Krakow gunman wore a skull patch
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on L’essentiel
The gunman in the Krakow shooting, which killed six people and injured around 15, wore a patch depicting a horned skeleton. The symbol, sometimes associated with Blackbeard, has a separate history from that attribution, according to Polish media outlet Onet and historian E. T. Fox.
The gunman in Saturday's shooting that killed six people and injured around 15 in Krakow wore a patch depicting a horned skeleton, according to Polish media outlet Onet. The man, identified in the press as Michal O., born in 2002, was wearing military clothing, masked, helmeted and equipped with a tactical vest when he opened fire with an AR-15-type semi-automatic rifle.
The skeleton design is often associated with the pirate Blackbeard, but historian E. T. Fox considers this attribution mistaken. In his book "Jolly Rogers", he says the design appeared in a magazine in 1912 and was not associated with the pirate until the 1970s. The symbol was subsequently adopted by some military personnel, including members of US special forces, as well as mercenaries.
Michal O. had no criminal record and was a member of a shooting club with his father. Polish Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said on Saturday evening that everything indicated the gunman was fascinated by far-right ideologies, while also raising the possibility that he was receptive to "ultranationalist" ideas.
The symbolism attributed to the patch associates the skeleton with death, the hourglass with time running out and the pierced heart with a lack of mercy towards the enemy. This interpretation alone cannot establish the gunman's motives, according to an account published by L'essentiel. The shooting followed the opening of an anti-terrorism investigation in Poland and the death toll of six established on 7 November.
