Whether it was through luck, a clever plan or simple determination, these 15 people were able to escape death at the hands of serial killers, survive and tell their incredible stories. Some of them also helped the police catch the criminals and finally put an end to the brutal killings. When you read these shocking and inspiring stories, put yourself in their shoes and say honestly: could you act like that - quickly and boldly?
15. Caroline Roberts
Fred and Rosemary West are two of the most prolific serial killers in British history, killing at least ten young women from 1973 to 1987, most of whom they raped and tortured. This woman, together with her husband, deceived young naive girls. They picked up future victims on the street, offering them food and housing. Rosemary had 8 children of her own. She made her living as a prostitute and was also a sadist. Her husband Fred was just as much of a pervert. This married couple is responsible for the murder of their own daughter Heather. In addition, Rose was found guilty of the death of Charmaine, her stepdaughter. The cold-blooded antics of this creepy pair went undetected for over two decades, but surprisingly there was still someone who managed to escape their clutches; this is one of the intended victims named Caroline Roberts.
17-year-old Caroline began working as a nanny for the West family in 1972, moving into their house in Cromwell Street, Gloucestershire, which later became known as the "House of Horrors". The girl felt uneasy when the couple started making sexual propositions to her and returned home. Two months later, criminals kidnapped her with the promise of a ride. She was drugged and sexually assaulted by both Fred and Rose. Fred later admitted to police that they had kidnapped her with the intent to kill her. Fortunately, their plan was unsuccessful. After convincing her kidnappers that she would willingly return to work for them as a nanny, Caroline managed to escape the next day while she and Rose were going to the laundromat.
The Wests were arrested and charged with rape, kidnapping and assault. Traumatized by painful memories, Caroline refused to testify in court, and the couple were released with a fine of £50 each. The decision haunted Caroline throughout her life (she died in August 2016). In a 1998 article for She magazine, she wrote: "Not a day goes by that I don't think about the girls who lived through it all. Just three months later After my escape, the Wests killed their first victim - their nanny, Linda Gough. If I had been able to find the strength to testify against Fred West back in 1972, Linda and the other girls would still be alive."
14. Roger Sproston
Roger Sproston was a 28 year old guy from the UK (West Midlands) who was traveling around America. He had a frightening incident in Los Angeles in 1980. After losing his job as an ice cream salesman (his van was stolen on his first day), he was forced to hitchhike back to town. After half an hour of waiting, a red car stopped and offered him a ride. In an interview with the Guardian, Roger described the driver as follows: "He wasn't physically imposing, rather he was stocky and well built. Clean shaven, short hair, dark, good-looking guy. There weren't any particular smells in the car, but the man had bad vibes." exuded quite noticeably."
Roger's misgivings did not deceive him, and it was not for nothing that he felt uneasy; After he asked the driver to drop him off on the side of the road, he stopped and pulled out a piece of cord, and suddenly began to strangle the frightened Roger. Fortunately, the guy managed to overcome the psycho and open the car door with his foot. Despite this horrific ordeal, his true fear came when he went to the police and described his attacker - he turned out to be a wanted serial killer named William Bonin, also known as the Highway Killer. Fortunately, ten days later he was finally arrested, putting an end to his deadly spree that claimed at least 14 lives.
13. Unnamed Ohio Woman
A woman in Ashland, Ohio, foiled her would-be killer's plan earlier this year by calling police from the gunman's phone. Sean Grate kidnapped a woman and dragged her to an abandoned house, where he tied her up and sexually assaulted her for several hours. However, when he eventually fell asleep, the woman managed to free herself from the ropes and call the police using the rapist's phone, whispering to the dispatcher "I've been kidnapped."
When police arrived at the house they found two bodies, and Grate later confessed to killing a total of five women since 2001. One of the victims was later identified as 43-year-old Stacy Stanley, whom he befriended at a gas station while she was filling up a flat tire. Great had a rather chilling comment about the murder victims: "They were already dead! It was just their bodies, but their minds were long dead! The government doomed them to this after they started receiving their monthly benefits."
12. Lisa McVey Noland
While it's rare for serial killers to let their victims go, that's exactly what happened to 17-year-old Lisa Noland in 1984. After he literally yanked her off her bike (on the way home from work), Bobby Joe Long, who attacked more than 50 women and killed eight, he forced her into his car at gunpoint. He took her to an apartment where she was subjected to 26 hours of brutal violence.
It is rather surprising that Lisa was able to be cunning in communicating with her captor. She talked to him like a four-year-old child and told him: "It's a shame we met like this, you seem like a good guy. Let's start over! I can take care of you, I'll be your girlfriend, and I I won’t tell anyone exactly how we met.” In response, Long, who seemed to take a liking to his victim, exclaimed "no, no, I can't hold you," and drove her home in the middle of the night. Lisa then helped police find Long, who was arrested and still sits on death row 30 years later.
11. Tracy Edwards
At the time, few people had not heard of Jeffrey Dahmer; is a notorious serial killer who raped and murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, most recently including cannibalism and necrophilia in his later crimes. Perhaps less well known is the story of how he was finally caught and brought to justice; The person who provoked his arrest is also little known.
On July 22, 1991, 32-year-old Tracy Edwards agreed to have a beer with Dahmer at his apartment after Dahmer offered him $100 to do so. Once there, Dahmer tried and failed to handcuff Edwards, threatened him with a knife, and shouted that going to eat his heart. After five hours of trying to appease his captor while planning his escape, Edwards found his opportunity. He asked permission to use the bathroom and then punched Dahmer in the face and ran towards front door. He then came across two police officers, told them what had happened, and they returned with him back to the apartment, where the parts were found human bodies, which were just lying around everywhere.
Surprisingly, this was not the first time that the victim escaped from Dahmer. Just a few months earlier, 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone was found injured and disoriented in the street by three women. The police arrived on the scene, but Dahmer somehow managed to convince them that the 19-year-old boy was in fact his lover. Despite protests from the boy, as well as the women who found him, the police allowed Konerak to return to Dahmer's apartment, where he was raped and killed that same night.
10. Carol DaRonche
Bundy confessed to 30 murders before his execution in 1989, but many people believe the total number of his victims is likely significantly higher; according to some estimates, more than 100. He easily lured women and girls into his infamous Volkswagen Beetle, his good looks and charismatic image worked flawlessly, always helping in his cold-blooded plans. One of the victims miraculously escaped from his car, her name was Carol DaRonche.
On November 8, 1974, Bundy, posing as a police officer, approached an 18-year-old girl. He told her that someone had tried to steal her car and asked her to go with him to the department to file a report. Despite feeling a little uneasy about the whole situation, she agreed and got into the car. Banks immediately handcuffed her left hand, but was in such a hurry that he forgot to fasten the second handcuff. As a result, Carol was able to run out of his car and rushed towards passers-by. Unfortunately, Banks didn't stop and found another victim that night; she turned out to be 18-year-old Debra Kent.
9. Girl A
Futoshi Matsunaga is a Japanese serial killer who, along with his female accomplice named Junko Ogata, killed at least seven people from 1996 to 1998. One such victim was Kumio Toraya, who was kidnapped and tortured. Matsunaga kidnapped and tortured Kumio along with his young daughter, known as "Girl A". Matsunaga used electric shocks to torture Kumio, forced him to eat his own feces, and forced Girl A to beat her father severely, eventually convincing her that she killed him. But Kumio himself died from prolonged torture. As if this were not enough, Matsunaga forced the girl to take part in the disposal of her father's dismembered body.
The girl managed to escape and arrived at her grandparents' house in January 2002, but she never went to the police, fearing for her life. Matsunaga soon discovered her whereabouts and forced her to return to his home, where he tortured her electric shock. But the girl, who was already 17 years old, refused to die. She fled, and this time she contacted the police. Matsunaga and Ogata were detained the next day; Matsunaga was sentenced to death by hanging, and Ogata was sentenced to life imprisonment.
