Szilveszter Matuska, born 29 January 1892 in Csantavér (now Čantavir, Serbia), was a mechanical engineer who had a perpensaty to derail trains. He first derailed the Berlin-Basel express train, south of Berlin on 8 August 1931; at the scene of the attack they found a defaced Nazi newspaper suggesting that it was politically motivated attack. Although sores of people were injured there were no deaths. A reward of 100,000 reichsmark was offerd for his capture.
Whether or not this attack was engineered with the view of making a political statement, Matuska’s next attack certainly wasn’t, in fact quite the opposite. The Vienna Express plunged into a ravine 30 meters deep, when Matuska blew up a bridge as the train was heading to Vienna on 13 September 1931; 22 people died and 120 others were injured, 17 of them severely. Although Matuska was discovered at the scene, he was released after passing himself off as a surviving passenger.
He was eventually arrested in Vienna on 10 October 1931 and at his trial, Matuska claimed to have been ordered to derail the express by God. Matuska has also been quoted as explaining his crimes by saying: “I wrecked trains because I like to see people die. I like to hear them scream.” It was also rumoured he masterbated whilst watching the trains crash. He was sentanced to life imprisonment before escaping from jail in Vác in 1944; he was never recaptured and his fate is unknown.
According to some reports, he served as an explosives expert during the latter stages of World War II and further reports have circulated that he appeared on the communist side in the Korean War, but there is no evidence to support this. Noone will ever know if Szilveszter Matuska started out a political extremist and developed a taste for the chaos and destruction he caused or was just a complete madman.
Jason E Cooper 