František Tégler: killer from Dolný Kubín murdered a 7-year-old boy and an adult man
František Tégler committed his first murder at the age of 16 – he raped and hanged a seven-year-old boy. After his release, he killed a colleague with an axe.
Killer from Dolný Kubín: teenager who killed again after serving his sentence
Nový Čas brings the story of František Tégler, who belongs among the darkest chapters of Slovak criminology. Tégler did not take the lives of dozens of people, yet his case shocks in a different way – he first killed at the age of sixteen and prison did not reform him.
Tégler was born on 29 March 1952 in Dolný Kubín as one of eight siblings. In childhood, he was diagnosed with mild mental retardation. He completed five grades of primary school, trained as a tailor and later worked as a delivery driver and sheep herder.
First murder: 7-year-old Martin
On 24 March 1968, sixteen-year-old Tégler lured seven-year-old Martin, the son of his acquaintance, into the forest near Stráň by Dolný Kubín. He met the boy while playing – children were playing Indians and shooting homemade bows. Martin was not good with the bow, so Tégler offered to help. Under the pretence of showing him his own bow and arrows in his hideout in the forest, he lured him away from the village along with a group of boys.
When the other children headed home before dusk, Tégler persuaded Martin to stay in the forest longer. He then led the boy deeper into the trees, undressed him and brutally raped him, causing tears to his rectum. "What are you putting in there?" the confused boy asked. When it was over, Tégler became afraid that Martin would tell on him at home. He tied a rope to a tree, placed a noose around the standing boy's neck, kicked his legs out from under him and hanged him.
Martin's body was found the next day. Tégler tried to confuse the search party, but all traces led to him. He confessed quickly. As a juvenile, he was convicted to seven years in prison. During the execution of his sentence, he received a further nine months for attacking a fellow prisoner and hindering the execution of an official decision.
Second murder: colleague killed with an axe
After his release, Tégler lived with his mother and worked at an agricultural co-operative in Pucov. Despite a decent wage, he had to hand over most of the money to his mother to repay a loan for a kitchen.
On 10 March 1979, he suggested to colleagues that they pool money for a bottle of vodka. When his colleague Ján K. pulled a bundle of five-hundred-koruna notes from his back pocket and remarked that he needed the money for building materials, it occurred to Tégler to rob him and pay off his debts. From 7,000 crowns he would have something left over. He took an axe from the changing room and switched to the night shift – securing himself an alibi.
When Ján set off home to Pokrývač in the evening, Tégler crept up behind him and struck him on the head with the blunt end of the axe. Ján cried out and ran towards the village, but Tégler caught up with him. During the struggle, he recognised him and cried out: "Fero, what are you doing?!" Tégler later testified that at that moment he decided to kill the victim so he would not report him. He beat him on the head with the blunt end of the axe until Ján died. He then turned him onto his stomach, took 7,000 crowns from him, dragged the body to a nearby river and returned to the workplace. He remained on duty until morning as if nothing had happened.
Ján's wife Terézia began searching for him together with his brother when he did not come home. They first found a cap, then a bag and finally the body. Tégler was arrested the day after the crime. A house search revealed 5,820 crowns and a bloody axe at the co-operative. During interrogation, Tégler claimed he had taken only 6,000 crowns, not seven. In another statement, he said he killed the victim out of anger because he could not overpower her and take her money.
Death sentence
Experts described Tégler's personality as abnormal, with underdeveloped higher feelings and value orientation. The regional court sentenced him to death. František Tégler was executed on 25 September 1980.
Tégler's case became part of the regular Crime column, which Plus JEDEN DEŇ newspaper brings every Friday – the column maps the most serious murders committed in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Source: Nový Čas