Tillie Klimek and her love until the grave. A Polish serial killer whose murder was bigos

Tillie Klimek, or more precisely Otylia Gburek, was born in 1876 in Poland, but as a one-year-old girl, she emigrated with her parents to the United States to the Near Northwest Side in Illinois. When she grew up, it turned out that she has a gift not only for baking, but also for predicting the death of domestic pets. It is, however, her “abilities”.

Prophetic visions that soon came true. The Tillie Klimek killings

Klimek married for the first time at the age of 14 a certain John Mitkiewicz. They lived together for 25 years and had two children during that time. The idyll ended as Tillie approached her 40th birthday. It was the first time Mitkiewicz heard about prophetic dreams returning to Klimek. This time, the death of not domestic animals, but of the husband, was manifested in them. Immediately afterwards, Tillie went to buy some black fabric for a new dress. Two weeks later, John died, but official records stated that he was due to a heart attack. and the widow received a thousand dollars from the policy.

It wasn’t long before Tillie was engaged in subsequent romances and even marriages. Even then, her prophetic dreams did not leave her, which in time led to the death of her second husband Jan Ruskowski, Józef Guszkowski’s partner, and the third husband of Frank Kupczyk, whom Tillie had bought a coffin for while she was still alive, because, as she claimed, she had a good opportunity.

The plan, however, is not quite perfect

Tillie’s loneliness did not last long. In the same year, she met the wealthy Józef Klimek, who soon became her fourth husband. Józef’s tendency towards alcohol and younger women, which manifested itself with time, aroused more and more jealousy in Klimke. So she said it would go to his heart through his stomach. Unfortunately for Józef it was supposed to have it. In the end, Joseph’s worsening health problems disturbed him enough that he contacted a doctor. Before, he had not had any serious ailments. Studies have shown that he has been poisoned with arsenic for many weeks. This was the beginning of the end for Tillie.

Her performances went down in the history of Chicago for years

The Black Widow from the Polish neighborhood, as this is how the American press soon began to describe her, was exposed. Police launched an investigation into Klimek’s poisoning, which revealed that he was not Tillie’s only victim. The investigation showed that the woman poisoned 20 people, of whom 13 died. Moreover, each death of her husband brought her a financial benefit from the policy she had purchased earlier. History was to repeat itself with Joseph as well, but her plan failed. Tillie also suffered from people she did not like, such as men who did not reciprocate her feelings and women for whom she was jealous. In 1923, the Klimek trial took place, in which she was sentenced to life imprisonment together with her cousin Nellie Kulik, whom she indicated as an accomplice during the investigation. Tillie died 13 years later in a prison of a heart attack.