Jaroslav Papež

Born on April 15th, 1942 - executed on June 8th, 1967, Prague

On June 5th, 1966, in "Metro Cinema" booth, Prague, Jaroslav Papež sexually abuses and strangles with a string an eleven-year old boy, Josef Neumann. What is more, medical examiners find 36 punctured wounds, fetched by scissors, on the Josef Neumann's body. It happens during the picture called "Commissaire Maigret" is being presented. There are more than one hundred people in the auditorium.

The sexual-motivated murder of the boy shocks the then Czechoslovakian public. An 860-sign petition demanding the death sentence for Jaroslav Papež is delivered to the court during the trial...

When attending the basic school, Jaroslav Papež completes seven classes only. He is a very poor student. According to his last school report, he fails in four subjects. After leaving the basic school, Papež becomes a basket-maket. His form teacher sees Jaroslav Papež to be a rather shy young man. Although he has no real frinds, he treats his classmates as friends. When Papež murders the young boy, he is a twenty-four year old operator in "Metro Cinema".

Josef Neumann - the victim of Jaroslav Papež

On Sunday afternoon, June 5th, 1966, Papež entices the boy into the booth under the pretence of seeing an adult-only picture. During the picture, Papež strips the boy off and starts pawing him. Then he takes the scissors and cuts the boy's hair. Papež finds the cutting of the boy's hair incendiary. It results in his repeated spermatism. But suddenly, Papež becomes affraid of being revealed so he starts to stab at the boy's head, neck, body and genitalia with the scissors. The boy fights back. Papež has to stop for several minutes because one of the spools is over which has made people in the auditorium angry. When Papež changing the spool, the seriously injured boy is trying to escape from the booth. Having changed the spool, Papež takes a rope and chokes the boy to death. He hides the dead body in the shaft situated under the projection booth.

Projection booth where the boy was murdered

Late in the afternoom, Josef Neumann's mother starts looking for her son. She is looking for him even in the arcade where "Metro Cinema" is. At the same time her son is being sexually abused there. She is said to be trying to enter the booth, but the door is locked... She announces at the Police station that she has been missing her son. A wide search is taken. Despite that fact the boy is not found. Papež keeps on attending the cinema and projecting the pictures as if nothing has happened. On Thursday, June 9th, 1966, Papež does not come. The standby-projector cannot stand the smell in the booth and calls the Police in. The dead body is found lying underneath old stuff and posters in the shaft situated under the projection booth.

One day later, on June 10th, 1966, early in the morning, after the house search, Papež is taken into custody. He ties to hide in a shelter made of a pile of boards in the backyard of the house where he lives together with his mother. He pleads guilty spontaneously. The sexual abuse of Josef Neumann was not the first one Papež had committed in that booth.

In September 1962, Papež paws a ten-year old boy. In November 1963, he strips off and paws a twelve-year old boy. He even stings that boy's arm with a needle. Ten days later, he strips off and tries to choke to death a ten-year old boy. In 1964, Papež is sentenced to one year in prison with a suspension of the sentence to three years. As it is found that Papež was always under the influence of alcohol, the treatment in addicts rehabilitation centre is enacted. Papež cooperates with the doctors during his treatment. He even behaves properly and that is why the kind of his treatment is changed into the non-resident one.

Police photograph of Jaroslav Papež

In August 1965, less than a year after the suspended sentence and unfinished treatment, drunken Papež sexually abuses some other children. The attorney refuses taking Papež into custody and only enacts examining Papež's state of mind and sanity in the mental home in Praze - Bohnice. Papež is released from the mental home in March 1966 and on April 14th, 1966, Papež is sentenced to eight months in prison (the previous one-year sentence is added). It means that Papež shall spend twenty months in prison. The particular date when he is about to start serving his sentence is set from June 6th to June 11th, 1966. But on June 5th, 1966, Papež commits the worst crime in his life. And it is also the last crime in his life. Having committed such a terrible crime, Jaroslav Papež is sentenced to death.

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