Sylvestre Matuschka ranks among the most flaky bulk manslayer in history . Way before World War II , he anticipated the great planing machine bombers of the 1950s and ’ 60s like Albert Guay and Jack Gilbert Graham , with a individual - handed bombing campaign directed against the railroad of Central Europe .
But the clichéd motives of theodolite saboteur were not for him , the desire for piffling retaliation or petty fiscal gain via double indemnity . Matuschka himself variously pay his motive in disrupting the train agenda as to ignite a worker ’s gyration , appease the demand of the spirits haunting him , or draw attention to a railroad rubber gadget he ’d invented . The psychiatrists who examined him in custody claimed to uncover a more basic , and baser motive : Matuschka blew up gear for erotic reason .
Most source have him being born on January 29 , 1892 in a small Hungarian village near the Yugoslavian moulding . His youth was reportedly quite normal , save for one underage incident . Matuschka would later on claim a teenage encounter with a carnival hypnotizer left him obsessed with train wrecks and smite him with a bossy spirit discover “ Leo . ”
He did give ear a university and apparently was studying to be a teacher or an engineer . source take issue on whether he ever obtained his degree . His education was interrupted by World War I , where he serve as a deputy .
He move from Budapest to Vienna in 1919 , got married , and started a line . By 1930 , he was quite successful . He owned interests in several businesses , and was a director of a caller in the building - edifice supplying industry .
On the surface , he was eminently respectable . He lived with his married woman and small daughter in a pleasant residential quarter of Vienna . He was noted for being a devoted family man who “ never went to sleep without having said prayers with his petty Gaby . ” ( funnily enough , he had give little Gaby a train determine for Xmas — an strange gift for a little girl in the 1920s . ) For recreation , he played chess at a contiguous café , and fulfilled his community obligations by serving on the local parish council . He appear to be a perfect example of the Austrian bourgeois .
But there were hints that all was not beer and Wiener schnitzel in Herr Direktor Matuschka ’s biography . Some informant claimed he was over - extended financially , and he was even charged ( but cleared ) of swindling some business organisation partners in 1927 . And a 1932 Literary Digest article described him as “ openly a proficient citizen , he was secretly given to riot . ” lamentably , the type of riot was not specify .
In December 1930 , Matuschka spend the holidays with his family back in his aboriginal Greenwich Village . But Christmas Eve found him not opening presents under the tree with his married woman and daughter , but wandering the railway tracks . It was then , according to the Literary Digest , that “ he start to dream of the trains and in the manner of evil fiddling boys who wish to see an accident , he wished to be present at some catastrophe . ”
Matuschka ’s ascent to infamy start out that New Year ’s Eve near the lowly town of Aschbach , Austria . He loosened some bolts batten a section of railing to the track and placed a tone proclaiming “ Assault ! Revolution ! Victory ! ” nearby . Then he hid behind Bush , afterwards recalling “ This waiting was the most horrible minute of my total life story . I have never suffered as much or hoped as much . ” Sadly , when the express appeared , it roared over the tampered rail without even slow down . Matuschka left the scene crying bust of rage and frustration . The loose runway and note were institute by puzzled railing workers the next daytime .
On January 30 , Matuschka follow up with a second attempt . This time , he repair a sword rail across the track . alas , the train engineer spotted the obstructor . Various accounts dissent about whether he was able-bodied to finish short of the obstruction , or merely slow down the train enough to avoid a major accident . What is known is that there were no injury , and once more Matuschka go home buzz with frustration .
He now realize that train wrecking was no unproblematic project . He plow to technology . He purchased an old fair game , and obtained a license to buy explosives . He devote himself to analyse , practice , and experiment for the next few month .
The first train to strike victim to Matuschka ’s cautiously honed skills was the Basel / Berlin express . On August 8 , 1931 near the town of Jüterborg , 40 Swedish mile west of Berlin , he chance upon . A bomb exploded under the gear as it crossed a viaduct . The engine , diner , and seven cars plunged some 30 feet down into a ravine . Although 109 masses were injure , surprisingly no one was killed . And Matuschka was satisfied ; it had been spectacular .
But his ultimate achievement come in just over a month later , on September 13 . That daytime , the Budapest / Vienna Express was crossing a viaduct in Hungary between Bia and Torbagy before long before midnight when a Matuschka - planted bomb calorimeter detonated . The engine and six private instructor fell more than 75 feet , and several caught fire . One source claimed police found grounds that Matuschka had an coming at the second of the bang , although the contingent of just what this grounds was stay on lost to history .
