Anna Allas, Mary Chalfa & Gizella Young, Pittsburgh “Tarot Card” Serial Killers – 1932

NOTE: A recent book (Joseph W. Laythe, Engendered Death: Pennsylvania Women Who Kill, Rowan & Littlefield, 2011), notes that the killers were ethnic Hungarians, residing in the Pittsburgh Hungarian immigrant community. The Hungarian connection – to the large number of poisoning conspiracies run usually by women in greater Hungary and environs dating back at least to the 1880s – was brought up in the trial of Allas and Chalfa: “The testimony at the trial was a strange mixture of scientific dissertations and tales of witchcraft in old Hungary.” [“High Spots in Insurance Murder Trial – a Case Involving ‘Devils, Drugs and Doctors’ – That Convicted 2 Women,” The Pittsburgh Press (Pa.), Feb. 3, 1933, p. 2] SEE: “How Women Gained Power By Mass-Murder of Husbands”

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FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 6): Pittsburgh, July 13. – At least three and possibly a dozen arrests are expected to be made in connection with an alleged insurance “murder plot” in Marshall, Pa., detectives indicated today as result of a confession assertedly made before them late yesterday.

Detectives said Mrs. Gizella Young, 35-year-old, Homerville, Pa., fortune teller, confessed participating in the alleged plot after five hours questioning. The woman signed a 500-word statement admitting she had helped kill three persons and had attempted to kill a fourth, detectives said.

Mrs. Young named Mrs. Mary Chalfa and Mrs. Anna Allas, both of Munhall, as others who participated in the alleged killings detectives said. She said poison concocted from spiders, paregoric, starvation and a poison ointment were used in bringing about the deaths of the three persons, according to detectives.

Mrs. Young confessed that an attack upon Mrs. Stella Chalfa, in connection with which she and Mrs. Mary Chalfa were arrested, was part of a plot to kill the woman, detectives claimed. They said Mrs. Young claimed she had been forced to participate in the attack by Mrs. Mary Chalfa.

The attack on Mrs. Stella Chalfa last June 17 led to the present investigation.

The body of Andrew Alias was exhumed last May at the request of insurance company representatives who said he had been insured for a total of $18,300 in eight companies. Payment of the policies has been withheld pending further examination of his organs.

[“Expect Many Arrests In Insurance Murder Plot,” syndicated (United Press), Jul. 13, 1932, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 6): Pittsburgh, Jan. 31.—Interrupted by admission of three defense witnesses, they had given false testimony, examination of defense medical and chemical experts was to be resumed today in trial of two Munhall, Pa., women on murder charges.

Under cross examination a woman and two boys retracted testimony they gave last week in behalf of Mrs. Anna Alias, 39, and Mrs. Mary Chalfa, 31, accused of poisoning Mrs. Alias’ stepsons. Steven, 12, and Andrew Alias, 16.

Joseph Olack, 16, and Michael Kuzmar, 12, said their testimony that Steven was knocked unconscious in a football game was false. The boy was hurt but did not lose consciousness they said.

The boys claimed they were offered $10 by the two women to testify that Steven’s injury, was serious.

Mrs. Anna Goga, Munhall, said she had been promised $100 by Mrs. Chalfa if she would testify falsely concerning a visit of Mrs. Chalfa to the home of Mrs. Gizella Young, Munhall fortune teller and state witness. She retracted her testimony concerning the visit.

The defense planned further attack on the prosecution claim trace of tin poisoning were found in the bodies of the Alias boys. It is contended the women poisoned the youths to collect about $12,000 in insurance money.

[“Defense Witnesses Retract Testimony,” The Daily News (Huntington, Pa.), Jan. 31, 1933, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 6): Pittsburgh, June 28—Judge J. Prank Graff today sentenced Mrs. Mary Chalfa and Mrs. Anna Allas, convicted “Munhall poison murderers” to life imprisonment at the state industrial home for women at Muncy, Pa.

The two women were found guilty by a jury of poisoning Stephen Alias, 12 year old stepson of Mrs. Alias, by feeding him stannous chloride (tin salt) solution.

Both women also were indicted for murder in the death of Andrew Alias, 16, Steve’s older brother, they were not tried on this indictment. Insurance totalling approximately $20,000 was carried by the two women on the lives of the boys.

Trial of the two women lasted two weeks and was featured by the testimony of Mrs. Gizella Young, an alleged fortune teller, that the women came to her for “card readings” as to when the two boys would die. The defendants built their case around a claim that anything they had done was done while under Mrs. Young’s “spell.”

