Could the desperate throes of poverty compel a seemingly ordinary woman to weave a web of deceit and murder? Join us as we recount the haunting, true tale of Martha Marek's life in early 20th-century Austria—a narrative drenched in manipulation and crime. From Martha's grim childhood and her unnerving dealings with an older man to her and Emil Marek's descent into insurance fraud, we explore how dire circumstances can lead individuals to unthinkable acts. Our storytelling captures the essence of Martha's disturbing journey, painting a stark picture of the era and the social issues that still resonate today.
Pour yourself a Mimosa and brace as we unravel the scandalous insurance fraud plot executed by Martha and her husband, Emil. It's a twisty tale that took a dark turn when their plan, complete with a staged accident and swift insurance claim, backfired spectacularly, leading to a bribery scandal that seized the public's attention. We'll dissect how their life continued to spiral, marked by family tragedies that some speculate were more sinister than they appeared. As hosts, we draw parallels between Martha's ability to evoke empathy and today's crowdfunding strategies, questioning the nature of sympathy in the face of duplicity.
In our final segment, we confront the chilling endgame of Martha Marek's story, where her unquenchable greed set her on a path of ruthless murders. Her unsuspecting great aunt and boarders became pawns in her nefarious plot for financial gain, leaving us to ponder the horrifying lengths to which she went. We'll discuss how her cunning plans came undone, leading to a downfall that is as instructive as it is macabre. So, as we reflect on Martha's saga, we invite you to contemplate the profound effects of poverty on the psyche and the desperate measures one might take when pushed to the edge. Join us for this gripping episode that will leave an indelible mark on how you see the world.
Sources:
http://unknownmisandry.blogspot.com/2011/09/martha-marek-austrian-serial-killer-1938.html
https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/the-unusual-criminal-career-of-martha-marek-a7662a9c0da6
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Marek
http://unknownmisandry.blogspot.com/2011/09/martha-marek-austrian-serial-killer-1938.html
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1336304093519465
https://twitter.com/Murder_Mimosas
https://www.instagram.com/murder.mimosas/
murder.mimosas@gmail.com
https://uppbeat.io/t/the-wayward-hearts/a-calm-hellfire
License code: ZJZ99QK39IWFF0FB
Could the desperate throes of poverty compel a seemingly ordinary woman to weave a web of deceit and murder? Join us as we recount the haunting, true tale of Martha Marek's life in early 20th-century Austria—a narrative drenched in manipulation and crime. From Martha's grim childhood and her unnerving dealings with an older man to her and Emil Marek's descent into insurance fraud, we explore how dire circumstances can lead individuals to unthinkable acts. Our storytelling captures the essence of Martha's disturbing journey, painting a stark picture of the era and the social issues that still resonate today.
Pour yourself a Mimosa and brace as we unravel the scandalous insurance fraud plot executed by Martha and her husband, Emil. It's a twisty tale that took a dark turn when their plan, complete with a staged accident and swift insurance claim, backfired spectacularly, leading to a bribery scandal that seized the public's attention. We'll dissect how their life continued to spiral, marked by family tragedies that some speculate were more sinister than they appeared. As hosts, we draw parallels between Martha's ability to evoke empathy and today's crowdfunding strategies, questioning the nature of sympathy in the face of duplicity.
In our final segment, we confront the chilling endgame of Martha Marek's story, where her unquenchable greed set her on a path of ruthless murders. Her unsuspecting great aunt and boarders became pawns in her nefarious plot for financial gain, leaving us to ponder the horrifying lengths to which she went. We'll discuss how her cunning plans came undone, leading to a downfall that is as instructive as it is macabre. So, as we reflect on Martha's saga, we invite you to contemplate the profound effects of poverty on the psyche and the desperate measures one might take when pushed to the edge. Join us for this gripping episode that will leave an indelible mark on how you see the world.
Sources:
http://unknownmisandry.blogspot.com/2011/09/martha-marek-austrian-serial-killer-1938.html
https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/the-unusual-criminal-career-of-martha-marek-a7662a9c0da6
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Marek
http://unknownmisandry.blogspot.com/2011/09/martha-marek-austrian-serial-killer-1938.html
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1336304093519465
https://twitter.com/Murder_Mimosas
https://www.instagram.com/murder.mimosas/
murder.mimosas@gmail.com
https://uppbeat.io/t/the-wayward-hearts/a-calm-hellfire
License code: ZJZ99QK39IWFF0FB
Darkcast Network. Welcome to the dark side of podcasting.
