True Crimes
Serial killer Belá Kiss killed at least 24 people – and stored the bodies in barrels
Not far from the Margaret Bridge in Budapest, he made an appointment to meet his future victims under the name “Hoffmann”.
© Imago / Wikipedia
At the beginning of the 20th century, one of the worst serial killers that Hungary has ever known lived in Budapest: Belá Kiss killed 24 people and stored their bodies in metal barrels.
Born in 1877, Belá Kiss worked as a plumber in a workshop in Budapest. In 1912 he and his wife Maria moved to a farm in Cinkota, a small tranquil town near Budapest. He did his daily work there as a self-employed master plumber. But soon dark clouds moved over the couple’s happiness in love.
Kiss told neighbors at the end of the same year that his wife Maria had met another man he had caught her with. A short time later she is said to have eloped with her new lover and disappeared. Kiss then began collecting large metal barrels on his farm. Anyone who asked him the reason for this strange collection got the answer that they were filled with petrol. In the coming war this will be a valuable asset. He also told a police officer about it.
Kiss met women very often
The bachelor made no move to find a new wife. Instead, he hired a housekeeper to do the housework that a wife would typically do at the time. Kiss was very popular in the town. He was considered intelligent, a hard worker, generous, liked to debate and had an opinion on everything. He is also said to have been very handsome. The unmarried women of the place were very interested in the bachelor. But because there was only too limited a choice of women in Cinkota, nearby Budapest became interesting for Kiss again. There is evidence that he placed advertisements in the newspaper and kept bringing new ladies to his farm. But strangers never got to know one of the visitors.
When Belá Kiss was drafted into the army in 1914 and his lease expired, the landlord came to visit the farm. He wanted to check what repair work would be necessary in order to be able to rent the building again. During a tour, he noticed the barrels that were stored there. When he opened one of them, he was met with a disgusting smell. He got a neighboring pharmacist to help, who confirmed that the smell could only come from a decaying person. He then reported his find to the police.
The court of Bela Kiss in Cinkota.
©Wikipedia
24 barrels with 24 corpses
The police officers found metal barrels, some of which were buried, all over the yard. Inside each was a strangled and bound corpse of a woman. They were so well preserved by wood alcohol that their faces were still recognizable. The housekeeper, who still lived on the farm, was stunned by the discoveries and protested that she knew nothing of the darker side of her master. She showed investigators Kiss’s room, where letters and photos of more than a hundred women were found. All responded to marriage notices in the daily newspaper addressed to a certain “Hoffmann”. It turned out that Kiss often dated women who lived near him. He specifically made sure that they had savings and that none of their relatives lived nearby.
He began relationships with them, made promises of marriage and at some point demanded money from them – for various reasons. Sometimes he even received all of their savings. If money was then demanded back and the women threatened him with the police, it meant their deaths.
In all, investigators found 24 barrels at the yard and scattered throughout Cinkota. There was a woman’s body in each one except one. It is said to have contained the corpse of the man with whom his wife Maria once cheated on him. And she herself is said to have been in one of the barrels.
The police discovered 24 metal barrels in the yard
©Wikipedia
The serial killer case is considered closed immediately
Because Belá Kiss was killed in the war 18 months after entering the army, the case was considered closed from that point on. But in the years that followed, the police had to deal with Kiss again and again: Many people heard about the story of the “Monster from Cinkota”, and they also read about it in the newspaper. Reports kept coming in to the police that Belá Kiss had been seen somewhere: in 1919 on a walk in Budapest, in 1924 with the French Foreign Legion, in 1932 in New York’s Times Square. The curious thing was that the cop who claims to have recognized Kiss in New York was extremely good at remembering faces. Today you would probably call him Super Recognizer describe. Finally, in 1936, there was a rumor that Kiss was now working as a janitor in New York.
To this day, people are still wondering whether Kiss really died in the war or whether he just faked his death. He was never stupid and in the chaos of the trenches he could easily have grabbed the papers of a fallen comrade. If that were the case, one of Hungary’s most notorious murderers would have killed many more than 24 people.
Sources: “The Great Encyclopedia of Serial Killers”, “CrimeLibrary” (WebArchive),