Unknown Gender History: Nikola Bettuz, Professional Husband-Poisoner & Seeress

FULL TEXT: Buda-pesth -- The most shocking condition of human depravity, it has just been discovered, reigns in the towns of Kissoda [presently: Chisoda, Romania], not far from this the most progressive city of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

The police have only now chanced to find the cause of a series of mysterious deaths, covering a period of more than three years. During this time a number of men apparently in robust health were suddenly precipitated to their deathbeds and despite the best efforts of the local physicians their lives could not be Heart disease was in most of these cases given as the cause of death the symptoms closely resembling that malady.

The fact is that the men were murdered by their own wives or sweet hearts. The instigator of all these heinous crimes is Nikola Bettuz, the seer of the town, who sold the subtle poison with which the murders were committed. So far the police have exhumed forty bodies of the victims and the government chemist has found in each a marvelously specific poison, the nature of which he has not yet been able to define. Nikola Bettuz, though menaced with the direst punishments refuses to divulge the name of the poison or how it was concocted. It was usually administered by the wives in the beer, coffee or tea of the husbands and death ensued within twelve hours.

~ QUARREL CAUSES DISCLOSURE. ~

A quarrel which took place between a man named Mundjam and young widow led to the unearthing of the wholesale slaughter of superfluous husbands. The widow's lover threatened her that he would cause her arrest for murdering her husband if she would not do his will, though he himself was the agent through whom the poison was procured. The widow persisted in keeping up a union with his rival, and out of revenge he denounced her to the authorities. An arrest followed and as a result forty married and unmarried widows were arrested.

The Hungarian press is bitter in its denunciation of the immoral conditions which exist in the provincial towns. It demands a rigid investigation and the speedy execution of all the murderesses of Kissoda. In some instances it was found that the object of the women was to obtain the insurance on the lives of their husbands.

[“Slay Their Husbands - In Hungary Wives Tired of Their Spouses Kill Them by Using a Mysterious Poison.” (Buda-Pesth Cor., Chicago Chronicle.) Fort Wayne Sentinel (In.), Oct. 20, 1900, p. 1]

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FULL TEXT (translated from German): In the Hungarian community of Kissoda, a series of crimes, dating back three years, are only beginning to be traced to this community. For some years mortality, especially of men, has reached a staggering number in this community. Despite immediate medical help the healthiest men died a sudden death. Strangely, it was usually married men or those who involved in love affairs. It got to the point that one could predict which of this or that men would die in the near future. As the number of deaths increased, the police became suspicious and initiated an investigation. The police was led out of the right lane by a trick that broke out between a resident of Kissoda, Mundjam, and his lover. Mundjam threatened in the course of his lover's quarrel that he would report her for the murder she had committed against her former husband. Thereupon the police had the bodies of all men died in the last two years exhumed, and it was ascertained that most had died by poison. There have been numerous women are involved, and it has been proven that a certain Nikola Bettuz sold poison not only in Kissoda, but also in the surrounding area to women who wanted to get rid of their husbands. So far the poisonings have been confirmed in 28 corpses. The exhumations are still continuing.

[“The Husband-murderers of Kissoda” (Die Gattenmörderinen von Kissoda.) Reichspost (Vienna, Austria), 8. September 1900, p. 3 (204).]

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FULL TEXT: The poisoning case just discovered at Kisoda, in Southern Hungary, says the Vienna correspondent of the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ in his letter of the 22nd November, may well be called a chapter of frightful crimes. Instances in which wives rid themselves of inconvenient husbands and girls did away with lovers whom they no longer wanted increased there appallingly. From time to time wholesale poisoning took place in single villages. In such cases the attention of the police is excited by the numerous deaths. Inquiry is made, and then it turns out that the original suspicion is more than justified by the facts. So it was some year ago at Hodmezo-Vasarhely, and so also in the Comitat of Temesvar in Southern Hungary. Most of the inhabitants are farm labourers.