Speaker 3:Welcome to Murder and Mimosas, a true crime podcast brought to you by a mother and daughter duo.
Speaker 2:Bringing you murder stories with Mimosas in hand.
Speaker 3:Just a quick disclaimer before we get started. Our show is Murder and Mimosas. It's a true crime podcast. This means that we do discuss crimes, including, but not limited to, disappearances, murder and sexual assault. All our episodes are told with the respect of the victims and the victims' family even mind. We strive to ensure that we provide factual information, with some information that is more verifiable than others. With that, grab your Mimosas and let's dive in. Welcome back, I'm Danica and I'm Shannon.
Speaker 3:In today's episode we're going to tell you the story of Martha Mary. So grab your Mimosas, use it while we share. We don't cover a ton of serial killers on here, and very rarely women, because, well, they're rare in general, but we have one for you today. I do want to start by saying that this occurred in Austria in the 20s and 30s, so finding a lot of information is difficult that long ago and in fact, checking it it's very problematic too, but this story was just too crazy not to share.
Speaker 3:Martha's father was never known and her mother, being single in the early 1900s, left her in the care of a family that was already struggling financially. Her mother later remarried and then had another daughter, and Martha went back to live with her and her stepfather. Well then, her stepfather left for the United States, leaving the family, and never returned and didn't even stay in touch with the family. So again, her mom is alone now with two daughters. And what could she do? You know, they had little to nothing. Both girls were pretty malnourished. So when she was 13, martha met Moritz Fritsch. He was a 62 year old, wealthy department store owner in Vienna. The two struck up a conversation and he learned of like the meager dwellings, the hardship her family was going through, and he gets in touch with Martha's mother and takes Martha in as his own ward and also his lover.
Speaker 2:Wait, what? So? This dude is a pedophile and her mother was okay with this.
Speaker 3:I don't know if her mother knew exactly at first. But in my mind, if a 62 year old man wants custody of your daughter, it's a little off-putting. Maybe that's like the true crime person in me, but it just gives me the it. Yeah, also can't help. But like hear Reba's song, here's you one chance. Fans, you don't let me down. I wasn't that beat, but what you got to do, fuck, you get the gist.
Speaker 2:Like it gives me that, yeah, you should not be a singer. But I mean, yeah, you don't want to see your child starved to death, but I don't know. So I get that too. It's you're in poverty. What are you going to do? But I'm not sure about pimping my daughter out either. It's, honestly, though, not much different than my grandmother getting married at 15. I guess it's something that happened back then for years and actually continues to happen. Women just getting married out of need we still have the mail order brides.
Speaker 3:Right and I don't know like what the custom is in Austria. You know, for us in the United States Now that sounds crazy. For a 15 year old to get married, yeah, but in some parts of the world that is still very common. So it said that he sent her and her sister to these great finishing schools in Europe until she came to live with him permanently in his mansion in Vienna.
Speaker 2:And finishing schools were to prepare them for marriage, if I remember correctly. Yes. So what about her half sister? She's still there too.
Speaker 3:That's about the last that I could find about her half sister and I'm going to assume she doesn't stay with him because Moritz leaves his estate to Martha in 1923 when he passes away.
Speaker 2:So how does that make Martha at the time he passes away?
Speaker 3:Well, she would be 23, and although he leaves everything to her, he was previously married and divorced in 1900 and had a grown son and daughter from that marriage. The law at the time required half of the estate to go to his ex-wife and children. Mortz did bring her from rags to riches, but he was far from her prince charming.
Speaker 2:This relationship was only out of necessity for Martha Sounds like an Ann and Nicole story, but you're probably too young to remember that, Danica.
Speaker 3:I don't know what you're talking about. Three months after his death, she marries 20-year-old Emile Mark, who she had been seeing for some time, even before Mortz's death. He was an engineering student that dropped out once he and Martha got married. He was never able to find out how much Martha actually received from Mortz, but she and Emile blew through it quickly, however much it was. Now we have two that haven't ever really worked and don't really want to, but they need money to survive. They come up with what they probably think is this brilliant idea or at least Martha thinks that they take out an insurance policy on Emile In the event he is permanently disabled. It pays out $30,000, and if it does, it pays out $100,000.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of money even back then.
