In May of 1916, detectives in Czinkota, Hungary, made a gruesome discovery: two dozen people, drained of blood, and preserved in metal barrels full of wood alcohol. Their murderer was Bela Kiss, a man who’d been recently killed in World War I.

Except that, even after his supposed death, Bela Kiss continued to be seen and continued to remain one step ahead of capture for the next three decades.

On this episode, we explore the gruesome crimes of serial killer Bela Kiss, the Vampire of Czinkota.

The mythology of the vampire dates back millennia. But, in the 16th and 17th centuries, in the mountains of southeastern Europe, these sorts of legends — stories of the dead who’d come back to harm and kill the living — started having names attached.

In this episode, we begin our exploration of “real vampires” with the stories of three of these men — Giure Grando, Petar Blagojevic, and Arnod Paole — and, when possible, those that became their victims