Jan Masaryk death mystery: exhumation may reveal new clues
Did he jump or was he pushed? The death of former Czechoslovak foreign minister Jan Masaryk, who fell from his apartment window at Prague’s Černín Palace in 1948, remains unexplained nearly 80 years after his demise. Forensic experts have now exhumed his remains, and a new examination could shed more light on the circumstances of his tragic death.
Jan Masaryk’s dead body was found beneath the window of his apartment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the early hours of March 4th, 1948, only weeks after the Communist takeover of the country. The official version at the time was that Masaryk had been severely depressed and had committed suicide. However many are convinced that it was murder.
Václava Jandečková, deputy chairwoman of the Society for the Investigation of Communist Crimes, says there are facts that cast doubt on the suicide version. She says the Society had been seeking an exhumation for several years.
“We repeatedly asked Mrs. Charlotta Kotíková [great-niece of Jan Masaryk] whether she could give us permission to exhume Masaryk’s remains because we are convinced that that is the only way to get to the truth. But she was never willing to give it. Two years ago, we asked the police to carry out an exhumation within a criminal investigation. If they were unwilling to do so, on the basis of the evidence we had submitted, we asked them to give us permission to carry it out ourselves, at our own expense.”
The request was approved and the exhumation of Masaryk’s remains by forensic experts took place at the family tomb in Lany this week.
Masaryk’s original autopsy was carried out at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Charles University’s Faculty of Medicine on March 10, 1948. Researchers therefore have some basic documentation to work with, including information about the crime scene, the original autopsy report, an expert assessment and the results of toxicological tests.
The new examination will include CT imaging, a 3D scan of the remains and X-rays. Pavel Toupalík, head of the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Charles University’s Faculty of Medicine explains what can still be ascertained after nearly eight decades.
“After such a long interval, we mainly rely on the bones. Fractures and other damage to the skeleton can of course be established, including gunshot wounds and so on. That can be detected more or less indefinitely after death. But as far as injuries to soft tissue are concerned, the possibilities are significantly limited by the amount of time that has passed.”
So what prompted the Society for the Investigation of Communist Crimes to push for an exhumation in the hope of shedding light on Masaryk’s tragic death?
Jandečková points to a head injury, which she says was described in the original autopsy report by Professor Hájek on March 10, 1948.
“It was mainly the area of the cerebellum, where he had a suspicious hole. The pathologist - doctor Teplý - pointed this out in his testimony, which reached the West, and so did Mrs. Topinková, who testified to the Prosecutor General’s Office and also gave a statement on camera, which is direct testimony. This hole was supposedly surrounded by burns and dried blood. It could have been a gunshot wound, or possibly an injury caused by a slaughterhouse pistol, which could have merely stunned or paralysed Jan Masaryk.”
No photographs of the alleged injury are present in the National Archives. Jandečková says the available photographs were limited to material that the communist authorities allowed to be kept.
“The photographs I am talking about are circulating in the West. I think that the fact that this head injury was not taken into account during previous investigation –which focussed on calculating the trajectory of his fall - was a big mistake. In the meantime I managed to acquire documents in France about the head injury and traced the family of dr.Teplý who examined Masaryk’s dead body at the site. He wrote an official report for the communist authorities where the head injury does not appear but he also wrote an unofficial report which says there was a tiny hole behind Masaryk’s ear and he was convinced at the time that it was from a bullet. ”
Jandečková, a researcher and writer who has spent years investigating the circumstances of Masaryk’s death and has written a book about the case, believes the exhumation could bring a breakthrough in the investigation. She personally remains convinced that Jan Masaryk was murdered.
