FULL TEXT: The Hungarian papers report the following: — A peasant woman from Csoka [Eva Micsik], being desirous of joining the religious sect of the Nazarenes, went to see one of the priests residing at Zenta. Proselytes have to make a full confession of their past sins extending over their whole lives.
That of the new convert ran thus: — “I have had eight children and have killed them all. My first, a boy named Victor, born in 1874, was four months old when he died. Another was born in 1879. I forget what we called him; but he did not live more than a few days. On the 29th of February, 1880, I had twins, Peter and Rosa. I killed them a week after their birth. My daughter Juliana was born on the 11th of April, 1881, and was dead two days later. Agnes, of whom I was confined on the 29th of March, 1882, also lived only a few days. On the 6th of May, 1883, I again had twins; one was stillborn, and I killed the other a month afterwards. My last child came in May, 1884. I disposed of it in two days.
I poisoned all my children with a decoction of poppies. They were all previously baptised. I did not want any children. My husband knew nothing of what I had done. I lived on bad terms with him, and wanted to vex him.” The woman was at once handed over to the authorities, before whom she renewed her confession.
[Untitled, The Queenslander (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia), March 31, 1888, p. 488]
NOTE: Other versions of this same article, while abridged, contain the woman’s name, Eva Micsik. (Untitled, The Argus (Melbourne, Australia), Feb. 25, 1888, p. 4)
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FULL TEXT (Translated from German): Vienna. December 23. - It was reported to Budapest today by telegram that a woman had given Eva Romhanyi, on the occasion of her conversion to the Nazarene faith, in the prescribed vow that she had killed her eight children, each shortly after his birth and through the same poison with an infusion of Poppy leaves.
We now find a detailed account of this case in the “Pesti Hirlap”, which we reproduce here. Stephan Romhanyi and his wife Eva in Csoka (Torontaler Comitat), who had been converting to the Nazarenes for two years, were busy visiting them religious confessors of this belief.
Her entry into this church should have been completed by the end of October of this year. According to the rite, every new member is required to openly expose a previous life upon entry and to proclaim his sins.
If the person concerned is guilty of an offense which, according to whatever law, requires a punishment, then the newcomer is obliged to report his offenses to the court "for compensation" and to serve the punishment thus imposed on him.
So, it happened that when Mrs. Romhanyi (at the end of October), when she converted to the Nazarenes, gave an account of her life in front of the leadership of the Nazarene community in Zenta, she also made the admission that she had murdered her eight children.
The Nazarenes accepted the new member lovingly in their lap, but with regard to the regulations of their religion, they immediately put her husband Stephan Rombanyi and the Zenta resident, Paul Klausz, at her side as witnesses, so that the woman accompanied by the two, could appear as witnesses in the competent courts to submit the voluntary disclosure there. On November 19 of this year, Mrs. Romhanyi appeared in the company of the witnesses named at Török-Kanizsaer District courts and there she made the following confession: “I murdered my eight children.”
1. My first husband, Martin Ivo, who died in 1874, had a boy named Victor, whom I killed at the age of four months. Then I married my current husband, Stephan Romhanyi, and none of the children from this marriage survived.
And this what happened: I killed a child born in 1879 (she mentioned the name) after just a few days. 3. On 22nd February 1880 I gave birth to twins, Peter and Rosa, whom I killed at the age of eight days. 4. My child Juliana, born on April 11, 1881, I killed the second day after giving birth. 5. On March 29, 1882, I gave life to a girl named Agnes; I murdered this one after a few days.
6. On May 9th, 1883 I gave birth to twins again: one of these children was born dead, while I murdered the second, a girl named Piroska, after a month's lifespan. 7. I finally got the boy Peter, who was born in May 1884, whom I killed at the age of two days. The murdered children were all baptized.
I gave the infants a decoction of poppy-seed leaves to drink, from which they regularly died after suffering to a certain degree.
I killed them all because I didn't like having so many children (because I get one every year), but on the other hand, because I wanted to "play a joke" on my husband, with whom I lived unhappily. My husband knows nothing of this."
The coroner was aware of this confession; so surprised that he neglected to let the woman be hurried, but immediately wrote to the parish office to get an extract from the birth and death registers with reference to the children killed.
