Bela Kiss | Page 5

of
Europe -- we need not dwell.
Search of Bela Kiss's belongings brought to light a number of receipts
for advertisements inserted in several of the most important newspapers
in Vienna and Budapest, and upon examination of the files of those
papers the advertisements in question were easily identified.
One, which was repeated in ten different issues of the paper, read:
Bachelor: aged 40: lonely; good income from commercial enterprises
averaging £3000 per annum, is desirous of corresponding with

educated lady with a view to matrimony. Address: De Koller, Poste
Restante, Granatos, Budapest.
A number of other similar advertisements were traced by the receipts,
all of which were either alluding to matrimony or trying to induce girls
to learn their future. Indeed, when the police came to inquire at the Post
Office in Budapest they found no fewer than fifty-three letters awaiting
the mysterious De Koller undelivered!
In a Vienna daily newspaper the following advertisement was found:
"Know Yourself! -- Those who wish to know their future and thus
frame their lives should consult Professor Hofmann of Budapest. Write:
Poste Restante, Vienna." To this one advertisement there were
twenty-three replies awaiting him, all from women eager to have their
fortunes told. It then became plain that the fellow's habit was to lure
women possessing even paltry sums of money or modest jewellery,
either to his flat in Budapest, or to take them out by night to his house
at Czinkota, and there strangle them. The tin drums of spirit he
evidently used in order to preserve the bodies of his victims until he
could bury them in secret or otherwise dispose of them.
A number of prisoners of war were at once set to work digging in Kiss's
garden and in the acacia woods, the result being that no fewer than
twenty-six other bodies of women and girls were found at various spots.
Over one hundred and sixty pawn-tickets relating to women's clothing
were found concealed under the carpet of the dining-room, and by the
recovery of the clothing and some jewellery, fourteen of his victims
were eventually identified. They were mostly of women of the better
class, and in every case had worn jewellery, and had money in their
possession when they had gone to consult him.
The method he adopted never varied. His first crime was committed by
means of a cord slipped over the head and drawn tight ere his victims
could utter a cry -- thus adopting the method of the notorious
Frenchwoman Gabrielle Bompard -- and so successful was he that he
always pursued the same course. Among the bodies recovered in the
garden was one which was identified as the young wife who was
supposed to have fled with the artist, Paul Bihari. The latter was found

in Agram, and when questioned by the police stated that one day, while
at the house in Czinkota, Kiss came home unexpectedly, and after a
fracas he left and had not seen the lady or heard of her since.
The monster Bela Kiss had, however, died of wounds received while
fighting in Serbia, therefore the police hushed up the terrible affair, and
soon the gruesome discovery was forgotten by all except the villagers
of Czinkota.
About a year later, however, Inspector Resch, of the detective force of
Budapest, learned that a man closely resembling Franz Hofmann had
been seen a week before by the girl Luisa Ruszt -- who had had such a
narrow escape while gazing into the crystal globe. At first he was not
inclined to believe her, but so positive was she that she had actually
seen him in the flesh, that the police officer decided to go to hospital at
Belgrade and learn details at first hand of the assassin's death.
On arrival he found that Bela Kiss had died from wounds, and he was
given the dead man's papers, which proved his identity beyond question.
By mere chance the nurse who had tended him in his dying moments
was still there, and naturally the inspector questioned her as to the end
of such a callous and elusive criminal.
"But surely," she remarked, "such a very frank and pious-minded boy
could not have committed such awful crimes!"
"Boy!" echoed the inspector. "What do you mean? Bela Kiss was over
forty years old."
"Well, the Bela Kiss who died here was about twenty!" was her reply.
Again the surprised detective examined the identification papers, and
saw that without doubt they were the genuine ones belonging to Bela
Kiss of Czinkota. Hence the assassin had, no doubt, exchanged papers
with the poor young fellow who had died and been buried under his
name.
With this astounding knowledge Inspector Resch sped back to

Budapest, and a thorough search was at once made for the assassin. The
police of Europe