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KEREPESI CEMETERY. The trough in which part of severed
body was found is on the path leading to right of the entrance.
Colonel Simon saw a sliver of freshly cut wood ad-
hering to it. He lifted it carefully with a pair of
pincers, rotated it slowly as he examined it.
“You know, Doctor,” he said reflectively, “no matter
how cunning a murderer is, a little thing like this
Sliver of wood, the existence of which the killer.
never even dreams, trips him in the end.” :
The police surgeon looked -at the object in Colonel
Simon’s hand. “What is it?” he asked.
“A piece of fresh wood, of a type used only in
floor boards.”
“What does that signify?” ;
“A number of things. The woman may have been
dismembered in a wood-work shop. Or she may have
been killed in a store or apartment that had a new
‘floor laid down within the last week. Or, again, the
wood might have been in the sack when the body
was shoved into it, in which event it is reasonable
to assume that the sack came from a wood-work shop
which deals in floor boards.”
“That means questioning every carpenter in Buda-
pest.”.
“Not at all,” Colonel Simon said. “I don’t think
it means any more than covering the carpenters in
Angyalfold. The men who jettisoned the torso were
on foot. The sack they carried was far too large to
have been taken any great distance without risk of
discovery. I am sure that you will find that the
murder was committed within one kilometer of the
spot where we found it.”
“We found it in the Angyalfold district.”
“Then that’s where we’ll find the solution.”
, COLONEL SIMON organized the largest and the
most concentrated search in Budapest criminal
history. More than 250 -police officers were placed
on alert: Their job was to hunt for the remaining parts
of the victim’s corpse and to ascertain, if possible,. the
names of any missing women in the neighborhood.
Six A.M. was the starting time, and Colonel Simon
a expected an answer by noon.
Angyalfold, the name of the district in which the
42 search was to be concentrated; means Angel, and is a
»
Gear
Ee athe
# i:
DETECTIVE SZALAY while investigating scene of crime, stum-
bled on the first important clue when seeking a mild sedative. —
\
complete misnomer since this district has the highest
crime rate in the city. The local newspapers refer to
it as the “Chicago of Budapest.”
The uniformed officers were specifically charged
with the task of finding the remains and securing an
identification. The detectives were charged with the
responsibility of tracking down the store or shop from
which the sliver of wood had come.
At the appointed hour the police swarmed into
“Angel” district. Every house was covered. The resi-
dents were awakened and herded into the courtyards
where they were questioned. They were asked if a
woman between 25 and 30 years of age, brown hair
and of medium stature, was missing. They were also
asked if anyone in the house had recently installed a
new floor. The idea of the mass questioning was to
make one neighbor serve as a check against the other.
The search continued throughout’ the morning, and
by noon, when all residents in the district had been
interrogated, the uniformed forces were compelled to
admit that their work had produced no tangible results.
_There were no missing women who even remotely re-
sembled the victim, and those apartments in which
new floors had been placed showed no trace of crime.
The work of the detective division likewise pro-
duced negative results, although. Colonel Simon found
in the latter’s report confirmation for his theory that.
the remainder of the victim’s body and the place of
her murder would be found in Angel district. There
were only three wood-work shops in the district, and
. these were thoroughly investigated and eliminated
from suspicion. The owners of the places, however,
agreed that the piece of wood found on the victim’s
body could have come from any of their establish-
ments, since it was the custom for them to collect the
a il a ch and
MURDEROUS PAIR: This callous, cold-blooded couple ruthless-
ly set. out to commit the “perfect crime." Instead they
had achieved perfect justice without mercy on the gallows.
short lengths and sell them as fire wood. The-sack in |
which the torso was found was used to carry such
wood, and it was so common that almost every family
in “Angel” district possessed one.
[t was shortly past noon when Detective Geza Szalay,
expert on local crime conditions, tired and annoyed
by a dyspeptic attack, stepped in to a small combina-
tion bar and eating house on Szegedi Street. It was set
in the corner angle of a neat, two-story brownstone
house. The interior was a dim, cool haven against the
noon-day heat.
