Vinko Pintarić
| Vinko Pintarić | |
|---|---|
A 1980s wanted poster of Pintarić
|
|
| Born |
3 April 1941 Zrinski Topolovac, Banovina of Croatia, Kingdom of Yugoslavia |
| Died | 25 May 1991 (aged 50) Veliko Trgovišće, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia |
| Cause of death | Shot dead by the police |
| Criminal penalty | 20 years imprisonment (commuted from death penalty) (1974) 20 years imprisonment (1983) |
| Killings | |
| Victims | 5 |
|
Span of killings
|
1973–1990 |
| Country | Yugoslavia |
| State(s) | SR Croatia |
|
Date apprehended
|
May 1973 (escaped September 1973) January 1974 (escaped February 1982) April 1983 (escaped September 1989) |
Vinko Pintarić (3 April 1941 – 25 May 1991) was a Croatian serial killer and outlaw who murdered five people over the course of 17 years and escaped from prisons and police stakeouts on multiple occasions. His violent, vindictive nature and proficiency with firearms struck fear into inhabitants of Hrvatsko Zagorje, a region of northern Croatia where he spent years at large, hiding from the law enforcement and engaging in various crimes, until his 1991 death in a shootout with the police.
Protracted media coverage of his exploits made Pintarić a household name in Croatia and Yugoslavia and even brought him a degree of sympathy from the general public, who saw him as a Robin Hood-like figure, and dubbed him "Čaruga of Zagorje", after an infamous post-World War I outlaw Jovo Stanisavljević Čaruga.
Pintarić was born in 1941 in Zrinski Topolovac near Bjelovar. During World War II, his father Ilija joined the Partisan resistance, but near the end of the war he was taken away by the Ustaše and spent several months with them. Because of this, in June 1945 Ilija was beaten by Department of National Security (OZNA) agents in the presence of his family, including Pintarić and his elder brother Josip, and then taken away. Pintarić's mother urged Ilija's Partisan comrades to intervene on his behalf, but they refused. Ilija never returned; according to rumors, he was shot the day after his arrest.
Pintarić's mother remarried after a couple of years, and his alcoholic stepfather physically abused him. All these traumatic events instilled a permanent sense of betrayal in Pintarić and fueled his anger and resentment; he would often talk about "avenging his father". In his adolescence, he developed an interest in firearms, using them for poaching. On several occasions he had his illegally owned weapons confiscated by the police.
His first marriage lasted only a couple of months. Angered by demeaning treatment from his in-laws, he assaulted them, for which he spent some time in prison. He never returned to his wife. Instead, he moved to Zabok and married Katica Tisanić, a divorced woman with a child. They built a house in Zabok and had a daughter. For a while, Pintarić was a good husband and father, a man who wanted to move away from his traumatic childhood and failed marriage.
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Wikipedia