LWOWSKI AND KRAKOWSKI GORGON RITY PROCESS.
Who's the guy who sold the place?
In the Lviv territory Court in May 1932, the celebrated trial of Rita Gorgonova accused of murdering her pupil Lusi Zarembianka began.
Rita Gorgonova of origin was Serbian, or Croatian, born in Dalmatia, in the then Austro-Hungarian Empire. Her father was a doctor, he died before she was born; her parent remarried, and she was raised outside of her household home from the age of 4 (first in relatives, then in orphanage). At the age of 15, Margerita de domo Ilić married Army Lieutenant Austro-Hungary Erwin Gorgon, after which in 1917 she gave birth to their boy and lived with her husband's parents in Lviv. In 1921, Erwin Gorgon left to search a occupation in America, and shortly Margerita (Rita) Gorgon went into conflict with her brother-in-laws, accusing her, wrongly, of immoral conduct and was forced to decision out, leaving her boy to rise in-laws. Initially, she remained unemployed, later attending a nursing course, and earning custody. According to her report, she was a beautiful woman.
Rita Gorgonova, owner of Emilia Margerita (Malgorzata) Gorgon, from the home of Ilić (born 7 March 1901 in Olestów close Knin in Dalmatia, then Austro-Hungary, after 1939) is simply a governess, convicted in 1 of the loudest trials of inter-war Poland of the 20th century for the execution of 30 December 1931 Elizabeth (Lusi) Zaremba, daughter of the Lviv architect Henry Zaremba, to whom she led the house. The execution and subsequent circumstantial process were widely commented on and regarded as "the loudest judicial process of the Second Republic". Between 1932 and 1934, the case was a substance for the public. Rita Gorgonova had a boy and daughters Romana (born 1928) and Eve (called Doppelka – born 20 September 1932 as the second daughter.
GORGON Crime?
In 1924 Rita Gorgonova accepted the position of governess with the 41-year-old Lviv architect Henryk Zaremba and lived in his villa, in the Connectors close Brzuchowice close Lviv. Henryk Zaremba had previously divided up without a formal divorce with her wife, who had suffered paranoid schizophrenia since 1923 and was in a Lviv-based institution for intellectual illness in Kulparków. They had 2 children together with their wife – Elizabeth (Lusia) born in 1914 and Stanisław (Stasia) born in 1917. In addition to caring for children with whom the relation was initially good, Gorgonova was liable for supervising the home where Henry Zaremba stayed only all erstwhile in a while. After about a year, between Gorgonova and Henry Zaremba there was an affair, after which they remained in the concubinet, from which Roman's daughter was born in 1928. It was not possible to formalise this relationship, since they both remained officially in their marriages (more than that Gorgonova herself preferred a relation without obligations). incapable to call Rita his wife, Zaremba portrayed her as “his mistress”—many people thought that they were actually married. Gorgonova's close relation with Zaremba most likely became the origin of conflict and strife with his increasing daughter Elizabeth (Lusia). This besides resulted in a deterioration of relations between Gorgonova and Zaremba, which decided to live permanently with children in the Lviv flat from 1 January 1932.
On the night of 30 to 31 December 1931, there was a execution sleeping in the bed of Elizabeth (Lusi), who arrived from Lviv that day. The crime was done by hitting her head with a blunt instrument. She died instantly. The tool was most likely an iron jag (kilof) to break ice, which was then found in the pool at the back of the house. The crime was discovered at night by Staś Zaremba, who was awakened by the dog’s hawk, after which he alerted the household. The engineer Zaremba came in his pajamas, followed him by Gorgonov in his fur. A doctor, Dr. Louis Csala, was immediately brought in, and then a gendarmerie commander named Trela, who made the first inspections (Zarembów's home was adjacent to the gendarmerie station, while the nearest police station was 2 kilometres distant – hence an MP came to the scene and not more competent in specified cases.
The clues pointed the strongest at Gorgonov, who was rapidly arrested. He besides spent six weeks in custody with Henry Zaremba, suspected initially of complicity and assistance in hiding. It was besides suspected that the Zaremb gardener might have done it, or a boy who had a crush on Lusi without reciprocity.