The detective walked up to the bar and asked fora
glass of water in which to mi x a mild stomach sedative.
The barmaid was an attractive woman of about thirty
with deep, smouldering eyes and dark hair, parted in
the middle and hanging loose over her shoulders. She
drew a glass of water and Placed it in front of the
detective. The officer poured in a powder, stirred it,
and gulped down the fizzing mixture.
“T- hope it makes you feel better,” the barmaid said.
The detective nodded. “It’s working in this hot
weather that does it.”
“What sort of work do you do?”
“I’m a police officer.”
The barmaid nodded her head sympathetically. “No
wonder you’ve been working so hard,” she said with
feeling. “Wasn’t it a terrible. thing they did to that
woman?’
‘“Then the police have been here already?”
“Oh yes, they left about an hour ago. I asked them
if they knew who that poor woman was, and they said
that they were still trying to find out.”
“We are pretty sure that she comes from this dis-
trict,” the detective replied. “I think that as soon as
THE BAR ON SZEGEDI STREET was located in Budapest's
toughest district. The prevalence of crime in this area promp-
ted police to dub it sarcastically the "“Streeé of Angels."
COLONEL FERENC SIMON, Chief of the Homicide Squad, or-
dered the most concentrated manhunt in Budapest history.
He accurately deduced the true story of the ghastly crime.
we learn which women are missing from their homes,
we will have the solution.”
- As they spoke, a lone customer, sitting at a table
across the room, showed by his manner that he was
trying to edge into the conversation. The detective
noticed it, but he appeared to ignore the man.
Szalay asked the barmaid: “You haven’t heard of
anybody missing, have you?”
Before the girl could reply, the customer, unable r
Testrain himself. any longer, blurted: “Here is yo
chance to tell the police.” '
The barmaid flushed. ‘“There’s really not much to
tell. I really do not think it is necessary for us to wash
our dirty linens in public.” (Continued on page 50) %
43
*"
4
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py MICHAEL STERN
hee does not always follow
the same pattern. Its various
styles will differ from time to
time and from place to place. In
Hungary, for example, the present
mode of murder calls for the victim
to be dismembered, and the ma-
jority of
begin with the discovery of a4 part
of a body.
So it was in Budapest’s famous
Mandlin case. On the mild evening
of May 28, a weary farmer, taking a
short cut through the Kerepesi
Cemetery, paused before a concrete,
octogan-shaped water trough and
leaned over for a drink. As he
reached over the side of the broad
rim, he saw an accusing forefinger
attached to a half-submerged arm,
pointed directly at him. The poor
farmer drew back in terror. He
threw his knapsack to the ground
and, screaming for help, ran towards
the gatekeeper’s cottage.
The Budapest police, a modern,
efficient organization run along
semi-military lines, converged on
the scene in few minutes. Leading
the police contingent was Colonel
Ferenc Simon, chief of the homicide
squad and one of Europe’s most
prilliant sleuths. Colonel Simon
dipped his hand into the water and
lifted out the arm with the accusing
finger. As he did so, he saw, also,
two legs that had been cut Of. at
the knees. He drew them out and
lay them on the gravel path along-
side the arm. Colonel Fanos Borencz,
the police surgeon, studied the ob-
jects carefully and made his report.
The limbs were those of a woman
of between 295 and 28 years of age.
ne dismembering job was very
meatly done, and he believed that
either a butcher or a surgeon was
responsible for + :
“Can you give me a description of
the woman?” Colonel Simon asked.
“She was a brunette, about five
feet, 3 inches in height, weighing
about a hundred thirty pounds.
would judge that she worked for a
livelihood as evidenced by the cal-
louses on the palm of her hand.”
“Have you any jdea when death
WANT HER TO DIE SO HORRIBLY?
=
homicide investigations ©
occurred?” the famed sleuth queried.
“Judging from the lividity of the
members I would say sometime be-
tween seven and nine this morning.”
Colonel Simon leaned over the
trough and with a cane fished a
brown paper bag from the bottom.
