Ondrej Rigo
The ninefold murderer
Born in 1955 (Slovakia) - doing time in Ilava prison nowadays
There are nine acts of murder and one homicidal attempt in Munich and Amsterdam from June 7th, 1990 to March 4th, 1992. The same happens in Bratislava. Women become the victims. Except one. The oldest one si 88, the youngest one is 22. A sixteen-year-old young man, a female victim's son, is murdered together with his mother. The German and Nertherlandish Police cooperation results in convicting Ondrej Rigo (Slovakian) of those acts of murder. He murders two times in Munich, one time in Amsterdam and six times in Bratislava. DNA analysis belongs to the convicting evidence, but Rigo never confesses to those crimes.
Before committing the forthcoming series of murders, Ondrej Rigo has been tried eleven times. On September 28th, 1989, Rigo is taken into custody for committing the then-crime "the Republic Elopement". Despite having an invalid passport, short after being released from custody, he leaves for Austria. He gets a false Yugoslav passport in Vienna and leaves for Germany intending to become an asylum seeker there. But he is sentenced to two months in prison for forgery of documents in Germany. Having been released, Rigo leaves for Munich where he murders two people in two months.
A forty-year-old woman becomes his first victim. He strikes her to death while she was sleeping in her flat. He uses a 2,5 kgs heavy iron rod as a murderous weapon which he has brought with him. He has sex with the dead body then. He steals nothing from the flat. He throuws the murderous weapon underneath the flat window. He commits his second murder again in Munich, at night, August 1st, 1990. A twenty-eight-year old woman becomes his victin. She is stroken with an iron rod too. He even stabs a screw driver to her neck. He has both vaginal and anal intercourse with the dead body then. He covers the dead body and seeks through the flat after that. He steals a golden necklace and a sum of Deutschmark. The murderous weapon is left in the flat. A men's sock is found at the scene of crime. The German Police assume the offender used it instead of a glove not to leave his fingerprints there. That idea proves to be right and becomes an important clue in the investigation.
Having committed two acts of murder in Germany, Rigo leaves for Amsterdam. His sister Helena lives there. On Thursday, September 27th, 1990, during the night, he breaks into a fifty-six-year old woman's flat and strikes her to death using a cobblestone weighing more than 5.5 kgs. He strips off the dead body and has sex with it. He steals a camera, a watch, two money-boxes and some other properties. Rigo leaves for Bratislava the following day. Ondrej Rigo starts his terrible murder series there, in the retirements homes, on October 6th, 1990 night. He murders a eighty-eight-year old sleeping woman. On January 3rd, 1991, early in the morning, a forty-year old woman and her sixteen-year old son are found dead in the local lodging-house corridor. Three weeks later, he murders a seventy-nine-year old woman in the same street. An only twenty-two-year old woman dies after Rigo's night attack on July 14th. He commits his very last murder in early March 1992. A sixty-seven-year old woman becomes his very last victim.
A thirty-one-year old woman survives Rigo's murderous attack on January 9th, 1991 - six days later after his murdering a forty-year old mother and her sixteen-year old son. He hits her head twice with a hoe arm, while she is sleeping. The hoe arm breaks into two pieces after the second dunt. But the woman gets over very quickly and beats back the attack using the second piece of that broken hoe arm. During the fight, she badly creases the offender's privates. The offender leaves the place immediately after that.
The detectives of the three countries hunt for the murderer. Independently from each other. Ondrej Rigo is arrested by Slovakian Criminal Police on March 4th, 1992 - only a few hours after committing his last murder. The detectives of the three countries start their cooperation. The interesting thing is the fact that Rigo, when being arrested, does not have his socks on. He used to put his socks on his hands not to leave his fingerprints at the scene of crime...
Ilava, the prison for the most dangerous criminals, yard
"Modus operandi" - the way of behaviour typical of a particular wrong-doer, becomes the clue to those murders and the judical evidence too. Rigo always chooses ground-floor flats or the flats where he can break into from a built-on gallery. He breaks into the flats at night or very early in the morning through windows. He always attacks lonely sleeping women. He always uses an iron rod, a wooden stick, a hoe arm or a cobblestone. He leaves his murderous weapons at the scene of crime. He strikes the victim's head first. He uses his own socks instead of gloves. He has sex with his the dead bodies and covers their heads with a pillow. He steals properties from the flats. He smokes at the scene of crime and throws the cigarette-ends on the floor. DNA analysis method is used as a judical evidence too. Modus operandi becomes an important judical evidence in the Jack Unterweger and Jozef Slovák case (Slovakia).
The experts, called in to express their opinion of the state of mind of the ninefold murderer Ondrej Rigo, come to the conclusion that Rigo is a person with a psychopatic character having a very low I. Q. Neither sexual deviation nor sadosexual tendency is proved. His psychopathological character makes him have sex with his murdered victims. Being a stranger in a foreign country, the lack of hospitality, a language barrier, property and sexual frustration could have influenced his behaviour. The Municipal Court in Bratislava sentence Ondrej Rigo to life imprisonment on December 9th, 1994. Ondrej Rigo is doing time in Ilava prison.
© Miloslav Jedlička, D. C. L.Translated by inspector WO Pavel Vršovský, B. A.