8. Jennifer Asbenson
On the evening of September 27, 1992, 19-year-old junior nurse Jennifer Asbenson was waiting for the bus to go to work when suddenly a young man in a decent car offered her a ride. She agreed, he seemed to her “so handsome and so sweet.” The guy picked her up and dropped her off near work without incident. The next morning, when she left work at 6 a.m., a young man was waiting outside in his car. He offered to take her home, and again she agreed. She did not know that this stranger was Andrew Urdiales, a serial killer of women who was responsible for four murders at that time and later committed at least four more.
After the girl got into the car, the maniac tied her hands and threatened her with a knife. He took the poor girl to a remote location in a vacant lot, where he subjected her to brutal torture and horrific sexual abuse, then forced her into the trunk of his car and sped away at high speed. Knowing that her life now depended on this, Jennifer desperately searched for a way out. She managed to free her bound hands and tried to open the hood in the dark. And the girl opened it, jumped out and ran away, desperately waving her arms and trying to attract the attention of passing cars, while the rapist ran after her with a machete. Luckily, one truck arrived just in time and a couple of Marines took her to the police station. The rapist, meanwhile, disappeared - unfortunately, he was caught only five years later.
7. Tali Shapiro
Rodney Alcala raped and murdered at least eight women between 1971 and 1979, although he is credited with 130 victims due to hundreds of photographs of unidentified women that were found in his home. He is also called The Dating Game Killer due to his appearance on the American television show "The Dating Game" in 1978. As it turned out at the trial, the killer “played” with his victims - he strangled them until they lost consciousness. He waited and when the victim came to, he strangled him again and again before finally killing him.
In 1968, in Los Angeles, a car enthusiast noticed an adult man luring an eight-year-old girl into his apartment and called the police. A girl named Tali Shapiro was found raped in the apartment. She was severely beaten with a steel bar, but was rescued. And Rodney Alcala managed to escape. He moved to the East Coast and entered New York University under a new name - John Berger, where he studied film art under the guidance of Roman Polanski. School ended, summer arrived, and Alcala took a job at the New Hampshire Children's Arts Camp under a slightly changed name. Now he was John Berger. Three years passed and it was only in 1971 that two vacationers saw a “wanted criminal” poster from the FBI in the post office. They recognized Alcala and informed the police. The criminal was arrested and sent back to California. By that time, the parents of Rodney Alcala's first victim, Tali Shapiro, had moved with their daughter to Mexico and prohibited her from testifying against him at his trial. Unable to bring rape and attempted murder charges without a key witness, prosecutors were forced to let Alcala plead guilty to misdemeanor charges. After 34 months, he received parole with the wording “assignment of an indeterminate sentence.”
Two months later, Alcala was arrested again for violating his parole and attempting to introduce marijuana to a 13-year-old girl who later claimed she had been kidnapped. For this, the offender received two years, but was again released early under the same program as before. In 1978, he was arrested again, this time for possession of marijuana. By this point, Alcala had already managed to convince many young women that he was a professional fashion photographer and asked them to pose for his portfolio. Most of the photographs he took back then remain unidentified and police fear the women could also be his victims. Also in 1978, Rodney Alcala managed to participate in the TV show “The Dating Game”. With his extraordinary intelligence and good looks, Rodney charmed all the women on this show with his witty answers to the questions asked. The main character of this program could not resist his charm, choosing Rodney from three competitors. True, she still refused to go on a date with him. Much later, the judicial investigation will return to the materials of this show and they will say that then the girl was unusually lucky - she had good intuition.
6. Kara Robinson
On September 9, 1996, 16-year-old Sofia Silva was kidnapped from her front garden in Spotsylvania. Since then, no one has seen her alive, and a month later her sad fate became known to the public - the body of the unfortunate woman was found in the river. Eight months later, when 15-year-old Christine Leask and his 12-year-old sister Kati were kidnapped and murdered in the same area, it became apparent that a serial killer was at work there. However, the police did not have any leads or evidence, and the case remained unsolved until the killer kidnapped another victim five years later.
15-year-old Kara Robinson was working in the garden at her friend's house when she was kidnapped at gunpoint and taken to her apartment at gunpoint. After handcuffing her and raping her repeatedly for 18 hours, the rapist grew tired and fell asleep. This was a great time to escape. She slipped out of one of the handcuffs and ran outside. Kara's brilliant visual memory and courage led police to a serial killer named Richard Evonitz two days later.
5. Kate Moir
David and Catherine Burney are an Australian couple who are serial killers. They accounted for four killed women (aged 15 to 35 years) and the attempted murder of a fifth. Kate Moire was 17 years old when the pair abducted her at knifepoint. The girl was returning home on the evening of November 9, 1986.
But Kate Moire managed to escape. On November 10th, a naked, crying girl ran into a grocery store and asked to call the police. Like all previous women, Kate was kidnapped by a married couple, chained to a bed and raped repeatedly - by the husband in front of his wife. The next day, Catherine released Moire so that she could contact the house and tell her parents that she was staying with friends; shortly after this, the girl managed to escape through the window. Kate was able to lead the police to Bernie; David and Catherine were arrested for rape. During the interrogation, the police learned about the first four victims of the couple.
David and Catherine each received four life sentences - with the possibility of early release no earlier than after 20 years. David hanged himself in his cell on October 7, 2005. Katherine is still serving her sentence. In 2010, she could have been released early; a year earlier, however, the new Attorney General of Western Australia, Christian Porter, had revoked Burney's right to release. Katherine became the third woman in the history of the country to receive a "never to be released" note in her personal file.
4. Marie
French serial killer Fourniret killed at least seven women and young girls aged 12 to 21, along with his wife Monique Olivier. Monique agreed to find victims for Fourniret if he killed her ex-husband. Fourniret, of course, acted devilishly inventively and even with “invention.” It was important for him to choose virgins as victims. Therefore, the youngest was 12 years old, and the oldest was 21.
The pair managed to continue their killing spree for 14 years from the late 1980s. It wasn't until they got to the girl, identified in court simply as "Marie", who finally led to their deaths. They were arrested in 2003 in Belgium - the 13-year-old girl they abducted, who was to become the next victim, managed to untie the rope with which they tied her wrists and jumped out of the van. She accurately described the appearance of her abductor to the police. The very next day Michel Fourniret was arrested. The investigation almost immediately came to the conclusion that this abduction was not the first incident in Michel’s biography. And his wife Monique Olivier told investigators about 8 more murders committed by her husband.
The decision was made by the Ardennes jury for the proven murders of seven young women in France and Belgium between 1987 and 2001. The court also prohibited changing the sentence of the 66-year-old “Ardennes monster.” He will never be able to get out of prison.
3. Anna Williams
This next case is a little different from the others in that the intended victim did not escape the serial killer - in fact, she never met him.
Dennis Rader came up with the nickname BTK, which refers to his method of killing - tying up (“bind”), torturing (“torture”) and killing (“kill”). He committed his first murder in January 1974. Police found a murdered family in a small house in suburban Wichita. Before entering the house, the criminal prudently cut the telephone wires. He strangled the father and mother of the family with a curtain rope. He then hanged their 11-year-old daughter and strangled their 9-year-old son by putting a plastic bag over his head.
In 1979, Dennis Rader had already committed a lot of evil. He decided on his next victim; she was supposed to be 63-year-old Anna Williams, whom he had been pursuing for many months.
While Anna left on the evening of April 28, he broke into her house, cut all the telephone wires and took some things as souvenirs. However, he clearly didn't intend to wait for Anna that long... she didn't show up at the scheduled time, BTK got angry and wrote her a note, which he wrapped in one of her scarves. “You're lucky you weren't here,” he wrote, “because I was.”
The search for BTK gradually fizzled out by the early 1980s, as there was no new evidence or crime that could be linked to it. Despite Wichita police spending 100,000 man-hours and employing half a dozen investigators between 1974 and 1991, BTK was never caught. The FBI has recognized this case as one of its most unsolvable mysteries. Later he was identified precisely by his writing style. He wrote a poem addressed to Anna, his failed victim. He waited in the house for her to come, but then his patience ran out and he chose to leave.
On February 26, 2005, a suspect in the BTK case was arrested. On February 28, Wichita law enforcement officials held a press conference at which they announced that the currently incarcerated suspect, 59-year-old Dennis Rader, was 99.9 percent the notorious BTK killer. Many details of the investigation, however, remained undisclosed.
