Jozef SLOVÁK

AKA "The Bratislava Strangler"

Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Rape - Robberies
Number of victims: 5
Date of murders: 1978 / 1990 - 1991
Date of arrest: July 18, 1991
Date of birth: April 7, 1951
Victims profile: Blažica P., 21 / Monika Ondíková, 18 / Vladislava Maříková, 18 / Diana Lopuchovská, 17 / Anna Královičová, 16
Method of murder: Strangulation - Shooting
Location: Slovakia / Czech Republic
Status: Sentenced to 15 years in prison for his first murder in 1982. Released on probation on March 10, 1990. Sentenced to life imprisonment on August 20, 1993

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Jozef Slovák (born 1951) is a Slovak serial killer who murdered at least 5 women in Slovakia and Czech Republic from 1978 to 1991. He is notable for being of above average intelligence, for example being the author and holder of several patents in electronics. He is a psychopath, currently serving a life sentence for 4 murders in Ilava prison, Slovakia.

Jozef 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 8 years in prison for the murder of a 21-year old Yugoslavian woman and after his release, he managed to murder at least 4 other young women in less than year and a half before being caught again. Jozef Slovák remains one of only two people convicted of serial killing 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 8 times during his life.

Murders

Jozef Slovák murdered probably 5 women, although some investigators believed there might be more victims. This is a list of victims that were proved by the Slovak courts.

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 on 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 2.400 U.S. Dollars, 800 German marks, over 16.000 Austrian schillings, a ring and her make-up. 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, however psychologists arranged by the court found him to be a psychopath. His personality shows traits of pathological aggressivness, short-temperedness and egocentrism. Psychologists have not found any kind of sexual deviancy in Slovák. He does not have a tendency towards alcohol consumption or consumption of other drugs either.