Thursday, September 22, 2011

Sophie von Mesko Had Children with 5 Different Men, Murdered Them All – Slovakia, 1889

The location is identified in one article as “Flecken Deutsch-Liptau,” (presumably, German area, or “hamlet,” of Lipov, in Slovakia). Liptov is a historical and geographical region in central Slovakia with around 140,000 inhabitants. The area is also known by the German name Liptau, the Polish Liptów, the Hungarian Liptó and the Latin name Liptovium. Slovakia was at this time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, hence the common designation “Hungary” in news reports.

While an Australian German language newspaper gives the name “Sophie von Mesko,” this may not be accurate. One German language source reports the subject as an unnamed widow who comes from Mesko.

***

FULL TEXT: The arrest has been made at Lipes, in Hungary, of a woman of good family and position, for the murder of six of her children. The accused is a widow, named Sophie von Mesko, who has long had a notoriously bad character, both on account of her dissipated life and the number of her lovers. As long ago as July last the corpses of two of her children were found in the neighbourhood of a church near her residence, and she was arrested on suspicion of having caused their death. Quite recently the police, in the course of a domiciliary visit, discovered the diary in which she had entered with the greatest minuteness a number of details concerning her relations with her many lovers, and the still more damaging revelation that she had killed four other children by different lovers. She also appears to have poisoned one of the latter. It was also stated in the diary that she had buried two of her children in the cellar of her house, and on being taken to this cellar she exhumed the bodies of the two children with the greatest coolness. The two other children she buried in an adjacent forest, and up to the present time these have not been found. Poison was also found amongst her effects. The woman, who seems to have no feeling of horror or remorse for what she has done, has another child, a daughter, by her husband, who will inherit the large possessions of her mother.

[“Wholesale Child-Murder.” The Queenslander (Brisbane, Australia), Dec. 28, 1889, p. 1214]

***

FULL TEXT (Translated from German): A woman has recently been arrested in Hungary, whose life and deeds were horrific to the point of unbelievability. For seven or eight years a young woman had lived in the German-Liptau area who, despite her wealth, had a bad reputation.

She was born in Mesko, and her late husband had left this widow with a daughter and a fortune of over half a thousand guilders.

She was considered very passionate and changed lovers in quick succession. When the tower guard recently found two children's coffins with skeletons under the stairs of the tower, the widow was suspected and the examining magistrate took her into custody.

She confessed that, besides the children found under the tower stairs, she buried two others in the cellar. She led by the investigative committee to the spot and she dug up one of the corpses herself and then had breakfast without washing her hands first.

A notebook was discovered, in which she had kept a very precise and extremely detailed record of her love life. Poison was also found, which raised the suspicion that she had poisoned a recently deceased lover; but no traces of poison were found on the exhumed corpse. Two other children are said to have been buried in the woods by her lover.

The remains of the same could not be found. The assets of the Messaline were taken over by the orphanage and the young daughter was placed in an educational institution.

[“An inhuman woman." (“Ein entmensachtes Weib.”), Bukowinaer Nachrichten (Czernowitz (Chernivtsi), Ukraine), Nov. 1, 1889, p. 4]

***

FULL TEXT: In Ungarnist dieser Tage ein Weib verhaftet worden, deren Leben und Thaten bis zur Unglaublichkeit grauenhaft gewesen. Im Flecken Deutsch-Liptau lebte seit sieben oder acht Jahren eine junge Frau, die trotz ihres Reichthums in schlechtem Leumund stand.

Sie war eine geborene von Mesko, ihr verstorbener Gatte hates einer Witwe, außer einemTöchterchen, ein Vermögen von über hundert tausend Guldenzurück gelassen.

Sie galt für sehr leidenschaftlich und wechselte ihre Liebhaber in rascher Folge. Als vor Kurzem der Thurmwächter unter der Treppe des Thurmes zwei Kindersärge mit Skeletten fand, wurde die Witwe verdächtigt und der Untersuchungsrichter nahmsiein Haft.

Sie gest andden auch, außer den unter der Thurmtreppe gefundenen Kindern noch zwei andere im eigenen Keller begraben zu haben. Mit der Untersuchungscommission an Ort und Stelle geführt, grub sie selbst eine solche Leiche aus und frühstückte dann, ohne sich erst die Hände zu waschen.

Man fand bei ihre in Notizbuch, in welchem sie sehr genau und äußerst unverhüllt über ihr Liebesleben Buch geführt hatte: auch fand man Gift bei ihr, was den Verdacht erweckte, daß sie einen jüngst verstorbenen Geliebten vergiftet habe; doch fand man ander exhumirten Leiche keine Giftspuren mehr vor. Zwei andere Kinder sollen von ihrem Geliebten im Walde begraben worden sein.

Die Reste derselben konnten nicht gefunden werden. Das Vermögen der Messaline wurde vom Waisenstuhl übernommen und die heranwachsende Tochter in eine Erziehungs-Anstaltge geben.

[“Ein entmensachtes Weib.” Bukowinaer Nachrichten (Czernowitz (Chernivtsi), Ukraine), Nov. 1, 1889, p. 4]

***

FULL TEXT: In Lipes in Ungarn ist eine Wittwe nämens Sophie von Mesko,die einer angesehenen Familieange hört und schon seit längeren Jähren einen äußerst liederlichen Lebenswandel geführt hatte, wegen sechsfachen Kindermordes verhaftet worden. Schon im verflossenen Juli waren die Leeichen zweier ihrer Kinder in der Nähe einer Kirche unweit ihrer Wohnung gefunden und dadurch der Verdacht des Mordes auf sie gelenkt worden. Als darauf die Polizei ihre Wohnung durchsuchte, entdeckte sie ein Tagebuch, in welchem alle Einzelheiten ihres Verhältnisses mit verschiedenen Liebhabern genau eingetragen wären. Zugleich hatte sie darin auch bemerkt, daß sie noch vier andere Kinder vergiftet habe, wovon zwei in dem Keller unter ihrem Hause, die beiden änderen in einem benachbarten Walde begraben wären. Zwei Leichen Würden den auch im Keller gefunden, die beiden andern sind bis jetzt noch nicht die Tochter aus erster Ehe, die ihr bedeutenes Vermögen erben wird.

[Untitled, Australische Zeitung (Adelaide, Australia), Jan. 8, 1890, p. 9]

***

***

***
 
 ***

For more cases of this type, see Serial Baby-Killer Moms.

***
[940-9/8/20]
***

No comments:

Post a Comment