2. Maria Poveda
Pedro Alonso López is a Colombian serial killer who is still listed as the "World's Most Violent Maniac" by the Guinness Book of World Records. The number of Lopez's victims ranges from 61 to 300 people. The killer operated from 1969 to 1980. Lopez committed his first murder at the age of eighteen. He raped, killed and flayed the man. A few days later, with three more. He was captured and convicted. The court considered that the young age of the killer mitigated his punishment. Lopez was sentenced to only 8 years in prison. Behind bars, Lopez killed his three cellmates, but the punishment was not revised. After leaving prison, Lopez continues to rape and kill. The second time he is arrested by accident. Lopez confesses to all the murders, shows the site of the mass grave of 50 murdered women. He also talks about incredible murders committed outside of Ecuador. He is tried and given maximum term- 20 years. However, four years before the end of his sentence, he is transferred to another prison and the trace of Lopez himself is lost.
Pedro Lopez has killed at least 120 young girls since 1969. He often buried his victims in mass graves in Ambato (Ecuador), and in 1980 one of these graves was disturbed by a flash flood. A few days later, Lopez was finally apprehended. How was he caught? He tried to kidnap 12-year-old Marie while she was shopping with her mother. Luckily, she managed to escape from him and her mother screamed for help, prompting local residents to detain Lopez and hand her over to the police.
Currently a suspect in the murders and disappearances of girls and children, Lopez finally admitted his crimes during a conversation with a priest in prison. He claimed to have raped and killed more than 300 girls in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, but was released from a mental hospital in 1998 and declared sane. Shock! No one is sure of his current whereabouts, but it was reported that in 2002 Interpol recommended his re-arrest for a recent murder.
1. Rhonda Williams & Timothy Cordell Curley
Dean Arnold Corll is an American serial killer who, along with two accomplices (David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.), raped and murdered at least 27 boys between 1970 and 1973 in Houston. The story only came to light after Elmer shot Corll, and was considered at the time the most brutal murder spree in history. American history. Corll's nickname was Candy Man, as he and his family owned a candy factory in Houston Heights and Corll often lured his future victims with free candy.
Between 1970 and 1973, Dean Corll kidnapped and murdered somewhere around 28 people. All of his victims were between the ages of 13 and 20, most of them teenagers from Houston Heights.
On the evening of August 7, 1973, 17-year-old Henley lured 19-year-old Timothy Cordell Curley to Corll's apartment, where they sat until midnight, inhaling paint fumes and drinking alcoholic beverages. They then left to buy sandwiches, after which Curley decided to drive Henley home in his Volkswagen. At the latter's house, they encountered Henley's neighbor, 15-year-old Rhonda Williams, who had been beaten by her drunken father that evening and wanted to go somewhere for a while until her father sobered up. Henley then invited Williams to spend the night at Corll's apartment, after which the three went to Pasadena. At approximately three o'clock in the morning on August 8, 1973, the trio arrived at Corll's. Corll was furious that Henley had brought the girl. Corll then offered the trio beer and marijuana, while he himself did not touch alcohol or drugs. About two hours later, all three passed out.
When Henley woke up, his mouth was taped shut, his legs were tied, and his hands were handcuffed by Corll. Nearby, already tied up, lay unconscious Curley and Williams (Curley was completely naked). Noticing that Henley had woken up, Corll tore off the tape and said that he was very angry with Henley and that he would kill them all. He kicked Williams several times in the chest before carrying Henley into the kitchen and pressing a .22-caliber pistol to his stomach. Henley tried to calm him down, assuring him that he would participate in the torture and murder of the couple. Corll believed him and untied him. Then he took Curley and Williams to his bedroom and tied them on both sides of his torture board: Curley - belly down, Williams - belly up. He then handed the Henley hunting knife and demanded that he cut Williams' clothes. While Henley did this, Corll undressed and began torturing Curley. Henley, seizing the moment, grabbed the gun and shouted, “You’ve gone too far, Dean!” pointed it at Corll. Corll then began to advance on him with the words “Kill me, Henley! You won't do this! Then Henley started shooting...Henley released Curley and Williams and suggested that they just go home, but Curley persuaded him to call the police. On August 13, a grand jury convened in Harris County to hear testimony against Henley and Brooks, with Rhonda Williams and Tim Currey as witnesses.
Most people remember the names of notorious serial killers. Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy - these names and many others have become involuntarily ingrained in our collective psyche, their crimes too horrific to ignore. However, very few remember the names of the victims of these vicious individuals, perhaps because most of them did not live to tell their story.
However, in some cases there are those who are lucky enough to escape the clutches of madness. Their stories serve as survival lessons that we can all learn from, lessons that could very well save lives.
10. Maria Viricheva
Single 19-year-old Maria Viricheva, who was three months pregnant, was working as a saleswoman when she met one of Russia's most notorious serial killers, Alexander Pichushkin, also known as the "Checkerboard Killer" or "Bitsevsky Maniac." She was new to this job, where she was hired by her boyfriend, who was also the father of her child. They had argued earlier that day and she had then stood upset at a Moscow metro station. Pichushkin spied on Maria and, noticing her obvious state of despair, struck up a conversation with her. Feeling hopeless and lonely, Maria was glad for the company.
Hearing about her situation, Pichushkin offered her a chance to earn some extra money, telling her that he had hidden several stolen cameras in a well in nearby Bitsevsky Park, and that he would give her several of them to sell. Even though it was late at night, Maria, not knowing whether she would still have work waiting for her when she arrived at the store the next morning, agreed to go with him to get the cameras.
When they arrived at the place, Pichushkin lifted the lid from the well and told her to look inside. When she did, he quickly picked her up and threw her inside. She pressed herself against the walls of the well to avoid falling, but Pichushkin grabbed her head and hit her against the wall of the well several times. She had to remove her hands and fall. The last thing she heard was her killer shouting “take a bath there!”, then she fell into the darkness.
She flew down more than 9 meters before landing in waste water knee-deep, which quickly flowed into the drain. She was caught by the current, and only by quickly removing her jacket and boots did she manage to place her arms and legs on the sides of the sewer and stop her further descent. If she had not done this, she would have reached the end of the drainpipe in a section that was completely filled with water and would have drowned.
Luckily, she stopped next to another well that had a drainpipe opening onto it and managed to climb to the top, only to find that she was too weak to lift the well cover above her. Luckily, a woman passing by heard her cries for help and saw the well lid lift slightly as Maria tried to open it, and the woman ran to inform two security officers. They lifted the lid of the well and pulled Maria to safety.
Incredibly, the police refused to investigate the incident and forced Maria to sign a statement saying that she fell into the well herself. She was invited to identify her attacker much later, when he was finally detained on suspicion of 48 murders. If the police had done their job the first time, many lives could have been saved.
9. Whitney Bennett
Young Whitney Bennett had no way of knowing that leaving her bedroom windows open before going to bed on the night of July 4, 1985, would result in her being brutally attacked. This innocent mistake led her to a night of utter horror and a lifetime of suffering.
That night, Richard Ramirez, also known as the Night Stalker, crawled through her bedroom window and severely beat her with a tire iron before trashing her room and taking all her valuables. The only thing the young girl could be grateful for was that the first few blows quickly rendered her unconscious, although the strangulation marks that were found on her neck after the attack indicated that luck was indeed on her side in that night. Two nights later, Ramirez carried out an almost identical attack on another woman, Joyce L. Nelson, at her home. This time the attack was fatal.
The crime scene Ramirez left behind was covered in Whitney's blood, and his bloody shoe print was found on her blanket. He also carelessly left a tire iron on her bedroom floor. As for Whitney Bennett, she was left with a permanent scar from the attack and had to undergo extensive cosmetic surgery. It was her testimony that helped convict Ramirez of his crimes during his trial and ensured that he received the death sentence. He eventually died in prison from natural causes at the age of 53 before his death sentence could be carried out.
