Thieves terrorized the whole of Prague: I am a crook, one of the defendants admitted in court. How was it in the days when thieves had their honor?
There was a time when even thieves considered their “craft” worthy of a certain honor. We also know it from old detective stories with the unforgettable council Vacátek played by Jaroslav Marvan or his follower Korejs, who was equally perfectly played by another excellent actor Jiří Adamíra. Even there, the old thief appears to often admit defeat. Of course, this was not the case in all cases, people are still the same and we will not idealize. For example, such a gang, which literally terrified Prague society in the early twenties, definitely did not take any large napkins.
no one was sure
Before the participation of fifteen experienced safe-keepers, no safe or its owner could be certain. All they needed were drills, wrenches and skilled hands, and it didn’t take long before any cash register bowed down before them. Like, for example, the one in which the Franco-Romanian aeronautical company kept its cash and other important documents. One morning, her employees discovered that more than twenty thousand crowns and thirty thousand marks had disappeared from their literally torn apart safe. They raised the alarm and called the police.
Ruda spoke first
At that time, the well-known chief inspector Bubník arrived at the scene, who soon knew how things were. “He examined the fingerprints and the dactyloscopic findings identified the perpetrator Rudolf Vosátka, who is the head of the gang,” writes the then editor of Národní listý in his judgment. Ruda Vosátka was not very shy in front of the chief inspector and did not even object when he had to reveal his cronies. And so the police could go for Puchmelter, who invented all this, and also for Měšťan. And because the perpetrators ended up in the entire line soon after the theft, the money was saved.
National papers, as well as other newspapers, reported the most interesting criminal cases during the first republic through female judges. It was often a welcome opportunity for readers to be entertained, as courtroom stories were often written very humorously.
The ticket gave them away
But the investigation got complicated. It soon became clear that several previous unsolved thefts had a quite similar handwriting to the last robbery of a total of fifteen robbers. It was, for example, the Karlin office of the Association of Builders, the Kornfeld company in Libni and others. It was the case of Kornfeld’s company that brought another clue. It was an ordinary cinema ticket, but at that time Prague lived differently than it does now, so it was impossible to find out who the ticket belonged to. In short, it was enough to ask in the cinema who was watching the movie from that particular seat. Do we find it funny? Probably yes, but that was Prague in the 1920s. Was it better or worse? That depends on the assessment of each of us. Anyway, the editor was clear then: “Prague became a real big city when such an excellent society could organize and prosper here.”
Chejda knew he was a fool
The police gradually caught all fifteen barracks, whose rampage literally terrorized Prague and its surroundings. And so it came to trial. Here the characters of each of them were fully revealed. While some took their fate as a logical “reward” for what they had done, others rebelled and even slandered or attacked their companions. However, the judge did not mess with such people, and it was clear from the files that they certainly did not win his sympathy. On the other hand, for example, Čejda, a modest person who looked as if he got involved in everything just by chance, was able to assess the situation accurately: “I came home from the war, I wanted to get on the right path, I even got married. I know I’m not a good person, I’m a jerk.’ However, the judge does not indicate whether such a statement was somehow reflected in the amount of the sentence.
Alas, cried the mistresses of the condemned
With what punishments did the bailiffs who made Prague a big city leave the court? Everyone got loaded according to their merits. Some 14 days, but others also eight years in prison. In addition, it is necessary to add the fasting days during which the judge interspersed their movement in prison. And since they had already served some time in custody, the happiest could go home. The wives and lovers of those who received longer sentences, according to the editor of Národní listý, heart-rendingly exclaimed “Woe!”. That they didn’t know how their men lived before?
Source: Národní listy 22 September 1923, JVK digital library
WHERE NOW: He murdered two women in Bohemian Paradise, at the court, Karel Šťovíček surprised his defense attorney and those present. You can’t make that up.