Ioan "John" Balaban (13 April 1924 – 26 August 1953) was a Romanian-born serial killer who confessed to murdering five people in France and Australia. Balaban moved to Australia in 1951 and settled in Adelaide, South Australia, where he carried out four murders, including those of his wife, her son and mother. He was executed for his crimes at Adelaide Gaol in August 1953.
Biography
Early life Ioan Balaban was born in April 1924 at Nădab, Arad County, in western Romania.Inward passenger manifests, Western Australian outports from 1897-1963; Series Number: K 269; Reel Number: 114; per Ancestry.com. According to Balaban's later unsworn statement, his parents separated because of his father's cruelty; his father "used to drink excessively" and died of suicide by hanging.Balaban Tells of Murders, News (Adelaide), 24 July 1953, page 36.
In 1944, Balaban began to read books on philosophy and "came to the conclusion there was no God". Despite his atheism, Balaban claimed God appeared to him on one occasion and told him to "do anything your conscience dictates and you will be happy". In May 1946, "after a fight with some Communists", he was detained in a mental hospital at Cluj for three weeks.Adelaide Police, The Advertiser (Adelaide), 8 May 1953, page 16. During this period of his life, Balaban obtained a degree in physics and metallurgy. He joined the Romanian army for nine months, but "escaped to France" in October 1947 during the time when the Soviets were consolidating their occupation of Romania.
Murder in Paris On the night of 22 February 1948 (or the early hours of the following morning), Balaban murdered a 32-year-old Polish woman, Riva Kwas, at her studio-apartment in the Auteuil district of Paris, near the Porte de Saint-Cloud. Kwas was working in Paris as a chemist, and her body was discovered five days after her murder.L’homme qui vit le dernier la Polonaise assassinée est interrogé, France-soir (Paris), 10 March 1948, page 1.Paris Spotted Our Murderer, Sunday Times (Perth), 7 November 1954, page 13. According to his later confession, Balaban was in "a rage" because the woman did not want to engage in sexual intercourse, and strangled her. He claimed: "I did not have any intention of killing her, but I had the feeling I had to". Immediately after the murder Balaban changed his place of abode and then left France.
The murder of Riva Kwas remained unsolved until Balaban was detained and charged for murders committed in Australia. In April 1953, the Adelaide police informed Alexander Duncan, the Chief Commissioner of the Victorian Police and the Australian rapporteur for Interpol, that the prisoner had confessed to the murder of a woman named Riva Kwas in Paris in 1948. Interpol passed this information to the French Sûreté and the Paris Prefecture who confirmed details of the crime. In August 1953, Balaban made a written confession of the murder in his condemned cell at Adelaide Gaol. As part of his confession, he answered questions submitted by the French authorities where he recalled street names and house numbers in connection with the murder.Balaban gives details of French crime, News (Adelaide), 21 August 1953, page 28.
Immigration to Australia Balaban arrived in Australia in January 1951 aboard the Hellenic Prince, part of the extensive post-war immigration to Australia. Balaban's occupation on his immigration record was listed as "chemist". The vessel carried 954 passengers, representing 18 nationalities from "all parts of Europe". Most of the immigrants were "displaced persons". One group came from Paris where they had lived privately "and were not used to camp life"; they had expected to travel to Australia "under first class conditions" but "their illusions were soon shattered when they encountered the communal life of the displaced persons ship".Nine Migrants Blacklisted, Western Mail (Perth), 11 January 1951, page 12. During the voyage to Australia, Balaban "had a fight with a migration official" and was locked up in the ship's cells. The passengers on the Hellenic Prince were to have disembarked at Fremantle, but instructions were received during the voyage to proceed to Melbourne.D.P.'s "Blacklisted", Kalgoorlie Miner, 6 January 1951, page 5.
By early November 1951, John Balaban was living in Adelaide, South Australia. In that month, a letter from Balaban was published in the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper, advocating that the Department of Immigration utilise phonograph discs for teaching English to New Australians. Balaban's address was given as Whitmore Square in Adelaide.Letters to the Editor: Learning English, The Advertiser (Adelaide), 29 November 1851, page 4; an identical letter was earlier published in the Adelaide News, 5 November 1951, page 11.
During his time in Australia, Balaban was employed in such work as grape-picking, oxy-welding and labouring. Even though newspaper reports claimed he was an industrial or metallurgical chemist, he was unable to find work in this field in Australia.Balaban, acquitted, to write book, News (Adelaide), 13 January 1953, page 20.
Balaban met a divorced woman named Thelma Cadd, who was the proprietor of a café called the 'Sunshine Snack Shop' in Gouger Street, Adelaide.Remand on 2 murder charges, News (Adelaide), 24 April 1953, page 1. She lived above the café with her six-year-old son Phillip. Thelma's 65-year-old mother, Susan Ackland, often stayed at the Gouger Street address, although her normal place of abode was recorded as Churchill Street in suburban Kilburn.Man On Murder Count: Two women killed in cafe attack, Courier-Mail (Brisbane), 13 April 1953, page 1. John Balaban and Thelma Cadd (née Ackland) were married on 27 September 1952 in the Clayton Congregational Church, in the Adelaide suburb of Norwood.Marriages: Balaban – Cadd, Chronicle (Adelaide), 30 October 1952, page 34.
