Once investigators had descended on the village, many women were desperate to stop graves from being disturbed and bodies being exhumed. They surely did not want autopsies, but many also had more immediate concerns about leftover arsenic that had been buried with the victims. They knew once the coffin was popped open, there it would be.
“Dandy would trot off, tail wagging, toward the merchants who had set up at the weekly market on the square. He would dodge under the baskets and bags of shoppers, scoot past the tub makers and the children jockeying for bottles of homemade lemonade. He’d pass under the Austrian tightrope walker, who had fastened his highwire to the Hotel Hungarian King and strung it all the way across to the County Hall."
A couple of years ago, the local paper in Szolnok marked the 90th anniversary of the “Arsenic Trials” by running a full-page feature on John (Janos) Kronberg, the celebrated attorney who lead the investigation and prosecution of the women. The case would define his career.
