Angels of Nagyrev

I have a hard time getting my friends to decide which movie to see on any given Saturday night, but in at town called Nagyrev in Hungary between 1914-1929, three hundred people were poisoned and an entire town kept who the killers were a secret for 15 years.

Julia (Zsuzsanna)Fazekas was a greedy midwife who was always looking for ways to make money. So in addition to her duties as a midwife, she also provided help to women who did not want to be pregnant by performing abortions.

When a rival midwife set up shop in what Fazekas saw as her territory, she set out to get rid of her. First, she seduced the rival’s brother (how that helped, I’m not sure) and soon the rival was found dead. Very convenient. The rival’s brother felt that Fazekas was to blame and came after her. Fazekas organized the town’s women to threaten the brother. He didn’t care and came after the midwife with a gun; he shot her, but missed. He was sent to prison…problem solved.

Fazekas was probably the only person who saw WWI as a good thing. First, the men in town all enlisted to fight in the war. This was a good thing since at that time marriages were arranged and women had nothing to say about who they married. If the husband proved to be unsatisfactory, there was no chance for divorce…divorce was illegal. So, the men going to war was advantageous for two reasons, the women were free to do as they pleased, and, since it was a war, there was a chance the husband might not return at all… truly a win-win situation.

The town became a prisoner of war camp, very much to the liking of the women in town. Here were men who were basically at the women’s beck and call for sex, but didn’t have any say over what the women did. This was heaven.

The problem came when the war was over and the husbands returned and the prisoners were released. The husbands expected life to return to normal, with them back in control of their homes and wives. The women were distressed but instead of just accepting it, they turned to the woman who had helped them before… the local midwife, Julia Fazekas.

Fazekas saw this as her next great opportunity. The killing of her rival had been easy and got Fazekas thinking that might be a profitable business…. providing the means to women who had husbands and other family members who needed killing. She advertised (word of mouth) and set prices based on how wealthy the client was. The poison of choice was arsenic. The effects were at first the inability to swallow, then vomiting, and finally convulsions and death. Arsenic was easy to get; Mrs. Fazekas simply boiled down fly paper and skimmed off the residue. She had only two rules; she would not sell to unmarried women or men.

In 1916, the first of these transactions occurred. A wealthy man in town got sick and his wife wanted to make sure he didn’t recover. She bought poison from Fazekas and her problem was solved. She even hid the vial the poison came in in the coffin.

Soon, women saw this as a way to get rid of all unwanted relatives, not just unwanted husbands. Before long, demanding parents, nosy aunts, and meddlesome children were dying at alarming rates. Quickly, the town was being called “the murder district.”

If you are wondering how they were able to get away with this, this is how. Fazekas’ cousin was the person in charge of filing the death certificates. He made sure the cause of death was appropriate which allowed the women to get away with this for so long.

The men in the town began to get suspicious, but instead of going to the authorities, they tried to guarantee their own safety by being better husbands., figuring if the wife was happy, she wouldn’t resort to such tactics to get rid of him.

From 1918 to 1924, business was booming, but so were the suspicions.  In 1924, a local doctor became suspicious. One of his wealthier patients came down with bronchitis and died. The doctor claimed he had not been that sick. But his suspicions were not enough to bring the women’s enterprise down.

In 1929, an anonymous letter was received by the police claiming Fazekas was helping people to kill. There was no proof, and the anonymous writer was found and sent to prison for slander. Mrs. Fazekas was like Teflon®; nothing stuck to her.

Mrs. Takucs, one of the “angels,” dismayed the group by killing both her parents, two brothers, a sister-in-law and an aunt, which was contrary to the wishes of the group that only men were to be killed.

The local minister was also suspicious. He said that “healthy and robust men” were dying suddenly, and the doctors could give no plausible reason why. Remember, these doctors had wives, too, so they were reluctant to rock the boat. The reverend called on Mrs. Fazekas and had some tea. The next day he fell ill and decided to not pursue the matter. It looked like these women were going to get away with these murders and get to continue on with them.

Eventually, though, there were more letters and more investigations, including exhumation of the bodies. Arsenic was found, including the vials that some women had tucked away in the coffins, assuming they would never see the light of day again.

Mrs. Ladislaus Szabo poisoned her uncle, but he survived and called the police . When arrested, Mrs. Szabo pointed the figure at a Mrs. Bukenoveski who had used the poison to kill her mother. Mrs. Bukenoveski was the one who pointed her finger at Mrs. Fazekas.

When it looked like Fazekas was going to be arrested, she took her own poison.

Six people were found guilty and sent to death while 7 others got life and 7 others served 5-15 years.

The authorities chalked this up to the promiscuous sex the women engaged in during the war while others understood that it was brought on by the extreme poverty and lack of medical supervision.