Zdzisław Marchwicki (18 October 1927 – 26 April 1977), known as The Zagłębie Vampire (), was an alleged Polish serial killer who, together with several accomplices, was convicted of killing 14 women and attacking 7 others around the country from 1964 to 1970. For this, Marchwicki was executed in 1977, but since then his guilt has been questioned.
Early life
Zdzisław Marchwicki was born on 18 October 1927, in a dysfunctional family from Dąbrowa Górnicza. His father had married five times and had four children from his marriages. Later on, all of his siblings would aid Zdzisław in his crimes. Due to his lack of interest in studying and average intelligence, Marchwicki failed to graduate from school.
During World War II, Marchiwcki was sent to forced labour in Prudnik, Upper Silesia. According to his memoir, this is when and where his "perverted tendencies" revealed themselves. After he was caught performing a zoophilic act, he was arrested, beaten by the Gestapo, and sent to the Blechhammer concentration camp. After being released from the camp, he returned to Prudnik.
Murders
From 1964, a series of atrocious crimes took place on the territories of the Dąbrowa Basin and Upper Silesia, continuing (with short interruptions) until 1970. In total, 19 women were attacked, 14 of which were fatal. The Vampire's modus operandi consisted of stalking the chosen victim, running up and hitting them in the back of the head with a blunt object, then beating the victim until she died. In some cases, he had sexually abused the corpses, but never raped them, as no trace of his sperm was found in their bodies. Some of the women were left with exposed genitalia, with one having her pubic mound cut.
However, since Polish operatives had not yet encountered such a vicious criminal, a special summit was held in the second half of July 1965 by the provincial administration of the Ministry of Defence, which combined all the known cases into one investigation. The hearing was chaired by Justice Władysław Ochman and prosecuted by Józef Gurgul and Zenon Kopiński; Marchwicki's attorneys were well-known lawyers Bolesław Andrysiak and Mieczysław Frelich. The main defendant, Zdzisław Marchwicki, was charged with 23 crimes, the most serious of which were 14 murders and 7 attempted murders. The charges seemed sensible to the court, as he had a history of beating his family members, disrespecting police officers, embezzlement of public property and other offences. His brother, Jan, was charged with 8 crimes, the most notable of which was inciting and participating in the murder of Jadwiga Kucianka. Henryk Marchwicki and Józef Klimczak were accused of complicity in Kucianka's murder (Henryk was additionally charged with stealing her clock); Halina Flak was charged with selling stolen property, and her son Zdzisław was accused of not reporting any of the crimes to the authorities.
On 28 July 1975, the court announced the verdicts for all six defendants: Zdzisław and Jan Marchwicki were given the death penalty; Henryk - 25 years; Klimczak - 12 years; Halina and Zdzisław Flak - 4 years.
In the nineties, information appeared that undermined the fairness of the court. Attention was drawn to the fact that Zdzisław Marchwicki had never pleaded guilty, and that he was identified only by people who thought he corresponded to the perpetrator's suspected profile. The authorities were eager to convict somebody, and since Piotr Olszowy, the only alternative suspect, had committed suicide by self-immolation, it would bring shame on the justice system to not bring the purported killer to trial. The case remains controversial to this day.