This is a real story about a murder that happened in one pub in Prague. February 19th, 1981. Very early morning in Prague. Night life in a communist Czechoslovakia is basically non-existent and if you want to have fun, you don’t have many options. Four men want to drink and smoke but there is nowhere to go. They are walking by a pub U dvou koček. Men look at each other and one of them kicks down the doors.
They are in and they found a few bottles of cheap wine and some cigarettes. But suddenly they realize they are not alone. A cook just came in and he hears some noise. He makes the classic mistake we know from all horror movies. Instead of leaving the place quickly and calling the police he decides to investigate. A moment later he is dead. Lying on a floor. Hit by a bar to his head.
The group is panicking except one of them who just killed. He is the only one calm. His friends are running out but he stays in. He is not finished.
A chopper
The man who stayed in the pub is no angel. Experienced convict who is characterized as a psychopath and a sadist. We don’t know what was going on in his head that moment but maybe he wanted a souvenier. The first name of this pub was simply a “Hand” and a picture of it is right in that room where he is standing above a body of cook he just killed.
He is going to a kitchen, looking for something. He finds it. A cleaver. He goes back to his victim and he makes seven chops. Hands off. A bloody souvenier is rolled in newspapers and the killer finally leaves the place.
Police is investigating this strange murder in Prague pub but all efforts lead nowhere. They believe that cook was killed because of illegal gambling. Chopping hands off is typical punishment and they know that this pub was frequented by gamblers. But all their investigation is useless. They even interrogated the killer but he had an alibi from his girlfriend. The murder becomes a cold case.
Justice not served
Two years later somebody visits police station in a city centre. A girlfriend of the killer wants to talk with someone about that murder in a pub. Her aggressive “boyfriend” is currently in prison for rape and she does not want him to come back. She confesses her alibi was false, because she feared for her life. She tells them everything.
Killer is sentenced to death. Capital punishment was still used in the communist Czechoslovakia and he could expect to be hanged. But before justice could be served, he died in prison by natural causes.
If you want to see the pub and hear these stories and more, join our tour.
Leave a reply