[1] In contrast to his siblings, Svatoslav was despised by other residents of his neighbourhood due to his odd and disconcerting behaviour: besides stealing items such as women's underwear, he also enjoyed dissecting frogs,[5] liked to torture and kill animals, and visited the local cemetery to watch the gravedigger work.
[4] In 1930, he was threatened with up to a year in prison for a theft, but his mother prevented it by arranging a psychiatric examination with a friend, who deduced that Štěpánek had mental issues.
On one occasion when he was left to watch over his sister, Štěpánek was visited by 5-year-old Bedřich Brožovský, the son of a couple who shared a rented apartment with him.
[2] It's unclear what exactly occurred on the day of the murder, but according to Štěpánek, he had become annoyed with Brožovský, luring him to the cellar where he hit him on the head with a hammer multiple times.
After some time, the local townsfolk and police alike came to the conclusion that little Bedřich had likely been kidnapped by a gang of gypsies, and with no leads, the case went cold.
[1] Thirteen days later, 26-year-old Zdeňka Drobná came across Štěpánek, who was repairing his bicycle on the road, while en route home from visiting her husband in the hospital.
[4] The woman later told the authorities about the assault, but gave only a partially accurate description of her assailant, describing him as seemingly suffering from smallpox and with a drooping left corner on his mouth, but also giving the wrong colours for his bike and hair.
[6] When investigators came to question Štěpánek, his mother and neighbours provided him with a false alibi, claiming that he had been bed-ridden all day due to contracting influenza.
[5] When it was discovered that her probable last stop was the Štěpánek residence, whose current sole occupant was Svatoslav due to his mother undergoing surgery in Modra, the local authorities went to question him.
[2] In the subsequent interrogations, Štěpánek was questioned about what he planned to do with the body, to which he replied that he was curious to see how the breasts of a young woman would look like if they were cut off, and he had intended to dismembered in the bathtub later on.
[2] He also revealed that he had written a letter for his aunt, describing how horribly mutilated his cousin's body was but not implicating himself as the killer, which he intended to give it to her and watch her freak out for his own amusement.
Digging deeper into Štěpánek's history, the investigators realized that this victim was likely little Bedřich Brožovský, who had disappeared ten years ago.
[1] Police were sceptical of the 10-year gap from Brožovský's killing to Štěpánek's other murders, so they reopened several cold cases in an effort to examine any possible connections with their detainee.
At first, he denied any involvement in the murder, but later confessed and attended a reconstruction of the crime scene, pointing out the exact location and minute details, such as the knife's handle breaking, that only the killer would have known.
And to the shock and disgust of the court, they also produced another letter written by Štěpánek, in which he fantasized about being a raped young mother who resorts to killing her hungry child and cutting off her nipples due to her inability to breastfeed him.