Murder

On a March night in 1879, a gunshot rang out near Washington Platform Saloon. After a man named Harry Baldwin was found with a mortal wound, William Schaller, the son of a wealthy brewer, was arrested and charged with murder. The following hours begot the city’s first high-profile murder investigation. The case against Schaller started to fall apart, and the days and months ahead added nothing but more twists, turns, allegations and dead leads. The crime almost destroyed the Schaller-Gerke brewing empire, threatened to expose a celebrity Madam’s list of exclusive and influential clientele, and laid bare the depths of Cincinnati’s moral depravity.

Reach Your Own Conclusions

Guests often reach firm — and different — conclusions about how Harry Baldwin died, who perpetrated the crime, and why. However, although Baldwin’s death riveted the city, corruption and incompetence helped ensure that the case went cold.

Crime Scene Tour, Theories & 4-Courses

Murder on the Menu begins with a brief walking tour of the 1879 crime scene. Guests then return to Washington Platform and begin a four-course, nineteenth-century inspired meal. Each course reflects items that were popular in Cincinnati in the late 1800s. Some of these foods and preparations have stayed with us through time, while many have been rediscovered by Chef Jon Diebold. Each month offers a different menu paired with craft brews from a featured local brewery. Author and attorney, Michael D. Morgan, unwinds the major theories of the case between courses. Ticket price is all-inclusive.

Buy Tickets

Image courtesy of Phil Armstrong

Anna Marie Hahn

German Housewife

& Serial Killer

Anna Marie Hahn immigrated from Bavaria, Germany in the late 1920s. She married a working-class Cincinnatian, opened a bakery and briefly settled into traditional American domesticity; but Anna hated the long hours working in a bakery, grew bored of her husband, and staked out a differnt path. She became a "home nurse," providing services for elderly men in Over-the-Rhine. Physical beauty and charm endeared her to her patients, but the relationships usually ended tragically. Anna's patients had a bad habit of dropping dead and a curious propensity for leaving her all of their worldly possessions. Although she was well into a successful killing spree at the time, Anna was not under suspicion by Cincinnati Police until a diamond theft and a corpse in Colorado began unraveling the crimes of a serial killer. Tried and convicted of murder in Cincinnati, Anna Marie Hahn became the first woman in the U.S. to die in the electric chair in 1938.

4-Courses & Wine Pairings

Many of the basic facts of Anna Marie Hahn's life and crimes are uncontroverted, but other aspects of Hahn's life are more contentious. People disagree over the number of her victims, what caused her to come to the U.S. -- opportunity vs. fleeing a possible murder charge -- and most notably, what motivated this fun-loving German girl to commit a string of heartless homicides. Murder On The Menu, Anna Marie Hahn, unravels the facts and explores the mysteries of this enigmatic killer over a four-course menu to die for with wine pairings selected by the Wine Cellar at Longworth Hall.

Buy Tickets

“I feel that I was justified in doing what I did. I owed this to society.”

- George Remus -

Image courtesy of Amy Fisher Taylor

George Remus

King of the Bootleggers & A Killer Lawyer

On October 6, 1927, George Remus, “the King of the Bootleggers,” shot his wife dead in front of rush hour traffic. Charged with capital murder, Remus chose to represent himself against famed Prosecutor Charles P. Taft II in one of the most bizarre courtroom dramas in American history.
June and November’s Murder on the Menu unravels the rise, fall, and murder trial of George Remus between a four-course, 1920’s inspired menu. Each course is paired with an installment in this infamous chapter in Cincinnati crime and a craft cocktail featuring George Remus Bourbon – liquor as deliciously nuanced as George Remus himself.