[“Women Poisoners Get Life Terms - Judge J. Frank Graff At Pittsburgh Sentences Two Women To Life Imprisonment,” syndicated (International News Service), Jun. 28, 1933, p. 8]

FULL TEXT (Article 4 of 6):The verdict of the Allegheny county jury that found the two Munhall housewives, Mrs. Anna Allas and Mrs. Mary Chalfa, guilty of poisoning the former’s 12-year-old stepson, Steve Allas, was upheld yesterday by the supreme court of Pennsylvania, sitting in Philadelphia.

Terming the women “fortunate” because the jury did not demand the death penalty for their “outrageous and inhuman crime,” the supreme court, with final review on the spectacular poison case, refused to grant the death plotters a new trial.

~ To Be Sent to Muncy. ~

This means that the two women, accused by county detectives of being ring-leaders in a wholesale insurance spot, will be taken from the county jail to spend the rest of their lives in the State Industrial Home for Woman at Munch, Pa.

They were sentenced to life imprisonment, following their trial last February, by Judge J. Frank Graff. When appeal for new trial was refused by Judge Graf, they carried their fight for freedom to the supreme court.

The supreme court opinion, written by Justice John W. Kephart, stated that “these denendants were fortunate since the jury, under the testimony, could very properly have fixed the death penalty for what the court described as cruel, outrageous, and inhuman crime.”

It was shown at their trial that the two women carried insurance policies totaling more than $66,000 on various members of their families. Besides the death of Steve Allas they were also charged with poisoning Andrew Allas, 16, and an 18-month-old baby that had been left to Mrs. Chalfa’s case. Insurance policies had been collected on the lives of all three children.

~ Evidence Held Relative. ~

The supreme court yesterday held that the evidence concerning the alleged plot was admissible because it showed the motive and plan of the women in killing of Steve, for whose death they were being tried. The other poisonings were “essential to the pyramiding of insurance, dependent on a beginning with the funds obtained as a result of the primary homicide.”

Assistant District Attorney John F. Haggerty, who represented the commonwealth at the trial, argued the appeal with Attorney Little before the supreme court. According to the sheriff’s office, the poisoners will be taken to Muncy Saturday or Monday.

[“Poison Murder Convictions Are Sustained – State Supreme Court Denies Rehearing In Chalfa Case. – Women Are Flayed – Tribunal Says Guilty Pair Fortunate to Escape Death Penalty.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pa.), Nov. 28, 1933, Section 2, p. 1]

FULL TEXT (Article 5 of 6): Convicted of one death and accused of three others in an “insurance plot,” Mrs. Anna Allas, one of two Munhall housewives serving life terms, has entered suit to recover on a $5,000 policy on the life of one of the alleged victims.

The suit, against Prudential Insurance Co., is scheduled for hearing in Federal Court next week.

She and Mrs. Mary Chalfa were found guilty three years ago of poisoning Steve Allas, 12, Mrs. Allas’ step-son, to collect his insurance.

Now Mrs. Allas demands payment under a policy on the life of Andrew Allas, 16, another step-son, for whose death she and Mrs. Chalfa also were indicted.

Although the State changed that Andrew as well as his brother was poisoned. Mrs. Allas claims that Andrew claims that Andrew “died of natural causes.”

Besides the two Allas boys, Mrs. Chalfa and Mrs. Allas were accused in the death of a year-old boy who had been “boarded” with Mrs. Chalfa and Mrs. Allas’ first husband.

They were convicted after a sensational trial in which Mrs. Gizella Young, a fortune-teller, was a star witness for the state, testifying that the two accused women had confessed to her.

[“Suit Is Echo To Poison Case – Munhall Woman, Serving Life, Trying to Collect Life Insurance,” The Pittsburg Press (Pa.), Nov. 10, 1936, p. 2]

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NOTE: The following article connects the Allas/Chalfa case with the much more extensive murder conspiracy case in 1939 Philadelphia known as “Arsenic Incorporated.”

FULL TEXT (Article 6 of 6): Suspicions of Philadelphia detectives that the mass murder ring uncovered there also operated in Pittsburgh were strengthened last night when a check of data in Pittsburg’s murder-for-insurance case of 1933 showed that the two women convicted here had an attorney in Philadelphia.

Mrs. Mary Chalfa, the Munhall housewife who on an income of $200 a month carried insurance of more than $30,000, on members of her family, admitted on the witness stand at her trial that even before her arrest that she had gone to Philadelphia to consult an attorney.

