A series of deaths around one household
Martha Marek first became publicly known through an earlier insurance dispute involving her husband Emil. Years later, after Emil died in 1932, further deaths occurred among people close to her. Her daughter died, a relative who had named Marek as an heir also died, and later a lodger died after arranging a life-insurance policy that benefited Marek.
The Austrian Interior Ministry's historical journal Öffentliche Sicherheit summarizes the eventual criminal finding directly: Marek was found guilty of poisoning four people with the rat poison sold as Zelio — her husband, her daughter, a relative and a lodger.
Suspicion after the lodger's death
The Interior Ministry account states that the lodger agreed to a life-insurance policy for 5,000 schillings in Marek's favor and died not long afterward. The woman's son became suspicious and went to police in 1936. Marek was then arrested.
Investigators revisited the earlier deaths. Historical accounts describe exhumations and toxicological findings that turned what had appeared to be separate illnesses or deaths into a connected poisoning prosecution.
What the court actually established
The Vienna criminal court, sitting with a jury, issued a final death sentence on May 19, 1938. The official Austrian source records that the conviction covered four poisoning murders.
That four-victim judicial finding is the number used on this page. Popular retellings sometimes expand the story with additional suspicions, but those are not counted here as further murders unless supported by the adjudicated record.
Execution under the Nazi regime
Austria had been annexed into Nazi Germany shortly before Marek's trial. The official historical account reproduces the decision denying clemency and records that Marek was executed in Vienna on December 6, 1938.
The political context is important when describing the punishment. The execution is part of the historical record; it is not presented as an endorsement of capital punishment or of the regime that carried it out.
Why the case matters historically
Marek's case is also part of the history of forensic toxicology. Poisoning cases depended increasingly on chemical examination rather than symptoms alone. The Austrian Interior Ministry used the Marek case in a broader review of how investigators learned to detect poisons and distinguish them from disease.
The case is therefore notable not only for its four murder convictions, but also for the way financial records, suspicious inheritance arrangements and toxicological evidence converged in a single prosecution.
Timeline
1932: Martha Marek's husband Emil dies after years of ill health; her daughter later dies after similar illness.
1934: relative Susanne Löwenstein, who had named Marek as an heir, dies.
1936: a lodger dies after taking a life-insurance policy benefiting Marek; the lodger's son reports his suspicions to police and Marek is arrested.
May 19, 1938: a Vienna jury court convicts Marek of four poisoning murders and sentences her to death.
December 6, 1938: after clemency is denied, Marek is executed in Vienna.
Current status
The case is solved / adjudicated as a historical criminal case. The four murders counted here are the four killings for which the official Austrian account states Marek was convicted.