The grave of Lusi Zarembianki is located in Łychakovsky Cemetery in Lviv
Rita Gorgonova consistently did not confess to the murder. The investigation established the most likely version of the events on the basis of the evidence. It was determined that the crimes were committed by a householder, as no signs were found in the snow on either side of the barrier or on the window windowsill, and the open part of the window was besides small, and there were no signs of forced entry on the door. In addition, the dog Lux – the ‘wolf mixed with the doberman’, did not bark. According to the version adopted in the investigation, Gorgonova passed from her area overnight through the hall to Lusi's area and killed her with a jag. She staged the unsub's intrusion through a window in the room, beginning it, and staged rape by penetrating Lusi's vagina with her finger. Prof. Jan Stanisław Olbrycht was the expert in the retrial (Krakowski).
According to Gorgon's D.A.'s findings, she then opened the veranda door to make it look like the unsub's escape, and there she stumbled upon Lux's dog, whom she hit her head. The dog was pining, which woke Stasia Zaremba, who slept in the dining room. He then saw a figure in the corner of the hall, close the tree, which he identified as Gorgonova in fur during the process. incapable to get back into her bedroom through the dining room, Gorgonova was to escape through the front door. erstwhile she got into the bedroom, she broke a glass in a tiny veranda to open the door from the inside and cut her hand. erstwhile Staś picked up the alarm, she left the bedroom and joined the household. due to the fact that she gave up feces after the execution of her nervousness, standing in the hall by the wall (in fact, the feces were most likely doglike), dirtying her nightgown, she changed her after a short time to fresh white, and she burned her in the oven. However, Dr. Csala remembered that Gorgonov was initially wearing a seled nightgown under his fur. Moreover, in the opinion of police officers, the white shirt was besides fresh for Gorgonov to sleep in at night.
Coming out of the home respective times for water, to the home of the gardener Kamiński and to the doctor, she had the chance to throw a jag into the pool, losing a candle. In addition, wet Gorgon nasal handkerchief was discovered in the basement with traces of blood laundering. Blood way was besides found on Gorgonova's fur. The victim's blood belonged to Group A, Gorgon's blood belonged to Group 0. origin A was detected on both the handkerchief and the fur. The findings of judicial experts on this issue were challenged by Prof. Ludwik Hirszfeld, the discoverer of the inheritance of the blood group. Henry Zaremba admitted in the course of the investigation that the lover had announced in anger that he would kill him, the children and himself.
The ceremony of Elizabeth Zaremba was held on 5 January 1932 at the Lviv Cemetery Łychczak. Zaremb and Gorgonov were arrested, but Staś did.
On 25 April 1932, the peculiar edition of the “Polish Word” in Lviv began a study on the court trial, which attracted not only the residents of Lviv but besides the full of Poland – dedicated to Rita Gorgonova.
Special admission tickets were sold for the trial, as the courtroom was incapable to accommodate all those willing. Those who were not fortunate to get into the courtroom were crowded with the court building at Batorego Street and their news about the passage of the wire was drawn from the Lviv press. All the journals devoted much space to the event. This was preceded by the diary “Polish Word”, which gave almost stenographic study from the trial, adding many interesting facts to the investigation, but not to say unequivocally whether the perpetrator of the execution was Rita Gorgonov. In spite of all this, he had only 1 conviction – guilty.
GORGON PROCESS
At the gate of the territory Court movement, in the courthouse building squeeze. At half an hr to 9 o'clock in the morning, so half an hr before the trial begins, broad court steps are filled up to the first level with a crowd of people, in 90 percent of elegantly dressed women standing patiently and meekly, like a battalion of convicts. On the faces the blushes, the eyes shine. It's human curiosity waiting for food.
