Romulus VEREŞ

AKA "The Man with the Hammer"

Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Schizophrenia - Rape
Number of victims: 5
Date of murder: September 11, 1972 - February 14, 1974
Date of arrest: February 1974
Date of birth: January 23, 1929
Victim profile: Cornelia Vaida / Maria Mărgineanu / Ana Valentina Florea, 8 / Aurelia Ciulea / Szilagy Emma Ilona, 68
Method of murder: Hitting with a hammer - Stabbing with knife - Suffocation
Location: Cluj County, Romania
Status: Found not guilty because of mental illness. Transferred to psychiatric hospital on February 3, 1976. Died on December 13, 1993

Romulus Vereş (Cluj, January 23, 1929 - Ştei, December 13, 1993) was a notorious serial killer, better known as "the man with the hammer".

During the 1970s, he was charged with five murders and several attempted murders, but never imprisoned on grounds of insanity: he suffered from schizophrenia, blaming the Devil for his actions. Instead, he was institutionalised in the Ştei psychiatric facility in 1976, following a three year long forensic investigation during which four thousand people were questioned.

Urban myths brought the number of victims up to two hundred women, though the actual number was much smaller. This confusion is probably explained by the lack of attention this case received, despite its magnitude, in the Communist press of the time.