Karol Kot

Karol Kot
Born	(1946-12-18)18 December 1946 Kraków, Poland
Died	16 May 1968(1968-05-16) (aged 21)
Conviction(s)	2 counts of murder 10 counts of attempted murder 4 counts of arson
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Victims	2
Span of crimes	1964–1966
Country	Poland

Karol Kot (18 December 1946 – 16 May 1968) was a Polish serial killer who terrorized Kraków, the city he was born and raised in, until his capture in June 1966. Due to trial evidence and to the seemingly random choices of victims, which included children and elderly people, Kot was nicknamed the "Vampire of Kraków". After the trial, in which Kot pleaded guilty to all the crimes he was charged, he was sentenced to death on 14 July 1967. After an appeal, the death penalty was reinstated, and carried out on 16 May 1968 when Kot was 21 years old.

Early life

Karol Kot (born 18 December 1946 – executed 16 May 1968) spent his whole life in Kraków. His family consisted of his father, who was an engineer; his mother; and a sister who was eight years younger than him. For family summer holidays, the four would travel to Pcim, to the south of Kraków, where a bored Kot began to regularly visit a butcher shop and became increasingly fascinated by knives, dying animals, and blood. Kot found pleasure in watching death and, at the encouragement of some of the abattoirs, in drinking still-warm pig blood. The young Kot would also torture small animals, was abusive to his sister's cats, and started collecting knives. He indulged in studying anatomy books, imagining wounds that can be inflicted on people.

Academically, Kot had no problems at school, although he remained isolated from other students for his somewhat strange personality. He was also a member of a shooting club. With dreams of being a commando or a student at an Officer Candidate School, Kot suffered a nervous breakdown because he failed one of his subjects in college. Eventually, he was allowed to study at another technical college for communications, where he passed the school-leaving examinations.

Crimes

Kot's public crimes occurred in two separate sprees. On 21 September 1964, Kot attacked 'Helene Velgen' (48), whom he stabbed in church. He drove the knife from behind when she knelt down to pray; the victim managed to survive. The second attempted murder occurred shortly after, on 23 September, when Kot spotted 'Franciszka Lewendowska' (78) leaving a tram. He followed her and stabbed her in the back on the stairs to her apartment. This attack was also unsuccessful, and both victims reported seeing a young male attacker. Six days later, on 29 September, he stabbed Maria Plichta (86) from behind, after he spotted her near a church and followed her to Jana Street. She died the next day, but not before Kot visited the hospital and enquired about the victim.

After a lull of seventeen months, the attacks recommenced. On 13 February 1966, in an overkill, Kot fatally stabbed an 11-year-old boy, Leszek Całek, near Kościuszko Mound, where a toboggan contest for children was being held. On 14 April 1966, he attacked an 8-year-old girl, called 'Małgosia'. Kot went to a tenement on Jana III Sobieskiego Street and assaulted her when she came downstairs to collect letters from the mailbox. He grabbed her and dealt eight stab wounds to the stomach, chest and back. The girl managed to return home, and was taken to hospital where the doctors managed to save her life. Four days later, Kot returned to the scene, enquiring about the victim's name from her mother.

During the break between attacks, Kot tried to poison random people. He bought some arsenic and went to Przy Błoniach, a bar, where he took a bottle of vinegar from the counter. When certain that nobody was looking, he laced it with arsenic, hoping that somebody would later use it and be poisoned. He often left bottles of beer or soda poisoned with arsenic out in the open in popular places, but nobody ever drank them. He once poured a large quantity of arsenic into a schoolmate's drink, but the boy noticed a suspicious smell and refused to drink it. During the trial, expert witnesses stated that the amount of arsenic used by Kot was sufficient to kill anybody who would drink the beverage. During this time, he also plotted four other murders, all without success, as well as initiating several unsuccessful acts of arson.

Trial and sentence

Kot boasted of his crimes to a fellow student, Danuta, who informed authorities. He was arrested on 1 June 1966, the day after his matura exam, which he was allowed to sit in order to prove that he was sane so that he could not later plead insanity during a trial. A search of his house revealed sixteen knives and an assortment of other weapons that belonged to him. On 3 June, Kot had his first formal interview, and on 6 July, in a police lineup, he was identified by Velgen, the woman he stabbed inside the church. He then openly admitted and detailed his attacks and other murder attempts, and was then charged with two murders, ten attempted murders (four by knife, and six by sodium arsenate), and four acts of arson.

Numerous expert witnesses were appointed to find the cause of Kot's psychopathic behaviour. They discovered that Kot had shown strange inclinations since his early childhood. After a series of psychological observations and examinations, the doctors asserted that he was completely sane and could attend the trial with full consequences of his actions. When asked in an interview whether he was aware of the notion of murder being a crime and an evil deed, Kot shortly presented his moral standards. According to him, what determines moral appropriateness of human actions is the fact that they bring an individual satisfaction and a sense of fulfilled duty; he therefore considered himself a murderer, but not an evil person.

The trial began on 3 May 1967, and Kot pleaded guilty to all charges. The verdict was handed down on 14 July 1967, and Kot was sentenced to death as well as losing citizen rights. An appeal, based on diminished responsibility, began on 22 November 1967, and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. However, a higher court appeal reinstated the original sentence on 11 March 1968, and this sentence was carried out on 16 May 1968. After the hanging, an autopsy was carried out, which revealed a brain tumour. However Przemysław Semczuk in his book disputes this fact. According to the author, autopsies were not carried out on convicts sentenced to death. Moreover no official document confirming the autopsy on Karol Kot exists.

Media

The killings were recreated for Episode 2, Season 1 of the show Killers: Behind the Myth called "Kot: The Vampyre of Crakow", which aired in March 2014. It was also featured in episode 95 of Casefile True Crime Podcast in September 2018.