Hungary: Béla Kiss and the Lonely Hearts Murders

Episode 14 of 15 | Season 36: Serial Killers in History

In a locked storage chamber in rural Hungary, seven sealed metal drums waited to reveal their terrible secrets—each containing the perfectly preserved body of a woman who had answered a marriage advertisement.

The investigation into Hungary's most prolific lonely hearts killer reaches its chilling conclusion as we trace Béla Kiss's extraordinary escape from justice during the chaos of World War One.

VICTIM PROFILE:

Katherine Varga sold her dressmaking business for the promise of marriage. Margaret Toth trusted her mother's choice of a husband. These women weren't victims of circumstance—they were successful, independent, and looking for partnership in an era when marriage advertisements represented a respectable path to companionship. They responded to notices in Budapest newspapers, exchanged romantic letters with a successful tinsmith named Béla Kiss, and traveled alone to his home in Cinkota with their valuables and their hopes. The skills that had supported Katherine's independence—her precise needlework—would later identify her remains years after Kiss strangled her and sealed her body in an alcohol-filled drum.

THE CRIME:

This case changed how Hungarian law enforcement approached missing persons cases and marriage advertisement fraud. Kiss's crimes exposed the vulnerability of women seeking companionship in early twentieth-century society and demonstrated how a charismatic predator could weaponize social conventions for years without detection. The preserved bodies—so pristine that victims remained recognizable years after death—stand as haunting evidence of how ordinary systems can shield extraordinary evil. Béla Kiss remains one of criminology's greatest unsolved mysteries, his ability to disappear so completely ensuring his story continues to captivate researchers worldwide.

Content Warning: This episode contains descriptions of violence against women and discussions of serial murder. Listener discretion advised.

KEY CASE DETAILS:

The investigation into Béla Kiss began in mid-1916 when landlord Márton Kresinszky and pharmacist Béla Takács discovered seven metal drums in Kiss's locked storage chamber. Each drum, professionally sealed with lead solder, contained a woman's body preserved in wood alcohol and strangled with a rope or garrotte. Investigators found seventeen more bodies throughout the property, bringing the total to twenty-four victims—all killed with the same methodical approach.

Timeline: Kiss operated between 1912-1914, placing matrimonial advertisements in Budapest newspapers under the alias "Hofmann." Conscripted to the 40th Honvéd Infantry Brigade in 1914, he left his home in housekeeper Mrs. Jakubec's care. The discovery came nearly two years later during renovation preparations.

Method: Kiss corresponded with 174 women, actively pursued 74, and lured victims by emphasizing his financial stability and respectable tinsmith business. He requested women travel alone and bring their valuables. After strangling them, he took their assets and preserved bodies in alcohol-filled drums—a technique that astounded medical examiners with its effectiveness.

Escape: In October 1916, Detective Chief Charles Nagy traveled to a Serbian military hospital after reports Kiss was alive. He arrived to find a corpse in Kiss's bed—but the face was wrong. Kiss had switched identity documents with a dying soldier and walked out of the hospital into the chaos of war-torn Serbia.

Aftermath: In 1932, New York City homicide detective Henry Oswald was certain he spotted Kiss emerging from the Times Square subway station. The sighting was never confirmed. Whether Kiss died in the trenches, lived out his days under an assumed identity, or met some other fate remains unknown. The mathematics of his notebook—174 contacts, 74 pursued, 24 found—leaves terrible questions about fifty unaccounted women.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND SOURCES:

This episode draws on contemporary Hungarian police records, the detailed account by Austro-Hungarian author Frigyes Karinthy who witnessed the body examinations, court documents from earlier proceedings against Kiss by victims Julianne Paschak and Elizabeth Komeromi, and historical research into World War One-era military hospital conditions in occupied Serbia. The investigation reveals how wartime chaos enabled Kiss's escape and how early twentieth-century record-keeping failures allowed a serial killer to vanish completely.

RESOURCES AND FURTHER READING:

For listeners interested in exploring this case further, these historically significant sources provide additional context:

• The Hungarian National Archives maintains police investigation records from the original 1916 Cinkota discovery and subsequent manhunt
• Academic research on early twentieth-century matrimonial fraud and lonely hearts schemes in Austro-Hungarian newspapers
• Military hospital records from WWI-era Serbia documenting the typhoid epidemic and identification challenges that enabled Kiss's escape
• Contemporary newspaper coverage from Budapest publications reporting on the barrel discoveries

RELATED FOUL PLAY EPISODES:

If you enjoyed this early twentieth-century Hungarian case, explore these related Foul Play episodes:

• Season 36, Episode 12: Maria Swanenburg - Another insurance-focused serial killer from the 1880s Netherlands who targeted vulnerable community members
• Season 36, Episode 9: Maria Jeanneret - Swiss poisoner who exploited positions of trust to prey on isolated victims
• Season 36, Episode 15: Karl Denke - German serial killer who evaded detection through community respectability until the 1920s

Foul Play is hosted by Shane Waters and Wendy Cee. Research and writing by Shane Waters with historical consultation. Music and sound design featuring period-appropriate Hungarian and Eastern European folk elements. For more forgotten cases from history's darkest corners, subscribe to Foul Play wherever you listen to podcasts.

Next week on Foul Play: The season finale explores Karl Denke, the forgotten cannibal of Münsterberg, whose decades of murder remained hidden behind the façade of a respected German businessman. Subscribe now to follow Serial Killers in History to its conclusion.

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