George Joseph Cvek

George Joseph Cvek (April 7, 1917 – February 26, 1942) was an American murderer and serial rapist. He was convicted of murdering 29-year-old Catherine "Kitty" Pappas, the wife of a coffee importer, in the Bronx, New York City, on February 4, 1941. After his arrest on the Pappas murder charge, Cvek admitted to the rapes of 14 other women in the New York City and Pennsylvania area; authorities suspected he may have robbed or sexually assaulted up to 156 women during his crime spree. He was executed for Pappas' murder in 1942.

Early life Cvek was born on April 7, 1917 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as one of four children with one brother and two sisters. He was raised in nearby Steelton, Pennsylvania, descended from Yugoslav and Hungarian heritage. His mother also had Polish heritage.

Police connected Cvek to Pappas' murder through his fingerprints on a glass of wine Pappas let him use; comparing the fingerprints to a database of offenders from New York and Washington, D.C., they returned a match with Cvek's fingerprints due to his previous auto theft conviction in Pennsylvania.

Authorities initially suspected Cvek in the murders of two Pennsylvania women, but he was cleared as a suspect when authorities learned he was confined to reformatories during the time of the women's murders. During this questioning, authorities brought between 15 and 20 women in front of Cvek, nine of whom identified him as an attacker who had robbed or sexually assaulted them. He was also questioned in the murder of Elizabeth Jensen, which, by the time of his execution, remained unsolved; on the eve of his execution, Cvek refused to further discuss Jensen's murder with authorities. Jensen was strangled to death in her Bronx apartment on March 3, 1941.

Trial and execution Cvek was tried by District Attorney Samuel J. Foley. Although Cvek recanted his confession, he testified during his trial on May 15, 1941 that he engaged in a "scuffle" with Pappas but did not know he had killed her until he read about her murder in newspapers. He refused to answer the majority of District Attorney Foley's questions, and after he finished giving his testimony, court was adjourned for the day.

The jury found Cvek guilty of murdering Pappas on May 19, 1941, and took under one hour of deliberation before sentencing him to death. At his sentencing, Cvek used profanity towards District Attorney Foley, to the point of inviting a verbal reprimand from the judge, and spat towards Detective Byrne, who had recorded Cvek's confession, while protesting his innocence of the charges and accusing authorities of manipulating him into making a false confession. Cvek also stated that he wanted the 15 women he confirmed he had robbed and assaulted to be in court to hear his sentencing.

He was executed on February 26, 1942, in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York.