INTRODUCTION
Vera Renczi was a Romanian serial killer. She was convicted for poisoning 35 individuals including her husbands (2), lovers (multiple) and her son during the 1920s. She died in the prison. The authoritative sources that support the claim of 35 people being killed by Renczi in Romania were not found by The Guinness Book of World Records in the year 1972. The accounts of her life were not found in the verifiable documentary supporting evidence. No original source was found related to her case till date. No evidence was also found which supports the existence of the serial killer Vera Renczi. It may be possible that the records may be lost in the political turmoil in that area in the intervening years or may have been a work of fiction.
BACKGROUND OF THE CASE
Renczi’ s mother died when she was 13 years old. At the age of 13, she moved to Zrenjanin, Romania along with her father and joined a boarding school for further education. She had become increasingly unmanageable by her father when she was 15 years old. She used to run away from home with a numerous number of boyfriends who were significantly older than her frequently. Many of her friends said that Renczi has a pathological desire for constant male/men companionship and she usually possesses a high jealousy and suspicious nature. At the age of 20, she was married to Karl Schick, a wealthy Austrian banker, who was many years older than her. They both have a son named Lorenzo.
After a few years, she began to suspect her husband for being unfaithful to her. In a jealous rage, she poisoned the wine dinner of her husband with arsenic and began to tell others that she was abandoned with her child.
After a year, she declared that her husband had died in a car accident and remarried a man nearer to her age. Again, she was plagued with suspicion that her new husband was involved in an extramarital affair. A few months later, she claimed that she was abandoned. From then she didn’t remarry but used to keep some affairs with other men including married, from various backgrounds and social positions openly. All these relationships would vanish in a few months or weeks or even days and used to claim that she was abandoned by them.
EVENTS
- Killed her first husband as she suspected him for being unfaithful.
- Killed her second husband as she suspected him for maintaining extramarital relationships.
- One day, a woman followed her husband to Renczi’s residency and found that he didn’t return
- She saw many coffins which were stored in Renczi’s wine cellar.
- She complained to police officers.
- During investigation, police officers found around 32 unburied and zinc-lined coffins in her wine cellar.
- Renczi was arrested and taken into custody.
CRIMES
- Murdered her first husband, Karl Schick.
- Murdered her second husband.
- Killed her son, Lorenzo.
- Killed around 32 people who were her lovers.
MODUS OPERANDI
Poisoning the food taken by the victims with arsenic.
FORENSIC INVESTIGATION
The dead bodies stored in the unburied coffins which are in the different decomposition stages from the wine cellar were recovered. They analyzed the bodies and found arsenic in both the kidneys.
During interrogation, Renczi confessed that she poisoned the 32 men with arsenic when she suspected them of being unfaithful.
She also confessed that likes to sit in an armchair amidst the coffins.
She confessed that she murdered both the husbands and her only son. She explained that her son accidentally discovered the coffins in the wine cellar and started to blackmail her for that. So she even killed him with arsenic and at the end, she held him in her arms as he lay dying, so that she would be the last person to hug him.
CRIME SCENE
Wine cellar at Renczi’ s residence.
JUDGEMENT
Renczi was convicted of 35 murders and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Author
Vinukonda Madhuri Reddy
Intern, Dept. of Forensic Science and Criminal Investigation
Legal Desire Media & Insights