CRIME HUNTER: Russia's barbaric borscht of serial killers
Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Publishing date:Feb 26, 2022 • 14 hours ago • 4 minute read • Join the conversation
A picture taken on December 13, 2017 shows serial killer Mikhail Popkov in Irkutsk. - A Siberian policeman who raped and killed women after offering them late-night rides was found guilty of dozens more murders on December 10, 2018, making him Russia's most prolific serial killer of recent times. A court in the city of Irkutsk found Mikhail Popkov guilty of 56 murders between 1992 and 2007, sentencing him to a second life term. He was already in prison after being convicted of killing 22 women in 2015.
A picture taken on December 13, 2017 shows serial killer Mikhail Popkov in Irkutsk. - A Siberian policeman who raped and killed women after offering them late-night rides was found guilty of dozens more murders on December 10, 2018, making him Russia's most prolific serial killer of recent times. A court in the city of Irkutsk found Mikhail Popkov guilty of 56 murders between 1992 and 2007, sentencing him to a second life term. He was already in prison after being convicted of killing 22 women in 2015. PHOTO BY ANTON KLIMOV /AFP/Getty Images
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In the vast wastelands of Siberia and elsewhere in Russia, they killed and killed in the most macabre ways imaginable.
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STORY CONTINUES BELOW
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The former Soviet Union was back in the news this week with its barbaric — and baseless —attack on Ukraine. In our corner over the years, there has been no shortage of Russian serial killers and other monsters.
Only arch-rival the United States compares to the bloodlust unleashed by homicidal maniacs in Russia.
Here are a few of them.
THE GRANNY RIPPER. RUSSIAN FEDERAL POLICE
THE GRANNY RIPPER. RUSSIAN FEDERAL POLICE
TAMARA SAMSONOVA — THE GRANNY RIPPER
Samsonova was a voracious journal writer.
In fact, when cops in St. Petersburg arrested her for the murder of a 79-year-old woman, they discovered a diary of death that detailed her stomach-churning crimes.
One entry read: “I killed my tenant Volodya, cut him to pieces in the bathroom with a knife and put the pieces of his body in plastic bags and threw them away in the different parts of Frunzensky District.”
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When detectives took a closer look at the woman media called “The Granny Ripper,” they discovered her husband mysteriously vanished in 2005. Investigators believe she may have murdered upwards of 14 people and may have eaten the body parts of some of her victims.
She is locked up indefinitely at an asylum for the criminally insane.
THE WEDNESDAY KILLER. RUSSIAN FEDERAL POLICE
THE WEDNESDAY KILLER. RUSSIAN FEDERAL POLICE
MIKHAIL POPKOV — THE WEDNESDAY KILLER
Russia’s worst.
People described police officer Popkov as a “perfect husband and father,” but he was also leading a secret life as a bloodthirsty serial killer who murdered at least 80 women, usually full-figured, in Siberia. Many of the women bore a resemblance to the killer’s mother who abused him when he was a child.
Media nicknamed him The Werewolf and the Wednesday Murderer (the day many of his victims were found) and his reign of terror lasted from 1992 to 2000 when the murders suddenly stopped.
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“He beheaded at least one woman and gouged the heart out of a victim,” The Siberian Times reported. “Popkov claimed he suddenly stopped killing after he became impotent, suggesting a sexual motive to his murder spree.”
DNA nailed him after cops tested more than 3,000 officers. He is in jail for life.
SATAN IN A SKIRT. GETTY IMAGES
SATAN IN A SKIRT. GETTY IMAGES
IRINA GAIDAMACHUK — SATAN IN A SKIRT
Gaidamachuk had a serious drinking problem from the time she was young and cops believe it’s what drove her to murder.
From 2002 to 2010 she murdered 17 elderly women.
As an adult, the boozing continued and in the early 1990s she met a man and the couple had two children. Hubby Yuri wouldn’t give her money because he feared she’d spend it on booze.
When she started killing, her ruse was that she was a social worker before murdering the women for money using an axe or a hammer.
