Maria Varga, Hungarian Serial Killer - 1930

“Maria Varga killed seven members of her family, considering the death of her husband in particular a Christmas present to herself.” [Katherine Ramsland “Angels Of Death: The Female Nurses - Murder By Proxy, True TV]

“Maria Varga, who confessed to buying poison from Fazekas to kill her husband – a blind war hero – when he complained about her bringing lovers home...” [“Angels of Death,” Michael Newton, Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, 2006]

“Varga preferred her young lover, but after five years disposed of him, too, along with his grandfather.” [Jay Robert Nash, Great Pictorial History of World Crime, 2004]

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FULL TEXT: Budapest, Thursday. - What is regarded as probably the worst Hungarian poisoning drama was unfolded at Szolnok When Maria Varga was charged to-day with poisoning her husband, also her lover, Michael Ambros. The story goes that the husband was Hungary’s first soldier to be blinded in the war, being the victim when a shell burst on Russian frontier. His wife was disgusted at being so burdened, and gave him the coolest reception. She called in a “widow-maker,” Aunti Susi. Her husband died in agony after the second dose of arsenic.

A story was circulated in the village as to how the ghost of the blinded soldier was seen tapping a stick round the churchyard, and tearing the sightless sockets of his eyes, as he went to wards the farm. The widow declared that the house was haunted, and took in Ambros, who died in similar agony.

Maria’s defence was that she believed the “widow-maker’s” medicines were harmless.

[“Poison Drama. - ‘Widow-Maker’ Called In. - Two Dead.” The Advocate (Burnie, Tasmania), Feb. 8, 1930, p. 13]

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For more than two dozen similar cases, dating from 1658 to 2011, see the summary list with links see: The Husband-Killing Syndicates

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For links to other cases of woman who murdered 2 or more husbands (or paramours), see Black Widow Serial Killers.

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