Bio

Júlia Fazekas arrived in the village of Nagyrév in 1911. At that time she was described as a middle-aged woman. Her husband was already missing without explanation when she came to the village.

She worked as a midwife and took on many basic medical duties in the area. Some accounts call her an unlicensed midwife but say she was the best general nurse the villages had. Other sources describe her as a “wise woman” who had basic medical training and many local people turned to her for help.

Between 1911 and 1921 she was imprisoned several times for performing illegal abortions. Reports say she was imprisoned ten times in that period and was repeatedly acquitted by judges. Different sources give different first names for her, including Júlia, Zsuzsanna, and Suzanne. She lived in a single-storey house in Nagyrév and became well known in the local community.

Murder Story

Júlia Fazekas was named as a leader of the Angel Makers of Nagyrév. The group was active in Nagyrév and Tiszakürt in the Satolnok region of Hungary between about 1911 and 1929. Sources classify the group as a serial killer group and link Fazekas to its activities during those years.

Different accounts describe how the case came to light in 1929. One account says an anonymous letter to a local newspaper accused women in the Tiszazug region. Another says a medical student found unusual results in a body on a riverbank. A third says one woman was caught and then named others. These accounts all appear in the research.

Authorities exhumed a number of graves in 1929 and made many arrests. Reports say 34 women and one man were indicted. Later, 26 women went to trial. Some defendants received death sentences, and others received prison terms.

Among those named in the research was Susi Oláh (also written Susi Olah or Zsuzsanna Oláh). Trials and court records from Szolnok were used as sources in later accounts and histories. Historians and journalists have written about the trials and the records kept in local archives.

Júlia Fazekas was arrested in November 1929. The research reports that she died by suicide in November 1929. Some sources give the detail that she hanged herself. The cases and trials from 1929 remain the main documentary record cited by later writers about the Angel Makers.