Bela Kiss | Page 3

She said that one evening she had met a man in the Somossy variety
theatre, and he had taken her next day for a long motor drive. On their
way back to Budapest, they had stopped at his country house and there
had some refreshment. Afterwards they returned to the city, when he
invited her to his flat somewhere near the Margaret Bridge. They had
dinner at a restaurant, when he told her that if she cared to go back to
his flat he would tell her fortune. Like most girls she was eager to know
her future, therefore she consented and went.
On arrival he offered her some pale yellow liqueur which seemed very
strong, and then setting her at a table he told her to gaze intently into a
small crystal globe. In fun he promised that she would see her future
husband.

She did as he instructed, and had been gazing intently for some time
when she began to experience a strange dizziness, probably due to the
liqueur. Suddenly, on looking up from the crystal she saw in a mirror at
her side the man standing behind her with a piece of green silk cord in
his hand. It had a noose and a slip-knot, and he was about to place it
over her head!
Sight of the changed face of her friend -- a pale, evil countenance, with
glaring dark eyes which had in them the spirit of murder -- held her
breathless. She fainted, and knew no more until she found herself lying
beneath the trees in the Erszebet Park at dawn with all her jewellery
and money gone.
She described to the police, as well as she could, the man with his
house in the country and his flat in the town, but, though some inquiries
were made, neither flat nor house could be identified, and they
apparently dismissed the story as the imaginings of a romantic girl.
Curiously enough, however, about three weeks later a very similar
story was told by a young married woman of good family, and whose
husband was a wealthy merchant, to the police of the Belvaros quarter
of Budapest. The lady, who lived on the handsome Franz Josef's Quai,
facing the Danube, had met a smartly dressed man one Sunday morning
as she came out alone after service in the Terezvaros Church, which
was highly fashionable during the Budapest season. She was nearly run
down by a passing taxi when he had grabbed her arm and pulled her
back. Thus they became acquainted. They walked together for some
distance, when he told her that his name was Franz Hofmann, a
jeweller's traveller, and that he was greatly interested in spiritualism.
She happened to be also interested in spiritualism, hence a friendship
was formed. Her husband was away in Paris, therefore she invited him
to dine at her house a few days later, and at the dinner she appeared
wearing some valuable jewellery, while he, as a jeweller, admired it
greatly.
Later that evening Hofmann invited her to go to one of the most select
night cafŽs for which Budapest is famous, and she accepted.
Afterwards, at two o'clock in the morning, he persuaded her to

accompany him to his flat, where he would tell her fortune by the
crystal. She went, and almost the same thing happened. She drank the
liqueur, and he tried to strangle her. She fought with him, was
overpowered, and when she came to her senses found herself in the
hands of the police devoid of her jewellery. She had been found lying
in a doorway unconscious. This second story aroused the interest of the
Budapest police, and inquiries were made, but neither woman could say
where the flat in question was situated. They had been taken there, they
said, by a roundabout route. The taxi had been dismissed at what
seemed to be a cul-de-sac, and they had walked the remainder of the
distance. They both described the interior in identical terms and their
description of the man left no doubt at it was the same individual in
each case.
Then, when a third girl told a similar story a fortnight later, and when a
dealer in second-hand jewellery had shown the police a ring the
description of which had been circulated, a real hue and cry was raised.
But just at that moment war broke out and the country was thrown into
disorder. The police system quickly broke down, and every available
man as called up to fight against the Allies on the side of the Germans.
Bela Kiss was among those called up. He had been living a quiet,
lonely, uneventful life, and as soon as the call to arms came he ordered
from a blacksmith a number of iron bars, which he