Vera Renczi
Born	1903 Bucharest, Kingdom of Romania
Died	1960[anachronism] Zrenjanin, Yugoslavia
Nationality	Romanian
Other names	The Black Widow
Citizenship	Romania
Occupation	Housewife
Known for	Most prolific female serial killer
Spouse	Karl Schick
Criminal charge	Murder
Penalty	Life Imprisonment
Details
Victims	Lovers/husbands
Span of crimes	1920–1930
Country	Romania  Yugoslavia  Hungary (alleged)
Killed	35
Weapon	Arsenic

Vera Renczi (dubbed the Black Widow or Chatelaine of Berkerekul),^[1][2] was a possibly fictional Romanian serial killer who allegedly confessed to poisoning 35 individuals including her two husbands, multiple lovers, and her son with arsenic during the 1920s.^[3][4][5][6] The earliest report published by Otto Tolischus in the United States was in May, 1925.^[7][8] The article is based on letters from the readers without naming any reference. Renczi's story has surfaced repeatedly, but without traceable details such as specific dates of her birth, marriages, arrest, conviction, incarceration or death.^[9] Most sources place the murders at Berkerekul, Yugoslavia (present-day Serbia), or Bečkerek, which changed the name to Zrenjanin in 1946, although the spelling Berkerekul is unknown for this city. In 1972, the Guinness Book of World Records found no authoritative sources to support the claim that 35 people were killed by Renczi in early 20th-century Austro Hungarian Empire.^[10].

Early life

According to some accounts^{[by whom?]}, Renczi was born in Bucharest in 1903, but in view of the dates of her alleged crimes, a date in the late 19th century would be more appropriate. The accounts of her life are lacking in verifiable documentary supporting evidence. Her mother died when she was 13 and she moved with her father to Becicherecul Mare, today Zrenjanin, Voivodina, Northern Yugoslavia where she attended a boarding school.^[11] By the age of fifteen, she had become increasingly unmanageable and had frequently run away from home with numerous boyfriends, many of whom were significantly older than she was.^[12] Early childhood friends described Renczi as having an almost pathological desire for constant male companionship^{[citation needed]} and possessing a highly jealous and suspicious nature.^[13]

Shortly before the age of twenty, her first marriage was to a wealthy Austrian banker named Karl Schick^{[citation needed]}, many years her senior. They had a son named Lorenzo.^[11][13] Left at home daily while her older husband worked, she began to suspect that her husband was being unfaithful. One evening, in a jealous rage, Renczi poisoned his dinner wine with arsenic and began to tell family, friends, and neighbors that he had abandoned her and their son.^{[citation needed]} After approximately a year of "mourning", she then declared that she had heard word of her supposedly estranged husband's death in a car accident.^[12]

Subsequent murders

Shortly after allegedly hearing the news of her first husband's "automobile accident" Renczi remarried^{[citation needed]}, this time to a man nearer her own age^{[citation needed]}. However, the relationship was a tumultuous one and Renczi was again plagued by the suspicion that her new husband was involved in extramarital affairs^{[citation needed]}. After only months of marriage the man vanished^{[citation needed]} and Renczi then told friends and family that he had abandoned her.^[13] After a year had passed, she then claimed to have received a letter from her husband proclaiming his intentions of leaving her forever.^[12] This would be her last marriage.^[13]

Although Renczi did not remarry, she spent the next several years carrying out a number of affairs, some clandestine with married men, and others openly^{[citation needed]}. The men came from an array of backgrounds and social positions. All would vanish within months, weeks, and in some cases, even days after becoming romantically involved with her.^{[citation needed]} When connected to men she was openly having an affair with, she would invariably concoct stories of them being "unfaithful" and having "abandoned her".^{[citation needed]}

After the wife of one of Renczi's lovers followed him to Renczi's residence one evening and the man subsequently never returned home, the police were called to investigate his disappearance^{[citation needed]}. Upon searching Renczi's wine cellar, they discovered 32 unburied, zinc-lined coffins. Each contained a male corpse in varying stages of decomposition.^{[citation needed]} Renczi was arrested and taken into police custody where she confessed to having poisoned the 32 men with arsenic when she suspected they had been unfaithful to her or when she believed their interest in her was waning^{[citation needed]}. She also confessed to the police that on occasion she liked to sit in her armchair amidst the coffins, surrounded by all of her former suitors.^[12]

Renczi also confessed to murdering her two husbands and her son Lorenzo^{[citation needed]}. She told police that one day when her son had come to pay her a visit, he had accidentally discovered the coffins in her wine cellar and threatened to blackmail her and she subsequently poisoned him and disposed of his body^{[citation needed]}. She also feared he would soon leave her to marry someone so she held him in her arms as he lay dying so she would be the last person to hug him.^[12]

She was convicted of 35 murders and sentenced to life imprisonment, where she subsequently died^{[citation needed]}. Some have speculated that Renczi's story may have inspired Joseph Kesselring's play Arsenic and Old Lace, yet this is incorrect. It was the Amy Archer-Gilligan case which the playwright used as his model.^{[citation needed]}

In 2005, The Discovery Channel's three-part series Deadly Women recounted the history of Renczi, portrayed through reenactments and commentaries from FBI agents and criminal profiler Candice DeLong and a forensic pathologist. Renczi was featured in the series' first episode titled "Obsession",^[14] where she is described as having killed her victims in the "1930s in Bucharest, Romania".^[15] As for her motivation, the voice-over says that "modern analysis suggest she was simply looking for love".^[16]

On 17 March 2012, a depiction of Renczi appeared in the Daily Mirror, but it was proved to be a misidentified 2004 photograph, and an apology was printed.^[17]

It is worth noting that all reporting of the Renczi case can be traced back to a single source in US magazines published in the period, and despite extensive researches in the region where the case was said to have taken place no original, local source material has been found to date. For that matter no evidence has been found that support the existence of Renczi or her conviction. It is possible that such records were lost in the political turmoil in the area in the intervening years, or may have been a work of fiction.^[18]