Speaker 4:Well, especially back then, Do you have a story of survival? A parent goes to residential school. They haven't had that family connection, those traditional values and ceremonies that many of us are exposed to are taken or have a lost loved one that was involved in human trafficking, exploitation, missing or murdered. My name is Jasmine Castillo and I am the host of Hands Off, my Podcast that brings to the forefront, specifically from Asian American, native Hawaiian, pacific, islander, black, indigenous people of color.
Speaker 2:Anderson, can you tell me where?
Speaker 3:one wants the location of your emergency.
Speaker 2:Ma'am, what's going on out there?
Speaker 4:You're saying that my colleague is missing. Yes, as well as nonprofit organizations.
Speaker 3:When I was a prime investigator five years ago, we picked up a case that was a news terrorist case.
Speaker 4:That helped and advocate families of lost loved ones with their closure From some time, from his shift at work to that next day, he was either robbed or apprehended at some point, with someone coming into the restaurant and opening a cold case.
Speaker 3:So that to me was his way out and it negatively impacted our money's investigation.
Speaker 4:Please join me on Thursdays On any podcast platform, wherever you listen to your podcasts. We are voiceless, no more.
Speaker 3:So the two decided that Emile is going to have a quote unquote accident chopping a tree down. This, by the way, is the very next day after taking me out of the policy, so Emile was taken to the hospital after his leg is severely injured while supposedly cutting a tree. Both horses saying chopping wood, but tomato, tomato. The doctors, though, are not done, and they see this isn't just a slip of the hand. The leg has been hacked at three different times.
Speaker 2:Okay, that makes sense. I've actually tried chopping wood and it does not look like what it looks like on TV. I mean, I really beat the crap out of the wood and I usually give up. So I would have to assume if Martha is probably the one chopping his leg and she doesn't have the upper body strength of a man, so this just isn't going to just chop in one swift motion. So yeah, I can see that.
Speaker 3:Right, and you can imagine Emil sitting there like sitting that axe come down. There's no way I could sit there and endure that pain, not even for $30,000. Don't help me either. So they end up amputating his leg just below the knee, but the insurance companies not buying this claim and they contact the police about insurance fraud.
Speaker 2:I want to say how dumb could they be? But this was before True Crime Podcast, true Crime shows and the internet. To let you know, insurance companies actually want to check things out before handing over that kind of payout, especially the very next day after you get it.
Speaker 3:Right, like they needed to wait a month or two at least. Well, the two of them ended up on trial for insurance fraud, and during the process they also tried to rob an orderly at the hospital. They wanted to get on the stand and say that he overheard the doctors say that they were going to make the leg look like it had been struck three times.
Speaker 2:Seriously. So I guess they were supposed to be brought by the insurance company to say this the doctors yes.
Speaker 3:So now they're in charge of his insurance fraud and bribery. Now this is big news, because the public is saying they can't see anyone being crazy enough to let self-inflicted pain where their spouse doing that for an insurance payout Not to mention how many of us don't want to stick it to an insurance company, you know All right. So the lawsuit takes roughly two years to complete, and they're found not guilty of insurance fraud, but guilty of bribery, and have to spend four months in jail. And you think, okay, they got a pretty good chunk of change out of this, though, but no, first they settle the claim for 30% of what they're going to get. Then they spend half of the money on attorneys, expert witnesses and just things for the trial in general, all said and done, they have about $6,000 out of all of this.
Speaker 2:Wow. So now he's just able to insert all of this for $6,000. That's not getting you far, but I would have to believe that probably went pretty far back then.
Speaker 3:Well, it should have gone pretty far back then. But Martha had gotten used to a certain lifestyle and me I'll try a few business adventures that lost the money rather than make them money.
