Rose Veres: Death in the Boarding House

In 1930s Detroit, men checked into Rose Veres boarding house, and never left. Branded “The Witch of Delray” by the press, she was accused of multiple murders. But was she a killer… or a scapegoat?

Uncover the truth behind fear, prejudice, and one of Detroit’s most haunting legends.

Transcript

Host: 0:00

Welcome to Clue Trail, where every story is a mystery and every clue pulls you deeper into the unknown. From unsolved cases and strange disappearances, to hidden histories and curious twists of fate. We piece together fragments searching for the truth or uncovering even bigger questions. Some clues reveal answers. Others lead to greater mysteries. But one thing is certain, every trail tells a story. Are you ready to follow it? Let's begin.

Host: 0:49

In 1930s Detroit, on a quiet street in the working-class neighborhood of Delray, there stood a house, a simple two-story boarding house, where desperate men came looking for shelter, warmth, maybe a second chance. But, one by one, they died. Some fell from windows. Some collapsed without warning. Some just disappeared. And the woman who ran that house? Her name was Rose Veres. But you might know her by a different name. The Witch of Del Rey.

Host: 1:32

Accused of murder and convicted by the headlines, painted as a monster by a city gripped with fear and fuelled by prejudice. But was she truly a killer? or just a scapegoat.

Host: 1:51

Today on Clue Trail, we unravel the haunting case of Rose Veres, a story of power, suspicion, and what happens when a woman doesn't fit the mould and someone dies.

Host: 2:10

To understand her story, first, we need to understand where she lived. Detroit in the 1930s was a city of contradictions. On the surface, it was the beating heart of the American industry, home to the automobile giants Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. It had become a symbol of modern progress, mass production, and the American dream. But underneath that gleaming image, Detroit was struggling.

Host: 2:44

When the stock market crashed in 1929, The impact rippled fast through Detroit. Factory layoffs skyrocketed. Thousands lost their homes. Entire neighborhoods fell into poverty. For working-class people, survival became a daily battle. For immigrants, especially women like Rose Veres, the odds were even worse.

Host: 3:13

With so many men out of work or forced into transient labor, Boarding houses became a lifeline, a place to sleep, a meal if you were lucky, and no questions asked. But they also became a place of fear, crime, and rumor. These were homes packed with strangers, people on the age of survival. Deaths, fights, disappearances, they happened more often than anyone cared to admit.

Host: 3:47

Detroit was also a city shaped by immigration. Hungarians, Italians and others had flocked there for factory jobs in the 1910s and 20s. But by the 1930s, tensions rose. Foreign accents drew suspicion. Women living independently were distrusted. And anyone who didn't assimilate was seen as dangerous or strange. Rose Varys, Hungarian, widowed, running a house full of men, fit no one's idea of normal. And that's exactly what made her so easy to fear. Long before she became the Witch of Delray, she was just Rose. Born in the late 1800s, Rose Veres came to the America with hopes of building a better life. Like many immigrants at the time, she settled in Detroit, a city that promised work, community, and opportunity. Rose married Gabor, and they had three sons together. And as means of income, Rose and Gabor had opened their home to boarders. All was well for some time, but in 1925 is where Rose's nightmare starts. as this is the first time she's arrested after two boarders died under suspicious circumstances. No proof was found and the neighbours didn't want to testify out of fear of her. So Rose was set free.

Host: 5:32

In 1927, tragedy struck the family again as Gabor died from monoxide poisoning in their garage, leaving Rose to run the boarding house by herself. There were many rumors around his death. Many suspected Rose shuttered the door. But these were just rumors, neighborhood gossip. So, by the time the 1930s arrived, Rose was running that boarding house by herself. But why was Rose so feared in the community? Why was she named a witch, always surrounded by rumor and gossip? Rose didn't fit the mould of that era.

Host: 6:17

She was tough, she had three children to raise, and she was determined. She spoke little English, didn't host teas or church socials, she was very private. So, because of this, she was deemed peculiar, people couldn't understand her. And when rumors started swirling, when borders began dying, it was easy for people to believe something darker was going on behind that front door. Her son, William, just 18, lived with her and helped manage the home. The two were rarely seen apart, and the younger siblings always followed William's lead.