Act of Charge
The temporarily arrested Emilja Margarita of 2 names Gorgonova, daughter of Jan Ilica and Johanna, born on 7 March 1901 in Ociestów (Jugoslavia) of Polish nationality, Stately owned by Poland, married, parent of Romana, residing in the Links ad Rzasna Polska, written, Greek-Catholic religion, I accuse: that on the night of 30 and 31 December 1931 in the Links ad Rzasna Polska in the intention of killing Elizabeth Zaremba in specified a treacherous and sneaky manner, she acted against her that consequence of the second death. In doing so, she committed a crime of murder... – read the legal formulas of prosecutor Alfred Laniewski.
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
The Lviv architect, Henry Zaremba, had a mentally sick wife (paranoid schizophrenia), which was so placed in the Department for Mentally sick in Kulparków in 1923. Zaremba, who remained alone with 2 underage children, and this was about a 6-year-old boy of Stanislaus and about a 9-year-old daughter of Elizabeth, decided to take a female to his home who would take care of the household and rise his children. Then he encountered the accused Emilia Gorgonova, whom he besides engaged in this capacity.
Gorgonova was married to a lion, Erwin Gorgon, who, however, left his wife and went to America after a short time of marriage. Gorgonova was a young woman, 20 years old. After a short period of time, he began to have an affair between Gorgonova and Zaremba. The fruit of this affair was a girl named Romana.
Grown-up Children Zaremby of his legal marriage, a reluctant eye looked at the relation between their father and an alien woman, who, by usurping the rights of her spouse and housewife of the house, pressed her despotism on their full life. The relation between her and the children grew worse and worse. Thus Gorgonov's slow affection for children, and most of all for Elizabeth, turned into unsecreted hatred.
A Witness IN THE JESUS PROCEEDING – SERVING ZARMBS
Gorgonov's relation to the late Elizabeth Zarembianka.
Here Elizabeth, increasing up, realized Gorgonova’s position in her father’s home and the consequences. She saw that Gorgonova was striving for a weak will and a weak character Zaremba to divorce their parent and submit to Gorgonova in the form of marriage. They understood the sentiment to a severely sick and unhappy mother, the justified mistrust fed to the imposed babysitter, caused that Elizabeth was besides frequently making appropriate performances to her father. Gorgonov knew all this, which strengthened her – the right belief that Elizabeth Zarembianka was an obstacle to her future life as she wanted.
Henry Zaremba, loving his children very much, and especially his daughter, succumbed to her influence. As a consequence of these influences, as well as his own reasoning, he began to search ways to resolve his relation with Gorgonova. It has already occurred that at the beginning of December 1931 he rented a fresh flat at Potockiego Street in Lviv with the intention of surviving in it with the children, but without Gorgonowa.
HENRIKA ZAREMBA
Henry Zaremba testified that from the minute Gorgonova got pregnant with him, there was a strong gap between her and Lusia. The relation between them was sometimes specified a strain that he was even forced to send Lusia to Switzerland for a time, where he gave her to the Educational Department.
Stanislaw Zaremba besides testified that from his sister Elizabeth's story, he knew that the accused Gorgonova threatened to deprive her of her life, and that the sister was constantly in fear of the defendant's revenge. another witnesses besides testified that Gorgonova was constantly cursing Lusia, claiming that she was the origin of her misfortune and that it would be good if she were not in the world.
"The Night of the Crime"
On 1 January 1932, it was to be a breakthrough day between Zaremba and the accused. On that day there was to be a decision to a fresh apartment, which the accused was no longer to enter. It was to be taken over by the 1 who convinced the accused to dig a gap between her and Henry Zaremba, the 1 who from a long conflict for home precedence and for Zaremba's individual came out victorious.
As we know, Zaremba owned a villa in the Connectors, adjacent on 1 side to the Polish Row, and on the another to Brzuchowic. To this villa a fewer days before Christmas in 1931, the full household drove to the house, so Zaremba, the accused and the children. Elizabeth left for Lviv day after day to finish the work on moving to a fresh apartment. So it was on December 30.
And on that very night, after 24.00, the vicinity of Zaremba villa was alerted by the news that Elizabeth (Lusia) Zarembiana was murdered.
At first, he threw Henry Zaremba the thought that any assailant had seemingly entered the villa and did so. A thorough survey was carried out in this direction, but the results were completely negative. And so the inspection of the site of the act stated that there were no signs of harm on the doors of the interior and outer porches leading to the dam. There were no specified marks on the window sill.
