Conviction(s) murder Date apprehended 1991 Role Serial Killer | Name Jozef Slovak Victims 5 | |
Other names The Genius murdererThe Bratislava strangler Span of killings August 22, 1978–July 16, 1991 Country Slovakia, Czech Republic | ||
Jozef Slovák (born 1951) is a Slovak serial killer who murdered at least five women in Slovakia and Czech Republic from 1978 to 1991. He is currently serving a life sentence for four murders in Ilava prison, Slovakia.
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Slovák remains one of the most significant participants in the controversial wide-ranging amnesty of the newly elected President of Czechoslovakia Václav Havel. Because of this amnesty, Slovák served only eight years in prison for the murder of a 21-year-old Yugoslavian woman, and after his release murdered at least four other young women in less than year and a half before being caught again. Jozef Slovák remains one of only two people convicted of a series of murders without any ties to organized crime in the modern history of Slovakia (the other being Ondrej Rigo).
Early life
Little is known about Slovák's early life. He was born in Plavecký Štvrtok, Slovakia on April 7, 1951. Altogether, he was sentenced to prison eight times during his life.
Murders
Jozef Slovák was convicted of the murder of five women, listed below.
Jozef Slovák met his first victim, Yugoslavian woman Blažica P. on a train. On August 22, 1978, they went into the woods in Bratislava, Železná studnička (today part of Bratislava Forest Park) and Slovák tried to have sex with her. As she refused and tried to fight back, he choked her to death. After the murder, he dragged her body deeper into the forest and covered it with branches. After burning some of Blažica P.'s clothing right there in the forest, he gave some of the things she had on her body to his girlfriend.
In 1982, Slovák was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his first murder. He started to serve his sentence in Leopoldov Prison but was released on probation March 10, 1990 because of a wide-ranging amnesty by president of Czechoslovakia Václav Havel. Almost two-thirds of Czechoslovak criminals at that time were released from prison practically at the same time. Many murderers, career criminals and dangerous people were released from prisons on probation or parole. Without the amnesty, Slovák would have been released in 1997. From 1990 to 1991 Slovák murdered at least 4 women, committing his second murder just four months after being released from prison.
He met his second victim, Monika Ondíková (16 or 18) from Moldava nad Bodvou, Slovakia, in Prague. On July 4, 1990 they left the capital together for Konopiště, near Benešov, about 50 km (30 mi) southeast of Prague. In the manor park, Jozef Slovák shot her 8 times from his gas gun, using neuroparalytic gas. Then, he hit her in the head several times with a stick, killing her. He searched the body, finding and stealing US$2,400, 800 German marks, over 16,000 Austrian schillings, a ring and her makeup. Again, he dragged the body deeper into the nearby forest and covered it with branches. Slovák returned to her body a week later to put a railway ticket to České Budějovice into her pocket, trying to confuse the police.
Two days after his last murder, Slovák was arrested in Bratislava. Bruises were found on his body caused by Anna Královičová's defence. The police also found an illegally held firearm.
On August 20, 1993 he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the City Court of Bratislava for the murders of Monika Ondíková, Vladislava Maříková, Diana Lopuchovská and Anna Královičová.
In 1997, Slovák complained to Ilava city representatives that he was unable to make any new inventions, mainly because of lack of tools and lack of a typewriter.
Personality and psychopathological profile
Jozef Slovák is of above average intelligence, being the author and holder of several patents in electronics. Psychologists arranged by the court found him to be a narcissistic psychopath.