Vasile Tcaciuc was a thief in the Romanian city of Iași in the early 1930s who, in 1935, confessed to a series of killings carried out for robbery. Romanian newspapers of the period called him "Măcelarul din Iași", the Butcher of Iași, and the name has stayed with him in later Romanian reporting. He did not live to stand trial. During a police reconstruction of one of the killings he tried to run, and a policeman shot him dead.
The case is known today mainly through Romanian newspaper features published long afterward, in Adevărul from 2012 onward, on the Observator news site in 2014 and in the history magazine Evenimentul Istoric in 2020. Those accounts agree on the outline: six people found dead in Iași in 1935, a suspect already held for robbery, a confession that went far beyond the six, and a death before any court could rule. They differ on the total and give few names, dates or places. No court ever found him guilty of any killing, so each death in the series is either one he confessed to or one investigators attributed to him.
Tcaciuc came from Bessarabia, according to Adevărul, Observator and Evenimentul Istoric. Adevărul's 2015 account calls him a butcher of Bessarabian origin; Evenimentul Istoric presents the word butcher as a nickname given by the press rather than as his trade. He was 35 when he died, according to Evenimentul Istoric. His date and place of birth, his family and his early years have not been reported.
By the 1930s he lived in Iași. Observator says he owned a building in the city, and Adevărul and Evenimentul Istoric refer to a house there that he later sold. Adevărul's 2013 account describes him as a career criminal who carried out a number of robberies and holdups in the city during the decade, and Evenimentul Istoric describes him as a thief and robber whom the police had been after for years.
Two women who had lived with him at different times played a part in the case. Their names were not reported, and little was reported about them beyond their role at the confrontation that broke his denials. Nothing in the coverage suggests that either was charged.
In 1935 Tcaciuc sold his house in Iași, a sale that Evenimentul Istoric describes as the mistake that undid him. That year the bodies of six people were found in Iași, and the deaths were traced to the former owner. The victims' names and ages were not reported, nor the date on which they were found, beyond the year.
Adevărul reported that the six had been killed.
When the six were found, Tcaciuc was already in the hands of the Iași police. He had been arrested for robbery and theft, not for any killing, according to Adevărul, Observator and Evenimentul Istoric. Evenimentul Istoric describes the robberies that had put him in a cell as minor ones. When he was arrested, and what sentence, if any, the robbery charges carried, was not reported.
The discovery therefore did not come from a murder inquiry aimed at him. The police were holding a man for property crimes when a new line of inquiry led back to him.
At first he denied any part in the deaths. He gave way, according to all three outlets, when investigators brought him face to face with two of his former concubines. Evenimentul Istoric puts it in a single line: love was his downfall.
Once he began to talk, he confessed to the six deaths in Iași. He then went further. Adevărul and Evenimentul Istoric report that he confessed to about 20 more killings, one of them of a child. Observator gives a total of at least 26 people killed over five years, a child among them. Robbery, according to Adevărul and Observator, was the motive throughout.
The figures differ from one account to the next, and none of them rests on a court finding.
Adevărul, 2015: the interwar press reported that he killed at least 21 people, and he is presumed to have killed more people from Iași whose bodies were not found. Investigators could prove 21 of the killings.
Adevărul, 2013: six found in 1935, about twenty more confessed, a total of about 26, with the exact number unknown; 21 of the killings could be proven, because the other bodies were not found.
Adevărul, 2012 (a list of ten Romanian cases): he confessed to the six and to 26 more over five years, all for robbery.
Observator, 2014: at least 26 people in five years, among them a child.
Evenimentul Istoric, 2020: at least 26 killings between 1930 and 1935, of which 21 could be proven; the closing line of the same article speaks of several dozen.
The difference between 21 and the higher totals is put down in Adevărul and Evenimentul Istoric to bodies that were not recovered. None of the reports names any of the other victims or says where or when they died, apart from the period from 1930 to 1935 given by Evenimentul Istoric.
During the reconstruction of one of the killings, Tcaciuc tried to escape and a policeman shot him with a revolver, according to Adevărul and Evenimentul Istoric; Adevărul's 2012 account says he was killed while trying to flee. The policeman's name and the date and place of the shooting were not reported.
Evenimentul Istoric sums up the result in its title and closing line: the man who had confessed to the killings escaped conviction. With his death the case ended. No trial was held, no court heard evidence on any of the deaths, and the totals that have come down rest on his confession and on what investigators said they could prove.
Tcaciuc appears regularly in Romanian lists of the country's worst criminal cases. Adevărul included him in a 2012 list of the ten best-known Romanian criminal cases, which it said drew on a book by Traian Tandin and on the website descoperă.ro, and Observator placed him second in a 2014 list of Romanian cases. Adevărul's 2013 feature described him as the Romanian with the most killings in the country's history, a claim that rests on the confessed totals rather than on any judgment.
The coverage keeps returning to the same elements: a thief already in a cell, six people found dead in Iași, a denial broken by two former companions, a confession running to about 26, and a fatal shot during a reconstruction. The victims remain unnamed in all of it.
The total. Totals range from at least 21 (Adevărul, 2015) to about 26 (Adevărul, 2013; Observator; Evenimentul Istoric), with one list giving six plus 26 more and Evenimentul Istoric's last line speaking of several dozen. Only the figure of 21 is described as proven, and that proof was not tested in court.
His trade. Adevărul's 2015 account calls him a butcher of Bessarabian origin. Evenimentul Istoric treats the word as a press nickname and describes him as a thief and robber.
The date of his death. The reports give no exact date for the reconstruction or the shooting.
His age and origin. Evenimentul Istoric gives his age at death as 35. The reports name Bessarabia as his region of origin and give no town.
A 1940s version. One Romanian entertainment site published in 2024 an account placing his birth in the 1920s, his crimes in the 1940s and his execution in 1948. It cites no sources and conflicts with every other report, all of which place the case in 1935.
1930 to 1935: the period of the killings he confessed to, as given by Evenimentul Istoric.
Early 1930s: lives in Iași; the police pursue him for years as a thief and robber.
1935: sells his house in Iași.
1935: held by the Iași police on robbery and theft charges.
1935: six people are found dead in Iași, and the deaths are traced to him.
1935: denies the killings, then confesses after being confronted with two former concubines; confesses to about 20 further killings, one of a child.
After the confession: investigators hold 21 killings proven.
During a reconstruction of one of the killings: tries to escape and is shot dead by a policeman, at 35, before any trial.
November 1, 2012: Adevărul includes him in a list of the ten best-known Romanian criminal cases.
May 17, 2013: Adevărul publishes a feature on the case.
June 23, 2014: Observator places him second in a list of Romanian cases.
December 16, 2015: Adevărul publishes a second feature on the case.
December 19, 2020: Evenimentul Istoric publishes an account of how he escaped conviction.