Marie Fikackova was a maternity nurse at the hospital in Susice, in what was then Czechoslovakia, who killed newborn babies in her care. She was convicted of two deaths and suspected of about ten.
She was born on September 9, 1936 and grew up in a difficult household. On February 23, 1960 two newborn girls in her charge died within hours of each other; both had head injuries. She was arrested four days later. She admitted striking the babies, and said she acted under an irresistible compulsion that came over her at certain times.
Hospital records were re-examined and a much larger number of unexplained infant deaths during her shifts was noted, accounts give around ten, but only the two were charged. She was sentenced to death on October 6, 1960 and hanged at Pankrac prison in Prague on April 13, 1961, aged twenty-four.