The Dark & Chilling Case of Rita Gorgonowa

Brief Case

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Transcript

00:07Hello everyone. Today we look back at a case from the 1930s. The case was committed in Poland but

00:15today the city it was committed in is part of the Ukraine. So sit back as we look at the

00:22case

00:22of Rita Gorgonova. Rita was born on the 7th of March 1901 in Kunun which then was part of the

00:32Austro-Hungary empire but today it is a city in Croatia about 300 kilometers south of Croatia's

00:40capital Zagreb. Her father was a doctor but he died when Rita was just three years old. In 1916 when

00:48she was 15 she married an officer of the Austro-Hungarian army named Erwin Gorgon and after

00:55two years she gave birth to a son. The Austro-Hungarian empire was on the losing side of the First

01:01World

01:01War and in 1918 with the army pretty much disbanded and the Austro-Hungarian empire breaking up Erwin

01:09returned home without a job and unable to provide for his wife and young son. Soon after that their

01:15economic situation forced him to move to Lvov with Erwin's parents. Things became difficult and

01:22Erwin became depressed and he was unable to support his wife and young son. He started to go out

01:27drinking at night and began to use the services of prostitutes. In 1921 he decided that it would be

01:34best if he went to the USA to find work and joined the thousands of Europeans seeking better opportunities

01:40available in North America. Rita was a beautiful lady and the moment her husband left for the USA

01:47his brothers and his father began to compete for her affections. This did not stop at family members.

01:54Whenever she went out she was always courted by men. Rita rejected everyone's advances and she was

02:01looking forward to the day when the letter would arrive instructing her to leave the town and along with

02:07her young son take the boat to be with her husband. Eventually the letter arrived and Rita excitedly

02:15made preparations for her journey. Things were not quite as straightforward as she had imagined.

02:21Erwin's brothers and family members who had been rejected by her quickly decided to take revenge.

02:27They sent a letter to Erwin in which they informed him that his charming wife had been finding comfort

02:34in the arms of many men and often did not return home at night leaving them to look after his

02:39son.

02:40Erwin wrote back to his family instructing them to throw Rita out of their home and take care of his

02:46son. Rita wrote to her husband telling him that everything his family had said about her was untrue

02:52but Rita was now on her own and with nowhere to live and no job she began nursing and earning

02:59her living

02:59as a governess. In 1924 Rita was given the job as governess in the home of Henrik Zaremba.

03:06He was a very successful architect and also owned a construction company. He lived in Lovue with his two

03:12children. The oldest was called Elisabetta but known as Louisa and she was born in 1914.

03:19The youngest child was a son whose name was Stanislau. Unfortunately Henrik's wife had suffered from mental

03:26problems and as her health had deteriorated so much it was agreed that she would live in a psychiatric

03:32hospital. Henrik's work commitments meant that he was unable to take care of the children alone

03:38so decided to employ a full-time governess. This was a good position for Rita as it gave her a

03:44nice

03:44place to live and she had full control of the children and after a while she also started running

03:50the house. Rita proved to be a very good employee but the 23 year old beautiful nanny was soon

03:57attracting too much attention from a 41 year old employer and about a year after she started working

04:03for the family Rita and Henrik started to have an affair. Henrik wanted to keep the relationship

04:09informal but Rita wanted to marry him. She wanted to have some security in her life and Henrik would

04:15certainly be able to provide it. Rita eventually became pregnant and in 1928 she gave birth to a

04:23daughter they named Rumini. Rita may have felt a bit more secure now. She was the mother of Henrik's

04:29third child but not being married she knew that her position was still vulnerable. She was still

04:35considered to be a very beautiful woman and when she went into the city she was always approached by men

04:40and she never hid the fact but she very much liked all the male attention. Ever since she had started

04:46working for the family she had often received telephone calls from male admirers and received

04:51many letters. Louisa had always noticed Rita's way and as Louisa grew older she started to suspect

04:59that Rita may not just be her father's lover. She informed him about all her concerns and everything

05:06she had observed since Rita had entered their lives. After this the relationship between Henrik and Rita

05:13started to cool. Rita was seeing that her opportunity of a better life was evaporating

05:19and tension started to grow between Rita and her lover's firstborn child. Henrik was nearly 20 years older

05:26than Rita and he started thinking that maybe it was his wealth that she was more interested in

05:32rather than him. He decided to end their relationship and told Rita that everything was going to change.