Speaker 3:So we hear about this still right, like yeah get rich yeah, you know schemes, and so between the two they are like draining money quickly. During all of this the couple had a son, alfons, in 1929 and a daughter Ingabog I'm not sure if I said that right in 1932. So they decided to move to Algeria Algeris, where housing and the cost of living was a little more affordable. During that time, emil became pretty ill. Once they moved he was having issues, swallowing, like his limbs weren't doing what they knew, the ones he had left were numb, his eyesight was leaving him. So he finally goes to the hospital and he ends up dying.
Speaker 3:What they diagnosed as tuberculosis, which was a pretty common diagnosis, even if they didn't really know. Well, just a few weeks later their seven-month-old daughter became ill too, and she had a lot of the same symptoms as her father. He was hospitalized where she eventually died, and of course, they again diagnosed this as tuberculosis. Well, their son became ill as well. I know you all didn't see that one, but he did not end up meeting the same fate. He actually ended up slowly getting better. After the death of her husband, Martha took out insurance policies on both of her children, so she has paid less insurance on her daughter. People, of course, can't believe the horrible luck this family's had. It's that they start donating money to Martha.
Speaker 2:So your hope modern-day go fund me for a woman trying to play on the sympathy of others. I'm assuming Basically yes.
Speaker 1:Hello, my name is Jonathan Sayer and I host the Midnight Train Podcast. You may know me from my 15 seconds of fame on the Hit History Channel show History's Greatest Mysteries, but probably not. Look, there are a lot of great true crime, cold case and mysterious podcasts out there. I mean, you're listening to one right now. However, we're a little different. Okay, we're a lot different. We're more of a palette cleanser, if you will. We find and discuss unsolved and curious happenings from all over the world, from true crime like the Hintrachyphect murders to the Antikythera mechanism, but with a large helping of salt and an often warped sense of humor. Join me and my numerous co-hosts as we grab a drink, take our seats and take this crazy train across the globe. I know we're not everyone's cup of tea, but if you pour a shot of bourbon into it, we just might be yours. That's the Midnight Train Podcast, america's second favorite podcast. Probably Listen every week and wherever you find your favorite podcasts like this one.
Speaker 3:So Martha cozied up to her great aunt, 67-year-old Suzanne Laustin. Her husband was an army surgeon and had passed away. Martha, with her obviously selfless, kind heart, took it upon herself to, you know, take care of her aunt. Her son even moved in so Martha could be there for her 24-7, whenever she needed her. Her aunt was so flattered by this that she made Martha her sole heir in her will. Oddly enough, after changing her will, suzanne became ill. She lost her sight, her hair started to fall out, she was losing use of her leg and she eventually passed away.
Speaker 2:Hmm, is this from tuberculosis again?
Speaker 3:I couldn't find the official cause of death for her, but if I had to guess I would say yes. Again, not really sure how much she left Martha, but I do know that she begins to get low on money again and decides she can take in my orders to help supplement her income.
Speaker 2:Has this woman thought about budgeting classes at all?
Speaker 3:No, no she, when she got in with her pimp daddy, she, you know, was at a certain level of lost style and she has no desire to lower that.
Speaker 2:Our work. It sounds like we're that. That's not part of her life.
Speaker 3:She's like an influencer. Oh yeah, that's true, except for she has no followers. So he's typing in these borders, and one of them is a 53 year old seamstress named Felicita Kittenberger. That's a polka-pop. So Martha promised to throw her rich friends her way if they needed a seamstress and it would make Felicita a lot of money with her connections. Somehow she takes a meager life insurance policy out on Felicita and then she gets sick. Felicita's symptoms are the same ones I've said Failing eyesight, her legs stop working, hair falling out, and then she dies and Martha cashes in her $950 life insurance policy after that. I'm unsure how she's able to take up life insurance policy out on her, but I don't know.
Speaker 3:Felicita had a son and he accuses Martha of killing his mother and Martha calls the police because she feels harassed and the police send the son on his way. And this insurance policy obviously doesn't take Martha far because she blows through the car crazy so she can cocks a whole new insurance plan. She has valuables in her home and shared for $2,200. Martha police tells them that she was robbed while she was asleep that night. They apparently stole tapestries, feelings and jewelry equal to the sum of $2200.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's pretty convenient.
