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Leszek Pękalski

Polish serial killer

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ707227 ↗
Source-derived summary

Leszek Jacek Pękalski, known as The Vampire of Bytów (born 12 February 1966) is a Polish murderer and suspected serial killer. He is believed to have killed at least 17 people between 1984 and 1992. At some stages of his criminal proceedings, he admitted to having killed as many as 90 people; which he later retracted.

He was initially arrested in 1992 for the rape of a 17-year-old girl Sylwia, and was sentenced on a two-year suspended sentence. In 1996 he was convicted of murdering Sylwia for which he was sentenced 25 years imprisonment, This was the only murder proven as his; since 2007 he could apply for a conditional early release yet all of these applications were rejected. Pękalski was released on 11 December 2017, then transferred to a National Center for the Prevention of Dyssocial Behavior in Gostynin for evaluation. He will be evaluated by psychiatrists every six months and the court will decide whether to detain or release him.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Leszek Pękalski” as polish serial killer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Leszek, Pękalski and Polish.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1966, 1984, 1992, 1996—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1966-02-12. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Leszek, Pękalski and Polish providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Leszek Pękalski”, the useful work is to connect “polish serial killer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q707227. VIAF identifies the subject as 62389567. The Library of Congress control number is no2017068308. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1966, 1984, 1992 and 1996.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Leszek Pękalski” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.