A study of gunshot wounds associated with communist executions of the Cursed Soldiers: a medical and historical analysis of materials from the Department of Forensic Medicine in Kraków

Introduction: According to the document from 1946, the execution of a person sentenced to death by shooting was to consist of firing into the heart of the convict. Based on these guidelines, during forensic examination of the exhumed bone remains, several gunshot injuries to the torso (especially to the chest) should be expected. However, most of the bodies of the cursed soldiers analyzed in the Department of Forensic Medicine in Kraków contained bullet holes in the bones of the skull. Aim of the study: The study aimed to characterize and reconstruct the gunshot wounds of cursed soldiers and to compare them with the protocol describing death penalty or other documents produced by Polish communistic state institutions. Material and methods: Retrospective analysis of autopsy protocols of cursed soldiers from the Department of Forensic Medicine in Cracow in the years 2017–2020 was conducted. After finding cases with gunshot wounds, we further analyzed the bullet inlet and outlet. Results: After excluding subjects that did not meet our requirements, we obtained 28 cases in total. Based on the number of gunshot wounds to the head, we documented 11 skulls with a single, 6 with two, and 3 with four or five gunshot wounds. In 8 cases, the exact bullet pathway couldn’t be established. We also searched for remains with injuries in other locations, and so we documented cases with additional gunshot wounds in the area of the scapula, pelvis, ribs, tibia, and humerus. Conclusions: In most cases, the deaths of cursed soldiers were due to craniocerebral injuries sustained by gunshots. Based on the reconstruction of the bullet track, the majority of skulls had an inlet in the area of the occipital bone, which indicates that the death penalty executors did not comply with the guidelines for its execution. This study may be used in further research in the field of forensic anthropology on the bodies of cursed soldiers exhumed.