Speaker 3:It is Probably due to the police being at our house one too many times they investigate Martha rather than the robbery. So they speak to the janitor that had reported that on the night of the robbery Martha had several things wrapped in brown paper and bubble wrap removed and put into a small truck. So the police investigate warehouses around the area and, bingo, they found one that Martha had rented and had a rented driver to come get a few bundles of things. But the thing was she insisted it be after dark.
Speaker 2:That doesn't sound suspicious at all, right.
Speaker 3:So they get a hold of the invoices or what is stored at the warehouse and lo and behold, if it's not everything that she had reported stolen. I know y'all didn't see that. This is just full of whips you couldn't get. So the officer investigating this insurance fraud was the same one that investigated the whole chopped off leg incident and he remembered the name, probably because he doesn't have a lot of people chopping off her Right. So he was arrested for insurance fraud. Once news breaks out about the insurance fraud, Felicita Kittenberger's son goes to the police and he wants his mother's death within two. He feels the whole thing is kind of sus and he thinks his mother died of something probably more sinister than new.
Speaker 2:Probably if you're around, martha.
Speaker 3:It's probably not. Well, the police at this point in her life maybe he has, you know a point they take it seriously and they assume her body and find that she was poisoned with alchemy, which is rap poison. So with this new evidence they began to get suspicious of all the other deaths around Martha. They exhumed her husband, her daughter and her aunt, who all actually died of alchemy poisoning. Her son no longer lived with her, so they located him. He is born in a poor area in Vienna. He is very sick, but his mother we know she's so kind brings him food several times a week.
Speaker 2:Well, bless her heart for taking care of him, and I'm assuming this food is probably laced with, maybe value.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, they get him to the hospital and he ends up being nursed back to health before he had been taken up by his mother, like his father and his sister and his aunt and other people. So Martha goes on trial and she says she has no idea how many of these people in her life were poisoned. I mean, she doesn't even have any thallium. What's it mean? However, a pharmacist testified that she bought some thallium from him and that he had to increase his inventory. He said she bought so much that she could have killed 70 rats. She chose people. She's found guilty of four murders and a sentence to death. This was in December of 1938 and Austria had become part of Germany in March of 1938. And I know you're like I don't really care my history, this is a true crime podcast. Well, it matters because Hitler had reinstated the headings as a mean of execution in.
Speaker 2:Austria the headings, like with the whole guillotine thing, shopping your head off.
Speaker 3:So she was beheaded in December of 1938. They didn't do years of appeals, they just took her to the guillotine, had her kneel down. This blade was sharp enough. It took her head off with one chop of the blade, unlike her husband who endured the blade many times with an axe. So honestly, kind of feel, just to be right, I don't really think we should be using guillotine. Yeah, this feels a little like you know, makes sense. So, like I said in the beginning, this is an older story and we can't find out much about our childhood. They obviously don't identify mental illnesses, do evaluations before trial during that time. What we do know is that she had a single mom that probably didn't give her physical attention. I mean, she's just trying to survive.
Speaker 2:We do know from research that physical protection and affection in the first month is extremely Right, and they didn't have the host into skin contact time when you were born, dan. I feel like they do now, but we know how important that is for bonding with the parents and the infant and there are so many benefits from this that this poor baby probably didn't get.
Speaker 3:So add into that that Namartha grew up in poverty. She was malnourished, so she was neglected some of her basic need and when she met what we're referred to as a pedophile, the theory of hunger in general again may have been enough to drive her to all the insurance fraud just to stay afloat and avoid going back to that poverty in you know place Right, and I mean you and I have never had that fear of not being able to eat.
Speaker 2:I'm thankful for that. But I have no idea what I would do in this situation. I would hope and I believe I would maybe get a job first or, you know, before I start offing all my family and friends. But like you said, the lack of affection in her own life probably means she didn't have strong bonds to her family, or really anyone for that matter.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this is a bizarre and sad case all the way around. If you have a story you want us to tell or a story you want to know more about, hit us up and we'll do our best to get that out.
Speaker 2:We always recommend more bubbly and less OJ Cheers.
Speaker 3:If you'd like to see pictures from today's episode, you can find us at murdermamosas on Instagram. You can also find us at murdermamosas on TikTok, twitter, and if you have a case you'd like us to do, you can send that to murdermamosas at ginocom. And, lastly, we are on Facebook at murdermamosas.