However, the marriage was short-lived and troubled; by December 1952 the couple had separated and Balaban was living in a room in Gover Street, North Adelaide.Charged With Murder, News (Adelaide), 9 December 1952, page 1.Torrensville Murder Case, The Advertiser (Adelaide), 13 January 1953, page 7. Balaban later blamed the separation from his wife in large measure upon his mother-in-law; in a statement to the police after he had murdered both his wife and mother-in-law, Balaban claimed that Susan Ackland "always interfered", adding "she made trouble for my wife, and her first husband, and she'd do the same thing with me and my wife".Balaban Told of Fight on Torrens Bank, News (Adelaide), 7 May 1953, page 10.
Murder of Zora Kusic In the early evening of 5 December 1952, the mutilated body of Zora Kusic, a 29-year-old Yugoslav migrant, was discovered in her tin shack at the rear of a boarding-house in North Parade, in the west Adelaide suburb of Torrensville. The dead woman was found by a friend, a Bulgarian migrant, one of ten New Australians living in the North Parade boarding-house. Kusic was found lying on her bed with her throat and side gashed and her body mutilated by knife cuts. A penknife was found in a bloodstained dish of water near the bed.Woman Found Murdered at Torrensville, Chronicle (Adelaide), 11 December 1952, page 3.Murder Confession Alleged, Barrier Miner (Broken Hill), 4 May 1953, page 1.
The day after Zora Kusic's death, police officers visited Balaban's room in Gover Street and questioned him. Copies of newspapers containing reports of the murder were found on his bed. Balaban was shown a photograph of Kusic and initially denied he had known her. He was taken to the Detective Office where he repeated his denials. He was then allowed to return to his home, but two days later, after detectives had made further enquiries, Balaban was arrested. Faced with testimony by other witnesses, Balaban now admitted to meeting Kusic at a city hotel while he was drinking there with another Romanian man. After his companion departed, Balaban claimed he and Kusic left the hotel and travelled in a taxi to another hotel in Torrensville, but denied he had gone with Kusic to her room. Several days later, Balaban was arrested and charged for the crime; he was remanded in custody for a fortnight while the police obtained statements to support the case. Balaban's remand was later extended.SA murder case remand, News (Adelaide), 23 December 1952, page 1.
In early January 1953, a hearing of the case against Ioan Balaban on the charge of having murdered Zora Kusic was held over five days before the Police Magistrate L. E. Clarke. After all the evidence had been presented the Police Magistrate decided that, although the case had established "the utmost gravity of suspicion" against the defendant, it was insufficient to present a prima facie case of guilt on the murder charge; in the magistrate's opinion "no jury would be likely to convict on the evidence". At the conclusion of the hearing on 12 January 1953, the defendant was discharged. Balaban "wept as he left the dock".
On the day after his discharge by the court, Balaban was interviewed by reporters. The article subsequently published in the Adelaide News described Balaban as "a handsome 29-year-old" who was "pale and lined after his five-day court ordeal" and incorrectly stated he had been acquitted. Balaban told the reporters, "in his peculiar, quiet, broken English", that he felt "born again" and wanted "only to take long walks through the city streets, and study the people". He said "that when he earned enough money to buy a typewriter he would write a novel on the 'ups and downs' of his life".
A month later, after his apprehension for the murder of his wife and mother-in-law, Balaban confessed to the murder of Zora Kusic. He admitted to meeting her 5 December 1952 at the Royal Admiral Hotel in Hindley Street, before hiring a taxi and going with her to her room behind the Torrensville boarding-house. They had drunk beer together and Balaban claimed Kusic had asked for five pounds in exchange for sex. Stating that "he was very much against prostitutes", Balaban added: "it was the way she asked me that made me refuse her and subsequently kill her". He found a penknife in the room with which he killed and mutilated her, later washing his hands in a dish of water in which he left the knife. After committing the murder, Balaban went to the Southern Cross Hotel in King William Street.
The Sunshine Café murders
Balaban claimed "he went back to his wife" on 23 February 1953, adding that "she began to complain again". On April 11, he left again "and had some drink".5 Murders: Court Hears Story, Barrier Miner (Broken Hill), 24 July 1953, page 1. By his own account, Balaban then went on a drunken, violent rampage along the banks of the River Torrens. In a river-side toilet block he fought with a young woman. He found an iron bar near the University Footbridge and hit a man sleeping on the ground behind Adelaide Oval. Near the Victoria Bridge, Balaban encountered an Aboriginal man and "a white woman". He drank with the couple, but then hit the man with the iron bar. Near the Torrens tennis courts he was chased by another man, but Balaban hit him with the bar. In court Balaban later explained: "I don’t know why I hit him, but I disapproved of him, as I do of people lying on the banks of the Torrens and making love".