Eugen Țurcanu

Eugen Țurcanu (8 July 1925 – 17 December 1954) was a Romanian criminal who led a group that terrorized their fellow inmates during the late 1940's at Pitești Prison in Pitești, Romania. In a well publicized trial, Turcanu and fifteen of his accomplices were convicted in the deaths of several inmates and executed.

As a young man, Turcanu was a local communist official studying for a career in diplomacy. However, in 1948, he went on trial for his involvement with the Iron Guard of the previous regime and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

With the tacit approval of the prison administration, Turcanu formed a group of inmates to obtain information and police the ideological beliefs of the prison population, using torture and deadly force when necessary. When his activities became public knowledge in the West, Romanian authorities put Țurcanu on trial in 1954.