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Cops initially couldn’t believe that the serial killer on their hands was a woman until one victim survived. After a massive manhunt, she was arrested and she copped to the killings.
At her trial she was ruled legally sane and she said she murdered for vodka. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Hubby Yuri said outside court: “I lived with her for 14 years but never suspected anything.”
ROSTOV RIPPER. GETTY IMAGES
ROSTOV RIPPER. GETTY IMAGES
ANDREI CHIKATILO — THE ROSTOV RIPPER
Chikatilo sexually assaulted, murdered, mutilated and cannibalized at least 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990 in Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
A former soldier, he grew up as an impoverished — often starving —child and was a chronic bed wetter. But he was smart in school and soon became an ardent communist.
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An attempt at a relationship after his military service ended in humiliation.
He later said: “Girls were going behind my back, whispering that I was impotent. I was so ashamed. I tried to hang myself. My mother and some young neighbours pulled me out of the noose. Well, I thought no one would want such a shamed man. So I had to run away from there, away from my homeland.”
In the early 1970s, he began sexually assaulting women eventually escalating to murder and finally cannibalism. When he was caught in 1992, he copped to 56 murders. He would strangle his victims or stab them to death.
Russia does not have a death penalty but Chikatilo was special. And on Feb. 16, 1994, he was executed with a single bullet behind his ear.
THE CHESSBOARD KILLER. GETTY IMAGES
THE CHESSBOARD KILLER. GETTY IMAGES
ALEXANDER ‘SASHA’ PICHUSHKIN — THE CHESSBOARD KILLER
To Pichushkin, the Rostov Ripper was a rock star.
His target was to murder 64 people — the number of spaces on a chessboard. He began his murder spree when he was still a student in Moscow in 1992.
He mostly targeted elderly homeless men with the lure of vodka. After boozing with the oldtimers, he would smash their skulls in with a hammer before jamming the empty vodka bottle into their heads so they wouldn’t survive.
Occasionally, he would murder younger men, women and children to satisfy his bloodlust.
He was sentenced to life in prison in 2007.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Publishing date:Feb 26, 2022 • 14 hours ago • 4 minute read • Join the conversation
A picture taken on December 13, 2017 shows serial killer Mikhail Popkov in Irkutsk. - A Siberian policeman who raped and killed women after offering them late-night rides was found guilty of dozens more murders on December 10, 2018, making him Russia's most prolific serial killer of recent times. A court in the city of Irkutsk found Mikhail Popkov guilty of 56 murders between 1992 and 2007, sentencing him to a second life term. He was already in prison after being convicted of killing 22 women in 2015.
A picture taken on December 13, 2017 shows serial killer Mikhail Popkov in Irkutsk. - A Siberian policeman who raped and killed women after offering them late-night rides was found guilty of dozens more murders on December 10, 2018, making him Russia's most prolific serial killer of recent times. A court in the city of Irkutsk found Mikhail Popkov guilty of 56 murders between 1992 and 2007, sentencing him to a second life term. He was already in prison after being convicted of killing 22 women in 2015. PHOTO BY ANTON KLIMOV /AFP/Getty Images
Article content
In the vast wastelands of Siberia and elsewhere in Russia, they killed and killed in the most macabre ways imaginable.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
The former Soviet Union was back in the news this week with its barbaric — and baseless —attack on Ukraine. In our corner over the years, there has been no shortage of Russian serial killers and other monsters.
Only arch-rival the United States compares to the bloodlust unleashed by homicidal maniacs in Russia.
Here are a few of them.
THE GRANNY RIPPER. RUSSIAN FEDERAL POLICE
THE GRANNY RIPPER. RUSSIAN FEDERAL POLICE
TAMARA SAMSONOVA — THE GRANNY RIPPER
Samsonova was a voracious journal writer.
In fact, when cops in St. Petersburg arrested her for the murder of a 79-year-old woman, they discovered a diary of death that detailed her stomach-churning crimes.
One entry read: “I killed my tenant Volodya, cut him to pieces in the bathroom with a knife and put the pieces of his body in plastic bags and threw them away in the different parts of Frunzensky District.”
