The Beautiful Widow of Vienna: Martha Marek
In June 1925, Emil Marek took an axe to his own leg so his wife could collect the insurance. The money came in. The killing did not stop there.
Host Alexander’s Lawson traces the crimes of Martha Marek — the Viennese poisoner who insured the people closest to her, then watched them die of “mysterious” illness while the city sent her sympathy and cash. Husband. Daughter. Aunt. Lodger. The same slow death in every case: thallium, sold over the counter as rat paste.
This episode follows the 1927 fraud trial that made her a public darling, the graves that were opened in 1938, the son who almost…
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