Alexander Nikolayevich Spesivtsev (russian: Александр Николаевич Спесивцев, born 1 March 1970) is a Russian

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

, also known as The Novokuznetsk Monster and The Siberian Ripper, convicted for the killing of 5 people in Novokuznetsk in 1991 and 1996. Spesivtsev, with the assistance of his mother Lyudmila, targeted

street children Street children are poor or homeless children who live on the streets of a city, town, or village. Homeless youth are often called street kids or street child; the definition of street children is contested, but many practitioners and policym ...

and young women across Novokuznetsk by luring them into their apartment, where they would be tortured and killed, and sometimes

cannibalize Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...

d. Despite only being convicted for 5 murders, Spesivtsev confessed to 20 murders that he was accused of by police, and based on evidence is believed to have committed over 80 killings starting from as early as 1991.

Early life

Alexander Nikolayevich Spesivtsev was born 1 March 1970 and raised in an apartment on Pionerskiy Prospekt in central Novokuznetsk, the largest city in Kemerovo Oblast,

RSFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

, Soviet Union. He was underweight at birth but survived, although he was frequently ill afterwards. During childhood, Spesivtsev was considered unsocial, did not have friends, and was bullied while at school. His mother Lyudmila Spesivtseva worked at a nearby school and the prosecutor's office and was very affectionate towards her son. His father was an abusive alcoholic who abandoned the family. Spesivtsev and his mother held a strong, but unusual, relationship, as Lyudmila would regularly show her son photographs of corpses from books about criminal cases at a very young age, and the two shared a bed until Alexander was 12. Growing up, Spesivtsev showed increasing sadistic tendencies, and in 1988, met his first girlfriend. Ostensibly poetic by nature, they often went for walks together, but the facade didn't last. Arguments led to her breaking up with him, which Spesivstev did not accept. He kidnapped her and tortured her for a month in his apartment, until she died of

sepsis Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...

. For this, at the age of 18, Spesivstev was assigned to the

Oryol Oryol ( rus, Орёл, p=ɐˈrʲɵl, lit. ''eagle''), also transliterated as Orel or Oriol, is a city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast situated on the Oka River, approximately south-southwest of Moscow. It is part of the Central Fed ...

Special Psychiatric Hospital (Орловской психиатрической спецлечебнице).

Crimes

Though in official databases, he was, at the time, still listed as undergoing treatment, in 1991, he was discharged. Once out, he began associating with transients and beggars and developed a deep-seated hatred of street children, whom he viewed as a byproduct of Russia's emerging democracy. Spesivstev was likewise particularly embittered by an episode during his commitment at the

Hospital, in which he asked another patient to insert a metal ball into his urethra to make him more virile. This had the opposite effect, causing erectile dysfunction and genital pains. Alexander and then Lyudmila began to lure victims into their apartment, chosen at random, where Alexander would torture and eventually kill them. Unaccompanied street children attending discothèques and playing in construction sites had become commonplace in the impoverished city of Novokuznetsk since the

collapse of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

, and they became his main target. The bodies of victims would sometimes be cannibalized Lyudmila would dispose of unwanted remains by throwing them from buckets into the Aba River, late at night.

Investigation

The first sign of his victims arose when the gangrenous severed heads, torsos, and arms of unidentifiable children were found washed up on the banks of the River Aba. It was not immediately believed there was a serial killer, and only after several large groups of unattended children disappeared was a serial mass murderer suspected as being active in the city. Otherwise, investigators in the regional Directorate of Internal Affairs suspected that organ smugglers were acting within the city's boundaries. Several criminal gangs from the Caucusus region were active in Novokuznetsk at the time, and police searched the baggage of outward flights. Additionally, several hundred internal troops and police officers were deployed to search for the killer; at some point thought to be Oleg Rylkov.

Arrest and sentencing

Witness statements following the disappearance of several girls who were seen leaving a store with his mother helped police identify her. Her son was officially listed as undergoing a course of treatment at a psychiatric hospital. One morning, the neighborhood police officer and a plumber complained that a resident refused to let them in his apartment to relieve a clog. The resident claimed he was mentally ill and kept in his apartment. This alarmed police, as her son was ostensibly still at the hospital in Oryol. The two men forced their way into his apartment, where they smelt an intense and putrid odor, resembling unspecified rotting. A woman bleeding from a severe stab wound to the chest, and a decapitated, de-limbed torso was uncovered in the bathtub. Spesivtsev escaped "at the final moment" via the building's roof. He was arrested within the week, found at the entrance of his house, cold and without food. Lyudmila was arrested three days before on October 27, 1996. Spesivtsev kept a diary detailing some of his crimes and did not deny his actions when captured. However, he confessed only to 20 murders and boasted of crimes that couldn't be proven. During the search of his apartment, 80 articles of bloody clothing, nearly 40 jewelry items and some photos of unknown people, who were possibly unproven victims, were found. Police experts later concluded the garments belonged to the 20 victims. He was ruled insane by a court and committed to a psychiatric hospital, and had previously been confined to a mental institution for 3 years after torturing and killing his girlfriend. The only living witness and Spesivtsev's last victim, 15-year-old Olga Galtseva, died the following day after being discovered. Today, Spesivtsev resides at the Kamyshin Regional Hospital. His mother, who was charged with complicity to three murders, was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

References

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