Leszek Pękalski is one of the most famous Polish killers. Most people know him as the Vampire from Bytów. The man was sentenced to 25 years in prison for manslaughter. How many victims did Pękalski actually murder? Where is the killer at this point? What was the motive behind his horrific crimes? Check the story of Leszek Pękalski and learn more about the Vampire from Bytów.
Leszek Pękalski was born on February 12, 1966 in Osieki near Bytów. The boy was a child born out of wedlock, and therefore as a result of a mother's affair with a neighbor. Leszek's mother was unable to accept him because of it. Instead of taking care of her son, she preferred to drink alcohol every day. As his mother did not have time for him and preferred the company of vodka to her son, Leszek was taken care of by his grandmother. When she died, the boy was taken to an orphanage, and then to a center for handicapped youth - Leszek had a slight degree of impairment. His uncle was the last to look after him. Unfortunately, he, like the boy's mother, often looked into the glass and did not take good care of Leszek.
Due to his handicap, Pękalski had a huge problem finding himself in the community. The children laughed at him or ran away from him in panic. Leszek dreamed of love and his wife, but he was unable to make any woman fall in love with him - they all sympathized with him, teased him or avoided him like fire. Despite the slight degree of his handicap, Leszek could undertake not very demanding activities. So, after turning 18, he traveled around Poland and worked in various workplaces. Unfortunately, he was rejected by people everywhere because of his dissimilarity. That is why Leszek decided to settle at home and use the money from the pension he was entitled to. Sometimes he would disappear from his uncle's apartment for a few days. Upon his return, his uncle did not ask him where he was. Mainly because the man was intoxicated and did not even realize that Leszek was away from home all day.
At this point, it is worth mentioning the decision of the team of psychiatrists examining the murderer. They stated that Leszek was certainly a shy, unwanted and rejected man. He seemed mature on the surface, but inside he was always a fearful child. His life ambitions were small. After the Pękalski observation process, specialists also stated that the Vampire from Bytów - as the man was later baptized - was not fully sane at the time of the crime. During the sexology research it also turned out that Leszek suffers from disorders of his sexual sphere. His drive was so enormous that the man had no brakes at all to satisfy his needs immediately.
Leszek Pękalski appeared on the lips of Poles in the 1990s. It was then that he murdered and raped a friend of a trainee from a local shop. Pękalski met his victim, teenage Sylwia R., the day before the murder. The future shopkeeper, seeing the man's slight handicap, took pity on him and let him do the shopping "for a notebook". The next day, she voluntarily brought him food to the forest, where Leszek sometimes stayed overnight. Pękalski shared his problems with the teenager. He believed he had finally found someone who understood him. The man immediately suggested marriage and sex to Sylwia. She got scared and refused. She wanted to leave the forest quickly, but Leszek did not allow it. He hit Sylwia so hard that he killed her right away. Next, Pękalski raped his victim.
In June 1991, the police in Bytów received a notification - the body of 17-year-old Sylwia was found in the forest. The body was found by the teenager's parents, who were looking for her on their own. They were worried about the sudden disappearance of their only daughter. They got worried when Sylwia R. did not return from internships in the store for a long time. The finding of the dead child touched the entire community. An investigation into the murder began, but no one was identified at the time. After a year of fruitless searches, the case was dropped. In 1992, someone raped 40-year-old Bernadette. It turned out that despite the bandit's disguise, the woman recognized the perpetrator by his characteristic voice and gait. She easily indicated Leszek to the police - a well-known man from a neighboring village. For the assault and rape in November 1992, Pękalski was then sentenced to two years suspended imprisonment. The man, however, did not go to prison because the court ruled that Leszek was insane during the commission of the crime.
Leszek Pękalski was glad that he received such a sentence. In December 1992, however, he was arrested on suspicion of murdering 17-year-old Sylwia. How was the identity of the killer discovered? Well, by complete accident. Before closing the investigation, the police tried to narrow the circle of suspects. The experts also managed to create a memory portrait of the murderer. The perpetrator was a brutal and sexually unsatisfied man. One day, a secretary who worked in the district prosecutor's office in Bytów discovered the trail of Leszek Pękalski. It was she who translated the files between which Leszek appeared - he then had a suspended sentence for rape on his account. The secretary associated this fact with the unresolved case of a teenage shopkeeper. The woman presented her position to her superiors, who decided to check Pękalski's alibi. It turned out that the secretary's assumptions were correct. Leszek confessed to committing the murder.
However, the matter did not end there. Pękalski confessed to investigators to another 70 murders. He was to commit these crimes all over Poland. Investigators examining Pękalski's life confirmed that the man did travel a lot. It was during this time that he would have committed dozens of murders. According to Pękalski's stories, strangled and raped a woman in Toruń. He also took a pram with a child in Białystok, and then undressed the girl lying in it and left it in the cold. Only the killer could know the details of the crimes that Pękalski told in detail. For example, he remembered the color of his victims 'underwear and the decorations in the victims' apartments where he had murdered. He also did not forget to arrange the bodies after each murder he committed. From Leszek's story, the police prepared a terrifying map of the crime.
Why was Pękalski so willing to cooperate with the police? Because no one had paid attention to him before - until he was arrested. Then the man suddenly began to arouse the interest of all Poles. From a person rejected by a society that constantly ignored him, he became "someone." It came into existence, it was talked about, it was visited by journalists and producers of television documentaries. Leszek was glad that all of Poland suddenly turned her eyes to him - even though the interest was related to the terrible deeds he had committed. It did not bother him. He was in the center of attention and that was what mattered most to Leszek.
Pękalski, while the evidence was collected and the criminal proceedings were pending, was taken to a remand center, where he began to keep a diary. In it, he accurately described almost 70 crimes he told investigators about. However, many of them did not correspond to reality (for example, Pękalski confessed to two crimes committed on the same day in two different parts of Poland). It later turned out that the inmates were supposed to advise the handicapped man to disturb the criminal proceedings - first he confessed to the crime and at the last minute retracted his testimony. In fact, Leszek canceled most of his words in court. He also said that officers forced him to say different things - reportedly in exchange for food and alcohol. In the end, only one murder of teenage Sylwia was proved, to which Pękalski confessed. What is the exact number of victims of the Vampire from Bytów? Unfortunately, no one knows to this day. It is known, however, that in 1996 Leszek Pękalski was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The years passed inexorably. The inhabitants of the Bytów county were afraid of what would happen after the end of Leszek Pękalski's sentence. Everyone trembled at the killer's return to his uncle's house. Before the end of the sentence, the court found, however, that the man could still pose a real threat to society. Therefore, it was decided that under the so-called act on beasts, put him in a closed center in Gostynin.
Bibliography:
- Omilianowicz Magda: Vampire. How evil is born, Wydawnictwo Kompania Mediowa, Warsaw 2021
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