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
When detectives took a closer look at the woman media called “The Granny Ripper,” they discovered her husband mysteriously vanished in 2005. Investigators believe she may have murdered upwards of 14 people and may have eaten the body parts of some of her victims.
She is locked up indefinitely at an asylum for the criminally insane.
THE WEDNESDAY KILLER. RUSSIAN FEDERAL POLICE
THE WEDNESDAY KILLER. RUSSIAN FEDERAL POLICE
MIKHAIL POPKOV — THE WEDNESDAY KILLER
Russia’s worst.
People described police officer Popkov as a “perfect husband and father,” but he was also leading a secret life as a bloodthirsty serial killer who murdered at least 80 women, usually full-figured, in Siberia. Many of the women bore a resemblance to the killer’s mother who abused him when he was a child.
Media nicknamed him The Werewolf and the Wednesday Murderer (the day many of his victims were found) and his reign of terror lasted from 1992 to 2000 when the murders suddenly stopped.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
“He beheaded at least one woman and gouged the heart out of a victim,” The Siberian Times reported. “Popkov claimed he suddenly stopped killing after he became impotent, suggesting a sexual motive to his murder spree.”
DNA nailed him after cops tested more than 3,000 officers. He is in jail for life.
SATAN IN A SKIRT. GETTY IMAGES
SATAN IN A SKIRT. GETTY IMAGES
IRINA GAIDAMACHUK — SATAN IN A SKIRT
Gaidamachuk had a serious drinking problem from the time she was young and cops believe it’s what drove her to murder.
From 2002 to 2010 she murdered 17 elderly women.
As an adult, the boozing continued and in the early 1990s she met a man and the couple had two children. Hubby Yuri wouldn’t give her money because he feared she’d spend it on booze.
When she started killing, her ruse was that she was a social worker before murdering the women for money using an axe or a hammer.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
Cops initially couldn’t believe that the serial killer on their hands was a woman until one victim survived. After a massive manhunt, she was arrested and she copped to the killings.
At her trial she was ruled legally sane and she said she murdered for vodka. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Hubby Yuri said outside court: “I lived with her for 14 years but never suspected anything.”
ROSTOV RIPPER. GETTY IMAGES
ROSTOV RIPPER. GETTY IMAGES
ANDREI CHIKATILO — THE ROSTOV RIPPER
Chikatilo sexually assaulted, murdered, mutilated and cannibalized at least 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990 in Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
A former soldier, he grew up as an impoverished — often starving —child and was a chronic bed wetter. But he was smart in school and soon became an ardent communist.
Advertisement
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
An attempt at a relationship after his military service ended in humiliation.
He later said: “Girls were going behind my back, whispering that I was impotent. I was so ashamed. I tried to hang myself. My mother and some young neighbours pulled me out of the noose. Well, I thought no one would want such a shamed man. So I had to run away from there, away from my homeland.”
In the early 1970s, he began sexually assaulting women eventually escalating to murder and finally cannibalism. When he was caught in 1992, he copped to 56 murders. He would strangle his victims or stab them to death.
Russia does not have a death penalty but Chikatilo was special. And on Feb. 16, 1994, he was executed with a single bullet behind his ear.
THE CHESSBOARD KILLER. GETTY IMAGES
THE CHESSBOARD KILLER. GETTY IMAGES
ALEXANDER ‘SASHA’ PICHUSHKIN — THE CHESSBOARD KILLER
To Pichushkin, the Rostov Ripper was a rock star.
His target was to murder 64 people — the number of spaces on a chessboard. He began his murder spree when he was still a student in Moscow in 1992.
He mostly targeted elderly homeless men with the lure of vodka. After boozing with the oldtimers, he would smash their skulls in with a hammer before jamming the empty vodka bottle into their heads so they wouldn’t survive.
Occasionally, he would murder younger men, women and children to satisfy his bloodlust.
He was sentenced to life in prison in 2007.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
CRIME HUNTER: Russia's barbaric borscht of serial killers
In the vast wastelands of Siberia and elsewhere in Russia, they killed and killed in the most macabre ways imaginable.
