The Angel Makers of Nagyrév

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"The Angel Makers of Nagyrév" were a group of women living in the village of Nagyrév, Hungary who between 1914 and 1929 poisoned to death an estimated 300 people. They were supplied arsenic and encouraged to use it for the purpose by a midwife or "wise woman" named Julius Fazekas (Julia Fazekas) and her accomplice Susi Olah (Susanna Olah).

Fazekas was a middle-aged midwife who arrived in Nagyrév in 1911, with her husband already inexplicably missing. Between 1911 and 1921 she was imprisoned ten times for performing illegal abortions, but was acquitted consistently by judges supporting abortion.

During World War I, when able-bodied men were sent to fight for the Austro-Hungarian empire, rural Nagyrév was an ideal location for holding Allied prisoners of war. With the limited freedom of POWs about the village, the men-deprived women living there often had one or more foreign lovers. When the men returned home their wives were not satisfied with just one man in their bed. As the women began to complain about boredom with their husbands Mrs. Fazekas offered them relief, arsenic made by boiling flypaper and skimming off the lethal residue.

The first victim of this was Peter Hegedus in 1914 and other husbands, children, and other family members started to follow. The poisoning became a fad, and by the mid 1920's Nagyrév earned the nickname "the murder district." There were an estimated 300 victims over the 15 years that the arsenic was sold by Fazekas. Julius was the closest thing to a doctor the village had and her cousin was the clerk who filed all the death certificates, allowing the murders to go undetected.

Eventually Ladislaus Szabó, one of the Angel Makers, was caught in the act by two visitors who survived her poisoning attempts. She fingered a Mrs. Bukenoveski, who named Fazekas. Police made their way to her home and found her dead, having committed suicide by her own poison.

Afterwards, twenty-six of the Angel Makers were tried, among them Susi Olah, with eight put to death, seven imprisoned for life, and the rest imprisoned for a duration.