Episode 61 The One That Got Away | The Mysterious case of Béla Kiss | Halloween Special - video Dailymotion

The Dark Mystery Lounge

Béla Kiss was a Hungarian serial killer. He is thought to have murdered at least 23 young women and one man, and attempted to pickle  their bodies in large metal drums that he kept on his property. During and after WWI Kiss managed to evade police for the rest of  his life. How, where and when he died remains a mystery.   #october #halloween #serialkillersdocumentaries

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the Dark Mystery Lounge. Happy Halloween everybody. Let's

00:06kick off the second annual Halloween special with a mystery. The mysterious

00:11case of Hungarian serial killer, Bella Kiss. Let's get started.

00:20Very little is known about the early life of Bella Kiss. In February 1912, Bella

00:27moved into a house at 9 Cosset Street that he rented in the village of Cinkota, which

00:33is on the outskirts of Budapest, Hungary. Bella was considered a handsome man with

00:39blonde hair and blue eyes. He earned a living as a tinsmith, but also dabbled in

00:44astrology and was said to have a keen interest in occult practices. Bella was

00:50not only handsome, but smart. He taught himself his trade as a tinsmith and

00:55always tried to better himself. He was a voracious reader as a highly

01:00confident about art, literature, and history. With no formal schooling at all, he

01:05was able to mingle with people from higher social circles and hold his own with

01:10those of an academic background. Bella moves into the house with his wife,

01:15Marie, 15 years his junior. Within a matter of weeks, Marie had found herself a

01:21lover, Paul Beccari, and in December 1912, Bella sadly told his neighbors that the

01:27couple had run off together, leaving him alone. In place of his wife, Bella hired an

01:33elderly housekeeper named Mrs. Jakubek. After his wife disappeared, Bella seemed to

01:39embrace his new bachelor life. Scores of attractive, well-dressed women were seen

01:45visiting his home, but none of the villagers can remember them leaving. Around

01:50the same time, Bella began to collect large metal drums, informing the curious

01:56village constable that they were filled with gasoline, expected to be scarce with

02:01the approach of war in Europe. Meanwhile, Budapest authorities were seeking

02:06information on the disappearance of two widows, named Shmedek and Varga, who had not

02:12made contact with their friends or relatives for several weeks. Both women

02:16had been last seen in the company of a man named Hoffman, dwelling near the

02:20Margaret Bridge in Budapest, but he had also disappeared without a trace. Having no

02:26further leads, and no clue to the whereabouts of this mysterious Hoffman, they

02:31called an end to their investigation. War was coming, and they directed their

02:36energies to more pressing concerns. In November 1914, Bella was drafted in

02:42to military service, leaving for the front as soon as he was sworn into the ranks

02:46and issued gear. His house remained in the care of his trusted housekeeper.

02:51In June of 1916, soldiers came to Chincota in search of stockpiled fuel. The village

02:59constable remembered Bella and his collection of metal drums, and led the squad of soldiers

03:04to Bella's house. Mrs. Jakubek answered the door with a scowl. She saw no reason they let the

03:11soldiers in, but they convinced her that they had every right. She reluctantly led them to the cellar

03:16door. Lighting the way with kerosene lamps, they found seven large metal drums welded shut.

03:24Very happy that he had not wasted the soldiers' time, the constable produced a long, thin,

03:30spiked rod with which to pierce one of the drums, to determine if the contents were petrol or diesel.

03:37As soon as the rod had pierced the top of the drum, the most horrific stench of decomposition

03:42wafted through the already nasty, dank cellar. Authorities were contacted. Detective Chief

03:48Caroline Nagy and two fellow detectives rushed to the scene. When they arrived, they were led to the drums.

03:56They quickly got to work, prying the lid off the first drum. Once it opened, they peered inside,

04:02only to be greeted with the partially rotted body of a young woman with a full head of long,

04:08dark brown hair. The drum was filled with alcohol, which acted as a preservative,

04:13but the head was above the alcohol level, and this was the cause of the putrid smell.

04:19Also inside the metal drum was the rope in which she had been strangled with.

04:23The other six drums were open. Each contained the body of a naked young woman preserved in alcohol.

04:30All of them were strangled. The housekeeper was questioned about what she knew.

04:36She remembered the drums being delivered to the house, but felt like it wasn't her place to ask

04:41what their purpose might be. Since Bella was always entertaining guests, she thought that they

04:47contained illicit liquor to provide that little extra hospitality to his female guests. After the

04:53detectives had arranged for a coroner and morgue assistants to collect the victims found in the

04:59metal drums, they began to search the house and the wooded grounds around it. They found more bodies.

05:06Some were in drums, others had been buried. Each victim, even those that were buried, were preserved in

05:13alcohol beforehand. Because of this, the bodies were still recognizable and the facial features were

05:19mostly free of decay. Once the search was over, 17 more bodies were found. Along with the bodies from

05:26the cellar, there was a total of 24 bodies. Two of them were his wife and her lover, Paul Bakari, the only

05:35male victim. Detective Nagy informed the military that they should arrest Bella immediately, if he was

05:41still alive. There was also a possibility that he was a prisoner of war. His name, unfortunately, was very common.

