Olga Hepnarová

Arson attack Hepnarová's father inherited a farm in the village of Zábrodí, which the family used for recreation. On the morning of 7 August 1970, using a bottle of gasoline, Hepnarová set fire to the door in the living area of the building. She hoped that the fire would reach the hayloft via a dormer and destroy the homestead. Her sister and two tenants - the elderly Hetnerov couple - were asleep in the house at the time. They woke up and managed to extinguish the fire in time. The final damage was only 100 Kčs. Hepnarová was not suspected of the crime. She had approached the farm on foot at night after taking a taxi from Náchod. She confessed to the act during a psychiatric examination in 1973. As a motive, she stated that the property had become the cause of money disputes between her parents. She denied knowing that anyone was on the property at the time of the arson, but acknowledged having overheard her sister's plans to spend the night there.

Career At work, Hepnarová was noted as a good driver, but prone to mood swings, never socialising with her colleagues and regularly skipping work entirely. In one instance, she purposely crashed her truck during a test drive. In February 1972, she was tried for using a company vehicle without permission for non-work related purposes the prior December. She received conditional release with a ten-percent salary reduction. She was repeatedly reassigned, mostly as a personal driver, but all her clients complained about her behaviour. She eventually stopped showing up for work, leading to her dismissal in June 1972. She took a job at in August of the same year. In March 1973, she sold her cabin and bought a Trabant model car, with which she developed a deep emotional bond, to the point where she no longer spoke with other people and took repeated work absences.

Arrest and conviction During the investigation, Hepnarová confirmed her intention was to kill as many people as possible. Psychology experts found her fully aware of her actions, and she expressed no remorse. She planned her actions, as she took into account that the ground sloped down to the tram stop, which allowed her to gain speed for the maximum death toll. Hepnarová demanded to be executed. On 6 April 1974, Hepnarová was sentenced to death for murder by the City Court. The sentence was affirmed by higher instance courts and the Supreme Court re-qualified the sentence to public endangerment with the same penalty to be upheld. After several psychiatric examinations Hepnarová was deemed criminally responsible for her actions. Hepnarová's mother sought clemency for her daughter at the Supreme Court, which upheld the death sentence. A second appeal to the Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia, Lubomír Štrougal, was also refused.

Execution

Hepnarová was executed by short-drop hanging on 12 March 1975 at Pankrác Prison in Prague. She was the last woman executed in Czechoslovakia, and one of the last by the use of short-drop hanging. There are disputes over how Hepnarová faced death. Some reports say she was calm, while others say she became hysterical and started screaming and begging for her life, and that the guards had to drag her to the gallows. The story, which includes details such as Hepnarová fighting with the executioner, is sometimes presented as a historical account, despite the official protocol listing no unusual events.

I, Olga Hepnarová is a 2016 Czech-Polish drama film directed by Tomáš Weinreb and Petr Kazda. It was shown in the Panorama section at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival, Official selection at the 51st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and Official selection at São Paulo International Film Festival 2016. The film received worldwide distribution by One World Digital.