Keyword – history of crime

Völgyi, Réka:

Budapest’s most beautiful concubine and Zsuzsa the Red: prostitute murders in the tabloid press

Research on women’s history, following international trends, has come to the fore in Hungary in the past decades. Analyses of the history of prostitution, however, have only been conducted in recent times. As early as the 1980s, historical studies in the West discovered the importance of the topic, identified its actors, and determined the focus of research. Prominent social historians have undertaken the study of prostitution, including Alain Corbin and Judith R. Walkowitz. Studies have also been published in Hungary, yet a thorough and comprehensive social history monograph is still pending. However, based on the research available, one can form a rough idea of how the press handled the problem of prostitution and how it explored some of the most dramatic cases. This paper does not offer a comprehensive history of prostitution but presents the case of two women murdered in Budapest in 1925 and 1926, including a mistress called Amália Leirer and the hatter-turned-prostitute Zsuzsanna Roscher. Both crimes aroused the interest of the tabloid press, and the journalists reported on what happened in great detail, or rather, the murder cases provided an opportunity for the press to maintain and preserve the attention of the contemporary audiences for weeks or even months.

Keywords: history of crime, history of the press, prostitution, sensation, tabloids