Ioan Sârca, also written Sîrca and Sarca, was born in 1911 in the village of Valcău de Sus in Sălaj, in northwestern Romania. In the 1940s he was sentenced twice to "muncă silnică pe viață", life imprisonment at hard labor, for the killings of teenage boys and young men in Bucharest, Brașov and Oradea. Twenty killings in all are attributed to him: eleven in Bucharest and nine more in Brașov and Oradea in 1945. Both life sentences were later commuted, to 15 years and 25 years. He died in prison in 1991.
The courts, the years of the verdicts, the charges in their exact wording and the date and authority of the commutations are not on record.
Sârca was born on March 9, 1911, in Valcău de Sus, a village near Șimleu Silvaniei. He came from a peasant family and could neither read nor write, and no schooling is recorded. He lived in the village until he was 17, then moved to Bucharest and found work in a factory there.
He was called up in 1933 and finished his army service in 1934. That year he married, and the couple had one child. The marriage lasted about two years. His wife left after he was convicted of theft in 1935 and lost his job. A second theft conviction followed in 1936. His sentences for the two thefts are given as three months and six months.
Eleven killings in Bucharest are attributed to him, beginning in 1943. The victims were adolescent boys and young men. Their names and the circumstances of the individual killings are not on record.
He was arrested and held at Văcărești prison in Bucharest. The two sentences of muncă silnică pe viață are also given as covering these Bucharest killings; which killings each sentence covered is not on record. In 1945 he escaped from Văcărești.
After the escape he moved to Brașov, where two more teenagers were killed in 1945. In September 1945 he was in Oradea, where seven teenagers were killed. Together with Brașov this makes the nine killings of 1945 attributed to him.
The victims in these cities were boys and young men aged 15 to 17 (one also given as 18).
Sârca was arrested in Zalău, in Sălaj, and taken to Oradea. By the end of the investigation the number of killings attributed to him had reached 20, and he admitted most of them.
In July 1948 a psychiatric expert in Oradea found him free of mental illness. A later second expert report described him as fully aware of his actions.
At the age of 37 Sârca had two sentences of muncă silnică pe viață. The file of the Oradea case is held in the Bihor Tribunal archive. The court that tried each case, the year of each trial and the exact charges are not on record, and neither is any release between the two convictions.
Both life sentences were later commuted, to 15 years and to 25 years. The date and the authority that reduced them are not on record. In the spring of 1968, at the age of 57, he asked for the third time for his sentences to be merged into one. No court granted it.
Sârca died in prison in 1991, at about 80 years of age (also given as 81). The date and the place of his death are not on record.
The number of victims varies. Eleven killings in Bucharest are attributed to him. The 1945 killings are counted as nine in Brașov and Oradea (two in Brașov, seven in Oradea), which brings the attributed total to 20. The total is also given as 13 (the 11 in Bucharest and the two in Brașov) and, as a belief rather than a count, as more than 30. Two further cases were not admitted by him. None of these other figures was established in court.
It is not on record which killings were the subject of each of his two convictions, so the 20 killings are attributed, while the two sentences are the only convictions that are documented.
March 9, 1911: Born in Valcău de Sus, Sălaj.
1933 to 1934: Army service; marries in 1934.
1935 and 1936: Convicted of theft.
1943: Eleven killings in Bucharest attributed to him begin.
1945: Escapes from Văcărești prison; two killings in Brașov and seven in Oradea attributed to him; arrested in Zalău.
July 1948: A psychiatric expert in Oradea finds him free of mental illness.
Two sentences of muncă silnică pe viață: courts and years not on record.
Spring 1968: A third request to merge his sentences is refused.
1991: Dies in prison.