Host: 7:04

So... Rose carried on with taking in boarders. These were men who worked in factories, shipyards, foundries. She offered them hot meals, basic shelter, and a strict house. Rose would wake up at the crack of dawn each morning, wake everyone up as well so they can live for their jobs, wash their clothes, make their food, kept a clean house. It was all around the clock. And, according to the reports, she ran a tight ship. No drinking, no late-night guests, no nonsense. Neighbours kept whispering. She was always deemed to be cold, they said. She was judged for always wearing black. Some claimed she spoke curses under her breath in Hungarian. Others swore they saw her lighting candles at night Praying over strange papers, burning things in her stove. Whether any of it is true didn't

Host: 8:10

In 1930s Detroit, a poor immigrant widowed who kept to herself was already suspicious. All it took was one death to turn suspicions into fear. In the late 1920s and early 30s, men began dying at 1863 West End Avenue, which was Rose's address. Not all at once, not with fanfare or anything like that, but one by one over time. First, this was blamed on accidents. Then, it was blamed on illness. But when multiple men, each of them warders, died in the same place, people began to speculate. One man was found at the bottom of their basement stairs. Another supposedly fell from a second-story window. Another one collapsed in his room and never woke up.

Host: 9:20

The cause of death was often vague, sometimes natural causes, sometimes unknown. But here's what raised everyone's eyebrows. Some of the dead men had life insurance policies. And in view of those policies, Rose Varis was named a beneficiary.

Host: 9:42

Unsurprisingly, word began to spread. If you check into Rose Varis' boarding house, you might not check out. And by the time Steve Mak, her latest tenant, was found dead in her backyard in August 1931, the city had had enough.

Host: 10:07

In the August sun in 1931, Detective Whitman, a seasoned investigator, was tracing the distance Steve Mack would have fell. Ricocheting from her attic window to the neighbor's clapboard siding to its final resting place on the muddy ground.

Host: 10:28

It was clear Mack's body has hit the ground with force. He didn't die instantly. He was taken to the hospital. but there wasn't much of a chance of survival. Nothing seemed out of place in the neighborhood of Delr ey, and he knew he might be questioned why is he bringing a full squad to investigate what seemed to be a handyman clumsy foal. But he had a gut feeling. When he received the call, he knew this would be at Rose's house, the so-named Witch of Delr ey.

Host: 11:05

He was hoping, this time, for a neighbor's help. Someone must have seen something. He worked on many cases during his career, solved crimes of passion, gang warfares, you name it, he had experience in it. But what bothered him were unsolved cases, like the deaths in Rose's house.

Host: 11:29

So he was determined to get to the root cause. He was determined to find what is happening behind the closed doors in the witch of Delr ey's house. Whitman didn't have to wait long for neighbours to come forward this time. The news of Mac's death spread quickly, so all neighbourhoods started whispering. Witnesses claimed that this was foul play, Mak's fall being unnatural and having heard William arguing with him just before. Whitman knew he was finally on to something. He needed to act quick, talk to Mak, which was still alive, but barely, and then move swiftly and separate Rose from William. He knew once he did all that, the case will unfold as everyone will start talking.

Host: 12:20

So he headed to the hospital. Mac was in bad shape. He had wounds all over his body and he was finding it hard to talk. But he started recounting the events of that day to Whitman and his colleague. Mac was at home that day, living in Rose's house, and she asked him to fix a window. He wasn't very pleased about it. He didn't want to help. But Rose got upset and told him to do it. After all, he was always behind with the payments. So, he started fixing the window. Hearing this, Whitman stopped and immediately stated to his colleague that that's it. He clearly has enough evidence of Rose's and William's wrongdoing. This is the last piece he needed. Mak didn't finish his story. He didn't say he was pushed. He didn't say he argued. He didn't say anything to incriminate Rose and William.

Host: 13:21

But Whitman's mind was made up. He wanted the Witch of Delr ey behind bars. And he wouldn't stop at anything. Anything. That was the last time Whitman talked with Mac. He died two days later, on August 25th, 1931. Mac, a widower, came to the United States from Hungary in the hope he will make enough money to help his three daughters back home. He died alone. His children only found out of his death months later.

Host: 13:59

A full-on investigation now started. After the initial conversation with Mak, the neighbours' testimonies on the fight and the many other suspicious deaths in the house, he felt he was on to something. In the following days, they also made another discovery. Mak had taken a life insurance and, according to the neighbours, the beneficiary was deemed to be Rose Veres. Some interesting police work here, all seems to be quite circumstantial and only based on what neighbours are saying.

Host: 14:34

Nevertheless, Whitman had enough details to get the go-ahead and search Rose's house for evidence. Initially, when they entered the house, they didn't find much, not until they reached Rose's bedroom. There, they found few wooden boxes filled with documents and a journal in Rose's handwriting. And those documents were all life insurance policies for the men who were boarding in her house. The beneficiary? Rose Veres.