In the area itself there were no traces of snow or water left of it, which would gotta stay after the perpetrator who would enter the snowy time inside. It was so established that the perpetrator had to be within the villa. Only a householder could do the work.
REGISTERS
Stanislaw Zaremba, who was investigating police officers, told that that night he was abruptly woken by a dog. The curious man looked out the window, and erstwhile the dog did not announcement anywhere, he called his sister instinctively. erstwhile no answer came to him, he broke out of bed and looked out the glass door, leading from the dining area where he slept, to a tiny adjacent area where she stood decorated
Christmas tree. Then he noticed it in the snow - falling glow of a woman’s character, in which he first saw his sister. But shortly he realized it wasn't her. Then, having looked closely, he recognized the suspect Gorgonova.
Stanislaw Zaremba ran into his sister's room, and his eyes were filled with a terrible view. My sister's head was flooded with blood. With a scream he ran into the dining room, where they led the door to the area where Gorgonov slept.
Zaremba and his boy rushed to Lusi's room, trying to save her. Just behind them came dressed in a coat of fur charged. He came to Dr. Csala's place shortly and declared death. A later examination revealed that the death of the deceased was caused by a series of blows to the head with a hard instrument that caused the skull to rupture.
TRAGICAL NIGHT IN THE GORGON DESCRIPTION
The first day after Christmas, they went to Lviv Zaremba and Lusia, he to the office, she to make certain the move. I stayed home with Stasie and Roma.
Zaremba arrived at home at around 3 p.m. and Lusia arrived at 8 p.m. After Lusia to the station, Staś left and returned home together. Gorgonova read a book in the dining room, Zaremba read a newspaper, or played with Roma. erstwhile we got back, she had dinner in the dining room.
After a while, dinner was served. We were talking about moving at dinner. erstwhile the time came, small Roma did not want to sleep with her mother, but “with her daddy”. Lusia offered to go with her, but the suspect refused due to the fact that the kid never slept with her. Then Gorgonova went to her area alone, went to bed and read a book by the lamp. In a minute he went to his room, Zaremb. Lusia and Staś, going to each other, joined their father’s area as usual “good night”.
Zaremba, going to his room, passed through Gorgonova's room, then did not come to her. The door to him was always open.
After a fewer hours of all, he awakened Stasia's scream: “They killed Lusia, they murdered Lusia!”
The suspect broke out of bed and ran to the dining area door in a nightgown. I was cold, so I came back, I took the brown fur from the chair that was standing by the bed, and I opened the door first. He fell in his father's area screaming. Zaremba fell barefoot, in his shirt, with a candle in his hand. It was dark in Lusi's area and dining room. We went into Lusi's area together. In the area I saw Lusia, covered in blood, testified to Gorgonov.
She then testified as she went to the guard, then to Dr. Csala and the police.
IMPORTANT LOCATIONS
The defendant's proceeding continued to go on to the evidence of the crime – speaking against Gorgonova. An effort was made to explain the reasons for changing the nightgown of the Seledin colour – in which the accused saw Zaremb in bed and Dr. Csala shortly after the crime was discovered, to white, in which she was found after the police arrived. There were questions about feces in the area next to the crime scene and on the defendant's body. The suspect was besides asked about the traces leading to the pool. A separate issue was her handkerchief, found in the basement among the junk, as if hidden, wet, with traces of blood that were rapidly washed away. The defendant's replies were confronted with her words in the police protocol.
Prosecutor Dr. Laniewski asked Gorgonova about her relation with another men outside Zaremba. The suspect confessed to several. She was asked about an unfriendly attitude toward Lusi. "This is how my enemies testify," replied the accused.
The following days were testified by arch. Henryk Zaremba and his boy Stanisław, Dr. Csal and gardener Józef Kamiński and his wife Rozalia. The sensational passage of the trial was the proceeding of Antoni Halemby, who himself applied to the investigative justice as a witness, as Gorgonov, as she testified, urged him to supply evidence compromising Lusia. At a gathering with the suspect and her companion, he learned that this woman wanted to “get on her side” any young girl, and she expressed immorally what I should do with her.