It was the common, coarse type used
in grocery stores. Although wet, the
paper was still firm, indicating that
it had not been submerged very long
in the water. Blood stains still
flecked the inside of the bag, mak-
ing it obvious that the limbs had
been carried in At
The farmer who discovered the
body was questioned by Colonel
Simon, but he could tell nothing
beyond the fact that he had acci-
dentally stumbled across the dis-
membered limbs. The cemetery
attendants were brought in and in-
terrogated. One gardener admitted
having gone to that particular water
trough just 15 minutes before the
farmer, and he was positive that he
would have seen the parts of the
pody had they been there at that
time. It meant that the bag had
been ditched between 5:45 and 6:00
that evening.
Both the farmer and the gardener
were questioned closely about pass-
ers-by who might have aroused
their suspicions, but they could re-
member no one. The other at-
tendants were likewise questioned,
and there again the results were
unproductive.
The dismembered parts were
taken to the morgue on Szvetenay
Street where Colonel Simon secured
a copy of the dead woman’s finger-
prints. He returned to Headquarters
and checked the master file where it
was quickly established that she
had never been in any difficulties
with the Budapest police. The miss-
ing persons file was consulted, but
no woman answering her descrip-
tion was mentioned in the reports.
Since the murder occurred that
morning, it was reasonable to as-
sume that it was still too early for
the victim’s family to become
alarmed. Simon felt that when she
failed to show up during the night,
they would in all likelihood com~-
municate with his department the
following morning.
WHO WAS THIS UNFORTUNATE WOMAN THAT ANYONE SHOULD
AND WHO WAS THE MAN IN HER
LIFE WHOSE HATRED HAD GROWN TO SUCH FANATIC FRENZY ?
In the meantime, all available
officers were sent out in a search
for the remaining parts of the body.
Not until an identification was made
could an investigation be launched
properly.
Because the body had been found
in Pest, the search was concentrated
there. The city of Budapest is
formed by 2 union of the once in-
dependent towns of Buda and Pest, »
and these towns are divided by the
proad Danube River.
SHORTS past one AM., a police
patrol, walking along Jasz
Street—a short, dark thoroughfare
near the Danube in the Angyalfold
district in Pest—saw 4 man with a
heavy sack slung over his shoulder,
hurrying suspiciously toward the
river. There were two men with
him. The patrol shouted for the
three to halt. The man carrying the
sack let his burden drop to the
ground, and accompanied by his
two confederates, took to his heels.
The police gave chase but lost their
quarry in the darkness. Returning
to the sack, they opened it and found
inside a woman’s torso.
Doctor Borencz and Colonel
Simon hurried to the Morgue where
they quickly established that the
torso was part of the body recovered
earlier in the evening. It was minus
head, arms, and legs, and gave the
same evidence of expert butchery
that had been noted before. When
the torso Was taken out of the sack.
WAR CORRESPONDENT MICHAEL STERN
and author of this story. carefully ex-
amines the trough where the victim's dis-
sected arm was found by an innocen
passer-by who had paused for a drin
4\
ys
camsnaenger ae
50 from two P.M. to eleven P.M.
The customer turned to Detective
Szalay. “After the police were here,
she told me that. her sister hadn’t
come home. last night, and she won-
dered whether or not it was ‘impor-
tant enough to tell them. Then she
decided that it wasn’t—so she didn’t
say anything about it.”
“Why. didn’t you think it was im-
portant enough to tell the police?”
the detective asked the girl.
“Because she often stayed out all
night.” ;
“Ig she married?”
“She is.”
“What does she do when she stays
out all night?”
“She runs around with other men.”
“How old is your sister?”
“She is forty.”
This last bit of information was dis-
‘couraging since the dismembered
cadaver had been estimated by the
police surgeon as being between
twenty-five and thirty. However, be-
cause Colonel Simon’s instructions
were to investigate all missing
women, Detective Szalay continued
following the lead.
* ““F want you to accompany me to the
morgue,” he said.
“Oh, I can’t do that,” the barmaid
said) “I must stay here and keep the
bar open.”
“Where is your sister’s husband?”