8. Rhonda Williams
After 40 years of silence, Rhonda Williams decided she'd had enough and finally plucked up the courage to speak out about her terrifying encounter with one of Houston's most notorious serial killers. Dean Corll and his younger accomplice, Elmer Wayne Henley, were responsible for the murders of 29 young boys who were lured into Corll's clutches to satisfy his sadistic sexual needs. Rhonda Williams became friends with Henley as a teenager and thought Henley was someone she could trust. Growing up in an environment of severe abuse and neglect, she endured frequent beatings from her alcoholic father and was even raped multiple times as an infant.
In August 1973, she once again confided in Henley when he snuck through her bedroom window to help her escape another episode of violence at the hands of her father. Together they crawled out of the house. Another boy, Tim Kerley, was waiting in the car and the three of them drove to where Williams thought she would be safe. If she had known Henley's true motives, she certainly would not have allowed him to "save" her.
The trio arrived at Corll's house, where they partied until they passed out. Williams woke up to a scene of unimaginable horror. She and two other boys were tied hand and foot. Corll began kicking her and screaming at her to wake up, then he and Henley took two other prisoners into another room and secured them both to what can only be described as a "torture block." Naively, she still believed that Henley would not allow harm to come to her, even when she heard the screams of her fellow prisoners.
Her trust was finally broken when Henley told her that he would have to shoot her before the ordeal was over. However, something inside Henley finally snapped and he instead turned his gun on Corll and shot him, saving the lives of all the prisoners. Henley then reached for the phone and called the police.
Williams survived her night of horror thanks to her friend's conscience, and although he was jailed for short time, she had since given him a promise to remain silent about her ordeal, and only decided to talk about it publicly four decades later. Henley remains in prison for his role in luring Corll's victims, but he remains in contact with Williams to this day.
7. Teresa Thornhill
Robert Black was a convicted child killer and pedophile who murdered four young victims in Scotland between 1970 and 1990. Teresa Thornhill was one of the few famous people who survived his attacks.
On a warm April day in 1988, Teresa, who was 15 at the time, was walking home when she caught the eye of Black sitting in a van parked outside her house. Pretending he had car trouble, he walked out of the back of his van and asked a young girl if she knew anything about engines. When she approached, he grabbed her and covered her mouth with one hand, pinned her arms to her sides, and tried to pull her into his van through back door. She screamed and bit his hand, causing him to drop her, while her friend who lived next door ran over to help, scaring Black away. After this frightening incident, she ran to her home and her parents called the police. But it was already too late - Black had already disappeared.
Two years passed and the young girl remained traumatized by what had happened; she almost never went outside. She was one of the witnesses who testified against him at his trial, where he was found guilty of three murders and her kidnapping, receiving a life sentence for his crimes. While he was still in prison, he was found guilty of murdering his fourth victim, a nine-year-old girl. To this day, the police continue to investigate his case and suspect him of committing many other murders.
6. Tali Shapiro
Eleven-year-old Tali Shapiro didn't like riding the bus, so she walked to school from her home in West Hollywood almost every day. One September morning in 1969, a little girl's decision to walk the short distance to her school turned out to be a terrible mistake.
That morning, while driving down Sunset Boulevard, Rodney Alcala pulled up to her in his car and asked her if she wanted to go for a ride. She refused, saying that she was not allowed to talk to strangers. He assured her that he knew her family and told her that he had beautiful photo which he wanted to show her. Although she was wary, she approached his car. This is the last thing she remembers about that day. Luckily, another person saw the kidnapping take place and called the police.
When police arrived at his door, Alcala tried to keep them from entering his home, claiming he was in the shower, forcing them to break down the door. Alcala fled out the back door, and officers found little Tali on the floor of his apartment, half-dead with a metal rod wrapped around her neck, as if Alcala had just pinned her to the floor when they arrived. It was also determined that the little girl had been sexually assaulted. She was taken to hospital and fortunately survived the attack.
Like many of the brave victims who testified on this list, Tali Shapiro later testified against her attacker, helping to convict him. He was sentenced to death for this and many other crimes, including the murders of four other victims.
5. Rose Steward
Even though Rose Steward has every reason to hate Dean Carter, in an incredible act of forgiveness, she actively campaigns to save him from the death penalty for raping her and murdering five others. people.
On March 29, 1984, Steward was awakened by an intruder holding a knife to her neck. Over the next five hours, she was repeatedly raped and beaten by him, losing consciousness twice during the attack. She managed to survive the attack by pretending that she "liked" her attacker. She even went so far as to kiss him, causing him to leave without taking her life. When her nightmare finally ended, she immediately sought help from a neighbor, who contacted the police. Carter raped and strangled five other women in California over the next 18 days, and it was Steward's testimony that helped prosecutors ensure he would receive the death penalty for his crimes.
While he currently sits on death row awaiting his fate, Steward herself is active in the anti-death penalty movement, supporting what is known in California as Proposition 34, which would commute all death sentences to life imprisonment without option. early release. Some of the families of his other victims were understandably shocked by her decision. This leaves Steward torn between her belief that the death penalty is the wrong decision in any case and her personal understanding of the pain of the man's other victims. Only time will tell if Rose Steward will be present for Carter's last day of life.
4. Bryan Hartnell
While Brian Hartnell attended classes at Pacific Union College in San Francisco in the late 1960s, he had no idea that his bright future would be forever scarred by one terrifying day. After driving to a picturesque lake in a remote part of town with their friend, Cecilia Shephard, the couple parked their car and planned to enjoy their day in privacy. Unbeknownst to them, an unknown man, who was later dubbed the Zodiac Killer, had other plans for them.
While they were in the car, a man wearing a black hoodie and a shirt with white crosses on the front approached the couple and forced them out of the car at gunpoint. After he forced them to the ground, he began stabbing them repeatedly. Then he simply disappeared, leaving them to die. Cecilia was then able to provide a description of the killer before she died in hospital. However, Brian did not see his face and thus remained frustrated, not knowing who the person was who took the life of the one he loved.
Fortunately, the passage of time healed his wounds not only physically, but also emotionally, and Brian became a legal lawyer, got married and started his own family. The Zodiac Killer remains unidentified to this day, and his crimes remain one of the longest-running crime mysteries of the 20th century.
3. Corazon Atienza
Corazon Atienza opened the door to her apartment on the night of July 13, 1966, and unknowingly let brutal serial killer Richard Speck into her life and the lives of her roommates. She was also the only one who managed to survive that terrible night.
Holding a gun in his hand, Speck burst into the house and forced the girls into the common room. He cut several sheets into makeshift ropes and tied them all tightly. At first he did not harm the women, telling them that he just wanted to take some money and that he would leave them alone. However, after some time, Speck proceeded to rape, stab, and mutilate one girl after another until Corazon, overcome with fear, hid under the beds in the room. At one point, he raped one of her friends on the bed directly above her.
The attacks continued for almost six hours, and Corazon did not even dare to make a sound during this time. Finally, at about five o'clock in the morning, it was all over. Due to the fact that Speck was highly intoxicated at the time of the attack, he apparently forgot about her and left the apartment after he thought his work was finished. She fled the scene of the massacre through a bedroom window after he left and began calling for help. Her screams were heard by neighbors and her nightmare came to an end.
Due to the overwhelming amount of physical evidence that Speck left at the scene, as well as the fact that he already had an extensive criminal record, he was soon caught when he checked into a local hospital after attempting suicide. He slit his wrists after learning that he had kept Corazon alive, and a doctor at the hospital recognized him from newspaper reports and contacted the police. Nine months later, the jury needed just 49 minutes of deliberation to sentence him to the electric chair. Their conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court in 1972, and he was given eight consecutive terms ranging from 50 to 150 years. He died in prison without showing any remorse for his crimes.
2. Larry Flynt
Larry Flynt is known as the outspoken and flamboyant publisher of Hustler magazine and the creator of a business empire. He is also famous for the fact that he was nearly killed by a man named Joseph Paul Franklin in an assassination attempt that left Flint paralyzed from the waist down when he was hit by two bullets from Franklin's high-powered rifle.
