Vaclav Straka

Vaclav A. Straka (1891/2-1910), was a factory worker. Because of the name similarity, some believe he was V. M. Straka.

Biography
Little is known for certain about him. He was born in Oslov (South Bohemia) in 1891 or 92 and probably educated only rudimentarily, as nothing sugests any higher educations, travels or writing talent. On the account of a former friend Radek Rybarik the young Vaclav was interested in unionism and writing.

Straka appears to have found work in 1908 or 1909 for the Novacek & Sons Fabrication in a Prague factory that made either armaments or ladies’ shoes or pencils (depending on the source). He fell under the influence of syndicalists in the weeks before his death and became deranged.

On 30 Oct 1910, he was seen on the Charles Bridge trying to distribute literature. According to a newspaper item from 1910, he became despondent about his future prospects and jumped from the Bridge, drowning in the Vltava. Rybarik however claimed that he saw him jumping holding some manuscripts, and that he did so because a woman turned him down. It is said that someone dove to rescue him but the curent was unusually swift. There is no record that his body was found, or that he survived.

Business folded almost immediately after his death. The only suggestion that he may have survived comes from Rybarik’s sketchy account of meeting Lewis Looper.

Identity as V. M. Straka
Straka sleuths consider the possibility that Vaclav faked his death, disappeared and continued to exist only as an author of books. However his modest upbringing doesn't make believable that he could write such works.

Another theory says that the author appropriated the name of a little-known suicide to use as cover.

According to Jean-Bernard Desjardins's documents, on the day Straka died, some significant names appeared in the register of the Prague Hotel Voliery. Eric Husch and Jennifer Heyward believe that the names are aliases of Torsten Ekstrom, Amarante Durand and an unnamed guest (perhaps Straka who survived or faked his death) and altogether founded the S group.