“He is sleeping. You see, he worked
all night.”
“All right. Go and wake him up.”
The barmaid left and returned a
few minutes later with a short, skinny
man whose dark hair was rumpled
and whose eyes squinted. The bar
owner pulled his bathrobe tighter |
around his skinny frame and _ said,
grumbling: “What do you want?”
i “It’s about your wife,” the detective
now?”
“Tt don’t know. In fact, it may be
nothing at all, but I want you to come
down to the morgue with me. I don’t
want to alarm you unnecessarily, but
it will be necessary for you to «see
whether gr not you. can identify the
woman whose torso’ we picked up
late last night.”
“Tt couldn’t be my wife. That would
be-too much luck for a man to have,”
the outraged husband said bitterly..
“If you will please wait until I am
dressed, I’ll go with you.”
While the detective waited for the
bar proprietor to dress, he gathered
further information from the barmaid
about her sister. Her sister’s name
was Katia Mandlin, and she had been
married.to Ferenc Mandlin for nine
years. A few years ago, she took to
running around with men of doubtful
reputation. At first Ferenc protested
and there were violent quarrels, but
for the past year he apparently had
become resigned to her amorous ad-
ventures, and life seemed to go on
more smoothly. Katia secured a job
at the main offices of the Commercial
Bank: and she worked there daily
The job
2
are stored, an attendant
egan,
“What has that woman been up to
daughter?” he said.
‘CLUE OF THE IMMACULATE KILLER
(Continued from page 43)
also served to keep her away from
her husband.
The barmaid was Mrs. Lajos Moz-—
sar. She said that she was deeply af-
fected by her sister’s errant qualities,
and she had tried desperately to keep
the union from smashing on the rocks.
Ferenc Mandlin reappeared in a
neatly-pressed blue suit, his face
freshly shaved. He accompanied the
detective into the waiting automobile,
and they drove rapidly to the morgue.
In the basement where the cadavers
laced the
remains on a marble slab, lifted back
the white sheet that covered_them.
Mandlin's face went white. It was
difficult to guess whether it resulted
from recognition or from the grue-
some sight itself.
“Is that your wife?”
“JI think it is,”
shaken. He turned away, clapped his
hands over his face, and burst into
tears.
“Dear God, that she should come
to such an end,” he wept. “If there is
‘ustice in this world, the murderer
will meet the punishment that he de-
serves,” — ;
Detective Szalay placed his hand
around Mandlin’s “shoulders comfort-
ingly. “You need have no fear on that
score,” he said firmly. “We'll find the
killer, and he will get exactly what |
he deserves.”
Detective Szalay rushed Mandlin to
the office of Colonel Simon.
identified the victim,” he announced
triumphantly.
“You’re too late,” Colonel Simon
responded. “We have already identi-
fied hér as Erma Nagy, the seventeen-
roe girl who ran away from
ome the day before yesterday.”
“But that’s not possible. She is ten
years younger than the victim.”
“And how old is the woman you’ve
identified?”
“Forty.”
Colonel Simon smiled. “And she is
ten years older. As you know, the
medical- examiner’s estimate of the
victim’s age is at best only a guess.
It is not.to.be taken as conclusive.”
Colonel Simon sent for the tired,
red-eyed man-¢who was sitting pa-
tiently.in the ante-room. He was ‘Lajos
Nagy, a small home-owner on Chapel
Island, Budapest’s lovely vacation re-
sort which is set in the center of the
Danube river between Buda and Pest.
“Is there any doubt in your mind
whether or not it was your daughter
that you saw?” Colonel Simon asked.
“How could I mistake my own
“IT would know
her anywhere. I warned her not to
go out with that man. Oh, if I ever
catch him, I will tear Him apart with
my bare hands.”
The homicide chief told Detective
Szalay that the highly susceptible
Erma, long the object of the affections
of a forest inspector, finally had
fallen for his blandishments and had
run off with him. Once before, when
Erma, on the insistence of the family -
had tried to put him off, the impetu-
Mandlin §said,.
“lve :
ous lover threatened to kill her. And
now, the poor father wept, he had
carried out his threat.
