In the 1920s the Czechoslovak press turned Martin Lecián into a celebrity. Between May 1925 and April 1927 he committed at least 72 proven thefts in Moravia, according to Czech Radio's 2018 history of the case, and in the early months of 1927 he shot at the watchmen, gendarmes and police officers who tried to stop him. One gendarme, a sergeant named Stuchlý, died on March 8, 1927. Newspapers followed every step of the hunt, songs were written about him, and parts of the public came to see him as a Robin Hood or a Jánošík, the highwayman of Slovak legend. Czech Radio puts it bluntly: he was a common thief who robbed anyone and shot without a second thought.
He was arrested at Nový Bohumín on April 24, 1927. A military court at Olomouc sentenced him to death by hanging, and Novinky.cz reported in 2018 that he was convicted of 75 thefts and robberies and of three murders. In September, while he waited for the president's answer to his plea for clemency, he and a fellow prisoner tried to break out of the divisional prison at Olomouc, and a 22-year-old guard, Ferencz Kiss, was killed. The president refused clemency, and Lecián was hanged at Olomouc in October 1927.
Lecián was born in 1900 and came from Předměstí, a village beside the town of Uherský Ostroh in southeastern Moravia, then part of Austria-Hungary and from 1918 part of Czechoslovakia. The reporter Lenka Bobíková, writing in Právo in 2018, described him as slim and fair-haired, with blue eyes, and 163 centimeters tall.
He began stealing as a schoolboy. At 14 he was sent to a reformatory for theft, as Czech Radio and Novinky.cz both report. Blesk wrote in 2026 that he stayed in the reformatory until he was 18 and turned to crime as soon as he was let out. Novinky.cz says he was tried three times for theft. By the age of 27, Czech Radio reports, he had already spent four years behind bars for theft, desertion, fraud and violence.
He also ran from the army. Novinky.cz reports that he deserted from military service twice, and Czech Radio lists desertion among the offenses for which he had already served time.
Lecián was a burglar first and foremost. Blesk reports that, together with his lover, he became a well-known thief whose targets were mostly cash safes. Bobíková's 2022 article on the safebreakers of the First Republic, "Zlodějská elita" ("The thieves' elite"), describes how he worked. He broke open only the front wall of a safe, so that he would not have to breathe the dust from the fire-resistant filling between the walls. He had weak lungs, and later doctors found that he had tuberculosis.
Bobíková writes that Zdeněk Bubník, a detective in the Prague security service, also had to deal with Lecián as one of the safebreakers who gave the police the most trouble.
A colloquium of Czech, Moravian and Slovak bibliographers at the Moravian Library in Brno heard a paper on him in October 2017, "Martin Lecián, lupičská legenda Moravy" ("the robber legend of Moravia"), by Anna Vitásková. Its published abstract says that the press of the day largely romanticized him, and that his relationship with a woman who was his partner in crime made the two a Czech counterpart of Bonnie and Clyde.
By the autumn of 1926 Lecián was working the town of Přerov. Czech Radio says that in October 1926 a run of thefts there left the local gendarmes able to do little more than record each new break-in. He had help: the program reports that he relied on contacts in the criminal circles of Přerov and Olomouc, and that he met his accomplices in local pubs. A newcomer who wanted to sit at his table had to give the password "Jedna růže červená" ("One red rose"), and marks on the undersides of beer mats warned of danger. His known associates included a man named Szekely and, later, a friend from the reformatory. He openly threatened to shoot two Přerov police officers.
Novinky.cz reports that he was arrested in Přerov in 1926 and placed in a military hospital. There he was found to have tuberculosis. He escaped. Czech Radio says he got away from the military hospital in Olomouc wearing only pyjamas and still in shackles, and walked about 15 kilometers through the cold to Kostkovice. The next day he began a wave of thefts that took him through Kroměříž, Bučovice, Uherské Hradiště, Brno, Olomouc and other towns.
Lecián carried a gun and usually fired when he was confronted. Czech Radio says he was a poor shot who hit his targets mostly at close range. Novinky.cz reports that in robberies with his gang he shot and killed two people, and Blesk says his first two victims were guards he killed during robberies. The two men have never been named. Blesk also reports that when a gendarme recognized him on a train, Lecián shot him and jumped from the moving train. The authorities issued a wanted notice with a reward of 10,000 crowns, a very large sum for the time.
On March 8, 1927, near Uherský Ostroh, Lecián shot and killed a gendarme sergeant named Stuchlý. Czech Radio gives his first name as Antonín and places the shooting on the outskirts of Uherský Ostroh; Novinky.cz gives his first name as František and places it between Předměstí and Kvačice. Bobíková writes that after the shooting he went to a pub in Veselí nad Moravou and boasted about what he had done.
The killing of a gendarme changed the hunt. Blesk reports that the army joined the police and gendarmerie in a search that lasted about two months. Czech Radio says that shortly before his arrest he shot and wounded a police sergeant at Kunovice.
