Member-only story
Or Others — Olga Hepnarová
The tragic story of Prague’s worst mass murderer
It’s July 10th, 1973 in Prague.
It’s like any other sunny day, and everyone is going through the motions. Going to work. Going grocery shopping. Taking a walk down the street. It isn’t a day anyone thinks something could go wrong.
But at 1:30 PM, a truck speeds down a busy sidewalk in the city and directly hits around twenty people. Witnesses swarm around the truck to see what went wrong.
The girl behind the wheel says nothing at first, but after a man asks if she had fallen asleep, she admits she did it on purpose.
She wanted to kill as many people as possible.
There’s no good way to start Olga’s story.
When I made the decision to cover historical crime cases, I didn’t expect to cover one as recent as 1973. But after I heard about Olga, I knew it was one of the first I’d cover.
On mental health questionnaires, there’s usually the question: “Do you feel like you’ll be a harm to yourself or others?” In my mind, I’ve always thought people who are thinking about harming others don’t reach out for help. Because why would they?
Then I heard about Olga.