These extracts fully confirmed the mother's depositions regarding the dates of the birth and death of her children.
Now the wife's husband was interrogated. He stated that his wife had been melancholy for years, which he did not know how to explain at the time. Now he ascribes this to her remorse.
His wife tried four years ago to hang herself; it was by chance that he was able to prevent her from carrying out the suicide.
He had no aversion to the horrific crimes of his wife and believed that the children were not born viable and therefore died of natural causes after such a short time.
The mother was taken into custody, and the prosecution documents were sent to Greater Kikinda. The public prosecutor's office, however, has a difficult point of view in this affair, since it lacks the "evidence of the fact" of the crime. Even in the event of the exhumation of the child's corpses, it would hardly be possible to establish the poisoning by the poppy-leaf decoction. The Public Prosecutor, Andreas Erdely, first applied for the exhumation and dissection of some of the child's corpses to be considered in this crime, and at the same time for medical experts to examine the state of mind of the self-accuser.
["An eight-time child murderer." (“Eine achtfache Kindesmörderin.”), Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung (Vienna, Austria), Dec. 29, 1887, p. 6]
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FULL TEXT: Wien. 23.December. – Es wurde heute ans Budapest mit telegraphischer Kürze gemeldet, daß eine Frau Eva Romhanyi aus Anlaß ihres Uebertrittes zum Glauben der Nazarener in der vorgeschriebenen Veichte angegeben hatte, sie habe ihre acht Kinder, jedes kurz nach dessen Geburt und durch dasselbe Gifte – in Ausguß von Mohnblättern – getödtet.
Wir finden nun über diesen Fall im “Pesti Hirlap" eine ausführliche Darstellung, die wir hier wiedergeben. Stephan Romhanyi und dessen Gattin Eva in Csoka (Torontaler Comitat), vollen schon seit zwei Jahren zu den Nazarenern über treten und besuchten ans diesem Grunde fleißig die religiösen der Bekenner dieses Glaubens.
Für Ende October dieses Jahres hätte ihr Eintritt in diese Gemeinde vollzogen warden sollen. Nach dem Ritus ist jedes neu eintretende Mitglied verhalten, beim Eintritt sein bisheriges Leben offen darzulegen und seine Sünden zu []heichten.
Hat der Betreffende sich ein Vergehen zu Schulden kommen lassen, welches nach welilichen Gesetzen eine Bestrafung heischt, dann ist der Neucintretende genöthigt, seine diesfälligen Missethaten dem Gerichte “behufs Ausgleiches" zur Anzeige zu bringen und die sohin über ihn verhängte Strafe abzubüßen.
So geschah es denn, daß die Romhanyi, als sie (Ende October) beim Uebertritte zu den Nazarenern vor der Vorstehung der Nazarener-Gemeinde in Zenta über ihr Leben Rechenschaft abtegte, auch das Einbekenntniß machte, ihre acht Kinder ermordet zu haben.
Die Nazarener nahmen das neue Mitglied zwar liebevoll in ihren Schoos auf, allein sie stellten der Frau im Hinblick auf die Vorschriften ihrer Religion sogleich deren Gatten Stephan Rombanyi und den Zentaer Einwohner Paul Klausz als Zeugen zur Seite,damit das Weib in Begleitung der Beiden vor dem zuständigen Gerichte erscheine und dort die Selbstanzeige erstatte. Am 19. November d. J. erschten auch die Romhanyi in Gesellschaft der Genannten beim Török-Kanizsaer
Bezirksgerichte und legte daselbst folgendes Geständniß ab: Ich ermordete meine acht Kinder.
1. Von meinem ersten imJahre 1874 verstorbenen Gatten Martin Ivo stammte ein Knäblein, Namens Victor, welches ich im Alter von vier Monaten tödtete. 2.Dann heiratete ich meinen jetzigen Gatten Stephan Romhanyi, und auch von, den ans dieser Ehe stammenden Kindern ist keines am Leben geblieben.