On April 24, 1927, two police agents arrested Lecián at Nový Bohumín; Czech Radio says the arrest took place in a pub. Novinky.cz reports that a second thief was arrested with him, and Czech Radio describes that man as a friend from the reformatory who had joined him in his later thefts. Czech Radio adds that his cell was fitted with barbed wire and its door reinforced with sheet metal, and that he was questioned for several days.
The investigation took months. Czech Radio describes the trial as lasting more than four months, unusually long for the time, with hundreds of witnesses heard and dozens of offenses examined.
Lecián was tried at Olomouc by a military court. Bobíková writes that he broke down during the trial. The papers of the day called him "a thief, a safe-driller, a robber and an occasional murderer," and in the end a penitent. She reports that he feared a firing squad and tried to pass himself off as insane.
The court sentenced him to death by hanging. In her 2018 article on the executioner, Bobíková gives the conviction as 75 thefts and robberies and three murders. Czech Radio gives 72 proven thefts for the period from May 1925 to April 1927. Lecián petitioned the president of the republic for clemency. Bobíková writes that his show of remorse was only an act.
While the clemency petition was pending, Lecián shared a cell in the divisional prison at Olomouc with another deserter. According to Novinky.cz, the two men bribed a prison guard with the promise of 50,000 crowns to bring them a file. Around midnight on September 24, 1927, with the guard's help, they tried to break out. The attempt turned into a gunfight that lasted about two hours. Czech Radio says about a hundred shots were fired before the two prisoners surrendered.
A young soldier on guard duty, Ferencz Kiss, was killed. He was 22. The bribed guard was wounded. Czech Radio calls Kiss Lecián's last victim. Whether Lecián was ever tried separately for the killing of Kiss is not known. The president refused his plea for clemency.
Lecián was hanged at Olomouc on October 6, 1927, according to Czech Radio, Bobíková's 2018 article and Blesk; Bobíková's 2022 article gives October 5.
The executioner was Leopold Wohlschläger, who had held the post since June 24, 1888. Lecián was his last execution; he retired at the end of 1928. Bobíková writes that he often spoke of Lecián afterward.
Lecián's fame grew while he was still at large. The newspapers followed him closely, and the bibliographers' colloquium of 2017 heard how much of that coverage romanticized him. Songs were written about him, and Blesk says he came to be seen as a kind of Robin Hood. Czech Radio's title for its 2018 program asks whether he was an Arsène Lupin, a Fantomas or a Jánošík, and says that he found his way into the prose of Bohumil Hrabal.
The record does not support the gentleman-robber image. Czech Radio stresses that he stole from anyone and fired at anyone who stood in his way, and Bobíková's caption calls him a vile murderer and robber. The men he is reported to have killed were two guards working during robberies, a gendarme sergeant and a 22-year-old soldier on guard duty in a military prison.
The number of killings. Novinky.cz (2018) gives a conviction for three murders, Blesk (2026) gives four killings in all, and Czech Radio does not give a total.
The gendarme's first name and the place. Czech Radio names him Antonín Stuchlý and puts the shooting on the edge of Uherský Ostroh; Novinky.cz names him František and puts it between Předměstí and Kvačice.
The first victim. Czech Radio calls Stuchlý his first known victim. Novinky.cz and Blesk both report two killings during robberies, and Blesk places them first.
The date of execution. Most reports give October 6, 1927; Novinky.cz (2022) gives October 5.
The length of the proceedings. Czech Radio describes the trial as lasting more than four months, with hundreds of witnesses; how much of that was investigation and how much was the hearing in court is unclear.
1900: Martin Lecián is born; he comes from Předměstí, near Uherský Ostroh, Moravia.
At 14: sent to a reformatory for theft.
Before 1927: tried three times for theft and deserts from military service twice (Novinky.cz).
May 1925: start of the run of thefts later proven against him (Czech Radio).
October 1926: a wave of thefts in Přerov.
1926: arrested in Přerov and placed in a military hospital, where he is found to have tuberculosis; escapes from the military hospital in Olomouc.
Early 1927: two guards are killed in robberies (Novinky.cz; Blesk); a gendarme is shot on a train; a 10,000-crown reward is posted.
March 8, 1927: the gendarme sergeant Stuchlý is shot and killed near Uherský Ostroh.
April 1927: a police sergeant is shot and wounded at Kunovice.
April 24, 1927: arrested at Nový Bohumín.
1927: tried by a military court at Olomouc; sentenced to death by hanging; petitions for clemency.
September 24 to 25, 1927: breakout attempt at the divisional prison in Olomouc; the guard Ferencz Kiss, 22, is killed.
October 6, 1927: hanged at Olomouc (October 5 in one report).
December 31, 1928: the executioner Leopold Wohlschläger retires.
October 2017: Anna Vitásková's paper on Lecián at the Moravian Library in Brno.
March 7, 2018: Czech Radio Dvojka's "Historie českého zločinu" program on the case.