ANA Draksin is not a name many people would recognize. This woman, who lived in today's Serbia at the turn of the 20th century, was better known by her nicknames Baba Anujka (Eng. Grandma Anujka) or the Banat Witch. Still, the majority of the residents of former Yugoslavia do not know who she was.
By all accounts, Baba Anujka was the first and the most prolific serial killer of the former Yugoslavia, and probably also one of the most prolific serial killers in the world. She was involved in the poisoning of at least 50, and by some estimates as many as 150, if not more people.
When she was finally convicted for her crimes, she was 90 years old. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but according to one version of the story, she was released after eight years due to her advanced age, to then die two years later, at the age of 100. According to another, even more incredible version of the story, as the Serbian Alo writes, she was released from prison by German invaders in 1941, to then die at home at the age of 104.
Baba Anujka lived on a large estate in the village of Vladimirovac between the towns of Vrsac and Pancevo. According to some sources, she was born in Romania, in a family of a wealthy cattle breeder, in 1837 or 1838, and at a young age, she moved with her family to Vladimirovac in the Serbian-Hungarian-Romanian province of Banat, which was the Military Frontier of the Habsburg Monarchy at the time.
She recovered from syphilis, ten of her children died, she became a widow and started selling her "magical water" with arsenic
The main source of information about her life and work is the book by chemistry professor Simon Djarmati entitled Baba Anujka - a Sorceress from Vladimirovac, which was published in 2007 and which saved this dark story from oblivion.
At her trial, Baba Anujka said that when she was 20, she was seduced by an Austrian officer who infected her with syphilis. After that, heartbroken, she retired to solitude and devoted herself to the study of medicine, namely both conventional and folk medicine. Her father arranged for her to marry a much older rich peasant from Pistovo in Vladimirovac. During 20 years of marriage, she bore him eleven children, but as many as ten died. After her husband died in the fifties, she built a sort of a laboratory in one wing of the house and started her dark craft.
Anujka became a sorceress who sold her customers "magical water," i.e., "miracle" potions that were supposed to solve their marital, financial, and other issues. However, by all accounts, the solution to the customers' problems meant the death of a person who created problems for them, with this sorceress readily providing them with this horrible service.
She would always ask how heavy the problem was when dosing the poison
"At first glance, she was a nice old lady, but at second, third, or fifth glance, she was a dangerous poisoner and sorceress. Very often, she did not even know her victims. On the other hand, she also thought she was actually helping people solve their problems." Djarmati writes in his book.
In an interview for the Serbian Telegraf, Djarmati says that Baba Anujka would first ask her customers how heavy the problem was. By that, she meant to ask how much the person weighed so she could correctly dose the poison. Based on that, she could also predict precisely how long it would take for the person who drank her "water" to die from it.
"After the eighth day, you will no longer have a problem," she would tell her customers and charge her deadly potion somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 dinars of the time.
However, not every potion of hers was meant for killing. Some customers wanted to get their family members out of military service. In that case, Baba Anujka would give them a milder version of the poison, which would make them unfit for military service. Likewise, some asked her to foretell their future, including some rich and powerful individuals who had heard of her.
Her customers were mostly women, and the victims were mostly their husbands
"Many came to her for help, even generals and ministers who believed in her power and trusted that she could show them the way. Once she would notice that a customer had money, she would pretend that she was not able to practice sorcery that day. She would tell them to come back another day, knowing they wouldn't leave because it was not easy to travel from one town to another at the time. Then, when they would try to convince her to fit them in her schedule for the day, she would offer them to stay overnight. She had accommodation and food for such guests, which had to be paid separately," explained Djarmati.
In any case, the Banat Witch killed dozens of people - we will never know the exact number - and her crimes could not be proven because the families that participated in her crimes regularly refused to allow an autopsy of the poisoned or to cooperate with the police, writes the Serbian Blic.
It is quite interesting, however, that, at least as far as poisoning is concerned, her customers were mostly women, and the victims were mainly their husbands, whom they wanted to get rid of for one reason or another.
Her bloody "career" reportedly lasted 40 or even 50 years, and over time, gruesome rumors began circulating about her and the alleged hundreds of murders she committed. However, the Austro-Hungarian authorities ignored them until she was arrested for the first time in 1914. However, she was not convicted at the trial in the Banat town of Bela Crkva, according to the Austrian newspapers Tagblatt and the Serbian Politika from 1929.
Baba Anujka successfully evaded justice for another 14 years, during which the First World War ended, and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy disintegrated and was replaced by the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Then, in 1928, a poisoning went wrong.
Convicted only in 1928, she denied everything until the end
The dose of poison intended for the rich widower Gaja Prokin from Ilandza was not strong enough, so the unfortunate man managed to go to the doctor before he died a few days later. The potion was, in this case, not prepared by Baba Anujka, but by her assistant Ljubinka Milankov. An autopsy was performed that time, and it, of course, revealed that Prokin was poisoned. Milankov admitted both her role and that of her boss, after which things started to unravel.
Other poisonings were also discovered, such as those of Nikola Momirov and Lazar Ludoski, for which she was tried as she directly participated in them, unlike in the murder of Prokin.
Sofia Mamirov, a beautiful young woman, allegedly poisoned her husband Nikola so she could be with her lover. She confessed to her crime and gave up the person who provided her with poison.
World news
Although she denied her crimes and pretended not to hear uncomfortable questions while testifying, Baba Anujka was eventually sentenced to 15 years in prison while her accomplices Stana and Sofija Momirov were sentenced to life in prison.
"She died at the age of one hundred from dementia. It is unknown whether she committed more crimes when she got out of prison. There are a lot of unverified stories. According to some, she still practiced the craft, people still came to her, and the police did nothing. I personally doubt that. Although she killed 150 souls with her poisons, she was one of the most influential women of all time," concludes Djarmati.