June 12, 2025

The True Story of The Bluebeard Killer

The True Story of The Bluebeard Killer

The True Story of The Bluebeard Killer Harry Powers lied to lonely women during one of the hardest times in American history and turned it into a full-blown system. While people were standing in breadlines and trying to keep their families fed, he...

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The True Story of The Bluebeard Killer

Harry Powers lied to lonely women during one of the hardest times in American history and turned it into a full-blown system. While people were standing in breadlines and trying to keep their families fed, he was writing letters. Not looking for love—looking for leverage.

He promised wealth, mansions, and stability. What he actually had was a garage behind his wife’s grocery store and a growing list of people who vanished after meeting him.

This episode unpacks the story of Harry Powers, the so-called Bluebeard Killer. We’ll trace how he exploited grief and desperation, how the trail finally caught up with him, and why he’s remembered as one of the most manipulative killers of his time. He thought he had it all figured out. Until he didn’t.

#HarryPowers #TrueCrimePodcast #BluebeardKiller #SerialKillerStory #10MinuteMurder #GreatDepressionCrime #LonelyHeartsKiller #TrueCrimeHistory

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WEBVTT

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During the Great Depression, most people were scraping together pennies

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just to survive. One guy figured out a more efficient strategy.

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Merry lonely women, take their money, and then they mysteriously

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stopped showing up to dinner. He called himself a wealthy widower.

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He said he owned a ten room mansion. What he

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actually had was a garage behind his wife's grocery store

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and a talent for lying through his teeth. This is

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the story of Harry Powers, part con man, part predator,

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and a walking red flag in a pinstriped suit. Before

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we jump into the story. If you like your true

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crime bingeable, you're exactly where you need to be. Hit

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follow now for at least two new episodes every week.

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This is ten minute murder. Let's get into it. The

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Great Depression didn't exactly come with a warning label. One

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minute people were building futures thriving. The next they were broke, hungry,

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and hanging on by a thread. And while most folks

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tried to survive with what little they had, one man

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saw an opportunity to climb out of poverty by using

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other people as his ladder. His name was harm Drinth,

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born in the Netherlands in eighteen ninety two. He immigrated

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to the US with his parents in nineteen ten, landing

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in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His family settled into the local

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Dutch community, living quietly and minding their own business. But

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Harm wanted more than quiet. He wanted out. He threw

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himself into learning English and got good at it. By

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the time he served in World War One, he sounded

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like any other American kid. When he came back, he

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reintroduced himself as Harry Powers. The quiet immigrant son had vanished,

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replaced by a guy who claimed to be a successful

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oil stock promoter in Oklahoma. He wasn't, obviously, but pretending

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paid better. In nineteen twenty seven, now in his thirties,

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Harry responded to a lonely heartsad from a woman named

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Lluella Struther. She owned her own farm and a grocery store,

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which to Harry might as well have been a jackpot.

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Then he got married, and that's when it clicked. He'd

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tried making money the honest way, he'd even dabbled in

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making it dishonestly, but marrying a woman with money that

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was clean, simple and legally binding, and during a time

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when half the country was barely scraping by Harry Powers

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decided that love letters were the new con game. He

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just needed enough desperate people to believe he was worth trusting.

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By the time the Great Depression tightened its grip, the

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world had already been through a war and left behind

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a wave of women who had lost their husbands to

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the battlefield. These women suddenly expected to raise families alone

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with whatever their late partners left behind. Some had land,

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some had a little money, and all of them had

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the same thing. Harry Powers was looking for vulnerability. Still

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married to Luella, Harry started moonlighting as several other men.

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He wrote back to Lonely Heart's ads and newspapers, and

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even ran a few of his own, All of them

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shouted in all caps, just in case desperation wasn't loud enough.

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Wealthy widower worth one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, a

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very fine looking man of thirty eight, He claimed he

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was too busy with business enterprises to make friends, but

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was looking for a faithful woman who'd enjoy his ten

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room house, her own car, and more spending money than

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she'd know what to do with. None of it was real.

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His wife Luella was alive and still very much married

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to him, that Howes didn't exist. What he did have

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was a garage he'd converted into a private hideout behind

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her grocery store. That was his office, his workshop, and

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as will later find out, something far worse. His fake

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ads pulled in women at a steady pace. Many were

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war widows with children and no financial safety net, so

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when someone offered them food, shelter, and a second chance,

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it was easy to believe the fantasy. Harry reportedly got

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between ten and twenty letters a day. One of those

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letters came from Asta Iker in park Ridge, Illinois. Asta

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was a widow with three kids. Unlike many others, she

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still had a little financial stability, but she was carrying

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the weight of it all alone. When Harry, using the

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name Cornelius or Van Pearson, started writing her, he said

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all the right things, the timing, the tone, the promises.

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She wanted someone to help carry the load. She had

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no idea she was walking into the hands of someone

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who only wanted to take more. When Harry, now going

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by Cornelius Orvin Pearson, showed up at Asda's door in

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park Radge, Illinois, he didn't set off any alarms. He

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seemed polite, charming, maybe even a little awkward. But Asta

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liked him enough, apparently, to agree to go away with

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him on a trip and leave her three children behind.

