This Serial Killer Grandma Made Love Potions To Get Rid Of Unwanted Husbands
By the end of her life, Ana di Pištonja, often referred to as Baba Anujka, may have looked like an unassuming older woman.
Yet, she’d gained a shocking reputation as a serial killer, known as the “Witch of Vladimirovac” and the “Witch of Banat.”
Born during the 1830s, Ana grew up in Romania as part of a wealthy family. Her father, a successful cattleman, was able to provide her with a stable childhood.
Then, at 11-years-old, Ana relocated to Vladimirovac in modern-day Serbia and had access to an advanced education.
Unlike other women, she was able to master five different languages and had a particular interest in chemistry. Her knowledge, coupled with the hardships Ana encountered in her adult life, seemingly paved the way for her deadly business.
First, at just 20-years-old, Ana fell in love with an Austrian military officer, but their romance was short-lived. He wound up abandoning her, as well as leaving her with a transmitted infection.
Ana went on to tie the knot with an older man, and together, they welcomed 11 children into the world. However, 10 of her kids died young, and following two decades of marriage, her husband passed away, too.
As a widow, Ana was financially stable, and she used her newfound free time to hone her herbal remedy and potion creation in her home laboratory. Among her neighbors, Ana became regarded as a savvy healer, but over time, her practices turned sinister.
Ana started by selling potions to men who wanted to get out of serving in the military. The concoctions made the men sick enough to avoid service without killing them. What she’s most notorious for, though, are her so-called “love potions.”
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Contrary to their name, these mixtures were actually fatal. Ana would lace them with arsenic and toxic plants before selling them to women who wanted to get rid of abusive or simply unwanted husbands.
To gauge how strong each mixture should be made, Ana would ask any woman who wanted her help one question: “How heavy is that problem?” Following their responses, Ana dosed her concoctions accordingly.
Ana’s customer base was mostly comprised of wives hoping to flee loveless or abusive marriages. At the time, women didn’t have many other options, so Ana’s deadly potions were accepted as unconventional solutions.
When given the poisonous mixtures, most men would die within one week. Ana’s creations ultimately killed at least 50 people, but some estimate that the death toll is closer to 150.
She managed to go uncaught for decades, too, until one customer in 1929 finally handed her over to the police.
The customer, Stana Momirov, raised suspicion after visiting Ana on various occasions prior to multiple deaths in her family.
Initially, Stana bought one potion to poison her husband. Later, she returned and purchased more, poisoning her new husband’s father and uncle.
The three deaths led Stana to be arrested, and while speaking to authorities, she implicated Ana as the person who’d concocted the potions.
Ana, who was already 90-years-old, denied selling fatal mixtures and claimed she’d only ever sold herbal remedies. Her customers refuted her statements and swore they’d had no clue that her mixtures were deadly.
In the end, she was found guilty and received a life sentence behind bars. But again, her age complicated things. Ana was released from prison after serving just eight years and spent her last two years of life in Vladimirovac.
She died in 1938, and today, her unusual transition into a serial killer continues to fascinate. While it’s undoubted that Ana facilitated murders, it was the lack of escape options for women in arranged and abusive marriages that seemingly drove her there.
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