~ Convicted of Murders. ~

Both she and Mrs. Anna Allas were convicted of first degree murder for the poison killing of Mrs. Allas’ step-son, Andrew Allas. They were also charged with killing a six-months-old baby, another son of Mrs. Allas’, and also Mrs. Allas’ first husband so they could collect their victims’ insurance.

At the trial, Assistant District Attorney John Haggerty flourished a telegram before Mrs. Chalfa and asked why, long before her arrest in June 1932, she had hurried to Philadelphia to consult an attorney. The telegram, now missing from the court house files, was  a message to that attorney. It was dated May 17.

Mrs. Chalfa finally admitted that she had talked over the “trouble” whe was in with the Philadelphia attorney.

Then Prosecutor Haggerty pounced on her verbally, pointing out that at the time she was discussing her “trouble” with the lawyer she was in no trouble with the law and that not a word of the case appeared in any newspaper.

~ Used Unusual Poison. ~

A bit confused, Mrs. Chalfa said that one of the Allas boys had been talking about his brother’s death and making some trouble about insurance collections so she had gone to her lawyer in the Eastern city.

This was just another link in the chain that has made Philadelphia detectives believe that the Chalfa and Allas women may have been under the direction of leaders of the Philadelphia money killers, whose victims are believed to have been more than 100 in number. Another link is the fact that the Munhall women used an unusual poison – a soluble salts of tin – which has been discovered in the body of one of the Philadelphia victims.

The defense of the local women was also similar to the talk of “spells” and “witch doctors” that have been uttered by some of the 24 people arrested in Philadelphia.

The women claimed they went to a fortune teller, Mrs. Gazella Young, who immediately put a magic spell on them. They said she would lay out her magic cards, brought from Czecho-slovakia, and predict death for members of their families. Then, they said, she would advise them to take out large insurance policies on their husbands, children and cousins and even go so far as to send insurance men to their homes.

Under the spell of this “witch woman fortune teller,” they said they washed clothes for her, cleaned her home, and then joined with her in concocting charms that would bring forth “little red devils” to choke the men and women Mrs. Young wanted to die.

~ Serving Life Terms. ~

But the heavy insurance policies they carried on more than 10 people spoke louder than their words to the jury. They were convicted and sent to the State Industrial Home for Women at Muncy for life.

Even at the time of their trial, detectives and several members of the district attorney’s office were not convinced that the woman had worked alone in their plot to insure, then murder their victims. When the two women were first arrested, the district attorney’s office announced that still more arrests would follow. They never did.

~ 13 ARE BEING HELD. ~

Philadelphia, May 11 – Tales of “hexing,” the “evil eye,” and “magic love potions” were dramatically mixed with tearful professions of innocence as men and women were hauled before police judges in swift preparations today for mass trials of the dozens accused in the Eastern states insurance-murder plots.

In all, 13 were held for trial, the grand jury, further hearing or extradition. Seven are widows of men whose deaths investigators have laid to the far-flung ring that operated in Eastern Pennsylvania and extended into New Jersey, New York and Delaware.

“Up to 100,” is the latest official estimate of the deaths that might be traced to the plotters over the last 10 years. Some investigators, however, have taken a “name your own figure” attitude on the number of victims of poison, drowning, head-breaking and automobile “accidents.”

Evidence of the ring’s workings, Assistant District Attorney Vincent P. McDevitt said, disclosed that some wives gave the ring a flat fee or percentage of insurance to kill their husbands; others paid for a poison the ring called “witches brew” and administered it themselves.

Then, in some cases, the poisoners were poisoned “to shut their mouths,” the detectives said.

[“Check of Munhall Poisonings Strengthens Murder Ring Link – Philadelphia Detectives Are Convinced Cases Connect. – Women Retained Lawyer Before Being Jailed For Deaths.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pa.), May 12, 1939, Section 2, p. 1]

[Illustrations from: “High Spots in Insurance Murder Trial – a Case Involving ‘Devils, Drugs and Doctors’ – That Convicted 2 Women,” The Pittsburgh Press (Pa.), Feb. 3, 1933, p. 2]

SEE: article on the 1939 “Arsenic Incorporated” case

The victims were listed as Richard Dunyava, one-year-old baby who was cared for by Mrs. Chalfa, and Mrs. Allas two step-sons, Andrew, 16, and Stephen Allas, 12. In addition Mrs. Young charged that Mrs. Chalfa and Mrs. Allas, 12. In addition Mrs. Young allegedly charged that the pushed Mrs. Allas’ first husband down a flight of stairs while he was intoxicated. His death resulted from a fall, according to morgue records.

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For more occult cases, see: Occult Female Serial Killers

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