Béla Kiss

Béla Kiss (c. 1877 – after 4 October 1916) 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.

Background
Béla Kiss was born in Izsák, Austria-Hungary to János Kiss and Verona Varga. At a young age, Kiss possibly had an incestuous relationship with his mother.

A tinsmith, Béla Kiss lived in Cinkota (then a town near Budapest, now a neighborhood within the city itself) from 1900 on. He was an amateur astrologer and allegedly fond of occult practices. Kiss was married twice, and had two children, Aranka and Ilonka. In 1912, Kiss hired a housekeeper, Mrs. Jakubec, after his wife had reportedly abandoned him for a lover.

Jakubec noticed that Kiss corresponded with a number of women, typically through advertisements he would place in newspapers offering his services as either a matrimonial agent or a fortune teller, and sometimes brought the women individually to his home. However, his housekeeper had little contact with the women.

Kiss was never on intimate terms with his neighbors, even though he was well-liked. Townsfolk also noticed that Kiss had collected a number of metal drums. When the town police questioned him about the drums, he told them that he filled them with gasoline in order to prepare for rationing in the oncoming war.

When World War I began in 1914, he was conscripted and left his house in Jakubec's care.

Criminal activity
According to an article published in Népszava on 10 May 1916, referring to a "police inspector's report", Márton Kresinszky, the owner of the house rented by Kiss, wanted to renovate the building, so he went to Cinkota, where Kiss's neighbour, an old acquaintance of Kresinszky, Béla Takács, a pharmacist, told him that Kiss had gone to war in 1914. In search of material for redecoration, the two men went to the chamber next to Kiss's workshop, where Takács said there had been a large quantity of reeds. In the chamber they found seven tin drums, stacked one metre long and fifty centimetres wide. The airtight top of the top barrel, sealed with lead, had been loosened with an axe and, when it was prised open, a terrible stench emanated from it. After the tin roof was removed, a bag was found and pulled out of the cylinder. A woman's body was found sewn into the bag. Another barrel was also punctured, from which a corpse smell emanated and a lock of blonde hair fell out. Kresinszky and Takács then informed the authorities. Gyula Huszka, the chief notary, together with police officers, found a female body in each of the seven barrels. A search of Kiss' house resulted in a total of 24 bodies.

Nagy informed the military that they should arrest Kiss immediately, if he was still alive; there was also a possibility that he was a prisoner of war. His name, unfortunately, was very common. Nagy also arrested Jakubec and asked the postal service to hold any possible letters to Kiss, in case he had an accomplice who could warn him. Nagy initially suspected that Jakubec might have had something to do with the murders, especially since Kiss had left her money in his will. Jakubec assured police that she knew absolutely nothing about the murders. She showed them a secret and locked room Kiss had told her never to enter. The room was filled with bookcases and had a desk, which held a number of letters, Kiss' correspondence with 74 women, and a photo album. Many of the books were about poisons or strangulation. From the letters, Nagy discerned several things. The oldest of the letters were from 1903 and it became clear that Kiss was defrauding the women—usually middle-aged —who had been looking for marriage. He had placed ads in the marriage columns of several newspapers and had selected mainly women who had no relatives living nearby and knew no one who would quickly notice their disappearance. He wooed them and convinced them to send him money. Police also found old court records that indicated that two of his victims had initiated court proceedings because he had taken money from them. Both women had disappeared, and the cases had been dismissed.

Each woman who came to the house was strangled. Kiss pickled their corpses in alcohol and sealed them in the airtight metal drums. Police found that the bodies had puncture marks on their necks and that their bodies were drained of blood, which led them to believe that Kiss may have been practicing vampirism.

Escape
On 4 October 1916, Nagy received a letter that stated that Kiss was recuperating in a Serbian hospital. However, Nagy arrived at the hospital too late; Kiss had fled and left the corpse of another soldier in his bed. Nagy alerted all the Hungarian police, but all the alleged sightings police investigated were false.

Sightings
On several later occasions, speculation arose that Kiss had perhaps faked his death by exchanging identities with a dead soldier named Mackaree during the war. He was reportedly sighted numerous times in the following years. Various rumors circulated as to his actual fate, including that he had been imprisoned for burglary in Romania or he had died of yellow fever in Turkey. In 1920, a soldier in the French Foreign Legion reported on another legionnaire named Hoffman, the name Kiss had used in some of his letters, who had boasted how good he was at using a garrote and who fit Kiss' description. "Hoffman" deserted before police could reach him.

The last known supposed sighting occurred in New York City in 1932. That year, homicide detective Henry Oswald was certain he had observed Kiss emerging from the New York City Subway at Times Square, Manhattan. There were also rumors that Kiss was living in the city and working as a janitor, although these could not be verified. When the police went to interview the janitor, he had already left.

Kiss' eventual fate and exact number of victims remain unknown.

In popular culture

 * The play Thirty-Two by Antonin Artaud was inspired by the case.
 * The second half of David Kuhnlein's book Bloodletter was inspired by Béla Kiss and released on Amphetamine Sulphate in March of 2024. The stories "Béla Kiss Goes to the Theatre" and "Béla Kiss Goes to War" are excerpts from his novella.
 * The German horror movie Bela Kiss: Prologue (a.k.a. The Kiss of a Killer or Natural Born Killer) by director Lucien Förstner released in 2013 is based on Kiss' biography.
 * The novel Hill House by Gopi Kottoor was inspired by the true events in the life of Béla Kiss.
 * The song "The Alphabet Serial Song" by Amoree Lovell lists Bela Kiss as the B.
 * The song "Bela Kiss" by Bloodsucking Zombies from Outer Space is based on the Bela Kiss murders.
 * The song "Bela Kiss" by Gazpacho is based on the Bela Kiss murders.
 * The song "Bella Kiss" by John 5 is inspired by the Bela Kiss murders.
 * The song "Bella's Kiss" by Funke and the Two Tone Baby is inspired by the Bela Kiss murders
 * The band Bela Kiss, a metal/hardcore band from Long Island, NY, named themselves after the murderer.