Miloslav Sláma
old women murderer – life imprisonment
Born in 1971, Žlutice, near Karlovy Vary
The attacks against the lifes of old and handicapped people or children is still considered to be the most damnable crime. On November 23rd, 2005, Miloslav Sláma (34) was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering three old women at the age of 82, 82 and 91. He has four more homicidal attempts. What is more, he committed twenty-seven acts of robbery, seven acts of theft, two acts of fraud and forty-one acts of breaking house privacy. He committed eighty-four acts of crime altogether...
He commits his very first robbery with violence in Plzeň in October 2001. Sláma relieves an old man of his savings worth 25,000 CZK. He even hurts the man. He relieves four more people of their money in Plzeň and Klatovy too.
One year later, he starts attacking women in Prague. A sixty-seven-year old woman is the youngest of the thirty-four attacked women, a ninety-four-year old woman is the oldest one. "Modus operandi" - the method of operating - is still the same. He finds his victim in the street and spies on her to her flat. After a while, he rings the door-bell and asks the woman for a pen and a piece of paper saying he has to let his friend, who lives in the same house, know he was looking for her. He has sometimes a bunch of flowers on him. He behaves in a very polite way at the very beginning. Having been let in, he makes sure that nobody else is in the flat and attacks his victim then.
The experts evidence prove Sláma to be rather brutal in attacking the women. The choking, kicking and beating traces are found on the bodies of his victims. One of the women is found having her ribs broken. When choking his victims, Sláma uses the scarves the women have on. Some of his victims have their mouths sealed up with an adhesive band or their mouths gagged.
Sláma at one of his victim's door
Sláma commits his very first murderous attack in Prague 2, Bělehradská Street on March 11th, 2002. Marie Malá's (82) neighbours notice there are several issues of newpapers in front of the door of her flat. The old lady does not answer the door-bell either. Police are called in. The old lady is found in her living room. She is corded up to a chair with a scarf. Her mouth is sealed up with an adhesive band. She is alive but heavily dehydrated. There is a shopping bag in the hall. Sláma has stolen 11,000 CZK from the flat. Marie Malá dies on dysbolism, pulmonary insufficiency and kidney failure in hospital two weeks later. The medical experts even find two ribs and a shoulder-blade broken on her body. Marie Malá manages to tell all the particulars of the attack, but she cannot describe the attacker properly.
Miloslav Sláma commits his second murder in Prague 4, Marold Street on January 20th, 2003. Růžena Bernášková (91), an old lady suffering from glaucoma, comes home from the savings-banks. Sláma spies on her on her way home. Having been standing at her flat, Sláma rings the door-bell after a few minutes. He asks for a pen and a piece of paper pretending he wants to leave a message for his friend. He murders to steal 950 CZK only... The autopsy proves strangulation to be the immediate cause of death. The murderer chokes the victim to death and covers her mouth with his hand and thus he breaks her tongue-bone and causes several haemateceles round her nose, mouth and neck. The star-blind old lady heads of the attack resourcefully and cries for help. The neighbours can hear her crying for help, but when they knock at her door and ring the door-bell, Růžena Bernášková is being murdered...
The very last victim of Miloslav Sláma's
Jana Hovorková (82), living in Prague 4, Svatoslavova Street, becomes the third victim of Sláma's. Her son, having returned from abroad, finds his mother lying dead on the floor in the bedroom. It is August 30th, 2002. The dead body is covered with a feather-bed and her mouth is gagged with a cashmere scarf. A shopping bag is on the table. She is choked to death. The medical examiners find out that her breastbone, some vertebra and ribs have been broken. She is proved to die suffering from agonizing pain.
The next four old ladies are attacked in the same way. They are lucky enough to survive Sláma's murderous attack. The prosecutor qualifies that as homicidal attemps. The 27 attacks are qualified as robbery. He uses physical cruelty very often. Once he uses a cudgel to stun his victim.
Miloslav Sláma has been punished for criminal non-support and pelucation so far. He steals the proceeds of postacards sale and keeps the money for his own use. In the 90s, Sláma starts a firm called "Humanis" and starts selling furry teddy bears pretending a sort of beneficence. He earns some tens of thousands CZK, but the handicapped get no money in the end. Sláma served his time of a doper apprenticeship, he used to work as a driver or a controller.
Sláma being in court
The psychological and psychiatric reports say Sláma did not suffer from any mental disorder or disease when committing his crimes. His IQ is of an average level (95). The experts claim that Sláma is a self-centred person. The less his planned crime is fulfilled, the more aggresive he becomes. To gain confidence of old people, he always pretends to be an altruist having the purest intentions (altruism = altruistic fellow feeling). The experts find Sláma to suffer from histrionic mental disorder. His reintegration in the society is not expected to be successfull.
When in court, Sláma tries to make light of both his crimes and the way he attacked his victims. Although the forensic surgeons find the vestiges of choking and hacking, including broken ribs, Sláma dennies anything like that. He says "he only covered their mouths with his hand"... Sláma's solicitor impeaches the expert evidence in his closing statement. By the way, the closing statement takes three hours. The solicitor speaks of the victims as people suffering from senility or a people having a very poor memory. Apart from the expert evidence, Sláma is convinced by his finger-prints from the scenes of his crimes and his DNA profile.
The homeline murderer, who did not hesitate to attack an old woman with a cudgel, cries and shadders both during the police investigations and in court. But he is not sorry for the victims. He is sorry for himself only. When in court, Sláma promises to become a blood and bone-marrow donor. As a robber and a murderer, Miloslav Sláma "earns" 321,300 CZK. It means 14,000 CZK a month on average...
The Prague Municipal Court sentences Miloslav Sláma to life imprisonment on October 6th, 2004. The two acts of murder are included (the attack on Marie Malá is changed into the murder of the second degree). The Supreme Court affirms the Prague Municipal Court judgement in March 2005.
© Miloslav Jedlička, D. C. L.Translated by inspector WO Pavel Vršovský, M. A.