A MODERN "BLUEBEARD"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22540, 3 October 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

A MODERN "BLUEBEARD"

The Amazing Record of Bela Kiss

HUNGARIAN WHO COMMITTED MANY MURDERS AND MAY STILL BE ALIVE By JOHN A. SMITH

(Copyright Reserved)

THE 'story of Bela Kiss, the Hungarian, is one of the 'strangest on record. Jealousy and passion stalked across his liio and he emerged from their contact a cold-blooded murderer, mad, yet with the cunning of the serpent. About March, 1912, he arrived with his beautiful young wife at Czinkota, a pleasure-resort near Budapest. He was 40 years old, well dressed, tall and black haired, with a thin, high-boned face and a sallow skin. His eyes were piercing and rather frightening. His wife was only 25. Thoy took a largo house standing m a garden about a mile from the village and in an isolated spot, iho villagers learned that Kiss was a wealthy retired tinsmith and the local doctor, who paid a visit to the newcomers, reported that they were interested in mysticism and astrology. Madame Kiss possessed a large crystal which she often used. After a few weeks the natural curiosity and suspicion with which the village regarded the couple died away. A Certain Young Artist Bela Kiss had a dilapidated car which ho drove regularly twice a week to Budapest. Early in the summer of that year villagers begun to notice that oiten "when ho was away his wife met a certain young artist named Paul Biliari, who was well known in the neighbourhood. They were seen walking about the country lanes and in the front garden of her house. When her husband •was at home Biliari stayed away. Tongues began to wag and probably someone told Bela Kiss of his wife's activities. One afternoon, about six months after the Hungarian's arrival at Czinkota, ho went by car into Budapest. Late at night M. Littman, who, being his nearest neighbour, had become friendly with Kiss, was wakened by a tremendous banging upon the door of his house. Outside stood Kiss, his eyes blazing, his hair dishevelled. He said that he had arrived home half an hour ago to find that his wife had eloped with her artist friend. She had left him a note which, in a- sudden rage, he had torn up and burned. Littman, who had formed a

situated. Hofman gave her brandy. As she raised her eyes in draining the glass her horrified gaze fell upon a mirror that hung opposite her. Behind her hack, his hands almost at her throat, the light of madness in his face, stood Hofman. She rose, screaming and overthrowing the tabic, and turned to face him. But she was no match for his strength. A municipal employee found her next morning, unconscious in a doorway, all her valuables gone. A dealer received some of her jewels in pawn and turned them over to the. police. No breath of suspicion touched Bela Kiss, still living an apparently blameless life, at Czinkota. In August he was conscripted. Very thoroughly, he barred every window of his house and put stout padlocks on the floors before he went. His friend Littman heard of him, lighting in Serbia, and wrote to him. In 1916 Littman's letter was returned with an official note which said: " Bela Kiss died of wounds in military hospital near Belgrade." That simple statement covered one of the most diabolically cunning acts any criminal, probably, has yet thought of. Littman learned that Kiss' name had been placed upon a war memorial. Events, however, marched toward an unmasking. Before the war drew to a close the authorities at Buda commandeered all petrol in the country. Someone in Czinkota remembered that Bela Kiss had a private store in his mysterious kegs. The police forced their way into his house and found the five large drums, ranged against tho wall. The first drum was tapped. It contained, not petrol, but raw alcohol. Horrible Evidence The top was torn from the drum. Inside was the perfectly preserved body of a murdered woman, recognisable as that of Mine. Kiss. Each keg was found to contain similar horrible evidence. Also in tho house wore found 160 pawn tickets for jewellery and clothing and many receipts for newspaper advertisements by means of which women had been lured to death. Hot upon the heels of this sensation came a series of discoveries. Near Czinkota, the body of a woman was found in a well. Where a farmer had seen

sincere liking for the man, calmed him as well as he could and Kiss went home in the morning, having slept for a few hours on his friend's sofa. The news spread through the village and people spoke pityingly of the man. For months Kis.s lived apparently alone in his big house, playing the heartbroken husband to perfection. Ho employed an old woman to cook and clean for him. She arrived in the morning and departed at night. Like everyone else, she was sorry for him and especially touched by the eight of some of his wife's clothes laid out neatly upen a tabic in one of the rooms. Once she asked him why ho did not divorce his wife. " She is happy with 'her lover," he answered dully. " They are at Nice, in the sun. Why Bhould 1 destroy their happiness?" One of the rooms in the house was always locked nnd one day the servant looked in through the keyhole. All she could see wero five large steel drums ranged against the opposite wall. She mentioned thisi to her daughter and eventually the Btory came to the ears of M. Littman. Whon he next saw Kiss he asked why he kept the drums. Return at Midnight "They are f.lll of petrol," said Kiss. " They were part of a bankrupt's stock which I touglit up cheaply." And with his story Littman set at rest the suspicions aroised in the village. He was the Hungarian's only social visitor and the villagers saw nothing of Bela Kiss except wh*jn stern, tight-lipped, be drove to Budapest; sometimes lie was heard returning at midnight- or in the early hours of the morning. Then in Janvary, 1914, Kiss was seen on a woodland road standing by his car with a young woman in smart city dress. A month later a farmer saw him walking through fields with a young girl, four mileit from tho village. Kiss was apparently recovering from the loss of his wile. One early morning in March, a girl named Luisa I?uszt arrived distraught at tho main police station at Buda. She told a strange story of having met a tall, dark nnn outside a theatre the previous evening and of having been invited to his flat for a liqueur. She had gone, walking with him through many confusintt side-streets and alleys until they came to lis home in a district she did i}ot recognise. Drugged and Robbed Upstairs, ho seated her at a table while, talking gaily, he mixed some drinks. She took the glass lie oHerod her and could remember nothing more until. at dawn, she found herself lying among some: bushes in a public park. The liqueur had been drugged; she woke to find her money and jewels gone. During the rest five weeks, two similar reports were brought to the police by girls who had mot a seemingly pleasant stranger in the streets. The next victim was a young woman named Houln. But for the intervention of a " thll, dark mJin " she would have been tun over by a taxi. Her new friend took her to a restaurant for supper. He told her that lie was a jeweller's travcl|g?yd that his name was Hofman. her jewels. Later he sugdrink at his apartment. Again i ..WW. so devious that the girl of where the flat was

Kiss walking with a girl more than three years ago, a corpse was unearthed. Another was discovered on the borders of a wood and proved to be that of the wife of a wealthy Viennese furrier. Then, in a field near Kiss' house, a plough uncovered a human foot. The garden of tho house was next examined and no fewer than 17 bodies of women were found beneath the soil. The countryside was in an uproar; everyone had heard the report of Kiss' death, and it was assumed that he had escaped the penalty of his crimes. Then, not long before the Armistice, Luisa Ruszt again saw Hofman in Budapest and the police decided to investigate the story of Bela Kiss' death from wounds. An inspector sent to Belgrade was able to see the nurse who attended the supposed Kiss before his death. Her information quite disposed of the theory that tho note Littman received was a forgery. Papers " Planted " Disappointed, the inspector was about to go when the nurse said: "I can't believe that such a good, religious young man as he was could be guilty of such crimes." " Young man?" cried tho inspector, aghast. " Why, yes," replied the nurse. "He was no more than twenty-two, and very fair." " Bela Kiss was nearly fifty, and dark," the inspector said quietly " I see it now. He planted his papers on a fatally-wounded man, hoping thus to submerge his identity." The authorities tried to hush up this amazing case, hut Bela Kiss' name and description were circulated to the police of every civilised country, and he is j still in their book as " Wanted." I He may be still alive 1 j