05:49Detective Nagy also arrested Mrs. Jakubek and asked the postal service to hold any possible letters to

05:57Bella in case he had an accomplice who could warn him. Nagy initially suspected that Mrs. Jakubek might

06:04have had something to do with the murders, especially since Bella had left her money in his will. Mrs.

06:11Jakubek assured the police that she knew absolutely nothing about the murders. After interrogating her,

06:18he came to the conclusion that she was unaware of her employer's crimes. She showed them a secret

06:24locked room Bella had told her to never enter. Even though detectives swept the house top to bottom,

06:32they missed the door that was locked and concealed by drapes. Mrs. Jakubek reached into her apron pocket

06:38and pulled out an old-fashioned key and proceeded to open the locked door. The light from the bedroom

06:45revealed a musty, windowless room covered in cobwebs. The only furniture was a large dusty desk,

06:52an old leather chair, and several bookcases filled with moldering books. Inside the desk drawer there was

06:58a huge volume of letters between Bella and various women. There is also a photo album of more than 100

07:05young ladies. Detective Nagy began to suspect that there might be more victims than what they had so far

07:12uncovered. He started to examine the hundreds of letters, most of which were carefully filed and

07:18dated. Using a different name, Bella had placed personal ads in various newspapers looking for a

07:24suitable woman with a view to marriage. Later, it was revealed that Bella had received 174 marriage

07:32proposals. To 74 of these women, he offered marriage and kept up his correspondence with them.

07:38Something else became clear. As Nagy continued to read these letters, Bella was defrauding these women

07:46of their savings and property. Some of these letters date back as far as 1903. Detective Nagy examined the

07:53books on the bookshelf. There were books on poison and different methods of strangulation. The

07:59detective was soon to discover Bella's MO. When he received a reply to his ad, he would visit the potential

08:05victim and lavish money and attention on her, pretending he was a wealthy widower. Then he

08:11would subtly inquire whether she had any close relatives. If he discovered that she had family

08:17nearby, he would quickly lose interest and leave. He would only target women who had no close relatives

08:24so that when they disappeared, no one would notice. Police also found old court records that indicate

08:30that two of his victims had initiated court proceedings because he had taken money from them.

08:36Both women had disappeared and the cases had been dismissed. Each woman who came to the house

08:42was strangled. Bella pickled their corpses in alcohol and sealed them in the airtight metal drums.

08:50Police found that the bodies had puncture marks on their necks and that their bodies were drained of blood,

08:56which led them to believe that Bella may have been practicing vampirism.

09:01On October 4th, 1916, Detective Nagy received a telegram from the Serbian hospital claiming that a

09:09soldier named Bella Kiss had died of typhoid in 1915. But it was also followed by another telegram stating

09:17that a mistake was made and Bella was alive and a patient at the hospital. Detective Nagy traveled

09:24immediately to the hospital to apprehend the murderer. But once he reached the bed, not only was

09:30the man laying there not recuperating, but he was clearly dead and it was not Bella Kiss. Somehow,

09:38Bella had got an inkling of his imminent arrest and had propped the corpse of a recently deceased soldier

09:44in his bed. In the spring of 1919, Bella was sighted on the Margett Bridge in Budapest. It was thought

09:52likely that he had returned to the front and either killed by a soldier for his identity or retrieved

09:59the papers from the legions of corpses that littered the war zone. He was reportedly sighted numerous

10:06times in the following years. Various rumors circulated as to his actual fate, including that he had been

10:14imprisoned for burglary in Romania or had died of yellow fever in Turkey. In 1920, a soldier in the

10:22French Foreign Legion reported on another legionnaire named Hoffman. The name Kiss had been used in some

10:28letters and boasted how good he was at using a garotte and who fit Bella's description. Hoffman deserted

10:35before police could reach him. The last known supposed sighting occurred in New York City in 1932.

10:43That year, homicide detective Henry Oswald was certain that he had observed Kiss emerging from

10:50the New York City subway at Times Square, Manhattan. There were also rumors that Kiss was living in the

10:56city and working as a janitor. All of these could not be verified. When the police went to interview the

11:02janitor, he had already left. Whatever finally became of Bella Kiss remains a mystery. In Hungary, he is

11:10remembered as the one who got away. If you found this video interesting, please like and subscribe and

11:16all that jazz. I hope you enjoyed this Halloween special. Thanks for hanging out with me in the

11:22Dark Mystery Lounge. This is Phoenix signing out. Have a happy Halloween and stay safe.

11:34Thanks for having me.

11:36If you have any questions, please leave me at all.

11:37If you will, make a laugh.

11:38If you have stars, have your day.

11:39I will need to tag a quick line of the story which is yours.

11:41Yes, please leave me alone.

11:44Tell us about this card Zachary, the fact that you need to talk a good afternoon.

11:46The next card is my favorite part of the card.

11:47I am going to talk to you with the card.

11:49I am going to talk to you with the card.

11:51And as you will read, check the card will give me a lot of cards.

11:55I will give you a lot of cards.

11:57I am going to talk to you with my card.

11:59I am going to talk to you with my card.

Episode 61 The One That Got Away | The Mysterious case of Béla Kiss | Halloween Special

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