In 1918, a gang of jumpers was operating in Petrograd, the leader of which was clearly haunted by the laurels of the character of English folklore Jack the Jumper. Like their idol, the bandits dressed in a shroud that hid the springs tied to their legs, and moved in leaps. Having met such a ghost at dusk, the unfortunate passers-by literally froze with horror and, without resisting, gave everything they had.
In 1918, more and more citizens began to come to the Petrograd militia with statements about robbery. No wonder, if not for one "but". Victims reported that they were attacked and robbed by ghosts or reanimated dead. But the law enforcement agencies immediately realized that mysticism had nothing to do with it. According to investigators, a well-organized gang has appeared in the city, cleverly using human fear of the supernatural.
Indeed, there was such a criminal group, on account of which there were robberies and robberies. And she operated in the areas of the Smolensk and Okhtinsky cemeteries, as well as near the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. The late passers-by tried to pass these dark places as soon as possible, but not all of them succeeded.
Some creatures, dressed in a shroud and white caps, jumped out from behind the grave fences, their faces were hidden by masks phosphorescent in the darkness. At the same time, the ghosts howled terribly. Even a man with strong nerves would not be able to stand it. In such a situation, people themselves gave their property, violence was not required. When the poor fellows came to their senses, they remembered that the ghosts jumped like devils.
The organizer and leader of the gang that went down in the history of forensic science was Ivan Balhausen, nicknamed Vanka Zhivoy Corpse. Quite known in the criminal environment, Balhausen was famous not only for his sophisticated criminal talent and courage, but also for his rich imagination. He had chosen the right moment to create the group.
In 1917, when the criminal investigation and the police were abolished, and the police had not yet begun to work in full force, Vanka realized that now is the time to rob the rich without much risk. The amnesty announced by Kerensky also played into the hands of the criminal, which gave freedom to many prisoners, including criminals. Of these, Ivan formed a gang.
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Even before the revolution, some bandits practiced robbery of passers-by, frightened to the point of fainting. Balhausen decided to use their experience and was very successful in this. His gang consisted of a tinsmith by the name of Demidov - a drunkard, but a jack of all trades. It was he who designed and manufactured springs that could be attached to the legs and moved by jumping.
With the help of these hellish devices, the bandits jumped out of the windows of the premises not only on the first, but also on the second floor without risk of breaking their arms and legs. The same Demidov complemented the costumes of ghosts with scary masks covered with phosphorus. And the shrouds for the bandits were sewn by Ivan's mistress - Maria Poleva, nicknamed Manka Solyonaya.
The bandits even took into account the fact that in this troubled time people were already unsettled by constant fear for themselves and their loved ones, so they could easily believe in the revived dead. During 1920, 20 people joined Balhausen's gang, and the number of their raids reached 100. Panic was growing among the inhabitants of Petrograd. The stories about the "living dead" were overgrown with new details.
The police made a lot of efforts to find the raiders, but they were elusive. In those years, the Petrograd Criminal Investigation Department was headed by Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kishkin, who was called Cyclops in the criminal environment, since he had lost one eye in his youth while working in a smithy. When the number of complaints and statements from victims reached a record high, the city authorities demanded from Kishkin to immediately liquidate the gang.
Since all methods of tracing and catching jumpers were exhausted, Kishkin decided to catch them with live bait. In April 1920, drunken wealthy men began to walk more and more often in places of robberies. They willingly informed casual drinking companions about successful deals and the fact that their pockets were full of cash.
The jumpers did not long resist the temptation to clean the pockets of the simpletons. After waiting for the moment, the bandits attacked the razzy. However, instead of being scared and voluntarily giving up the cash they had with them, they took out their revolvers and calmly offered to surrender. The members of the gang brought to the department immediately handed over all the rest, as well as the address of the "raspberry", which was located in the house number 7 on Malokhtinsky Avenue. During a search at this address, many valuable things were seized: about 100 fur coats and 40 gold rings.
The court sentenced the leader of the gang, Ivan Balhausen, and his accomplice Demidov, to capital punishment - execution. The rest of the jumpers went to serve time in correctional camps. The dressmaker Manka Solyonaya also got hers. The following is known about her further fate: after serving from bell to bell, she returned to Leningrad and got a job as a conductor at a tram depot.
An easy way of making money, invented by the Petrograd bandits, haunted criminals in other cities of the USSR. Here and there the followers of the jumpers appeared. In Moscow, a similar gang was also formed, although it was distinguished by particular cruelty.
Most often, criminals committed robberies in the area of the Vagankovskoye cemetery. Almost every day, the janitors found numb corpses near the cemetery fence. Perhaps, it was precisely because of the large number of victims that, in addition to the criminal investigation, the Chekists also got involved in the capture of the gang. Moscow jumpers were liquidated in 1925.
The followers of the jumpers again appeared in the criminal chronicles of Leningrad during the siege. They took vital bread cards from their victims. In the end, the bandits were caught and, according to martial law, were shot at the scene of the crime, without waiting for a court verdict.
Imitators also appeared in Moscow in the fall of 1941. According to unverified reports, German intelligence had a hand in creating a new gang of jumpers. Allegedly in order to sow panic among the local population and thereby demoralize people.
Rumors about the involvement of German intelligence in the jumpers gang did not arise by chance. The Germans made attempts to make their own "jumpers". And they even developed new models of footwear for soldiers, equipped with powerful springs. True, the experiment ended with dislocations and fractures, so work in this direction was stopped.
A special operation was developed to eliminate the gang. An NKVD officer acted as bait. Dressed in a civilian suit, with a suitcase full of money, he calmly walked in places of robberies. His colleagues, armed with machine guns, were also ambushed there. So the Moscow gang was liquidated a second time.
Alexandra Orlova, magazine "Mysteries of the XX century", No. 15