Unknown Gender History: Christine Csordas, Hungarian Serial Killer

FULL TEXT: Budapest, June 17. – Two women participants in the mass poisonings of Theiss valley, one of the strangest and most ghastly chapters of modern crime, were hanged today at Szolnok, Hungary.

They were the wife of Laszlo Szabo and the widow of Balint Chordas [sic], sentenced for poisoning Frau Szabo’s father and uncle in March 1925.

Both fainted when they saw the gallows, and they were hanged simultaneously while unconscious. By the Hungarian method, the victim’s feet are drawn apart by two assistants while a supporting stool is knocked from under. The hangman holds the victim’s face with a handkerchief, turning it from side to side until convinced death has occurred, when he lifts his hat and informs the president of the court that sentence has been carried out.

The two women executed today were the second and third to die on the gallows in Hungary within the past 50 years. The first was Marie Kardos, executed January 13 for murder of her husband and son in connection with the same case. Her lover shouted beside the gallows as she was hanged.

Sentence was imposed on Esther Szabo and Christine Chordas June 21 of last year, while Joseph Madarasz and Laszlo Szabo were sentenced to life imprisonment. The sentences were reviewed later by the court of appeals.

Altogether 34 persons were tried for murder by poisoning of 42 others, the victims in nearly all cases being husbands, brothers fathers or mothers of the defendants.

Most of the crimes took place in the two neighboring villages of Nagyrev and Tiszakurt, the poisoning in all cases was by arsenic and in at least 20 cases it was supplied by the village midwife, Susie Olah, known as “Aunt Susie.”

[“Hang Two Women Who Participated In Mass Poisoning, “ syndicated (UP), The Oelwein Daily Register (Fayette County, Io.), Jun. 17, 1931, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT: Vienna, Austria. – Horrible scenes were witnessed in the town of Szolnok, Hungary, when two of the notorious “Borgia women” were hanged. They were Rose Csordas, 68, and Amelia Szabo, 58, and both had to be dragged to the gallows unconscious Mme. Csordas preserved her fortitude until very near the end. because she defiantly refused to send a petition for mercy to Admiral Horthy, the Hungarian regent; but Just before being hanged she collapsed. Mme. Szabo fought madly with the jailors, but fainted at the last moment.

The two women came from the village of Tissazug, where an epidemic of husband-poisoning has raged for years. Thirty-one women have been arrested and brought to trial latelv, all of them charged with murdering their husbands or other relatives by arsenic. For some years the crimes were undiscovered, but last year they came to light. Csordas was found guilty of three murders and Szabo of two. Other women are still awaiting trial, and, presumably, execution.

[“’Borgia Women’ Hang For Killing Husbands – Two of the Notorious Gang Dragged to Gallows After They Lose Fortitude.” The Sunday Star (Washington, D. C.), Jul. 19, 1931, part. 2, p. 4]

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NOTE: There is confusion in English newspaper accounts, with some of them reporting in long articles on the T Valley “Widow Makers” that Mrs. Chordas committed suicide (with lye, or by hanging herself). It is likely that this results from confusing her story with that of Fazekas. Some reports give the widow’s first name as “Balint,” although this is the name of her husband.

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Krisztina Bálint Borzik Csordás

(Hungarian orthography: Csordás Bálintné Borzik Krisztina)

Jun. 18 (19?), 1930 – László Szabó, Lászlóné Szabó and Bálintné Csordás are accused as accomplices of the crime of committing 2 counts of murder and committing incitement to commit murder, which was committed by Mihály Szabó and Csaba. by this they caused their death.

May 2, 1931 – the Royal Court upheld the death sentence handed down by the lower courts on serious grounds. On Monday, after that, the decision of the governor arrived at the Supreme Forum, which allowed free execution of the verdict.

Jun. 17, 1931 – executed. garden courtyard of the prosecution.

[ONLINE SOURCE of vintage articles: Kósa Károly, “News Of Tiszazugi Arsenic In The Szolnok Press - 1929–1933,” (“A Tiszazugi Arzénügy Hírei A Szolnoki Sajtóban - 1929–1933), Undated

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