05:39It was Christmas 1931 and he did not want to disrupt the family celebrations. So told her that on January

05:47the 1st 1932 she would have to move to one of his other properties and he would stay with the

05:53children.

05:54Rita reluctantly agreed but demanded $10,000 from Henrik as a settlement. Henrik said this was

06:02an unacceptable amount but thought that when a little time had passed they could agree on a fair

06:07settlement. Around midnight on the 30th December 1931 the house was awoken by Stanislau who was screaming

06:18that his sister was dead. He ran from her room and bumped into Rita who was wearing a fur coat.

06:24A moment

06:25later Henrik appeared and he rushed to his daughter's bedroom to find her lifeless body. He had

06:32attempted to resuscitate her but his efforts were in vain. Louisa had been murdered. The police were

06:39called and made a thorough inspection of the crime scene and interviewed everyone in the house. The

06:44most interesting witness was 14-year-old Stanislau who had discovered the body. He said that he was

06:50awoken when he heard the family dog whining outside his room. Assuming the thief had entered the house

06:57he looked out of the window but did not see anything suspicious. He got out of bed and went to

07:03the hall

07:03where he noticed a mysterious figure hiding behind the Christmas tree. He thought it was his sister

07:09so he called out her name but nobody answered. He then entered her room and saw his sister with her

07:16head covered by a pillow. When he removed it he was confronted by Louisa's bloodstained face

07:22and her neck was twisted. He thought she was dead. The police searched the property. Outside the

07:29ground was covered in snow. They found a tool for making holes in the ice at the bottom of the

07:34swimming

07:35pool. They noticed that Rita was wearing wet slippers and her right hand was cut. They asked her what had

07:41caused the injury. She replied that she had cut herself as the window in her room had broken. She said

07:48that her feet were wet as she went to the swimming pool in the snow to get some water which

07:53was

07:53strange as there was water in the kitchen. The police believed that she had gone to the pool to dump

07:59the

07:59murder weapon. The police also found blood on the slippers which Rita explained as being there as she

08:05had been gutting fish the previous day. Stanislaw told the police that the figure behind the Christmas

08:11tree looked like Rita and when she appeared after he had woken the house Rita had traces of blood on

08:17her

08:17hands and was wearing a fur coat indoors. The police also found a bloodstained handkerchief in the

08:23basement. They found no evidence of breaking and entering and the snow around the house had not

08:30been disturbed by any footsteps from a stranger. The police have major reservations about Rita's story

08:37so they arrested her and they also arrested Henrik. Rita protested and said she was completely innocent

08:44of the crime. In the press there was already a rush to judge her. Much of the circumstantial evidence

08:51pointed to her as a murderer. This was coupled with her strange behaviour on that fateful night.

08:58The murder had to have been committed by someone inside the house. Who else but Rita would have done

09:03it? The family gardener was investigated but soon cleared. Another potential suspect was a boy who

09:10declared his love for Louisa. She had shown him little interest. He was also cleared and six weeks

09:16after being arrested Henrik was released without charge. The police decided that they had enough

09:22evidence to charge Rita and on April the 23rd 1932 the trial of Rita Gorgonoa accused of murdering

09:31Louisa Zaremba began. Investigators outlined to the court the likely version of events.