In that village lived a man who had the reputation of being a magician. He asked a high price for the wonder-working medicines be sold. Not only from Kisoda, but from all ports of Southern Hungary, came his customers, consisting for the greater part of women and girls, and without much haggling, bought his physic. About two year ago a mysterious disease began to carry off the men of his village. Healthy people were suddenly taken ill without apparent to save them, although medical help was at once called in. In a few days they died. After a very short time their widow married. Also young fellows whose sweet hearts feared them because of their jealousy died in the same unaccountable manner. These uncanny occurrences at last excited the suspicions of the gendarmes. They laid the facts before the Court of Justice, and it gave orders for the exhumation of the last men who had died and the examination of their remains.

The execution of this order met with unexpected difficulties. When the commission had the graves of the men who had died within the last few weeks opened, it became plain that the inscription on the graves had been falsified. The corpses of such persons as had born buried scarcely a month were quite decomposed. It was discovered that the crosses had been interchanged, obviously with a view to frustrating the judicial investigation. Consequently long and troublesome inquiries were necessary for the identification of any desired graves. The bodies that were then exhumed were dissected, and it was proved beyond all doubt that in no less than eighteen cases arsenical poisoning had taken place. The widows and sweethearts of the murdered men were arrested, as likewise Petar, the magician. In his house were found several bottles of brandy containing a solution of arsenic. The magic draught that be had sold was the poison by means of which the inhuman wives and girls had got rid of their husbands and lovers. The suspicion of having used the poisoned brandy is spreading, and fresh examinations ordered.

[“Epidemic Of Poisoning In Hungary. - Eighteen Men Killed.” The Capricornian (Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia), Jan. 12, 1901, p. 38]

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FULL TEXT: Seit einigen Jahren erreichte in dieser Gemeinde die Sterblichkeit, vornehmlich der Männer, eine erschreckend grosse Zahl. Die gesündesten Männer storben, trotz sofort angewandter, ärztlicher Hilfe, eines plötzlichen Todes. Merkwürdigerweise waren es meist verheirathete Männer oder solche, die Liebesverhältnisse unterheilten. Es kam soweit, dass man schon vorausbestimmen konnte, welcher von dieser oder jenen Männern in der nächsten Zeit sterben werde. Da die Todesfälle aussallend zunahmen, schöpste die Gendarmerie Verdacht und leitete eine Untersuchung ein. Durch einen Sireit, der zwischen einem Einwohner Kissodas, Namens Mundjam, und seiner Geliebten zum Ausbruch kam, wurde die Gendarmerie aus die richtige Spur geleitet. Mundjam drohte nämlich im Berlaufe des Streites seiner Geliebten, er werde sie wegen des Mordes, den sie an ihrem früheren Gatten verübt habe, anzeigen. Daraufhin liess bis Gendarmerie die Leichen sämmtlicher in den in den letzten zwei Jahren verstorbenen Männer erhumiren, und es wurde bei den meisten constatirt, dass sie durch Gift gestorben sind. Es wurden bereits zahlreiche Verhastungen von Frauen vergenommen, bei deren Vernehmung es sich herausstellte, dass ein gewisser Nikola Bettuz nicht in der Gemeinde Kissoda, sondern auch in der ganzen Umgebung an Frauen, die sich ihrer Männer entledigen wollten, Gift verkaufte. Bisher wurden bei 28 Leichen die Vergiftungen constatirt. Die Ehumirungen werden noch fortgesetzt.

[Die Gattenmörderinen von Kissoda. Reichspost (Vienna, Austria), 8. September 1900, p. 3 (204).]

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Chisoda (German Alt-Kischoda, Altkischoda, Kischoda, Hungarian Tesöld, Kisoda) is a village in the county Timiş, Banat, Romania. Chisoda is located in the center of the circle Timiş, south of the district capital Timişoara. East of Chisoda is the community Giroc, and west borders the town on the VI. District of Timişoara Fratelia, the former New Kischoda.

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