To build up her convent, she sent monks throughout the country to recruit lonely women. For salvation, she told them, they merely had to sign all their property over to her. Through this, she personally gained possession of 300 separate houses and farms, plus vast quantities of gold and jewels. When these women followed up their donations by actually joining the convent, this proved inconvenient, because the place only had so much room. So she eliminated them by denying them food till they starved to death. Some people came to the convent without first signing over their property. Mother Mariam tortured them until they changed their minds, according to one accuser who survived long enough to testify.
Authorities first investigated her in 1950 over an old report that a girl had died in her custody. This girl, it turned out, had not actually died. Mariam was merely holding her captive for 12 years. The police then freed dozens of children from the monastery and looked into the people who’d died there after relinquishing all their wealth.
If we tally up the people who died this way, her body count hovers at around 27 (though she was not convicted of them all and died awaiting further trials). If we count everyone who died at her monastery, however, the number rises a lot higher. Over a hundred people there died of tuberculosis. They came to receive treatment, but the abbess banned all doctors from providing any, only allowing doctors entry to sign the death certificates. We’d discovered antibiotics by this time; all of these people could have easily lived.
In Mother Mariam’s defense, she was cleared of certain other crimes. Police charged her with illegally exporting olive oil and illegally importing tires. She was acquitted on both counts, so she wasn’t all bad.