09:40They strongly ruled out that some stranger could have done it. There were no suspicious footprints

09:45around the villa. No signs of burglary. The dog did not bark which she always did and the traces of

09:52found on a handkerchief were confirmed as a blood group which was the same as Louisa's. According to

09:58the investigators Rita left her room and entered Louisa's bedroom and killed her. She then violated

10:05her to try and make it look like a sexually motivated attack. To make the scene look more realistic she

10:10opened the window of the bedroom and wanted to go to the porch but she stumbled upon the dog. She

10:16then

10:16hit him in the head to silence him and he started whining and cried out in pain. The whimper of

10:23the dog

10:23woke Stanis Lau who left his room so Rita stood behind the Christmas tree. She thought he had not

10:30seen her so she ran to her bedroom and changed into her nightgown. She then joined up with the rest

10:36of

10:36her household desperately trying to save Louisa. She said she would get some water so went to the pool to

10:43dispose of the murder weapon. On the way to the pool she put the nightgown she was wearing when she

10:49committed the murder into the wood burner which was why the police found traces of kerosene on the

10:54stove and why Rita smelt slightly of kerosene on the fateful night. Rita constantly denied the

11:01accusations and continued to plead her innocence. Her lawyer said that all the evidence against her

11:06was circumstantial. The lawyer also asked the court to send the victim's brother Stanis Lau to be examined

11:12by psychologists but the court rejected this request. He also asked why the police had not

11:18examined the similarities with the murder of an equally young girl in the same way just a few days

11:23later. Despite the circumstantial evidence Rita was found guilty of murder on the 14th of May 1932

11:31and sentenced to death by hanging. It was later revealed but this was not a unanimous verdict

11:38as only nine of the 12 jurors found her to be guilty. At the end of her trial her lawyer

11:44informed

11:45the court that she was pregnant. He stated that the father of the child was Henrik Zaremba and the

11:51child was conceived on Christmas Eve 1931 a week before the murder of Louisa. Henrik strongly denied

11:58that Rita was pregnant with his baby and announced that he would not recognise the child. On September 22nd

12:05in 1932, Rita gave birth to her daughter. Henrik still claimed that he was not the father of the

12:11child. His life was going downhill and his construction company collapsed. The defence filed an appeal to the

12:19Supreme Court and it was agreed that a second trial could take place which began on March 6th 1933 in

12:26Krakow. The defence claimed that all the evidence was circumstantial and that on the night the police

12:33decided that Rita was guilty without really looking into the other people in the house on the night.

12:38All the evidence was scrutinised and the defence team did a very good job of establishing reasonable

12:44doubt. They focused on the fact that pretty much the whole case was based on statements of a 14 year

12:51old child. The defence suggested that the boy had a vivid imagination. They said he'd embellished his

12:58testimony, stating that his statement changed from saying that the mysterious figure hidden behind

13:03the Christmas tree was a shapeless person, to the figure was wearing a fur coat, to saying it was

13:09Rita. They asked if it was a young boy himself who could have committed the crime. He was the child

13:15of a

13:16mentally ill mother and often sleepwalked and woke up in various parts of the house. Public opinion was

13:22still very much against Rita, a beautiful woman who had seduced an older man and allegedly murdered his

13:29daughter. The court once again found Rita guilty, but this time reduced her sentence to eight years in

13:36prison. On September the 3rd 1939, two days after the outbreak of the Second World War, Rita was given

13:46early release from prison and moved to a shelter for refugees in Warsaw. She was often recognised on the

13:52street and people would taunt her and shout murderer, but Rita always denied the crime and declared her

13:59innocence. After she was released from prison, little is known of what happened to Rita. She separated from

14:06the daughter she gave birth to in prison. The young girl would spend much of her childhood in children's

14:12homes, where the other children would often tell her that her mother was a murderess. Some reports say

14:20that Rita ran a newsstand. Other reports say that she left Europe and went to live in South America.

14:26In 2014, the daughter that Rita never saw again and Rita's granddaughter announced an attempt to get

14:34a retrial and show the world that Rita was innocent.

14:40Hello everyone and thank you so much for listening. If any of you have any idea what really happened to

14:46Rita in the years following her release from prison, I would be fascinated to know. And I will see you

14:52in the

14:53next briefcase.

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