Then the police who first arrived at the scene of the tragedy, serving with Zaremba and Elizabeth Zarembianka's friend, testified. Their evidence did not bring fresh elements to the trial. On the another hand, witness Edwin Fuks testified that he knew Gorgonova from her work at Fuks. any time ago, she came to him and asked him to slander the arch. To have an alleged affair with any officeist Irene in front of her fiancé. Which the witness did not agree to, knowing no reason for doing.
Irena Kochanska, the sister of the accused husband, Erwin Gorgon, besides testified. Irena Kochanska speaks of the accused in superlatives themselves, claiming that she was an excellent wife and mother. Gorgon went to America just to find a job. erstwhile she visited Gorgonova in Zarembów, she observed complete harmony between her and Zaremba's children. Gorgonov praised the children for being polite and never complained about anything. Last time she saw the suspect was 8 months ago.
In the further part of the trial, the expert Dr. Pirgo testified, who gave a ruling on the origin of death of the deceased. The meaning was data on the harm to the reproductive organs of the deceased. insignificant injuries were found in the sexual parts, extending beyond the hymen and ending with a nail-shaped jaw. These injuries were not bloody, which lacked evidence of death or death. Sexual injury occurred by pushing a blunt body into a vagina with considerable force, possibly a finger or fingers.
The wounds were caused in the following order: first the wound on the right side of the forehead, then the weaker hits on the left, yet the injury to the sexual organs. The wound that caused the skull fracture was fatal.
On the question of the defence attorney, is the execution committed with the instrument of this category, with this force, taking into account those wounds that have been caused in conjunction with the injuries of sexual parts, a man or a woman? The expert Dr. Pirgo replied that this could not be determined, but alternatively it was done by a man.
After proceeding the evidence of witnesses and experts, the court ordered a recess until May 14. On that day, after proceeding the ardent speeches of the prosecutor and the defence attorneys, they all await a verdict. Among the grave silence, jury president Dr. Hofmokl read the verdict by which the judges swore to question whether the accused Rita Gorgon was guilty of a execution of execution – they replied by 9 votes “yes”, 3 votes “no”.
A loud murmur passed through the room, to which the president reacted vigorously. The Court went to a gathering and after 10 minutes, the president announced a judgement by which the suspect Emilja Margarita Gorgonova was sentenced to death punishment by hanging.
JUDGMENT
The first trial took place in Lviv, on 25 April–14 May 1932. The justice was chaired by Jan Antoniewicz, the prosecution in the trial was Alfred Laniewski, and the defendant's lawyer Maurice Axer. Together, the lawyers of Rita Gorgonova were Maurice Axer from Lviv, Mieczysław Ettinger from Warsaw, Józef Woźniakowski from Krakow.
The trial was intensively discussed in the press; articles in defence of the accused were written by Elga Kern and Stanisław Przybyszewska and – during the Krakow process – Iren Krzywick.
Gorgonov never confessed. She was initially sentenced by the territory Court in Lviv as a jury court after a brief trial, on May 14, 1932 to death penalty, on the basis of the law remaining from Austrian government of 1852. After the cassation, the judgement was abrogated by the ultimate Court, due to an infringement of the rules of procedure by rejecting the defence's evidence applications and besides vaguely defining the act attributed to the accused. In prison, Margerita Gorgon gave birth on 20 September 1932 to Eve's second daughter, whom Zaremba did not admit (she received her mother's maiden name) and went to the orphanage. After the case was re-examined by the Krakow territory Court, acting as a jury, she was sentenced to 8 years in prison on 29 April 1933, under the provisions of the recently introduced penal code. The court found her guilty, but the crime was committed “under the influence of large emotion.” As a mitigating circumstance, he felt that Lusia had not tolerated her father’s relationship, and under her influence Zaremba had announced that he would shortly abandon Gorgonov. This conviction was retained in force by the ultimate Court, which dismissed the cassation on September 23, 1933. The execution of Gorgonov's punishment was to end on May 24, 1940, but left the prison in Fordon (now in Bydgoszcz) on September 3, 1939 as a consequence of amnesty due to the outbreak of planet War II.
