Unlike any other case in Czechoslovakia’s criminal history, the mass murder committed by Olga Hepnarová still gained a lot of interest from journalists as years went by.
The young girl had complicated relationships with her parents, all parents, and the society at large.
Ultimately she became overwhelmed with her hatred toward the entire world and ended up attacking 20 people; three of whom were killed on the scene, and five others died from their injuries in hospital.
The case was exceptional not because it was particularly challenging to solve but due to the questions around her mental state leading to the attack.
Four different groups of experts were assigned to the case: investigators, doctors, justice employees, and even political functionaries.
What Hepnarová did in that unfortunate afternoon of July 10, 1973, was not a carefully orchestrated attack.
However, she later admitted to having planned it for quite some time before she finally did it. History remembers her as both a troubled young girl and the last woman to be executed in Czechoslovakia.
10 /10 Background
There have not been many records about Olga Hepnarová as a child. She was born on June 30, 1951, to a middle-class family in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
Her mother was a dentist, and her father a bank clerk. While she did not struggle at school, later on, she had difficulties socializing with others. As Hepnarová grew up, she declared that the world was her enemy.
She attempted suicide once at the age of 13, probably triggered by conflicts she had with the form teacher, which escalated to dispute with an entire class. The case was closed as accidental use of Meprobamate.
9 /10 Burnt Farm
When Hepnarová was 19-years-old, she attempted to burn her family’s estate in the village of Zábrodí.
She set fire to the door in the living area when her sister and two tenants – a married couple over the age of 75 – were asleep. They woke up and managed to put out the fire.
No one suspected Hepnarová at that time. During a psychiatric examination in 1973, however, she confessed to the arson. She claimed to have set it on fire because the property had caused a financial dispute between her father and mother.