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That was a big decision, but she'd written home to

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say things with Cornelius were serious. She wanted her children

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to join them soon. So when Cornelius came back about

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a week later alone, no one really panicked. He said,

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Asda had everything arranged and the kids could pack up

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their things. Now they were going to be a family again.

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He handed over a check from Asta and sent one

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of the kids to the bank to clean out her account.

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But the bank teller took one look at the signature

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and paused. It didn't match any of Asta's previous checks.

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They flagged it and sent the child back with nothing.

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Cornelius didn't wait around. He gathered up the kids and left,

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telling neighbors they were off to Europe. Just like that,

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the entire Iker family disappeared, no calls, no postcards, no return.

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While that was happening in Illinois, over in Massachusetts, another

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woman named Dorothy Presler was packing for what she thought

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was her future. She had met a charming man through

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a Lonely Heart's at They were engaged, and he'd asked

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her to withdraw four thousand dollars before the wedding. She did.

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Then she moved to West Virginia to be with her

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new husband. No one ever heard from her again. By

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the summer of nineteen thirty one, nearly a year after

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that forged check stunt at the bank, Harry Powers returned

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to the Iker home. This time, he wasn't charming, he

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wasn't pretending to court anyone. He was there to clean

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it out, and that's when people finally started to pay attention.

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It took a while, but people started connecting the dots.

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A family vanished, a strange man came and went, and

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suddenly neighbors who'd brushed it off were asking real questions now.

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Once the police stepped in, they found a stack of

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letters between Asta and the man she knew was Cornelius.

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That trail led them straight to a garage behind a

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grocery store in West Virginia, where Harry Powers still lived

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with Luella. He hadn't exactly covered his tracks. He was smart,

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but also real dumb. Inside that four room garage, investigators

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walked into what can only be described as a crime scene,

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frozen in chaos, bloody clothing, clumps of hair, and a

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child sized bloody footprint stamped into the floor. Word got

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out fast, crowds showed up, the chaos spilled out into

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the streets. Then a local kid came forward. He told

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police he'd helped Harry dig a ditch in the backyard

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not long ago. That's where they found the bodies of

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Asta Iker, her three children, and Dorothy Presler. Asta and

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her daughters had been strangled, her son had been beaten

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with a hammer. Dorothy was also strangled, and the belt

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used to kill her was still around her neck. When

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police searched Harry's car, they found hundreds of letters from

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other women, each won a potential victim. The press gave

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him a new nickname, the blue Beard Killer, borrowed from

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an old folk tale about a man who killed his

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wife's But this wasn't folklore. It was real, and the

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timing made it even harder. People were already struggling to

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feed their families and trust their futures. This man comes along,

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preying on grief and loneliness for his own gain. The

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public was furious. Not long after his arrest, Harry conveniently

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fell down the stairs if you know what I'm saying,

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and ended up with two black eyes. His home turned

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into a side show attraction. Promoters actually built a six

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foot high fence around the garage and a burial site

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where they charged admission. That lasted one night. Roughly two

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hundred people rushed the scene and set the garage on fire.

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A week later, nearly five thousand people surrounded the jail

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where Harry was being held. They wanted him not for justice,

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but for revenge. The police had to use tear gas

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and fire hoses to break it up, and Harry was

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quietly transferred to a more secure state prison. His trial

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didn't calm anyone down. It only lasted five days, but

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the crowd was so large they had to hold it

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in a local opera house. Witnesses took the stand, connecting

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Harry to the victims and their personal belongings. It was

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enough he was sentenced to death. The following spring, Harry

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Powers walked into the gallows, dressed to the nines, dark

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pinstriped suits, white shirts, black tie. Cool as ever, he

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declined to make a final statement. The guard placed the

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hood over his head, pulled the lever and that was it.

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He hung there for eleven minutes before he was declared dead.

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Thanks for listening to ten minutes murder binge able true

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crime stories. My name is Joe, I'm the host, and

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thank you so much for taking the time out of

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your day to listen. If you're off to binge Moore,

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don't let me stop you keep right on cooking. But

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about today's story, This guy Harry Powers his former name harm,

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which I guess is fitting. He saw this grief and

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the struggle, the desperation that people were going through back

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around that time, no doubt, rubbed his hands together and said,

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these are the perfect conditions for a scam. He sold

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himself with these fake names and these fake ads and

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just prayed on everyone he possibly could. And if you

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think for one second, even though these lonely hearts ads

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don't exist in the same way now as they used to,

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if you don't think there are people on Tinder and

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bumble and Craigslist. I suppose I don't know how people

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do things nowadays, But if you don't think there are

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people exactly like this out there trying to prey on you,

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then you're out of your mind. This is absolutely happening

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just because we don't hear about it all the time.

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I think our bs meters are a little bit better

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than they were back then, but it's definitely still happening,

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So keep your head on a swivel. Hey, if you're

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brand new to listening to ten Minute Murder, first of all, welcome, Second,

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make sure to go to ten minute Murder dot com.

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There you're going to find more stories, back episodes. You

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to listen everywhere. You can find that all at ten

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minute murder dot com. And if you're an og listener,

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you've been around a while. I love you with every

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piece of my heart. That's going to do it for today,

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and I'll see you next time.