During the occupation, she lived in Warsaw, Turobin and Lublin, remarried (although no applicable traces in the documents). Her further destiny is unknown, though it is known from her daughters' relation that she survived the war. According to any sources until the 1960s, she lived in Silesia, where, among others, she ran a kiosk in Opole. There are besides reports that she emigrated to South America. Cezary Lazarewicz suggested that Gorgonova was murdered in 1946 in the Silesian village.
In 2014, the heiress of Rita Gorgonova (daughter of Ewa Ilić and granddaughter of Margarita Ilić-Lisowska, surviving in the West Pomeranian province) announced an effort to resume the trial and review the sentence, pointing to the weakness of evidence in the circumstantial process and the atmosphere of lynching in which the conviction was issued. The family's lawyer is Michał Olechnowicz.
DISTANCE IN THE COUNTRY
As mentioned above, another court proceeding took place in Krakow in 1933. There was already a much calmer atmosphere around the event. After re-examination by the Krakow territory Court, acting as a jury, he sentenced Emilia Magerita Gorgon to 8 years in prison on 29 April 1933, based on the provisions of the recently introduced penal code. The court found that she committed a crime “under the large emotion” caused by the conditions prevailing in the Zarembs' home. Gorgonova left the women's prison in Bydgoszcz on 3 September 1939 as a consequence of amnesty due to the outbreak of planet War II.
In 2014, the heiress of Rita Gorgonova, daughter of Ewa and granddaughter of Margarita Ilič-Lisowska, announced an effort to resume the trial and review the sentence, pointing to the weakness of the evidence in the circumstantial process and the atmosphere prevailing in Lviv during the first trial.
– The law provides for the anticipation to resume criminal proceedings even after the defendant's death. However, there must be circumstances that shed fresh light on the proceedings – says patron Michał Olechnowicz, who will effort to bring the trial back to life at the request of both ladies.
What are the grounds for revision? “We hope that the advancement made in forensic medicine and psychiatry will shed fresh light on the trial,” says Olechnowicz.
She's going to see if Lusi Zarembiance's injuries could actually be caused by a woman, if Gorgonova's intellectual profile would let violent murder. He besides wants to explain the circumstances of a akin crime, which happened a fewer weeks earlier close the execution site of Lusi Zarembianka, which was not even mentioned during both trials.
If appropriate evidence can be collected, there may be a revision of the verdict which has not yet been in Poland.
OWN COMMENTS
When Lusia Zarembianka was murdered, I finished my first year in Lviv. I left Lviv at the age of 10 and remember perfectly the conversation in our Lviv flat about this crime.
In our Lviv flat there were people of different professions, including lawyers of different applications, as well as employees of alleged “Two”.
The discussions on the crime committed in Lusi Zarembianka did not give clear opinions that Gorgonova was the perpetrator of the crime.
This was undoubtedly a circumstantial process, and according to the legal opinions I heard, both courts (Lwowski and Kraków) did not issue credible sentences.
Both reasons did not correspond to the course of events. Prosecutors and appointed experts have made many substantive mistakes.
Since 2005, my wife and I have been together annually in Lviv. We always place flowers on Lusi Zarembianka's grave at the Łychczak Cemetery.
We're friends with you. Veronica Kachza active in the care of the Lvov Defenders Cemetery, besides performing physical work there as well as taking care of the fact about the past of the city of Semper Fidelis.
Weronika Kachza has evidence of the actual perpetrators of the crime committed on the curator of Lviv Stanisław Sobiński.
Stanisław Sobiński was assassinated by a knife to the back at Green Street in Lviv late at night by Roman Szuchewycz (“Taras Czuprinka”) from the organizations of Ukrainian OUN nationalists – UPA.
Weronika Kachza besides has evidence that the crime on Lusi Zarembiance was committed by Zarembów gardener Józef Kamiński after the rape of the girl.
He confessed to this crime on his deathbed.
Szumański Aeksander