However, what many are unaware of is that Flint's attacker was a serial killer who was tried and convicted of committing eight murders across the United States between 1977 and 1980, although he claimed to have killed a dozen more in an attempt to start a “Race War” in the country. Franklin, who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazi movement, spoke of being "at war." Flynt was a direct violation of Franklin's religious beliefs and his moral stance against pornography, particularly the interracial images that were featured in Hustler magazine at the time. So on March 6, 1978, Flynt and his lawyer were gunned down by Franklin, who confessed to the attack in prison after being sentenced for another murder for which he had received a death sentence.
Although Larry Flynt, who was in constant pain, may have understandably wanted his attacker dead, he actually lobbied for Franklin's sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment due to his stance on the death penalty itself. To quote him as saying: “In all the years since the shooting, I have never come face to face with Franklin. I would really like to spend an hour in a room with him and a pair of wire cutters and pliers so that I could inflict on him the same injuries that he inflicted on me. But I don't want to kill him, and I don't want to see him die. . . I just don't think the government should kill people. And I think the punishment of locking someone in a three-by-six cage is much worse than if you just take their life in a few seconds with a lethal injection.”
Despite Flint's best efforts, Joseph Franklin was executed in November 2013.
1. Rebecca Garde
Rebecca Garde worked as a telemarketer in Seattle in 1982. She got home from work and was tired of waiting in the rain for her bus, so she decided to hitchhike home that cold night in November. The man who ended up offering her a ride seemed as ordinary as the Dodge pickup he was driving, so she gladly accepted his offer. If she had known that he would eventually be found guilty of murdering 48 women like her, she might have refused his offer.
While riding in his car, she offered him sex in exchange for $20, figuring she would use the money to buy weed when she got home. It was at this point that she had a strange feeling about the man she was traveling with and so, as a precaution, she asked to look at his passport, to which he agreed. This calmed her down a bit, since at least he wasn't a police officer. They parked at a trailer park and the man suggested they go into the woods for some privacy.
After they reached an area that was relatively secluded, Gary Ridgway attacked her and attempted to strangle her from behind. She pushed Gary, who hit a tree, allowing her to run to a nearby trailer for help. The man who attacked her immediately fled the scene.
Due to her lifestyle and general fear of the police, Garde waited almost two years after her attack before she contacted the authorities, and although her testimony did not directly lead to his capture, it did help law enforcement build a more detailed case against the prolific man himself. serial killer in the USA. Ridgway picked up and killed at least 15 other women from the roadside in the same area along the Pacific Highway South where he attacked Gardaí, and her description of him at least gave them something to move on.
Ridgway was finally caught in 2001 and sentenced to life in prison. Rebecca Garde remains the only known victim to survive his attack.
Everyone knows that in the Soviet Union there was no sex, religion or democracy, and if something scandalous happened, the authorities preferred to keep silent about it. Nevertheless, it was difficult to hide the bloody details of the most terrible crimes from society. Some of the maniacs listed in this collection could not be caught for a long time even after the collapse of the USSR, and some people were even accused by accident.
1. Anatoly Biryukov - “Baby Hunter”
Maniac Biryukov seemed to be an exemplary family man and a respectable citizen: no one suspected that a decent husband and father was leading a double life.
Biryukov committed his first murder in 1977. He kidnapped the baby from the stroller, took it to a deserted place and tried to commit acts of violence against him of a known nature. However, the maniac was scared off by onlookers, and he killed the baby with a knife. That same year, Biryukov committed several more rapes and murders of kidnapped babies, but by the sixth case, witnesses began to pursue him. Fortunately for the investigation, they were able to examine the rapist and draw up a composite sketch.
After his arrest, investigators and psychiatrists came to the conclusion that Biryukov suffered from a severe form of non-pyophilia - a passion for babies. In his justification, the criminal said that he committed his crimes because his wife refused to maintain an intimate relationship with him. In 1979, Biryukov, who killed a total of five babies, was shot.
2. Alexey Sukletin - “Alligator”
Sukletin has seven girls and women on his account, whom he killed and ate with his accomplices Shakirova and Nikitin. The first victim was a woman named Ekaterina Osetrova in 1981. Sukletin insisted that his mistress Shakirova help him kill, butcher and prepare the dead. Madina Shakirova, in love and tamed, was ready to do anything for her lover, so she agreed to take on the duties of a cook.
The cannibal idyll did not last long - after the murder of the little girl, Sukletin and Shakirova separated. The maniac did not grieve for long and immediately found a replacement - his relative Anatoly Nikitin often came to visit, with whom they eventually killed and dismembered the new victim.
Rumors began to circulate in the village that Sukletin was selling high-quality meat and tenderloin, and in the meantime the gang began to engage in extortion, for which they were caught. 4 bags of human bones were found in Sukletin's garden. The maniac was shot in 1994, and Shakirova and Nikitin were sentenced to 15 years in prison. The cannibals have at least seven victims.
3. Anatoly Onoprienko - “Citizen O”
By 1996, when Onoprienko was taken into custody, he already had about 52 killed. The exact number of deaths remains unknown to this day, but according to investigators, there were much more victims.
Onoprienko began his activities in 1989 together with his partner Sergei Rogozin. The “deadly duo” killed couples and even groups of young people, and they also broke into houses and shot all family members, including children. Onoprienko often shot random passers-by.
The motives for Citizen O’s crimes still remain unknown. According to him, he killed people because some forces and voices ordered him to do it. The crimes included three waves: against communism, nationalism and the plague of the 21st century. After a long search, the investigation finally got on the trail of Onoprienko. True, before this, an innocent person was detained who died during torture. After the trial, Anatoly Onoprienko was sentenced to death, but the sentence was never carried out due to the abolition of the death penalty in Ukraine.
4. Sergey Golovkin - “Fisher”
Sergei was considered a young attractive man, but despite the fact that girls were always hovering around, he showed no interest in them. Fisher was more interested in teenage boys.
The first attempted rape and murder was an incident in 1984 (many years later, the surviving victim was able to identify Golovkin). The first murder that took place was the strangulation of 16-year-old Andrei in 1984: threatening violence, Golovkin dragged the boy into the forest, raped, strangled and violated the body. Then the killings continued and caused a public outcry, which is why Fischer decided to go underground for a while.
In 1989, Golovkin “got back into business,” but changed his style somewhat. He built a basement in his garage where he tortured, raped and killed boys. Due to the fact that the killer became careless and sloppily buried the last bodies, he was quickly identified and found. In 1992, Fischer was finally detained. He was sentenced to death and carried out in 1996. The maniac has killed 11 teenagers.
5. Anatoly Utkin - “Ulyanovsk Maniac”
Anatoly Utkin, born in 1942, was a driver by profession. In 1968, his car was stopped by a 14-year-old girl, Liza Makarova, who urgently needed to go to the hospital to see her mother. Taking advantage of the moment, Utkin raped and killed the poor girl, leaving himself several of her personal belongings “as a souvenir.”
The victims of the rampant maniac were both young girls and middle-aged women. After the disappearances of the girls and the discovery of corpses, the public was alarmed: a serial killer had appeared in calm Ulyanovsk! Over time, Utkin began to take a more cautious approach to choosing victims - he was guided by careful planning.
In 1972, the maniac’s motives changed: now his goal was not violence and murder, but profit. In the same year, Utkin killed a man for the sake of robbery, and in 1973 he was taken into custody. After the investigation and evidence found in the suspect’s house, the police had no doubts about his guilt. In 1975, Utkin was shot; a total of nine murders were identified as his “authorship.”
Oddly enough, his family and acquaintances spoke extremely favorably about Anatoly Utkin. He was married twice and had two children.
6. Sergey Tkach - “Pavlograd Maniac”
Tkach had been operating since 1980, the motives for his crimes were always of a sexual nature. The killer began committing crimes after moving to Ukraine; he chose girls from 9 to 17 years old. The weaver carefully hid the evidence, leaving no traces of semen, prints or tissues on the bodies, however, he did not give up the memorabilia of his victims, which he carefully preserved.
In 2005, Tkach dealt with another victim - a nine-year-old girl - after which he was detained. During his search, 14 people were innocently convicted of committing crimes, which Tkach then confessed to.
