Frantisek Kotzwara

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Frantisek Kotzwara (Czech name: František Kočvara) (1730^[1] – February 2, 1791^[2]) was a virtuoso double bassist ^[1] and composer of fantasia sonatas with a military theme. He is also as well known, if not more so, due to the notorious nature of his death. ^[1]

Kotzwara was born in Prague, Bohemia and was something of a nomad. He travelled around Europe and performed with various orchestras, though very little else is known about his life. The only surviving piece of his is The Battle of Prague, a composition based on the 1757 Battle of Prague, in which the Kingdom of Prussia fought Austria. The Battle of Prague was a popular piece of music during the late 18th and 19th centuries, with Mark Twain mentioning the piece in his book A Tramp Abroad. ^[2] Other, lost works by Kotzwara include The Siege of Quebec.

[edit] A notable death

On February 2, 1791 while he was in London, Kotzwara visited a prostitute in Vine Street, Westminster named Susannah Hill. After dinner with her in her lodgings, Kotzwara paid her two shillings and requested that she cut off his testicles. Hill refused to do so. Kotzwara then proceeded to tie a ligature around the doorknob and then his neck and proceeded to have sexual intercourse with Hill. After it was over, Kotzwara was dead. His is most likely the first recorded death from erotic asphyxiation.^[3]^[1]

Susannah Hill was subsequently tried for Kotzwara's murder at the Old Bailey but was acquitted. The jury chose to believe her testimony about the nature of Kotzwara's death. The court records of the case were supposedly destroyed in order to avoid a public scandal, though it is likely that some kind of copy was made by an individual. It is believed that this copy was used to produce a pamphlet about the incident, including Hill's account of the event.^[4] A 2005 radio competition organised by the Radio Prague station led a listener to reveal that these court records had in fact not been destroyed, and somehow found their way to the Francis Countway Library of Medicine in Boston.

In 1984 a paper about Kotzwara's death was published in the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, entitled "The sticky end of Frantisek Koczwara, composer of The Battle of Prague".^[5]