Und das kam so: Ein imJahre 1879 geborenes Kind (sie nannte den Namen) habe ich schon nach wenigen Tagen umgebracht. 3. Am 22. Februar 1880 gebarich Zwillinge, Peter und Rosa, die ich im Alter von acht Tagen aus der Welt schasste. 4. Mein Kind Juliana, am11. April 1881 geboren, tödkete ich am zweiten Tage nach der Geburt. 5. Am 29. März 1882 gab ich einem Mädchen, Namens Agnes das Leben; dieses ermordete ich nach wenigen Tagen.
6. Am 9. Mai 1883 brachte ich wieder Zwillinge zur Welt: von diesen wurde das eine Kind todt geboren, während ich das zweite, ein Mädchen, welches Piroska hieß, nach ein monatlicher Lebensdauer ermordete. 7. Endlich habe ich den am 30. Mai 1884 geborenen Knaben Peter im Alter von zwei Tagen getödtet. Die ermordeten Kinder waren sämmlich getaust.
Die Säuglingen gab ich den Absud von Mohnblättern zu trinken, woran sie regelmäßig nach einrägigem Leiden starben.
Ich tödtete sie alle, weil ich die vielen Kinder nicht mochte (denn ich halte jedes Jahr eins), andererseits jedoch, weil ich meinem Manne, mit dem ich schlecht lebte, “einen Possen anthun" wollte. Mein Gatte weiß von alledem nichts. "
Der Untersuchungsrichter war von diesem Geständnis; dermaßen überrascht, daß er es unterließ, die Frau gleich in Hast nehmen zu lassen, dagegen unverzüglich an das Pfarramt schrieb, um von demselben einen Auszug aus den Geburts- und Todes- Matriken mit Bezug auf die getödteten Kinder zu erhalten.
Diese Auszüge bestätigten die Depositione der Mutter bezüglich des Datums der Geburt und des Todes ihrer Kinder vollständig.
Nun wurde der Gattede des Weibes verhört. Derselbe gab an, daß seine Frau schon seit Jahrerer schwermüthig sei, was er sich damals nicht zu erklären wußte; jetzt schreibe er dies ihren Gewissensbissen zu.
Seine Gattin habe vor vier Jahren einmal den Versuch gemacht, sich zu erhenken; es war Zufall, daß er sie an der Ausführung des Selbstmordes hindern konnte.
Von den entsetzlichen Verbrechen seiner Frau habe er keine Abnung besessen: er glaubte, daß die Kinder nicht lebensfähig zur Welt gekommen und deßhalb schon nach so kurzer Zeit eines natürlichen Todes starben.
Die Mutter wurden un in Haft genommen,und das Belastungsmaterials der Staatsanwaltschaft zu Groß-Kikinda überschickt. Die Staatsanwaltschaft hat jedoch einen schweren Standpunk tin dieser Affaire, da ihr die “Beweise für den Thatbestand" des Verbrechens fehlen. Selbst im Falle der Exhumirung der Kindesleichen würde es kaum möglich sein, die Vergiftung durch das Mohnblätter-Decoct zu constatiren. Indeß wird der Staatsanwalt Andreas Erdely zunächst den Antrag auf Exhumirung und Section einiger der bei diesem Verbrechen in Betracht kommenden Kindesleichen, so wie gleichzeitig auf Prüfung des Geisteszustandes der Selbstanklägerin durch ärztliche Sachverständige stellen.
[“Eine achtfache Kindesmörderin.” Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung (Vienna, Austria), Dec. 29, 1887, p. 6]
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Nazarene Sect: “a new religious movement in South Hungary and Serbia in the second half of the nineteenth century as well as the articulations of the complex series of responses it provoked. The Nazarenes, as they came to be known, were the first new religious movement or sect to arise in Hungary after the sixteenth century and were distinguished for their rejection of priesthood, infant baptism and transubstantiation, refraining from military service and politics, and refusing to take an oath. A few congregations sprouted in Northern Hungary, today’s Slovakia, in Central Hungary and in Bosnia and Croatia, but they were short lived and the bulk of the converts were found in South Hungary, ot the regions of today’s province of Vojvodina in Serbia.”[Bojan Aleksov, Religious Dissent Between the Modern and the National: Nazarenes in Hungary and Serbia 1850-1914, Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden. 2006. p. 11]
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[681-6/14/19; 1066-12/7/20]
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