Today Sergei Tkach is serving a life sentence. For some time in custody, he had access to the Internet and communicated with interested people. This cruel maniac has between 30 and 150 victims.
7. Vladimir Mukhankin - “Lenin”
Vladimir was born into a single-parent family as an unwanted child (his father abandoned his mother before his son was born), as a result of which he endured constant bullying and bad attitude at home. Embittered by his surroundings, Mukhankin periodically wandered, stole, attacked people and tortured and abused animals. His nature did not prevent him from getting married at the age of 18; he had a son, who later died.
In 1995, “Lenin” begins to kill and commits eight murders in a few months. Mukhankin mocked his dying victims, performing horrific acts on the agonizing body. The maniac's real passion was human organs, with which he often went to bed.
After his capture, the criminal behaved obscenely and declared that he was the second Chikatilo. Mukhankin described his crimes in detail with pleasure, but at the trial he recanted all his testimony. He was found guilty of 22 crimes, eight of which were murders. Mukhankin is now serving a life sentence in the Black Dolphin colony.
8. Vladimir Ionesyan - Mosgaz
During the Khrushchev Thaw, it was difficult to imagine that an attacker would enter your apartment, posing as an employee, for example, of Mosgaz or a housing office, which gave the criminal the opportunity to use this simple method. The authorities were furious, and all efforts were devoted to catching the maniac.
Due to the quick investigation and quick reprisal against Ionesyan, his motives remained unclear. Most likely, he killed for the purpose of robbery. There is also a version that after leaving his wife for the ballerina Alevtina Dmitrieva, the criminal entered the apartments to find gifts for the woman. According to the third version, the murders helped Ionesyan to assert himself.
Mosgaz committed his first murder in 1963: after entering an apartment, he hacked to death with an ax a 12-year-old boy who was alone at home and took away several things. The last murder of a 46-year-old woman occurred in 1964, the same year the criminal was taken into custody and shot.
There is an unproven version that Khrushchev himself spoke with Ionesyan. The killer has five victims, four of whom are children.
9. Roman Burtsev - “Kamensky Chikatilo”
Burtsev's parents were alcoholics, which probably influenced the formation of his personality. He began his bloody “career” as a pedophile in 1993 with the murder of the Churilovs’ brother and sister. First, he got rid of the boy, and then raped and killed the girl. The corpses were buried in a hole.
Burtsev was always distinguished by his accuracy: he hid the bodies of the victims so carefully that almost all of them were found only when the killer himself showed the burial places. However, the thoroughness of burying the corpses failed Burtsev - after the next murder, he asked one of the residents of his village for a shovel, after which he threw away the weapon. The woman described the appearance of the strange man, and a little later he was also identified by one of the victims who managed to escape.
In 1996, Roman Burtsev was caught and sentenced to death, but then the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. “Kamensky Chikatilo” managed to kill six people.
10. Vasily Kulik - “Irkutsk Monster”
As a child, Vasily Kulik was a sickly child, but his family always looked after him and took care of him. Due to constant illnesses, almost everything was forgiven to him, so Vasily grew up quite selfish and cruel, in his teens he poisoned and hanged cats.
With age, Kulik grew stronger and began to play sports. After an attack and a blow to the head in 1980, he began to have sexual desires towards children; in 1982, Kulik committed the first rape, and two years later the first murder of a nine-year-old girl. The maniac did not shy away from killing pensioners: by his own admission, he compiled a list of old women of interest to him.
Panic began in Irkutsk, and the killer tried to be more careful, however, during the next attempt in 1986, passers-by were able to stop him. The “Irkutsk monster” admitted everything, but at the trial he suddenly began to deny his involvement, declaring that he was set up by the Chibis gang. After a thorough investigation, Vasily Kulik was shot in 1989. He had 13 kills to his name.
August 1994. In the forest a couple of kilometers from Angarsk, a group of operatives examines the found corpse. Or rather, what was left of him. The smell is terrible: an unknown girl lies on the coals of an extinguished fire. Only the legs were untouched by the flames.
Everyday life? Robbery? Are there other versions? - the senior investigation team organizes a brainstorming session.
Most likely the first option. There's a cemetery nearby, normal people don't walk here at night. Again another "grouse". “I was badly burned,” my colleagues make excuses.
Describe everything down to the smallest detail. We need clues. There's a handbag, an umbrella is missing. Raise the relatives of all fresh losses. Although... what is there to identify.
The victim was first hit in the head several times with an axe. Then they threw him into the fire. The identity of the murdered person will be established in a year. It will take more than 20 years to find and try the criminal...
For a long time, Irina Shodorova was considered the first of the twenty-two victims of Mikhail Popkov. But a few days ago it became known that the blood of at least 81 people was on the hands of the Angarsk “cleaner”! 47 murder cases, according to investigators, have been proven and can be taken to court. 12 episodes are still in development. According to Life information obtained from sources close to the investigation, the Angarsk maniac began killing back in 1992.
March 1998. The head of the duty shift of the central district police department of Angarsk, Dmitry Khmylovsky, gives orders to his subordinate.
Misha, assemble a task force! Another woman was found in the forest!
The smile disappears from Mikhail Popkov’s face.
Near the Staromoskovsky tract.
So everything is on another exit. Can I first find the place myself, in my car, get my bearings, and then gather everyone?
Yes, go ahead. Figure out what's what.
Popkov arrived at the place and looked around. My heart was relieved: there was no evidence against him. And the body lay there for more than four months. "Snowdrop", as they say in the police. Even the man who discovered the body refused to give his name over the phone. He disappeared. Now let your colleagues look for wind in the field.
Popkov often went to the murders he committed. Sometimes alone, sometimes together with the task force. Didn't interfere with work. He usually stood on the sidelines. He listened and delved into whether there were any clues against him. And each time, making sure that they were not there, he got into the car and, smiling, returned to the department.
He returned and continued to perform his official duties. But Popkov knew police science well - all his colleagues spoke of him as a true professional.
He was respected. Pedantic, reserved, competent, courageous. Sometimes people asked him for advice. And he looked perfect. The uniform is always ironed. Order in the workplace. “I didn’t abuse alcohol,” says Dmitry Khmylovsky, a former police officer and Popkov’s boss in 1997–1998.
The smile never left his face when communicating with colleagues, and sometimes even with criminals. Petty riffraff, alcoholics and hooligans knew for sure: if they were taken to the Central District Department, they would be met by this strange duty officer.
The petty criminal even came up with a nickname for him - Misha Gwynplaine. Like in Victor Hugo's novel "The Man Who Laughs". Only Popkov himself preferred to leave terrible scars on the faces of his victims. This smiling, friendly young man may have joined the police because of his convenient schedule. Three days. Lots of free time. And it’s good for the family budget: you can find a part-time job.
But Popkov was more worried not about part-time work, but about the opportunity to lead a second life, taking away other people’s. However, on days off duty he worked part-time at the only city cemetery. The same place where many of his victims were buried. Who knows, maybe he even dug a grave for one of them. There were a lot of unidentified bodies in the 90s. They were buried like that - without names under numbers. On the outskirts of the cemetery, in pre-dug graves. Last summer, at least two of these coffins were lifted up and the bodies were exhumed. It was never possible to establish their identity, but now there is no doubt: the death of these two girls is on Popkov’s conscience. At the cemetery in Angarsk, the maniac temporarily turned into a gravedigger. It was as if he was seeing off his victims.
He was drawn here since childhood. More than 10 girls were found torn to pieces in the vicinity of the churchyard in Angarsk. Apparently, Popkov felt comfortable here, with peace of mind. If he even has one. He made his living by digging graves from the age of 14. Father taught. The work is hard, but stable. You won't be left without bread.
Everyone knew that Popkov was digging graves in the cemetery. It was strange, of course. The guys usually worked as security guards or as taxi drivers. Popkov also sometimes drove taxis. It was difficult for everyone. At that time, salaries were sometimes not paid for three months,” says an ex-Angarsk police officer who worked with Popkov for several years.
The authorities, naturally, turned a blind eye to Popkov’s “kalym”. He had no complaints about his work. Quite the contrary.
