Death of actress Anna Forgács

Abstract

Anna Forgács was an emerging talent of the Budapest Vígszínház in the 1920s. She was not only popular within the theatre walls, but also among men. In 1925, she met and married Béla Erdélyi, a wealthy industrialist from a family of factory owners.

Béla Erdélyi spent a lot, financed initially by his father and later by forging bills of exchange himself. In addition to bills of exchange, he also tried to get money through insurance, so he and his wife took out mutual life and accident insurance.

Just over a month after the insurance was taken out, Anna Forgács suddenly fell ill and was taken to a sanatorium with symptoms of poisoning. After leaving the sanatorium, the couple travelled to Millstatt, Austria, where during a walk Béla Erdélyi tried to push his wife into a cliff, but the actress escaped with minor injuries. Following the accident, Béla Erdélyi gave his wife a large amount of veronal, which caused her death on 24 August 1927.

The Budapest Royal Criminal Court found Béla Erdélyi guilty of attempted murder, murder, several counts of forgery of private documents, forgery of public documents and fraud, while his accomplices in the forgery were found guilty of private forgery, public forgery and fraud.