Host: 15:09

This was a huge break. Whitman suspected 12 deaths at this house. If that was the case, that would have made a really good payout to Rose. Rose and William were both arrested, and from that moment, newspapers painted her something more than a suspect. They didn't call her by her name. They called her the Witch of Delray. And although the coroner found nothing unusual for the deaths of this man or Mak's death, Rose and Bill were arraigned on charges of first-degree murder.

Host: 15:48

They were charged with the murder of 12 men and held without bail. Now, it gets even more unclear. According to the prosecutors, Rose was subjected to over 100 hours of interrogations, intense grilling, and she apparently confessed. But she didn't confess to all murders. She confessed only to one murder, Steve Mak's. Now, in their opinion, Whitman and the prosecutors had everything. There were the life insurances, and the many testimonies from the neighbours, and those who sold those to her. They had Mak's statement, which, if you recall, is not much of an incriminating one. And they had her supposed confession. Lastly, they had the testimony of a friend of hers, to whom she apparently confessed. This friend... was never named.

Host: 16:48

So, with all this, they've run to trial now. They described her as cold, calculating, witch-like. Her black clothes, her accent, her sharp features. Her son William was portrayed as her loyal accomplice, her pawn, even her enforcer.

Host: 17:11

There was a media frenzy. and Rose was judged and sentenced by the newspapers before she even got to her trial.

Host: 17:22

The trial started on 1st of October 1931, just over two months since their arrest. The prosecutors started strong in their opening statement. Rose and William conspired to kill their innocent lodger. First, they tried to poison him. When that failed, They beat him up in their basement, making him bruised and bloody. And to cover this up, they dragged him up the stairs and threw him out of the window.

Host: 17:51

Mak suffered for two days from the injuries and all was done for one reason and one reason only. A life policy worth $4,000. The prosecution claimed she ran her boarding house like a death trap. They said she and William had pushed Steve Mack out of the second-story window after trying to pressure him into naming them on his life insurance. But the evidence? That was thin. No eyewitnesses, no clear forensic proof. What the prosecution had was suspicion, superstition and stories.

Host: 18:30

One witness claimed she heard curses in Hungarian. Another swore Rose kept mysterious paper in her drawer. Police testified that Rose seemed unemotional, as if grief or shock were required to prove innocence. But perhaps the most powerful force in that courtroom was fear. Fear of those different. Fear of powerful women. Fear of the unknown.

Host: 19:02

The defense tried to refute all these accusations. Mak's death was just an accident. He had the testimony of a neighbor saying Rose wasn't even at home when the accident took place. She was talking with him in the courtyard when another neighbor came to tell her what happened. And William, he was at the theater at that time. So how could he have been in two places at once? First witness on the stand was the medical examiner. He was specifically asked if Mak's wounds were consistent with the blow from an object. Dr. Shapiro responded, no, there wasn't. So, this means maybe Mack wasn't beaten up first, as the prosecutors claim.

Host: 19:44

Next witness brought by prosecutors was Rose Szabo, a neighbor. She made a complete spectacle in the courtroom. Described as being terrified by Rose, she ran from the stand. This was all to paint Rose Varys as a terrifying creature, a woman up to no good that instilled fear in everyone she met.

Host: 20:08

Lastly was their star witness, John Walker. Him and his family lived in the other portions of Rose's house. He testified on what he witnessed that day. He said he'd seen Rose putting up a ladder next to the wall earlier in the day and he was the one to come out when Max fell. He just looked up and seen Mac falling from a window. He was implying Rose set that ladder up next to the wall to later deter the police investigation. Basically, she was setting up the scene. John also testified that when him and Rose were taken to the police station that day to give their statements, Rose threatened him not to say anything about Mac's fall. She said to him that if he dies, there is an insurance of $4,000 and she will give him $500.

Host: 21:03

The next few witnesses' accounts were contradictory. One witness would say Mac fell out of a window and Rose and William were responsible, and the next one up would say Mac fell over a ladder, confirming Rose and William's accounts. This trial was messy, but media kept going and going. Both Rose and William were dragged through the mud in the press. It's safe to say they had anything but a fair investigation.

Host: 21:31

So, unsurprisingly, Rose and William were both found guilty of murder. She was sentenced to life in prison. Her son received a lengthy term as well. The courtroom erupted. Reporters scribbled away. And the name Witch of Delray disappeared. was sealed into the headlines of Detroit forever. But, years later, those cracks would begin to show.