In 1996, he and a task force went to apprehend robbers. The criminals resisted. One tried to escape. Popkov raised the Kalashnikov assault rifle, removed the safety, and switched it to single-fire mode. Two claps. The bullets entered the robber's body. When his colleagues confirmed the death of the raider, not a single muscle on Popkov’s face flinched. The pre-investigation check established: he acted in accordance with the charter. They even wanted to reward him for his professionalism. But it turned out to be a delight in the eyes of my younger colleagues.
Dead eye and a steady hand Popkov coached constantly. At biathlon competitions. When colleagues after a difficult shift went home to sleep or to a drink shop to relieve stress, Popkov ran laps on a bicycle or sweated in the forest on a ski track.
Tightly built and wiry, Popkov possessed incredible strength. He tossed weights like pounds like toys. 32 kilograms in cast iron design was also a good friend. The murderer killed one of his victims with one blow. The screwdriver entered the unfortunate girl's forehead, and the bloody metal tip jumped out of the back of her head.
Even now, after being behind bars for almost five years, he is in excellent physical shape. Does push-ups and does other exercises with your own weight.
He can do about 50 pull-ups on the move. And he is already 52 years old. Who can boast of such preparation? - asks Evgeniy Karchevsky, special investigator important matters Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for the Irkutsk Region.
Death went hand in hand with Popkov. Sometimes even when he himself didn’t want it. In the mid-2000s, a motorcyclist crashed into his company car. The young man driving the bike was drunk, driving without headlights, lost control, jumped into the oncoming lane and rammed Popkov’s car. By that time, the serial number was already working in one of the private security companies in Angarsk. That day, he literally stunned his colleagues who arrived at the scene of the accident.
When the doctors were packing the body of the crashed motorcyclist into a plastic bag, Popkov said: “There is one less Indian.” Then he smiled. And he walked away. “I was shocked,” recalls Ilya Kirichenko, a private security company employee who worked with Popkov for three years.
Cautious, secretive, strong. But why was Popkov caught two long decades after the start of his bloody campaign?
If you look at the crime situation in the 90s in Angarsk, your hair stands on end. In a town of 250 thousand, about 200 murders were committed annually. It was impossible to reveal them all. The streets were raging with punks, in apartments, everyday alcoholics grabbed knives in an argument over whose expense the next half-liter would be, and factories, newspapers and ships were shared by guys with shaved heads in crimson jackets.
All the forces of the police in the 90s were devoted precisely to the fight against organized crime. Remember that time yourself. And our OBOP (organized crime department) was very strong. There were successes. But there was not enough strength, money and time for domestic murders,” says one of the Angarsk police officers who worked with Popkov for several years.
And the detectives are easy to understand. If you shut down a gangster group, you'll get at least an extraordinary rank. If you collect material on an authority figure or hire a killer, screw a hole in your jacket for a medal. No one has canceled the bonuses for disclosure either.
That is why security forces often looked at women’s corpses in the forest with longing and sadness. Everyday life. No prospects. Adding to the despondency of the operatives was the fact that the vast majority of Popkov’s victims were drunk. It's not a big, shiny reveal. But the ripper spoiled the statistics, which means it was necessary to work with these crimes.
We were looking for many different killers, not just one maniac. For a long time it was not possible to unite disparate cases. And when we finally came to this idea, a command was sent down from above: “Don’t drive the wave! All we needed was a maniac,” say police from Angarsk.
Several operatives are sure: Popkov could have been caught back in the mid-90s. Until the number of his victims exceeded ten. It was necessary to scrupulously compare the cases of Irina Shodorova and another girl whom the maniac burned earlier.
However, many claim that the Angarsk “werewolf” left practically no traces, so it was difficult to find a connection between the deaths of the girls. He changed his killer handwriting. He wielded an ax, a knife, a screwdriver, and a noose.
But there was a connection, and quite obvious. The maniac chose drunk girls.
Evening, street, drunk girl. A car slows down nearby. A smiling young man driving starts a conversation through the rolled down window.
Girl, do you need a ride?
Come on!
Where will we go?
I don't care. Ride.
The car turns off the highway onto a dirt road. And hides behind the trees. Quiet and warm. Last summer nights. A couple chooses a place for an impromptu picnic. A bottle of alcohol appears. She drinks in large sips, he just wets his lips. We drank, talked, had sex. What happened next is not known for certain. The man goes to the car, takes out an ax and hits the drunk girl on the head several times with the blade. He throws Irina Shodorova’s body and belongings into the fire. She became the third victim. Taking another look at the silhouette on fire, the killer turns around and leaves. Home. To my beloved wife and daughter.
Popkov will act approximately according to this scheme for many years. Girl on the road, forest, murder. But with variations. He dulled the vigilance of strangers with a policeman's ID. On the spot, he did not seek reciprocity, but raped them. He didn't burn the bodies anymore. He did not try to hide the corpses of his victims. Having done his job, Popkov left them in place. And he got rid of the murder weapons. He threw it into the bushes away from the crime scene or into bodies of water.
Last summer, in one day, we found two of his axes, with which two girls were hacked to death. One is at the bottom of the quarry. The other is on the site of the old river bed. It lay in the ground at a depth of 10–15 centimeters. Popkov threw them away 9 and 12 years ago, respectively. Lucky, to be honest. He very accurately indicated the location to the investigators. That’s the only reason they found it,” says Yuri Lovtsov, a rescue diver.
Sometimes Popkov went hunting in uniform and in a company car. The maniac waylaid one of his victims at 5 am almost in the city center. He raped and killed a gullible girl near the railway station and his police department. That night Popkov was on duty and went away to supposedly buy groceries. Less than an hour later, the body of the unfortunate woman was discovered, and the maniac, as part of the task force, arrived at the scene of his own crime.
But the killer's main calling card was stripping his victims. The upper part of the clothing is pulled up to the throat or removed altogether, the lower part is lowered to the level of the knees or ankles. When these coincidences became obvious and turned into a pattern, the murder cases of the girls were combined into one. This happened only in 1998. And before Popkov’s capture there were 14 long years left.
Over the years of the investigation, several task forces to search for the maniac have been replaced. First, Novosibirsk residents came to work, then it was the turn of Moscow detectives. Over these 14 years, mountains of new corpses appeared before the steel cuffs snapped onto the maniac’s hands. The investigation sharply narrowed the circle of suspects after the discovery of fundamental evidence.
A button with a double-headed eagle was found next to one of the victims. These are on uniforms. But who knows how many people have lost? Hunters, fishermen, military. Then they suggested that the maniac might be one of our own. But this version was not the main one, says one of the ex-police officers.
Even when detectives received testimony from a girl who had survived the maniac’s attack, they could not find Popkov right away. In the summer of 1999, a maniac attacked Evgenia Protasova. I thought he killed her, but she survived, although she lost her memory. All the girl could tell the investigators was that his name was Mikhail and that he worked for the police.
Either they didn’t believe Protasova, or they couldn’t figure out Popkov. But the maniac realized that he had made a fatal mistake, and in the fall of the same year he left the police. His colleagues were perplexed: a brilliant employee had just received the rank of junior lieutenant - and immediately quit!
The maniac was found only thanks to molecular genetic testing. Saliva was taken from more than 3,500 suspects, including former police officers, to compare with the killer material that was found on the bodies of three victims. Experts came to Popkov only in 2012. After submitting the biomaterials, Popkov realized that he was doomed. And he calmly waited for the arrest. I managed to say goodbye to my mother, who lives in the Lipetsk region. He destroyed evidence and burned all his old clothes, including his police uniform. I brought the apartment into perfect order.
The news that Popkov had not 22, but 81 victims, produced the effect of a bomb exploding in Angarsk. Especially among friends and former colleagues Popkova. Many guessed that there were more dead than proved, but the fact that their number would almost quadruple came as a shock. Rumors spread around the city, saying that the investigation received medals for Popkov, they want more. They decided to pin all the wood grouse in Angarsk and the Irkutsk region on him. Or he gets it for his own glory. He doesn’t care how long he sits. The investigation counters these rumors with facts.
