Women Serial Killers of the 20th Century (2 page)

VERA RENCZI

Obsession

Vera Renczi entered the world to a well off family in Bucharest, Romania in 1903. When Vera was ten years old, the family moved to Berkerekul, a small provincial town in the northeast of the former Yugoslavia.

Many years later
, Vera’s childhood friends described her as being overly jealous and extremely possessive. There is a story of Vera as a child having poisoned her dog. When questioned by her father as to why she had poisoned it, she explained that she had heard her father saying that he was giving the dog away as it made too much noise with its barking. And she continued:

“
Because I do not want my dog to belong to anybody else. When he leaves me he leaves this world”.

Vera grew into a stunningly beautiful young woman and amazed men with her grace and beauty. By the time she was fifteen, she had engaged in numerable affairs, many with men considerably older than herself. It was as if she had an almost pathological desire for constant male companionship.

When Vera was nineteen, she fell in love with a Bucharest businessman, Karl Schick
, who was many years her senior. They married and bought a large house on the outskirts of Berkerekul. They had a son together named Lorenzo. To all neighbors, friends and relatives, Vera appeared as a loving, caring, and affectionate wife. However, while Karl was out at work, Vera imagined him having endless affairs with other women. Her suspicions were invalid and unfounded but to Vera they were frighteningly real. Unable to bear these thoughts, one night in a jealous fit, she added arsenic to Karl’s dinner wine.

Vera told her friends, neighbors
, and relatives that Karl had left her. Although they found it odd, they had no reason to disbelieve her. After a year, she announced to her friends, neighbors, and relatives that she had heard that Karl had died in a "traffic accident”.

Vera then met Joseph Renczi, who was nearer her own age than her previous husband. Joseph was an extremely handsome Serbian businessman. They married
, and it was not long before Vera was once again plagued by the suspicion that her new husband was involved in extramarital affairs. Unable to stand the thought of ‘her Joseph’ in the arms of another woman, she added arsenic to his dinner wine. Once again, she told friends and relatives that he had deserted her. A year later, she claimed he had sent her a letter saying he would never return.

Vera never remarried but reverted to her previous lifestyle of having a series of lovers. Some of the affairs would be with married men and were carried out clandestinely and others openly. The lovers she took were from all walks of life
but were mainly youngish men from out of town.

In the town,
she became known as the “Mysterious Huntress”. In the evenings, she would wander into the town and frequent the restaurants and bars on the prowl for a young lover. Some of the men would be seen to stay with her for a few weeks, some less. Inevitably, she would always tell her acquaintances that they had deserted her.

If Vera felt or detected the tiniest suspicion of infidelity, which she inescapably did, the men would receive a glass of Vera’s
special dinner wine.

Vera’s downfall came about by her affair
in 1925 with a local married Serbian banker, Milorad. His wife had become suspicious and one night followed her husband to Vera’s house. When Milorad did not return home, the wife went to Vera's house and confronted her. Vera denied knowing Milorad. Mrs. Milorad reported his disappearance and her last sighting of him at Vera’s to the police.

The police
, meanwhile, were being inundated with enquiries of men who had disappeared and were last seen and heard of as visiting Berkerekul. They decided that a visit to the wealthy widow’s home was in order.

They uncovered more than was expected.
In Vera’s large wine cellar, they discovered thirty-two unburied zinc coffins, all neatly placed around the walls. Each coffin held a male corpse, and each was neatly labeled with a name and the age of the victim. In the centre of the cellar was a rocking chair. In Vera’s bedroom, the police found enough arsenic to kill a hundred men.

Vera’s Chateau

Vera Renczi was taken into custody.
In front of a stern-faced magistrate, she made a full confession of having poisoned her two husbands and ten-year-old son, as well as all the other young men.

When asked why she had killed her husbands and all the other young men
, the extent of her jealousy was revealed. She confessed to knowing that they were all or would in the future be unfaithful. She explained that she was unable to endure the thought of any of them ever holding another woman in their arms after holding her and for that reason they were safer in her cellar.

When questioned as to why she had killed her son, she replied that he had accidentally discovered the coffins in her wine cellar. And that he
, too, would one day have grown into a man and held another woman in his arms.

When asked about the rocking chair, she said that s
he liked to sit and talk to her men knowing she had their undivided attention.

Beautiful Vera Renczi was found guilty on thirty-five counts of murder and remained the rest of her days in prison.
In prison, Vera imagined all those she had murdered surrounded her, and the guards would hear her speak to them for hours. Vera died of a brain hemorrhage shortly before the Second World War.

