At the beginning of the 20th century, St. Petersburg shuddered with horror. A maniac appeared in the city who killed women of easy virtue with incredible cruelty. He introduced himself to his victims as Vadim Krovyanik. He became one of the first serial killers in the history of the Russian investigation.
Officer's widow
It all started when the maniac was still a teenager. At that time he studied at the Novgorod cadet corps. Once the young man was lured into her house, and then seduced by the officer's 30-year-old widow. The inexperienced partner quickly bored the woman, and she broke up with him. The rejected lover was crushed. His outrage turned into rage when he learned that a passionate widow had awarded him syphilis. The young man went to his temptress. And she was just having fun with one of the teachers of the cadet corps. An ardent teenager rushed at the woman with a knife, but was immediately rendered harmless by his rival. After this incident, the young man was expelled from the school.
Death to the beauties
The first victim of the Russian Jack the Ripper was Anna Blumentrost. Her body was discovered on July 1, 1909 in the Neva. There were 12 stab wounds on her body. Witnesses stated that shortly before the murder they saw Anna in the company of a young man with disproportionately long arms. The stranger wore a wide-brimmed hat and coat.
On July 14 of the same year, the maniac tore Catherine Gerus to pieces. The prostitute was found in the room of the Danube Hotel, which was located on Ligovsky Prospekt. The killer inflicted about 20 wounds on the victim.
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After 10 days, the criminal attacked the servant Zinaida Levina right on the street. In front of numerous passers-by, he shouted "Death to the beauties!" twice thrust a knife into the woman and disappeared.
The investigation of these crimes was entrusted to the head of the St. Petersburg police, Vladimir Filippov. An experienced detective immediately realized that all three murders were committed by the same person. Filippov's wards bypassed all hot spots in the areas where the attacks were made. And regular customers of one of the taverns said that they often saw a young man there who assured random drinking companions that he hates women, and also reveled in conversations about the murders of prostitutes. The suspicious subject posed as a sailor and lived in a shelter nearby.
Based on the information received, Vladimir Filippov concluded that the criminal should be sought among the sailors. The detective began to study and compare the lists of the crews of the ships that entered the St. Petersburg port, and the names of the guests of the aforementioned shelter. The surname Radkevich was found by him in both lists.
However, it was not possible to immediately detain Radkevich. It turned out that he had already moved out of the shelter and now lives in a rented apartment. But even there, the police did not find the criminal. He seemed to sense danger and disappeared. On the wall of the room, the police found the maniac's handwritten motto: "Death to the beauties!"
Brave bellboy
Meanwhile, attacks on the girls continued. Another crime took place on September 17 on Simeonovskaya Street. In the hotel room "Kiao" a maniac tore apart a prostitute Maria Budochnikova. Having committed the murder, he, trying not to make noise, tried to escape from the crime scene. However, the bellboy, suspecting something was wrong, did not let him do it. The brave hotel employee received many stabs, but Nikolai Radkevich was still detained.
The brutal crimes of Radkevich so shocked the Petersburgers that they refused to believe that a mentally healthy person could do something like that.
On March 10, 1912, Nikolai Radkevich was sentenced to 8 years of hard labor. But the maniac did not reach the place of serving his sentence - he was killed by other convicts.