When a person tells what the victim was wearing, what he ate, what features he had on his body that are not in the case file, and we come to the scene of a crime that was committed 20 years ago and find parts of the body - all his words are confirmed, - speaks investigator for particularly important cases Evgeny Karchevsky.
The Angarsk “cleaner” spoke even before the first court verdict, in November 2014. Realizing that he would not be given anything less than a life sentence, he invited an investigator and gave a sincere confession. Only the investigation was in no hurry to disclose this information. Why do they need the press and unnecessary hype?
Former police officer Khmylovsky claims that Popkov committed all of these murders, but in many cases he killed more than one. The policeman puts forward the version that the Angarsk “cleaner” had a partner. To prove his words, he cites the location of the corpses during double murders.
The victims were 2–3 meters apart from each other. He is not the multi-armed Shiva. If he had killed alone, the other girl would have managed to run away tens of meters. But the corpses are nearby,” he says.
In total, there were five double murders of which Popkov was accused. Khmylovsky even names the name of Popkov’s assistant. Yuri Skrabtsov - former boss DOSAAF Angarsk. A swindler and a profited businessman - this is the brief description Popkov’s colleague gives him.
All the threads led to him, but there was no direct evidence. But they didn’t allow this version to be promoted then.
In March 2007, Skrabtsov was killed by a killer. At the entrance of the house, shot in the back of the head. The killers have not yet been found. But if Popkov operated together with this military man, then why didn’t he put all the blame on him? Avoid responsibility. No answer yet. And the maniac himself never mentioned that he acted with his partner.
Revenge was considered the main motive of the Angarsk maniac. In 1993, he allegedly exposed his wife for cheating. But he couldn’t leave her, he loved her too much. Therefore, he began to take revenge on all women who behaved, in his opinion, indecently. This explains the fact that all but one girl were drunk at the time of the murder.
Stop, but, as it has now become known, he killed his first victim back in 1992. So, there is no need for women to take revenge on their wives? This is partially confirmed by the investigator.
The starting point for his activities was personal psychological trauma. Which one exactly, I can’t say yet. Once the investigation is over, I will explain everything. The wife there is not the first point. And not the last. Maniacs are not born, but become, says investigator Karchevsky.
What is this psychological trauma, period and what Popkov’s motives were, will become known only in court. But the version about the calling to “cleanse” the city of the unworthy is completely destroyed by Vladimir Klimentyev. He has known Popkov almost all his life.
He's two-faced. He always walked around smiling. Tried to earn cheap authority. He's like a nut. And if you crack the shell, it's rotten inside. I came up with the version that he was a “cleaner” to justify himself. First of all, to yourself. Who does he remind me of? Spy Krotov from the film “Confrontation,” says the head of the Antaris private security company, Popkov’s colleague and boss Vladimir Klimentyev.
He served with Popkov in the special communications forces in Mongolia. Then for several years the maniac, together with his wife Elena, worked for Klimentyev in a private security company. Klimentyev does not believe that his wife could cheat on Popkov. Even after 20 years of marriage, they had a vibrant relationship. Popkov lived only with his family.
He surrounded his wife with care and attention. Other employees were surprised at what kind of relationship they had. You could say they even envied her a little. He cooked, did the laundry, helped with everything. He spent all his free time next to her. She couldn't cheat on him. She loved him, just as he loved her.
This is also confirmed by the behavior of Popkov’s wife herself: even when the investigation collected irrefutable evidence and the court handed down a verdict, Elena continued to defend her husband.
Klimentyev is sure: Popkov killed because he wanted to kill. He agrees with the experts, but believes that the Angarsk “cleaner” had another motive, which for some reason no one remembers. Popkov was paranoidly greedy. I didn’t do anything for nothing. He himself was ready to do any work, as long as the reward was worthy. I never borrowed money, but I didn’t give it either. At the same time, he spent everything he earned on his family. His essence manifested itself in the army; his colleagues considered him a rat.
Once I left my watch in the wash room. And he left. Good, Czech. I realized it, came back, and they were already gone. They found out that five people went there. They checked four of them, but they didn’t take them. The fifth one left is Popkov. He realized that there was nowhere to go and confessed. He even managed to hide them so that they wouldn’t be found and they wouldn’t think about him,” recalls Klimentyev.
Another motive of Popkov is not the main one, but an additional one - profit. Where are the jewelry from the bodies of the murdered? Brooches, earrings, rings. Who was looking for them then?
June 2012. Exhausted train passengers eagerly await the final destination. There are two stations left before Vladivostok. Uniformed police officers appear in the carriage. The ID opens right in front of the face of one of the men, who just a second ago was looking out the window. During this moment he goes through everything in his head possible options of his actions and... tiredly stretches out his hands. Click of handcuffs, second. All. Not a trace remained of the former smile. Cold, calculating eyes became pitiful. He did not resist, without emotion or words. How much he still had to tell, if only they knew.
IN recent years While free, Popkov was engaged in ferrying cars from Vladivostok. He was constantly running back and forth. To the east by train, back by purchased car. He preferred to take the Subaru brand, for which some called him Misha Subarist. From Angarsk to Vladivostok 4100 kilometers. Popkov covered this distance in several days. I drove slowly, taking care of the car. I looked around. What did he see there? Whom? How many girls wandering along the side of the road did he come across along the way? He no longer had a police ID. But that devilish smile and charm remained.
So far, 22 murders have been proven, 47 criminal cases are ready to go to trial, and 12 more remain to be proven. Misha Gwynplaine's bloody marathon lasted from 1992 to 2007. But are all the victims known?
Difficulties happen in every person's life. However, the people who will be described in the article had to endure real horror.
Buried Alive Several years ago, a chilling incident occurred in the UK. Polish emigrant Michelina Lewandowska was buried alive by her husband Patrick Borys. After another quarrel, a man shot at ex-lover with a stun gun, tied her limbs with rope, put the victim in cardboard box and buried him in a shallow hole dug in a deep forest. m The worst thing is that Michelina regained consciousness while already in a cramped grave. The girl felt death approaching and prayed to the Almighty for salvation. However, Michelina was not at a loss in an extremely extreme situation and found her salvation in the ring that he once gave her ex-husband-despot. The decoration was able to cut the rope, which immobilized the unfortunate woman’s body, and Michelina managed to get out of the hole. The girl came to her senses a few weeks later, and her ex-husband and his friend, who helped commit the crime, went to prison for 20 years. 
The surviving victim of the serial killer, Angel Resendiz, despite his “angelic” name, was known as a bloodthirsty killer. However, his last victim, Holly Dun, managed to survive after meeting with the maniac. At the end of the summer of 1997, the girl and her boyfriend Criss were returning from a party and met a strange man who was asking for money. A few minutes after the meeting, Angel threatened the couple with an ice pick and threw them both into a nearby ditch. Criss was brutally killed by a 20kg boulder. But the maniac decided to make fun of the girl thoroughly. He raped the victim, stabbed her in the throat with the same ice pick and beat her. Holy Holly lost consciousness, and the killer thought that the victim had already passed on to another world. Angel left, and the girl, disfigured by the beatings, woke up a few hours later and gathered all her strength to get to the nearest settlement. Concerned people called ambulance, and Holly ended up in the hospital. The maniac dealt a huge number of blows, after which the unfortunate woman’s eye was knocked out and her jaw was broken. Luckily, Holly recovered and Angel Resendiz was sentenced to death. 
Survive after a day and a half spent in the open sea In the spring of 2012, Ken Henderson and Ed Cohen decided to go fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. However, the fishing was not a success - the friends’ boat began to sink. They tried to pump out the water, but all efforts were in vain. In addition, Ken and Ed were out of cellular coverage, so they could not inform their friends about their situation. The men put on life jackets and managed to escape at the last second, leaving the sinking boat. druz Friends drifted for about 30 hours. They supported each other morally and tried to stick together. Ken dared to swim to the oil platform, but Ed's body could not withstand such physical activity. Ken was on the verge of death - he felt incredibly weak and lost. The man had already seen hallucinations, but still he managed to swim to his target, which turned out to be 80 km from the place where he started fishing! Mr. Cohen's body was found a little later... All these stories are an example of incredible heroism, self-confidence and composure.