BERTHA GIFFOR
D

The Angel of Death

Bertha Alice Williams Graham Gifford was born in Grubville, Missouri in 1872. Her parents were early pioneers in eastern Missouri. Bertha’s mother
, Matilda Caroline Lee, married her father, William Poindexter Williams, on January 1
st
of 1859, in Jefferson County, Missouri. They had ten children, but two died in early infancy leaving six boys and two girls. The Williams family was known as one of the area’s most respectable families. The family was a regular attendee at the local fundamentalist church, the Church of God
.

Bertha grew up to be
an extraordinarily beautiful woman with dark hair and a dark complexion. As a young woman, she loved to dance and was courted by many. In 1894, when Bertha was twenty-two, she married Henry Graham in Hillsboro, Jefferson County, Missouri. They managed a small boarding house on the edge of Hillsboro town and had a daughter together. The marriage, over time, became an unhappy one, and there were rumors that William was seeing a girl on the sly. When Bertha was thirty and still extremely beautiful, she met Eugene Gifford, a handsome, friendly farmer and carpenter, seven years her junior. When they met, Eugene was betrothed to another girl. Shortly after meeting Eugene, Henry Graham became ill and was diagnosed with pneumonia. Bertha nursed him conscientiously, never leaving his bedside. Although Henry was physically strong, he developed what doctors called complications, and he died at the age of 34 suffering from violent, excruciating, stomach cramps.

In 1907
, after waiting a respectable amount of time and allowing Eugene to break off his engagement and Bertha to collect her insurance payout on Henry’s death, Bertha and Eugene married. Once married, Bertha and Eugene moved away from Jefferson County to Catawissa, Franklin County, Missouri. Catawissa was an extremely small rural community 39 miles from St. Louis and about 10 miles southwest of the larger and more developed town of Pacific.

Catawissa consisted of not
much more than a post office, a church, and a few small stores. Bertha had several relatives by marriage already living in Catawissa. Here, Eugene took up farming, and they lived on a house on Old Bend Road, about one mile from the Meramec River. The people who lived “on the bend” had their own close-knit community separate from the small town of Catawissa. The community was made up of farmers who worked hard and long hours. When Eugene and Bertha moved to the area, the mode of transportation was still by horse and wagon. There were hitching posts and water troughs for horses along the town streets.  T. Dermott, a plumber and owner of a stove and tin ware store on Catawissa St., purchased the first auto truck for his business in March of 1911. By the end of the 1920’s, most businesses bought trucks, but some continued to use horses and wagons into the 1940’s.

Eugene soon became popular in the small, close-knit community and gained a reputation as a
skilled worker and good company. Bertha gained a reputation as an exceptionally talented cook and in time as a “Good Samaritan” for her help in caring for ill neighbors. She became known and appreciated as a good country nurse and kind neighbor, always ready to lend a helping hand if someone was sick or injured. She was known to ride or walk for miles to help at the site of an accident or attend to the sick.  In small, rural communities such as ‘the bend’ in the early 1900’s, it was difficult to get medical help in an emergency. The only doctor in the town of Catawissa, Doctor Hemker, had a large area to cover and was frequently difficult to reach. The newspapers at this time were full of advertisements for lotions and potions for self-medication. Bertha made her own concoctions for treating aches, muscle sprains, coughs, and other ailments.

The people who lived on the
bend did their main shopping in the small town of Pacific, which was approximately a forty-five minute journey. Like the other residents of “the bend,” Bertha did her main shopping in the town of Pacific. In 1911, Eugene’s widowed mother and young brother, Emilie and James Gibbons, moved in with Eugene and Bertha. In 1913, Emilie became ill with stomach cramps and vomiting and died. Bertha took it upon herself to arrange the funeral. A year later in 1914, thirteen-year-old James died in Bertha’s arms from similar symptoms to his mother’s.

Close neighbors of Bertha’
s, George and Margaret Stuhlfelder’s fifteen-month-old son Bernard became ill with pneumonia in February of 1915. Bertha immediately offered her help to the exhausted, distraught parents. She sat selfishly by his bed, or so her neighbors thought, and when complications to his illness started, she stayed for three long nights and days as the small boy’s body writhed around in agony with stomach cramps, before dying in excruciating pain.

One night in 1917, a relative of Eugene’s
, Sherman Pounds, arrived drunkenly on the doorstep of Bertha’s and Eugene’s house. Sherman was a large, strong man of fifty-three. He was a widower with five children and on the weekend he liked to drink. Eugene and Bertha helped him in and put him to bed, and Bertha made him a tonic. In the middle of the night, Sherman awoke with terrible stomach cramps and was dead by the morning. The doctor declared the cause of death from drinking.

