Jingle Bells

In Hungary hanging is different. It begins the day before with a visit by the hangman to look over and guess with practiced eye, the weight of the condemned.

Having guessed, the hangman picks out the right sized rope, selects a stool of appropriate height, calls in one or more assistants to give the feet of the condemned a downward jerk after the stool has been kicked away.

Unlike other hangmen, the Hungarian takes his place at the head of the person he is hanging, holds a cloth over the face, keeps turning the head slightly from side to side until strangulation is complete.

All this was done in Szolnok, Hungary, last week to Frau Maria Kardos, first of the famed group of Hungarian female poisoners arrested 14 months ago (TIME, Dec. 9, 1929) to be executed. Frau Kardos was convicted of poisoning her 22-year-old son and her second husband, suspected of also poisoning her first husband.

When the hangman came to guess her weight, Frau Kardos screamed hysterically. But later she ate a large bowl of steaming goulash, passed the night on her knees praying. Next morning, before being led out to die, she drained several glasses of brandy rapidly, alternately wept and prayed until she mounted the scaffold.

"Hangman, do your duty!" commanded the president of the court.

As the hangman covered her face and grasped her head Frau Kardos cried once, "God help me!" The two assistants tugged at her feet, had to continue tugging for eight minutes.

Seventy people watched and heard. One of them, a man, raved in anguish as though he would go mad. He was Stefan Todor, confessed "lover" and sole heir of 46-year-old Frau Kardos who was reputed wealthy. She had refused him any word of affection or consolation before she went to Death. Groaning and raving, he climbed at last into his sleigh, drove off to the mocking tune of jingle bells.

Although stern, Hungarian justice is well tempered by mercy. This was the first execution of a woman in Hungary since 1867, the year in which Kaiser Franz Joseph was crowned King. He would permit no woman to be hanged, and not until the present gruesome epidemic of female poisonings occurred, was the female death penalty revived. Three more murderesses will be hanged, unless reprieved by His Serene Highness the Governor of the Kingdom, Admiral Nicholas Horthy de Nagybanya. Of the 40 women arrested for poisoning husbands, children and lovers, most received prison sentences or were acquitted.

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