Bela Kiss On Monday Mystery...!

The past is full of the killer types, many who were caught and punished and just a few that got away!

Probably the rarest of all the killers in history fall in to category of mass murderers, and thankfully they are not as plentiful as many have been caught. However, some did escape justice. This is the story of one!

Béla Kiss

Kiss of Death

Béla Kiss (born in 1877) was an Hungarian serial killer. He is thought to have murdered at least 24 young women, and attempted to pickle them in giant metal drums that he kept on his property. He was a tinsmith who had lived in Cinkota (a town near Budapest), since 1900. He was an amateur astrologer and was fond of occult practices. Members of the community noticed that he was amassing a number of large metal drums, which he said were filled with gasoline to prepare for rationing in the First World War, which was looming. He was conscripted into the army and left the town. In July 1916, Budapest police received a call from a Cinkota landlord who had found seven large metal drums. The town constable had remembered Kiss’ stockpile of gasoline, and led needy soldiers to them. Upon attempting to open the drums, a suspicious odor was noted. Detective Chief Charles Nagy took over the investigation and opened one of the drums. There they discovered the body of a strangled woman. The other drums yielded similarly gruesome content. A search of Kiss’ house resulted in a total of 24 bodies. Kiss’ housekeeper assured police that she knew absolutely nothing about the murders, and showed them a secret room Kiss had told her never to enter. The room was filled with bookcases, but also had a desk that held a number of letters, Kiss’ correspondence with 74 women and a photo album. Many of the books were about poisons or strangulation. Kiss was found recuperating in a hospital in Serbia, but he escaped by putting a dead soldier’s body in his bed. He was never caught, but people claimed to have seen him in various places around the world, including leaving a New York subway.

I guess that once in a while, in spite of our best efforts, one of the bad guys does get away! We can only hope he met with some justice somewhere along the way!

Coffee out on the patio this morning. Watch for the rain just in case!