What is known is that Matuschka execute towards the results of his handiwork , laugh and shed tears of pleasure . He pose as a subsister and worked side - by - side with the rescuer , clawing through wreckage with his bare hired hand . He even gave newsperson a remarkably coherent invoice of the wreck . Ultimately , the death bell from his sabotage would reach out 28 .
It is unclear just how the police force of Austria , Germany , and Hungary last caught up with Matuschka . But his misstep was almost for sure posing as a subsister of the Bia / Torbagy wreck , especially since the coach he claimed to be riding in was reduced to inflammation and had no other survivors . One story has an eagle - eyed detective spot Matuschka ’s name on both a listing of wreck survivor and of recent explosive emptor ; another claims Matuschka pursued his “ subsister ” status to the pointedness of suing the Hungarian railway for his “ bemused ” luggage . Whatever , he was caught , quick confessed , and snuff it on to put on an awful show at the test .
He was in fine sort at his first trial run in Austria for the two abortive endeavor near Aschbach . The London Daily Express wrote that “ grinning wildly , with staring eye protruding tongue , bow body and bent knees , Matuschka resemble an emulator . ” More demurely , the New York Times describe how he “ weep , cry , kneel before the royal court and muttered to himself of hard drink which , he said , inspired his deed . ”
If this sounds like the insanity defence , it was just one of many tacks Matuschka was taking . He literally had more explanations than explosions . His major systematisation was the “ Leo the Ghost ” story . That malefic feel , which he had been afflicted with since his teen days ( courtesy of that carnival hypnotizer ) , had ordered him to assail the trains . Reportedly , “ Leo the Ghost ” became a bit of a celebrity himself during the trial .
Then there was Matuschka the unafraid social revolutionary , discover blows on behalf of the working class . One Paris newspaper publisher publish , “ the accused stated that he made the attack to liberate the world . ” Matuschka exact he had mock up himself on Trotsky :
… who became the great loss leader of man as the result of his actions of violence … people had to be made to understand the nature and purpose of punishment . To instruct them I had to become a wrecker of trains .
If nothing else , this explained his leaning to leave syndicalist - style proclamation at the site of his wrecks .
And finally , there was Matuschka the concerned public citizen . He claimed to have invented an elaborated set of ameliorate train signaling power by a turbine in the Danube that would render train wrecks obsolete . He modestly described his inspiration as “ the greatest conception in the world . ” He had only embarked on his terror campaign to fascinate the attention of those dense railway executives . However , it ’s unclear just how any set of train signaling , Danube - powered or not , can protect a train from a driven nut with a bomb calorimeter .
gratuitous to say , the courts found small merit in any of these title . He was sentenced to six years in prison for the stillborn Austrian attempts , and death for his final bombing in Hungary . However , due to some obscure primal European legal loophole , his conviction in Austria precluded his instruction execution in Hungary . After serving his six years in an Austrian prison house , he was jail to Hungary to eat up out a life judgment of conviction .
As for his dependable motive , one of his most honest assertion to the police was “ I have to wreck trains because now it ’s the only way I can find fulfillment . ” He was the subject of considerable psychological interest in Europe both during and after his trial , which allegedly revealed that his primary need was sexual . The illustrious German head-shrinker Theodore Reik many class afterwards described Matuschka as , “ A highly pathological individual who found intimate gratification in plosion and other catastrophes , ” although it ’s undetermined if Reik ever examine Matuschka in person .
Matuschka ’s write up may not have ended with the closing of some anon. Hungarian ’s prison doors . When asked at his trail if he had any plan for future train wrecking , he replied , “ Yes . When I have completed my 30 years of prison which expect me , I shall be 70 and I shall blow up newspaper to combat atheism . ” Unconfirmed reports subsequently had him serving as a demolition expert for the Axis in World War II , and one derisory account even claim Americans had charm him in Korea during the Korean war as he serve with a unit of Hungarian volunteers blowing up rail line .
But whatever his destiny , he doubtlessly stay straight in heart to the occupation he gave at his first test : “ Train diversionist . ”
John Marr is the former editor program of the zine Murder Can Be Fun .
Further informationhereandhere .
This clause earlier seem in execution Can Be Fun and has been republished with permission .
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