Szalay turned to Ferenc Mandlin.
“What have you got to say about it?”
he asked.
“Well, I thought it was my. wife,
and I can tell you that I am very
much relieved to learn that it isn’t.”
Szalay took leave of his chief, and
with Mandlin at his side, walked
slowly out of Police Headquarters.
The major part of the investigation
had shifted to Chapel Island where
the background of Erma and the for-
est inspector were being gone into
thoroughly. As they reached the side-
walk, Szalay suddenly turned around.
“Let’s go in again,” he said. This
time he headed for the fingerprint
bureau and asked for a set of prints
taken from the dead hand. Returning
to his car, he sped back to Mandlin’s
combination bar and living quarters.
In the bedroom of the missing
woman, he carefully dusted all ob-
jects in sight, found a set of prints
on a silver cigaret case which matched
perfectly the prints of the dead
woman. There could be no doubt of
it now. The victim was Mrs. Mandlin. ~
Ferenc’s small body went limp, and
he dropped to the floor. The strain of
not having known whether or not it
was his wife who had been the victim
of the horrible murder proved too
much for him.
The detective revived him and left
the bereaved husband weeping bit-
terly, . while he hurried to Police
Headquarters to announce, triumph-
antly, to his superior the results of
his investigation. -
Colonel Simon congratuated Szalay
on his handling of the identification.
Its authenticity was beyond question.
All that’ remained was to return to
the bar and closely re-question the
husband and sister concerning the
various amorous visitors the victim
had entertained. Then, on the basis
of the list furnished by the grieving
husband, detectives would be sent to
the dwellings of various lovers and
would take up search for a newly-
laid floor. ce the wood was
matched, the case would be as good
as closed.
i igs was dusk before the detective
got back to the restaurant into
which a stomach ache had driven him
at midday. The pretty bar: maid was
serving a line of customers. Szalay
pushed up to her and asked for the
proprietor.
“The shock has been too much for
him,” the ai said with a sad shake
of her head. “He is in the apartment,
crying.” ,
“Tell him to compose himself. I
would like to ask him a few ques-
tions.” ‘
The girl left and returned. a few
moments later. “He is still highly
agitated,” she said. “I passed on your
message, though.”
The detective questioned the bar-
i
52
maid about any possible enemics
her sister might have had, but the girl
said that there were none so far as
she knew. ~Of course, it was quite
likely that the wife of one of her
married lovers might have taken
violent means to preserve her home.
Then, again, there was the possibility
that robbery had been the motive,
because her sister was in the habit
of making a vulgar display of her
jewelry. Szalay asked for a descrip-
tion of the jewelry she was wearing
the last time she was seen leaving
the house. He made a careful listing
of the items and searched for them in
the dead woman’s bedroom. They
were nowhere to be found.
In Hungary, it is not at all unusual
for a robber-killer to dismember Kis
victim and try to dispose of the evi-
dence of his crime in that fashion.
Hence, the fact that. the woman had
been so cruelly handled, helped sup-
port a robbery motive, rather than
disprove it.
It was obvious to Szalay, however,
that this was not an ordinary street
robbery. The killing had probably
occurred in the privacy of a home,
allowing the murderer to perform his
act of butchery in comparative se-
curity. And if it was so, then it was
also natural to assume that the victim
was in the house of a person known
,
EN
to her. It became even more impera-
tive for the detective to question the |
husband and gather a list of places
she was known to visit.
Again he_ sent the barmaid for
Mandlin, and once*more she returned
saying that the husband's grief was
so great that he was in no condition
to speak. This was too much for De-
tective Szalay. When he first spoke
to the husband, the latter said he
welcomed the fact that he was rid of
an, errant wife. Szalay could under-
stand that. And he could understand,
too, pa Mandlin could feel sorry and
cry about his wife’s cruel end. But
the grief he now exhibited was a little
too much, even for an emotional man.