Eight months later in November, a hired
helper of Eugene’s, 52-year-old Jim  Ogle, who was complaining of being ripped off by the Gibbons, became ill with what Doctor Hemker said was malaria. Bertha kindly offered to take charge of all nursing duties. On November 17th, Bertha visited Pacific to stock up on a few items. While there, she called into the pharmacy and complained to the pharmacist, known as “Uncle Jimmy,” that rats were attacking her chickens. He suggested an arsenic based rat poison for which she signed for in the poison register. The following day, Jim became sicker and complained of severe stomach cramps. The doctor was sent for and, after examining Jim, said the stomach pains were a result of the malaria. For three days, Jim suffered agonizing pain before dying on November 20
th
. Dr. Hemker wrote, “Gastritis” on the certificate as having caused the death.

Five years later in December
of 1922, Sherman’s three-year-old granddaughter, Beulah Pounds, was left in Bertha’s care for the afternoon while her mother went Christmas shopping in Pacific. When Beulah’s mother returned to pick her up, her daughter complained of stomach pains. Bertha and the mother decided it would be best to leave Beulah overnight with Bertha. The following morning, Beulah was much sicker and in an enormous amount of pain. Her mother sent for the doctor, but Beulah was dead before he arrived. Bertha described Beulah’s symptoms to him, and Dr. Hemker wrote out a death certificate listing the cause of death as gastritis. Beulah
was buried on January 5, 1923
.

It was one local funeral Bertha failed to attend, and Bertha loved funerals. Bertha was fuming because Beulah’s aunt had suggested
a
post-mortem should be done on Beulah. The aunt was unhappy, as her father Sherman had similarly died in Bertha’s house from severe stomach pains. However, because the doctor didn’t think anything was amiss and the parents thinking it would cost too much money, failed to perform an autopsy
.

Six years almost to the day that George and Margaret Stuhlfelder’s son Bernard had died, Margaret
, their two-year-old daughter, became ill with pneumonia. They sent for Dr. Hemker who prescribed medication for her. Then Bertha arrived to help. She was dressed in a white apron and carried her bag of tonics. She told Margaret that she thought the baby looked terribly ill and did not think she would recover. Nevertheless, Bertha sat by the baby’s bed. Two days later Margaret started vomiting, and three days later Margaret died in agony
.

In March
of 1923, George and Margaret’s daughter Irene, seven-years-old, became ill with stomach pains. Once again, the Stuhlfelder’s called the doctor who prescribed stomach medication. This appeared to ease her pain and then Bertha called by to help nurse her. Shortly after Bertha’s arrival, Irene began to vomit and a few days later, she died in agony. The doctor filled out the death certificate clearly thinking there was nothing amiss.

Another local family, George and Ethel
Schamel, were also friends of the Giffords. George frequently helped Elmer out on the farm. The family had intended to leave
Catawissa and move to St Louis in April of 1923 but after only three weeks in St Louis, they returned to Catawissa. Two years later in June of 1925, Ethel at the age of 33, became ill, and Bertha nursed her, but Ethel died. Eight weeks later Lloyd, George and Ethel’s son, who was just nine-years-old, died of gastritis while sleeping over at Bertha’s house. This death was followed eight weeks later by the brother Elmer’s death, at the age of seven, also from gastritis who Bertha had also helped nurse. Barely a month later, George
Schamel’s sister, Leona, became ill and started vomiting. Bertha nursed her. Leona died in October at the age of thirty-seven. Doctor Hemker had signed all of the deaths certificated as gastroenteritis.

LLYOD’s DEATH CERTIFICATE

ELMER’S DEATH CERTIFICATE

It was after the
Schamel boys’
deaths
,
Lloyd and Elmer that people began to talk
.
The deaths had happened almost one after the other in such a short time, and both the Schamel boys had been so healthy and full of life.

Maybe people had thought Bertha’s presence at so many deathbeds was odd before but had never voiced it. Now, it began to be discussed openly, as was the fact that Bertha enjoyed reading about murders and accidents in the newspapers and enjoyed talking about them.

All of this was going on against the backdrop of prohibition. Many of the country folk had stills in their barns and were wary of the authorities and attracting attention. Eugene Gifford had a large whisky still in one of his barns and a friend of his, Gus, would sell the whisky in the nearby towns of Pacific, Catawissa, and neighboring areas. Eugene and Gus had some kind of squabble over the proceeds, and Bertha was so mad at Gus she chased him with a butcher’s knife.

A short while later in 1926, Gus’s mother became ill and Bertha, forgetting the fight, offered to nurse her. Gus’s mother died.

One evening on May 15th, 1927, Edward Brinley, an alcoholic, ex-butcher from Pacific, who was now working for Eugene as a farmhand, collapsed in a drunken stupor in front of Bertha’s front door. Eugene found him and helped Edward into bed. In the morning, Bertha gave him some of her homemade lemonade. A few hours later, he developed chronic stomach pains and died in agony in the afternoon. Doctor Hemker, feeling nervous with all the gossip about Bertha in the vicinity, decided to consult with another doctor from Pacific as to the cause of death. It would seem they could not agree as two different diagnoses were written on the death certificate.