Jozef Slovák
a fivefold murderer
born on April 7th, 1951 - life imprisonment
Jozef Slovák murdered four young women in Bohemia and Slovakia in 1990 - 1991. He was suspected of committing some more acts of murder but they were not proved during the police investigations. He had been sentenced to fifteen years in Leopoldov prison in 1982. In 1990, Slovák was placed on probation due to the then Prezident's Act of Oblivion. Having committed four acts of murder, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Municipal Court in Bratislava on August 1993.
Jozef Slovák was imprisoned eight times. Although being an above-average intelligent man, the authorized experts found him to be a psychopatical person. Aggressivness, short-temperedness and egocentrism prevail. Although having attacked young women only, he was not proved to suffer from any deviation. He did not have a special liking for alcohol and drugs either. Slovák's motives became interesting from the criminalistics point of view. Apart from sex-motivated murders, there is a finantial motive, a kind of revenge and his attempt to get rid of a witness.
Slovák commits his very first murder in the forest crop in Bratislava - Železná Studienka on August 22nd, 1978. Blažica P. (21), Yugoslavia, becomes his very first victim. He meets her in the train. He elicits her to the wood and tries to have sex with her. As she starts screaming and fighting back, he chokes her to death. Then he drags the dead body deep to the forest and covers it with some branches. He burns some pieces of her cloths right at the scene of crime, her properties are given to his girlfriend. He is released from prison on March 10th, 1990.
He murders again almost four months later, on July 4th, 1990. A sixteen-year-old girl, Monika Ondíková coming from Moldava na Bodvou (Slovakia), becomes his second victim. He meets her in Prague and they leave for Konopiště, near Benešov. He elicits her to the manor park there and shoots eight counter-shots at her from his air syringe. Then he hits her head with a stock several times and she dies. He steals $ 2,400, 800 Marks, more than 16,000 Austrian Shillings, a ring and her makeup she has on her. He drags the dead body deep in the wood and covers it with branches. He returns there seven days later and put a railway ticket to České Budějovice into her pocket. He tries to puzzle the policemen that way.
Jozef Slovák murders a woman in Bratislava seventeen days later. An eighteen-year-old Vladislava Maříková coming from Cheb, who he meets in the train on his way from Plzeň to Bratislava. The young woman is heading for a town near Bratislava to see her boyfriend. In Bratislava, Slovák elicits her to the local television transmitter Kamzík and hitting her head with his elbow, he kills her there. He drags the dead body to the wood and covers it with some branches. On year later, he himself confesses to that crime, takes the policemen to that place and Vladislava Maříková's remains are found there.
On October 15th, 1990, Jozef Slovák is put in prison to spend eight months there for unlawful arming. He is released from prison on June 14th, 1991. He murders for the third time twelve days later. A seventeen-year-old Diana Opúchová from Bratislava becomes his third victim. His co-prisoner, her boyfriend, gives him her address. Pretending to be a member of the then Reformation Training Corps of a captain grade, he promises her an opportunity for visiting her imprisoned boyfriend if she pays 250 Kčs. But he takes her to the wood in Bratislava, Záhorská Bystrica, and hitting her neck, he kills her. He covers the dead body with branches as usual.
He commits his last murder, which was proved to him, on July 16th, 1991 - one month and two days after being released from prison where he spent eight months for unlawfull arming. An eighteen-year-old Anna Královičová from Bratislava becomes the target of his murderous attack. He meets her at her mother's flat. Showing them faked documents, he introduces himself to them under an assumed name. He offers some jewellery to the mother of murdered Anna Kralovičová which he has stolen before. He meets Anna Kralovičová by chance in Železná Studánka one day. He attacks and hits her with a stock and then, using his belt, he chokes her to death. He hides the dead body in the high-grown grass and covers it with branches. It happens at the place where he commits his very first act of murder in 1978. By the way, he wanted to have sex with her mother a few hours before... Jozef Slovák is arrested in Bratislava two days later. There are found some scratches on his body done by Anna Kralovičová when she fighting back. An unlawfully owned gun is found on him. He confesses murdering Anna Kralovičová and takes the policemen to the scene of crime. There are found some signs on the dead body indicating "somebody has done something" to her genitalia.
Jozef Slovák makes a good use of his above-average intelligence and his plentiful criminal experience both during the police investigations and at the trial to his selfdefence. He confesses to some crimes he could not commit and blames on his former co-prisoners of participating in those murders. He intends to make the investigations more difficult. Despite of that fact, the policemen manage to prove Jozef Slovák guitly of murdering four women and committing some more crimes.
Ilava prison
"Modus operandi" (the course of action typical of a particular offender) becomes the essential feature during the police investigations. Young women aged 21 - 18 - 18 - 18 are his victims. He elicits the women to the remote places in the woods. All the dead bodies are covered with branches, stones, grass or leaves. All the dead bodies are barefooted. He returns at the scenes of crime trying to blind any possible trails. He gains confidence by pretending to be a Criminal Investigation Police high commissioner or a Counterintelligence Police commissioner on a secret and dangerous mission or a member of Reformative Training Corps. To look like more trustworthy, he makes five different service cards proving him to be a member of the Vigilance Committee or Antiterroristic Squad. He also has the Prague Regional Public Prosecutor's Office service card with his photograph... Jozef Slovák is sentenced to life imprisonment by the Municipal Court in Bratislava on August 20th, 1993. The same number of murdered women resulted in death sentence for Ladislav Hojer.
© Miloslav Jedlička, D. C. L.Translated by inspector WO Pavel Vršovský, M. A.