Detective Szalay left the bar and
pushed open a door which led directly
from the bar to the proprietor’s apart-
ment. Mandlin was not in the living
room. Szalay walked into the kitchen |
and found the victim’s husband
ny dumbly in the center of the
oor. —
“Why didn’t you come out?” De-
‘tective Szalay asked sha
ly.
“I can’t talk,” the sashand said.
Detective Szalay saw that the floor
of the kitchen was freshly scrubbed.
_The surface was still damp. It looked
like a peculiar task for a grief-
stricken man to undertake. .
“Why was the floor cleaned?” the
“For being such an honest boy here's a dollar!"
detective asked, looking curiously at
Mandlin.
“Because it was dirty. I like every-
' thing to be immaculate, and I like to
keep myself immaculate, too.”
“But you scrubbed the floor, didn’t
wour’ :
No,” ; .
“What have you been doing?”
“I have just been crying.”
“How about your knecs?” Detective
Szalay said, pointing to the wet spots
on the trousers. “They don’t look so
immaculate and you. don’t cry. with
them.”
Mandlin did not answer.
“Did you, by any chance, have a
new floor installed here recently?”
The pretty barmaid who happened
to enter at that moment answered for
Mandlin. “The police have already
asked us that when they were here
before, and I told them, ‘no’.”
“7’ll see for myself.” , .
Mandlin flared up: “What possible
difference can: that make? My wife
has been cruelly murdered, and you
look for new floors.”
The detective searched through the
apartment, found nothing of interest.
He went down to the basement,
Mandlin and the barmaid at his heels.
“How do you heat this place?”
Szalay asked. ;
“With coal.”
“Where do you keep the coal?”
_ “In that bin,” Mandlin said, point-
ing. Szalay opened it, saw a pile of
- coal and closed the door again.
“How about this bin here?” he
asked,, pointing to the next one.
“That doesn’t belong to anyone,”
Mandlin ag oe
“Then why does it have a lock
om str” ..
“T don’t know. This is the first time
I noticed it.”
The detective broke the lock,
opened the door and found a pile of
fire-wood made up of varying lengths
of new floor board. —
“That’s the wood I’ve been looking
for,” Szalay said, digging into the pile.
’ Ferenc Mandlin fell to the floor in
a faint. The pretty barmaid dropped
_to her knees beside him, tenderly
raised his head and pillowed it in her
lap. Szalay took in the scene as he
continued burrowing through the.
wood. a
In a few minutes, he came across
bloodstained clothing; then he found
the missing jewelry, each piece pre-
cisely as described by the dead
woman’s sister. Digging further he
found a bloodstained cloth coat.
Wrapped inside it was the head of the
missing woman.
Oblivious to all that was going on
about her, the barmaid was still gen-
tly stroking the forehead of, Ferenc
Mandlin.
“Let’s get him upstairs,” Detective
Szalay said.
The girl looked up at the officer.
Her eyes mirrored her mental haze.
“He suffers so,” she said pve “The
least bit of excitement can. be very.
dangerous for him.”
She tenderly lifted the skinny bar
proprietor ‘and carried him to the
bedroom and placed him on a bed.
Detective. Szalay’s measures of re-
viving the husband were less gentle
than those of the sister of the dead
woman. There could be no doubt as
to the guilt of Mandlin and the pretty
barmaid, and Szalay promptly charged
them with the crime.
Both. insisted, however, that the
é
gruesome find was a mystery to them.
They had no idea how the ‘parts of
the dismembered body got into the
wood-bin, a
HE detective placed the pair un-
& der arrest took them to cen-
tral hed aayaers, ‘It wasn’t: until
after an lil-night session of vigorous
interrogation that they~broke down
and confessed their guilt, -
. Mandlin repeated that his relations.
with his wife had been strained ever
since she began going out with other
men, and on the day of the murder,
when she had showed up after an-
other. amorous adventure, they fell
into a violent quarrel. In the heat of
the moment, he shot her. . Then,
frightened by what he had done, he
.decided to cut up the corpse and dis-.
pose of the evidence of his misdeed.
The story was too simple and filled
with too many contradictions to be
swallowed -by the questioning officers..
Colonel Simon, who. was resent,
asked: “Did you ever work in a
butcher store?”
