The Murderers of Anna Labancz
In this documentary we are trying to track down the mystery of one of the most famous criminal cases in Hungary, an unsolved murder case. In 1970, Anna Labancz, who was a nurse at the time, was stabbed multiple times in the window of her nursing accommodation by a mysterious assailant. Many details of the murder of the 23-year-old beautiful girl are still unclear: exactly how it happened, what was the murder weapon, why did the perpetrator kill her, and most importantly, who was it?
The stories reconstructed from the clues and the witness statements divided detectives early on in the investigation. The nationally popular crime television programme Kékfény, was the first to broadcast a summary of the murder, focused the attention of the whole country on Miskolc, which at the time was known as “City of steel”, the Hungarian centre of socialist industry. The murder of Anna Labancz was therefore a high profile case. The entire apparatus of the police, working under pressure from the communist party, worked to find the perpetrator, but due to the accumulation of mistakes and unfortunate circumstances, they were unable to find it.
The frustration of the failed investigation and the media attention encouraged many to start their own private investigation. Disillusioned police officers, writers, journalists and television crews followed their alleged perpetrators and became obsessed with their own theories. Several books, countless newspaper articles and TV programmes was written, revealing a chain of logical evidences that has led to the people who may have been involved in the murder of the young nurse. They became targets of media. Some of them fled to suicide, while others sued the creators. Fates and careers have been shattered, but the people involved continue to stand up for their own truths, which cast a dark shadow over the lives of the people they call murderers.
The stories reconstructed from the clues and the witness statements divided detectives early on in the investigation. The nationally popular crime television programme Kékfény, was the first to broadcast a summary of the murder, focused the attention of the whole country on Miskolc, which at the time was known as “City of steel”, the Hungarian centre of socialist industry. The murder of Anna Labancz was therefore a high profile case. The entire apparatus of the police, working under pressure from the communist party, worked to find the perpetrator, but due to the accumulation of mistakes and unfortunate circumstances, they were unable to find it.
The frustration of the failed investigation and the media attention encouraged many to start their own private investigation. Disillusioned police officers, writers, journalists and television crews followed their alleged perpetrators and became obsessed with their own theories. Several books, countless newspaper articles and TV programmes was written, revealing a chain of logical evidences that has led to the people who may have been involved in the murder of the young nurse. They became targets of media. Some of them fled to suicide, while others sued the creators. Fates and careers have been shattered, but the people involved continue to stand up for their own truths, which cast a dark shadow over the lives of the people they call murderers.