Milorad Golubović fought as a Partisan in the Second World War and afterwards served in the People’s Militia, where he advanced to the rank of Captain. Both during the war and after it, Golubović took part in extrajudicial and judicial executions, either by himself or as a member or leader of the firing squad. He claimed to have shot between five hundred and a thousand persons.

Given the full anonymity of post-war executioners and firing squads, one would probably never have heard of Golubović and his contributions to justice, had he not committed a grave murder in 1968, which brought him into the news. By then he was long retired and kept courting a much younger woman, Mirosanda Satarić, a cashier in the local supermarket. Married and the mother of a small child, she firmly turned down Golubović’s advances. Presumably motivated by pathological jealousy, Golubović took his revenge by shooting the young woman in broad daylight in a busy street while she was holding her six year old daughter by the hand.

The crime caused consternation in Belgrade and a memorial plaque was soon placed at the scene of the crime. The plaque was first posted on the facade of the building in 1 Simina Street, but after the building was renovated at the beginning of this century, it was placed on the pavement near the corner with the Višnjićeva Street, where it still stands. 

Women, men and children,
On 22 June 1968, at this spot the body of an innocent, honest and good wife and mother, Mirosanda Satarić,
was riddled with bullets in plain sight of her little daughter. She sacrificed her young life in the defence of her honour and honesty.
(click to enlarge)

Golubović was promptly arrested, brought to trial and sentenced to death, but the District Court of Belgrade commuted the sentence to twenty years in prison.  

Golubović may have never really understood why he was punished. He may have sincerely believed that his crime was insignificant in comparison to his merits. As a prisoner he wrote to the Ministry of Justice: „I may be in prison, but I love Yugoslavia [...]. I was a Partisan and served in the Militia where I liquidated 500–1000 enemies of the people“. In the trial, his counsel Filota Fila revealed „the sad truth“: „As a professional executor of death penalties, Golubović had participated in the execution of several hundred persons, which not only caused him a permanent trauma but also led to a complete loss of normal behaviour on his part“. According to Fila, Golubović „murdered his victim in cold blood and as if by some right; during the trial, he behaved contrary to all accepted rules. He showed no remorse nor did he attempt to explain his actions in any way. He even considered it his right to kill a woman who had turned him down. [...] Golubović was simply unable to see what was justice and what was his right“. (Filota Fila, Protiv smrtne kazne [Against the Death Penalty], Beograd 1981, pp. 29–30)