house with an attic, Dolly secretly sends Otto ahead so that he can move into that attic before she and Fred get there. And so then Dolly and Fred move into the new house, and the whole affair continues.

And about four more years pass, and so it's now 1922. And this is where things start to go very wrong. Because one night, Fred and Dolly are at home, and they get into a huge argument. And this argument gets heated, and they start yelling at it. each other. In Otto, he's up in the attic and he can hear everything going on downstairs, and he realizes Fred is about to beat Dolly up. So he grabs two pistols and he rushes downstairs and boom, he appears out of nowhere and he points one of them at Fred. And Fred, he's not about to back down from the stranger in his house. He lunges at Otto and the two of them struggle.

And then suddenly, Blam! Blam! Auto shoots Fred multiple times. And And unfortunately, Fred doesn't survive. Now, the gunshots are so loud that one of the neighbors hears them and they call the police. And pretty quickly, Dolly and Otto realize the police are probably on their way, and they have to think fast, or Otto is definitely going to prison. So they come up with an impromptu plan. They'll stage the scene to look like a robbery gone wrong. So Otto takes Fred's diamond watch to make it look like the...

robbers stole something. Then he locks Dolly inside a closet from the outside. Then he himself goes and hides in the attic. Minutes later, police arrive and they find Dolly trapped in the closet. And she tells them this whole bullshit story about how armed robbers broke into the house and then they shot Fred and then they locked her in the closet and they fled the scene. And the police, they have no reason to doubt her story. I mean, they can't predict a guy's living in the attic. So they investigate the murder, but eventually the case goes cold. Meanwhile, Dolly goes back to living her regular life, and Otto stays living in the attic. Because I guess he can't move into the main house yet, as Dolly is supposed to be a grieving widow, and him suddenly living with her would look bad.

Now, during this grieving process, Dolly still has the gun that was used to kill Fred, and she absolutely wants to get rid of it. But she doesn't ask Otto to help her. Instead, she asks her new boyfriend that she's been smashing with. Yes, along with Otto and her husband, Dolly had recently been hooking up with yet another dude on the side. Well, she asks this guy to get rid of the gun. So this guy takes the gun and he throws it into the La Brea tar pits. And about a year passes. And Dolly and her new boyfriend, they break up.

And this dude, he must be bitter about this breakup, because afterwards he goes right to the police and he tells them that he helped Dolly get rid of a gun and he thinks that that gun may have been the one used to kill Fred. And so police go and they recover the gun from the tar pits and bam, Dolly is arrested. Here's a picture of her. And so now she's in jail waiting for her trial.

Meanwhile, back at home, Otto is still hiding in the attic. And he doesn't have any money or food. I mean, he's been out of work for a long time. And he's been financially dependent on Dolly for years. So from jail, Dolly contacts her attorney and asks him to take some groceries over to Otto. And so the attorney goes to the house and he gives Otto a bunch of groceries. And Otto, he hasn't had conversation for a really long time. I mean, he's been locked in that attic while Dolly's been in jail.

So while he and the attorney are talking, he tells this attorney everything, about living in the attic, about the affair, about the murder, everything. And then the attorney advises him to move out of the house and leave town immediately. You know, just to be safe. After that, the attorney bails Dolly out of jail and he starts smashing with her and he becomes her name. newest live-in boyfriend. And so after all of that, it looks like Dolly might actually get away with murder. Until. About seven years pass. And Dolly and the attorney, they end their relationship. And I guess attorney is bitter about the breakup as well, because that is when he decides that he's done protecting her. And he goes straight to the police and he tells them everything that

Otto confessed to him. And so, bam, Dolly is arrested once again. Also, Bam, Otto's arrested. Here's a picture of him. And ultimately, Dolly goes to trial and this trial ends in a mistrial. So she's never convicted, absolutely no prison time. While Otto also goes to trial and he's found guilty, but by this point, the statute of limitations for the charge has already expired, So Otto walks away a free man.