Host: 22:02

Because the case against Rose Veras was never as solid as the public was told. Many years passed. Rose Veras remained behind bars, forgotten by the public, She was only remembered by the name the press has given her, the Witch of Del Rey.

Host: 22:25

But behind the scenes, her case wasn't finished. A new defense attorney, Cl utts, began reviewing the original trial, and what she found raised serious doubts. She appeared in front of a judge on April 6, 1945, bringing with her the court reporter from the previous trial. In this note, Clutts was able to show the new judge that, at the time when the verdict was given by the jury, the judge wasn't even in the room. And they had precedent. Only a few years earlier, another trial was granted for a man whose verdict was given without the judge or prosecutors present.

Host: 23:08

So, on April 12, Clutts turned in an amended motion for a new trial. based on the fact that the judge was present at the time the verdict was released. One day later, a new trial was granted for Rose. William has already served his sentence, therefore no trial was necessary at that point. Rose's new trial began on November 27, 1945. And it wasn't a smooth one. Many of the original witnesses couldn't be found, They moved out of state. Four of them died. But the prosecutors managed to call 15 in total. The defense would also bring forward 10 witnesses.

Host: 23:55

The prosecutors started with John Walker, which was the star witness in the first trial. And he recounted the same story. He helped Rose with the ladder, then when he went to check if any of his kids were near the ladder that day, he witnessed Mak falling and noticed Rose's head sticking out of the attic window, where he said Mak fell from. Next up was another neighbor who originally testified that Rose asked for some water in a towel after Mak's fall, that was to clean her face after the beating she gave to Mak. This time around, this neighbor recounted her testimony, saying she didn't remember Rose asking for a towel or water to wash her face.

Host: 24:39

And so it continued, with many witnesses coming and going, some changing their testimony, some not. But Clutts biggest day in the court was on December 7, when she brought Rose Veres on the stand to testify. Rose, with the help of an interpreter... told the court that she didn't place the ladder. She didn't see Mak's falling and she definitely didn't beat him up. She also clarified that she didn't promise any money to John Walker and the premiums on the policies being paid off. She testified that it was customary for a landlady to pay if the collector came that day and the boarder wasn't at home. She said in all instances Mak would pay her back and that she wasn't aware she was the beneficiary of his life insurance. Both sides rested after this.

Host: 25:32

The prosecutor's ending statement focused on Rose planning to kill Mak to benefit of his insurance, where the defense focused on telling the jury that Rose was a victim of persecution at her first trial. In this trial, the defense was able to put a light on the proceedings of the previous trial and how bad it was all handled. Witnesses changed their stories. Police interviews had gone undocumented. Key testimony, the claims that convicted Rose, had never been corroborated. There was no forensic proof that Steve Mak had been pushed, no definitive evidence of life insurance fraud, just suspicions, just narrative.

Host: 26:23

The jury came back on December 10, 1945, with a verdict of not guilty. Rose walked out of prison a free woman. Rose immediately disappeared from public life. She gave no interviews, she wrote no memoirs, She made no attempts to reclaim her name. She lived out the rest of her years in silence. By the time she left prison, she was 63. She missed out on seeing her children grow, being a grandmother, being able to live a peaceful life. And even when the charges were dropped and the courtroom doors closed, the story of Rose Varys didn't end. Detroit remembered her not as a freed woman, but as a legend. People didn't say Rose Veras was exonerated. They said she was the witch of Delr ey. Because that's how it works, isn't it? It doesn't matter what the evidence says. The myth, it's always louder than the facts.

Host: 27:26

Rose became a part of Detroit folklore. She was a whispered name, a cautionary tale, not really for her crimes. but for the power of fear, media and bias. Even today, her case is debated. Was she a killer, a con artist, a misunderstood immigrant woman caught in the wrong era? The truth is, we may never know. Because the story of Rose Varys isn't only just about being guilty or being proven innocent. It's also about how society chooses its villains. and also how easy it is to call a woman a witch when all she does is to refuse to obey by the rules.

Host: 28:17

Rose Veres didn't leave a final statement. She never wrote a letter or record her truth. She didn't even ask for sympathy. She just simply disappeared. But the story she left behind says everything. She was called the Witch of Delr ey. But maybe she was just a woman who never had a chance.

Host: 28:41

That's a wrap for today's episode. Thanks so much for tuning in. We appreciate every single one of you. If you enjoyed the show, don't forget to follow us on social media to stay updated on all things Clue Trail. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok on Clue Trail Podcast. And if you want to support the podcast and get even more content, check out our Patreon. Members get access to an exclusive bonus episode every month. Just head over to Patreon and look for ClueTrail.