Béla Kiss

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Portrait of Béla Kiss

Béla Kiss (* 1877 ; † after 1932) was a Hungarian serial killer to whom the murders of at least 23 young women are ascribed. He stored the corpses of his victims in large metal containers on top of his property.

The actions

Kiss lived as a tinsmith in Cinkota (then Austria-Hungary , now part of Budapest ). He was described by his neighbors as very sociable. He was an amateur astrologist and probably also interested in occult teachings. In 1912 his wife Marie Kiss began an affair and shortly afterwards disappeared with her lover. He then hired a housekeeper named Jakubec and began corresponding with a number of attractive women.

In town it was noticed that Kiss was collecting huge metal bins. Kiss claimed that he was collecting gasoline in it for the looming war and for the likely eventuality of rationing . When the First World War broke out , he was drafted and left his house in the care of Mrs. Jakubec.

In 1916 it was said that Kiss had fallen. The homeowner asked the police what to do with the seven metal bins that he had found. One policeman remembered Kiss' statement that there was gasoline in the containers and reported to the army. When the soldiers tried to open one of the containers, they encountered a suspicious smell. The matter was turned over to the police; the investigations were led by Károly Nagy, who opened the bins against Ms. Jakubec's protest. The bodies of Marie Kiss and her lover, the only male victim, and the bodies of 17 other women were found preserved in alcohol. The victims had been strangled or poisoned.

Research revealed that the news of Kiss's death was due to a name mix-up. Nagy informed the military with a request for immediate arrest, which was unsuccessful. Kiss had either managed to escape with a new identity, or had been captured or actually fallen.

At first Ms. Jakubec was suspected of complicity because she was considered in Kiss's will. She was arrested and the post office instructed to intercept all letters sent to Kiss. Ms. Jakubec assured that she did not know anything about the murders. She showed the police a secret room that Kiss had forbidden her to enter. This room contained shelves full of books and a desk with letters from 74 women, as well as a photo album. Many of the books were about poisons or choking techniques.

From the letters, the oldest from 1903, Nagy saw that Kiss had pretended to be a lonely widower in marriage advertisements under the name "Hoffmann" ("Warm-hearted, single woman wanted"). He specifically selected women with no friends or close relatives, wooed them, and persuaded them to send him money. When things got serious, he would lure her to his property and strangle her. There were also old court files, according to which two victims had brought a lawsuit because Kiss had robbed them of their money. Both women disappeared and the trial was terminated.

On October 4, 1916, Nagy received a letter stating that Kiss was in a Serbian hospital. When Nagy arrived, Kiss had already fled, and the body of another soldier was lying in his bed. Nagy alerted the entire Hungarian police, but to no avail.

Rumor has it that he stayed in different places in the following years. He is said to have been imprisoned for burglary in Romania and served in the Foreign Legion in Turkey .

In 1924, a French Foreign Legionnaire reported on a legionnaire named Hoffmann who had boasted how well he could handle the choke loop and who fitted Kiss' description. However, "Hoffmann" had already deserted when the police arrived.

In 1932, a homicide officer, Henry Oswald, was certain to have seen him come out of the Times Square subway station in New York . Kiss is also rumored to have lived as a janitor in New York.

The fate of Kiss remained unknown.

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personal data
SURNAME Kiss, Béla
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian serial killer
DATE OF BIRTH 1877
DATE OF DEATH 20th century