The story in brief
The south of the Soviet Union, 1978 to 1990. For the official ideology, serial killers are a product of capitalism, and the papers warn no one. A man is executed by mistake. The police check hundreds of thousands of people, arrest the culprit in 1984 and let him go because of a blood test. Only in 1990 does an officer write down the right name. An account of real crimes, without violent detail.
The chapters
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Chapter 1 · 4 min · Free
A Crime That Never Made the Papers
A country where crime never makes the papers. A police force that finds a culprit far too fast.
Sources: Verdicts of the Rostov Regional Court (1982 and 1992); Ruling of the Supreme Court of Russia (1993); Library of Congress, Soviet Union: A Country Study (1991); Associated Press and The Moscow Times (1992)
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Chapter 2 · 4 min · Free
Hunting Blind
Index cards, young men confessing to what they did not do, and no warning in the papers. And a captain who keeps his eyes on a bus station.
Sources: The Moscow Times, Los Angeles Times and Associated Press (1992); RIA Novosti (2020); Vechernyaya Moskva (2025); Verdict of the Rostov Regional Court (1992)
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Chapter 3 · 4 min
The Blood Test
In 1984, the police arrest the right man. A blood test puts him back on the street.
Sources: Verdict of the Rostov Regional Court (1992); Ruling of the Supreme Court of Russia (1993); Robert Cullen, The Killer Department (1993), via CAC News (2007); Los Angeles Times (1992); RIA Novosti (2019)
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Chapter 4 · 5 min
Portrait of a Stranger
A psychiatrist describes a man he has never seen. Years later, a plainclothes officer writes down a name at a railway stop.
Sources: Vechernyaya Moskva (2025); Investigative Committee of Russia (2019); EADaily (2018); The Observer (1999); Lenta.ru (2013); Verdict of the Rostov Regional Court (1992)
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Chapter 5 · 5 min
The Rostov Trial
Arrested a second time, he spends days denying everything. Until a psychiatrist walks into the room. In 1992, all of Russia follows the trial.
Sources: Verdict of the Rostov Regional Court (1992); Ruling of the Supreme Court of Russia (1993); Amnesty International (1992); The Moscow Times and Reuters (1992); Kommersant (1992 and 2025); RIA Novosti (2019 and 2020); Library of Congress (1991)
What you’ll be able to tell
This story belongs to the journey “The Modern Hunt”. By the end of it, you can tell how psychiatry, the press, codebreakers and profilers changed the hunt.
Stories in this journey
- Febrônio: Acquitted for Life
- Ed Gein: The Man Behind the Horror Films
- Zodiac: The Cipher Letters
- Chikatilo: The Killer the USSR Said Couldn’t Exist
Sources
- Verdicts of the Rostov Regional Court (1982 and 1992)
- Ruling of the Supreme Court of Russia (1993)
- Library of Congress (1991)
- Amnesty International (1992)
- Associated Press, Reuters, Los Angeles Times and The Moscow Times (1992)
- RIA Novosti (2019 and 2020)
- Kommersant (2025)