> ‘No
“Then who was it that cut up the
body7= os
The barmaid looked at. Mandlin,
made .a hopeless gesture with her.
hands and spoke to the officers.
e isn’t any: use holding out
any longer,” she said wearily. “You'll
find out. the truth in the end, any-.
‘way. I'am not Mrs. Mandlin’s sister.
I have: been Ferenc Mandlin’s mis-
tress ever since .I became his partner
in the bar. Because Hungarian law
forbids partnership in the liquor
business, I-pretended to be his wife’s
sister. Mrs. Mandlin agreed to the
deception, because it was the only.
way
Place. She knew that we fell in love
with each other, and she tried to
break it up by See ae force me ‘out
of the house. She eatened to tell
the police that I: was not her sister;
that I was a sgh’ in the business
even though she knew that this would
‘ruin her husband. .
“Finally, Ferenc and I decided the
easiest thing to do was to get rid of
her, and early yesterday morning
Ferenc hit her over the head with a
gteel pipe. We spread a piece of oil- Th
cloth on the kitchen floor, and there
I ‘cut up the body...I used a sharp
ife and an ax. I knew how.to do
it ‘because my _ first. husband, from
whom I am divorced, was a -butcher,
‘and I-used:to help him in his job. --
widow to her home. Questioned gently,
she was at first apparently unable to
offer any suggestion which might aid
in the search for the killers.
“Joe was a good husband and an
accommodating neighbor,” she sobbed.
“I don’t believe he had a real enemy
anywhere.” si. ee
Remembering .that the thinly-set-
tled community was infested’ with
moonshiners—perennial trouble mak-
ers—the investigators questioned: her
on that angle.
in five days of. the sentence.
her husband could finance the ”
wrapped them in a sack, and carried.
them by bus to the Danube where J.
dumped them. By the time I came
home, the police had already found
parts of the body, and I knew they
- . Would be searching the neighborhood |
for the rest of it. Ferenc and I car-
ried the rest of the body into the
‘-basement and hid it under the wood
in one of the bins. Later that night, I
took out the torso and put it in a sack.
I called in a hanger-on in our. saloon.
and asked him if he wanted to make
Some money. I told him that all he
had to do would be to throw some
contraband into the river. He. took
two friends with him.
“They ones ea poe ey were:
Carrying,’ but : red it was
something outside the ee. so when
. the police patrol tried to stop them, | -
. they dropped the sack and ran. By
this time, all of ‘Angel’ district: was.
‘in an uproar, and we thought that it
would be best to leave the remaining
parts of the body where they were
and to try to dispose of them later.
when things quieted down.” :
Vy ANDun and. his mistress were
speedily indicted and turned over |
to the Statorium. This is the swift
legal process faced by all criminals -
who commit acts of violence. By its
terms, murderers fnust be brought to
trial within five days after the indict-
ment and execution carried out with-
At their trial; the lovers con-
fessed their guilt and threw them-
‘selves on the: mercy of the Court.
e sentence of the Statorium was
Bae they be hanged by thé neck until
e
ad. 8
At dawn of June 13, 1941, less than
three weeks after the commission of
the crime, Ferenc Mandlin and Mrs.
Lajos Mozsar were hanged in the
courtyard of Marko Prison. They were
backed. against twin Poles barely
taller than themselves. A noose was
looped about their necks and tied to
a spike set in the top of the pole.
e supports on. which: they stood
were knocked out, and. they hung
inches above the ground. A hand.
crank attached. to the. ankles drew
the bodies groundward, and by this.
slow, painful garroting, the pair ex-
piated their crime with their lives.
TWELVE GAUGE
_ MURDER ~
.“T can’t imagine Joe being mixed up
with any of those men,” she -ex-
plained. “In the first place, he didn’t
drink the stuff, and in the second place,
he had no use for liquor men. I-be-
lieve if he. had caught his own brother
fooling with a still, he , would’vé
turned him in—and then paid his fine
if that would’ve kept him out of such
business.” . oe
The officers looked at each other
quizzically.
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