A series of attacks across northern Poland
Between 1975 and 1983, women were attacked in Gdańsk and other locations across northern Poland, including areas around Starogard Gdański, Skarszewy and the former Elbląg and Bydgoszcz regions. Investigators eventually grouped the pattern under the operational nickname “Scorpion.”
The court record later established a specific and important boundary: Tuchlin was convicted of nine murders and eleven attempted murders. This archive uses that adjudicated count rather than enlarging the case with rumors or crimes never proven against him.
How investigators reached Tuchlin
The investigation accelerated in 1983. Contemporary Polish retrospectives describe investigators comparing surviving-witness information with police records and tracing property and evidence connected with the attacks. Tuchlin was arrested on May 31, 1983.
Searches and questioning produced evidence that prosecutors used to connect him to the series. During the investigation he admitted nine killings and eleven attempted killings, although he later challenged his statements in court. The court did not rely on confession alone: the prosecution presented physical evidence, witness material and the broader investigative reconstruction.
Trial in Gdańsk
The case was tried before the Provincial Court in Gdańsk. In early August 1985, the court convicted Tuchlin of nine murders and eleven attempted murders and imposed the death penalty. Polish retrospective sources differ by one day on whether the judgment was pronounced on August 5 or August 6, so this page records the month and year rather than manufacturing false precision.
The case then moved through the available review process. The Supreme Court upheld the judgment, and the Council of State declined to exercise clemency. Those steps made the capital sentence final under the law then in force.
Execution and final legal status
The sentence was carried out on May 25, 1987 at the detention facility on Kurkowa Street in Gdańsk. Historical reporting identifies it as the last execution carried out in Gdańsk and among the final executions in postwar Poland before the country's move away from capital punishment.
That later legal history does not change the adjudicated facts of Tuchlin's case. The final judicial record attributes nine murders and eleven attempted murders to him, and no appeal overturned those convictions before the sentence was executed.
Timeline
1975: the period of attacks later attributed to Tuchlin begins.
1975–1983: women are attacked across northern Poland; nine are eventually counted as murder victims and eleven as survivors of attempted murder in the final conviction.
May 31, 1983: Paweł Tuchlin is arrested.
August 1985: the Provincial Court in Gdańsk convicts him of nine murders and eleven attempted murders and sentences him to death.
After the trial: the Supreme Court upholds the judgment and the Council of State denies clemency.
May 25, 1987: the death sentence is carried out in Gdańsk.
Current status
The case is Solved / Adjudicated. Paweł Tuchlin's convictions for nine murders and eleven attempted murders became final, and the sentence was carried out in May 1987. The archive does not count unproven allegations beyond those convictions as additional victims.