Oliver Haugh was born in 1871 in Dayton Ohio to Jacob and Frances Haugh. He was their youngest following the birth of Jesse Haugh. The Haugh family grew up on the same street as the famous Wright family. Jesse and Oliver Haugh were actually good friends of the Wright brothers. The Wright's recalled a time when they were playing hockey and Oliver struck one in the face breaking two of his front teeth. Many believe this is what started Wilbur Wrights journey. This incident caused him to have fake teeth put in place of his broken ones and caused many health issues including depression and digestive issues. Which led, partly, to his decision to not go to Yale and stay with his ill mother where him and his brother opened the print shop and the rest is history.
In his early teens Haugh started having issues with his teeth. Many started rotting. He started taking the legal "medicine" cocaine, morphine and opium, which he had easy access too, sine he worked at the local drug store. He quickly became depended on these substances and his teeth still continued to rot.
Oliver Haugh decided he wanted to get into the medical field after he became obsessed with the novel “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", by Robert Louis Stevenson (red flag #1, I must say). Not only did he want to become a doctor himself, he also started to model his life after the famed Dr. Jekyll. In 1888, Haugh started to attend Cincinnati Medical College, but after only 2 years, he found himself broke and unable to continue to pay the tuition. However, in the nick-of-time, his girlfriend, Ana found herself now fatherless. Ana's father did not approve of her dating Haugh and once her father had passed away, her and Haugh got married and he was able to continue his medical school due to the hefty life insurance they had received once they were married.
In 1893, Haugh graduated from medical school. n that same year, he opened a medical practice in his hometown Dayton, Ohio. Although, he accomplished his dream of being a doctor, he was still unable to control the addiction and things began to spin out of control.
Haugh ended up closing his practice after attacking his wife, while he was high on cocaine. Ana was able to escape to the neighbors, who called the authorities, who conducted a search of his office. They were able to obtain evidence of his addiction. Haugh closed his practice and moved back into his childhood home with his parents. Ana ended up leaving him, only to return a little while later when he learned she was pregnant.
While back at home, Oliver Haugh's behavior start to become destructive and uncontrollable and his family decided to have him committed to the Dayton Asylum. Once he was released, he opened another medical practice that ended up failing like the first. Many of the patients reported seeing Dr. Haugh passed out in his office. Many believed he was responsible for many of his patients deaths. On some accounts, he would advise the patient to take a mineral bath, then would neglect the patient and they would end up passing away from the disease they first tried to get help for. He found himself back into the asylum.
He was released in 1901 and attempted for the 3rd time to open another medical practice, but this time in Spooner, Wisconsin, where he labeled himself as a doctor who could cure anything. While in Wisconsin, he married another young women Delia (although still married to Ana) and found himself the prime suspect in the death of one of his patients. He was later acquitted for his crime. The newly married couple moved to Michigan where Delia found out that her loving husband is actually married to Ana and has been for many years. Delia went to the authorities to charge him with bigamy, but again he found himself not being charged because he started to take care of Delia's ill mother, who suddenly died in 1903. Delia still did not go to the authorities because Haugh was again committed to another asylum in Lebanon, Ohio.
While in Lebanon, Ohio befriended a Dr. Samuel Hermann, who Haugh told he had killed many women while trying to conduct an illegal abortion and that he had planned on killing his own brother, Jesse Haugh. He also threaten Dr. Hermann, by saying he would kill him if Hermann tried to tell anyone. He also started a relationship with a woman named Jenny. Haugh was able to use Jenny's inheritance to start yet another medical practice. This practice was far from legal.
Haugh got Jenny addicted to morphine and they opened a Saloon, where Haugh would treat patients. The Saloon was soon shut down once the local police were informed that prostitution and illegal medical services were being performed. Haugh was arrested for disorderly conduct. While he was in jail. Jenny over dosed and died. When Haugh was released he found himself drifting until he finally was back in Dayton.
He returned to his parents home and made a true effort to turn his life around. He started to attend church and fight his addictions. As he was finally making a turn, he decided he wanted to go back to his love of medicine and open another practice. He didn't have the money at the time and asked his father if he could loan the money. His father had lost hope in his son and didn't believe his addiction was cured, so he refused to help his open a 4th practice. Not only did he refuse that money, he also took Oliver out of his will believing any money would be wasted on drugs.
This enraged Dr. Oliver Haugh and he decided the only option he had now was to kill his entire family (or maybe go back to the asylum? can that be an option?). On November 5, 1905, Haugh poisoned his mother, father and his brother with hyoscine hydrobromide (which did not kill his family, but left them paralyzed) and lit the house on fire with lamp oil burning them alive. He told he neighbors that he had escaped the fire, but it was clear that the fire was not an accident. The trail of the lamp oil was clear and many saw him with large amounts of oil before the fire as well as seeing the order for the poison.
Haugh was arrested on November 10th and the trail started on February 22nd. The trial lasted 10 days and had 54 witnesses. Haugh was found guilty and sentenced to the electric chair, which took his life on April 19, 1907. Many believe that Haugh married at least 9 other women while he was still married to Ana. 4 of his wives died from hyoscine injected into their spine and many think Haugh is responsible. People believe that Haugh is actually responsible for at least 13 deaths. The true total is not known.
"They say that I murdered my father , my mother and brother with hyoscine for the sake of the money. Then they say that when I have taken enough of the hyoscine the man within me disappears, and Hyde is the power. It seems and though I must do something--destroy something. My only recourse is to get out into the street--out into the open country--away from men and women, lest I murder them. It is possible for me to have murdered these people and know nothing of it . . . all that I do know is, that if I die for these crimes, I shall at least have established the proof of the theory on which I have always insisted--that two beings, one of good, the other of evil, may exist in the same man, and in that respect at least I shall have rendered a distinct service to posterity." - Dr. Oliver Haugh
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