Unknown Gender History: Juliane Lipka, Hungarian Serial Killer

Hungarian orthography: Lipka Pálné Szijj Júlia.

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FULL TEXT: Szolnok, Hungary – One woman was sentenced to death and four others to life imprisonment today on conviction of poisoning husbands or other members of their families in order to obtain their property.

Those convicted wore among thirty-one women and three men charged with implication in wholesale murders, at least thirty of which were discovered.

Mrs. Paul [Juliane] Lipka was the woman sentenced to death upon three charges of murder, one charge of instigation to murder and one charge of being an accomplice in murder.

~ Killed Own Mother. ~

Mrs. Lipka was charged with murdering seven relatives, including her mother, husband and uncle, with the aid of another woman who was said to have furnished the poison.

The women, dressed in black peasant’s costumes, with black head coverings, presented a picture of misery as they, were sentenced.

Those sentenced to life imprisonment were elderly, one being about 70, while Mrs. Lipka was somewhat younger.

They pleaded innocence of deliberate murder, saying they had been induced to commit the crimes by two midwives, mother and daughter, who have since committed suicide.

Further groups of women defendants will be tried next week for other murders.

Numerous police surrounded the court to prevent any trouble.

[“Wholesale Murder In Hungary Bared - Husbands and Others Poisoned for Property—One Woman Gets Death and Four Life,” syndicated (AP), Joplin Globe (Mo.), Dec. 15, 1929, p. 4]

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