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shot in podyezd |
connected w/ Russian sports |
murder for less than $100 |
really stupid criminal |
explosive device |
cries for help ignored |
perp in body count |
children |
"investigation continuing" |
carved up like a turkey |
cannibalism |
riddled with bullets |
related to victim's job |
Did the Sign Say, "Free Potatoes?"
Life just keeps getting better and better for kids in Russia. Last week in Severodvinsk, a small town not far from Arkhangelsk, a two-year old boy was beaten to death by a pair of twenty year-old vegetable dealers. According to Kriminalnaya Khronika, the boy's mother had bought a sack of potatoes on credit to sell on the street, and failed to pay back the money on time.
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| "Okay, guess how many fingers I'm holding up NOW!"
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When the deadline passed several times over, the two young money-lenders went over to Mom's house, beat her infant son to death, stabbed her two 11 and 13 year-old daughters, stabbed Mom, and set the apartment on fire, for good measure. The two older children and Mom lived, while the perpetrators were quickly apprehended by the Arkhangelsk UVD. No word yet on whether or not the suspects will be offered a job at the ChK.
A Tyumen Joy Ride
The Tyumen oblast UVD has confirmed reports that a gang of Kazakh car thieves were arrested last week and charged with five murders, all committed in one day. The killings all took place in Ishim, a small town not far from Tyumen, where police were first alerted to trouble by a "businessman" who reported having had his Mercedes stolen at knifepoint. Cops followed up the lead and eventually chased down the three Kazaks in the stolen Merc, which they found parked on the highway. One of the suspects died in a gunfight, while the other two were hauled in and subject to a polite interrogation. As a result of that interview, four bodies were found that day, all belonging to men whose cars had been stolen by that same gang earlier on. A fifth body, of a homeless man, was discovered in a nearby podyezd; police claim the suspects killed him for fun, just to get a "nice round number."
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| The IMF's answer to Asia's debt crisis: bitter medicine, but necessary.
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Yet Another Serial Killer, Part III
The criminal court of the city of Izhevsk last week sentenced one Yuri Artamonov, better known as the "Santekhnik" or plumber, to death. Artamonov was one of a new breed of thief that has appeared in recent time in Russia who simply kills everything he sees while robbing apartments. By the time he was arrested last year, he'd killed five people and attempted to kill two more, all in connection with apartment robberies. None of his victims were sexually abused. Izhevsk police report that the total value of articles stolen in "Plumber" crimes was less than a few thousand dollars. Reform-ignorant Russians apparently still haven't learned to cut down on their operational overhead, so to speak...
Blue-Plate Special
You know those breakfast specials at greasy spoon American diners? Two eggs, sausage, English muffin, coffee and pineapple juice- $2.95. Almost like the special the day before, except yesterday you had orange juice instead of pineapple and held the sausage. And tomorrow you'll have toast instead of the muffin and three eggs. Moscow's like that with murder. The same story appears in the newspaper every morning, only with the variables slightly altered. On Superbowl Sunday, while eXpat Moscow beered up for the big game, a gang of mobsters descended upon a whole building at 73 Novoslobodskaya Ulitsa, intending to steal everything inside. That's two eggs and toast. Usual stuff. On the way in, they ran into a 64 year-old vakhtyersha and a mute cleaning lady who was washing the stairs. After a brief discussion both were led away at gunpoint and handcuffed to the front door. Nice touch, adding variety- like pomegranate juice, maybe. At that point a certain Mr. Boyarishev, the director of an auto parts store in the building, entered the scene and was promptly shot and fatally wounded for absolutely no reason, not even for robbery- the gang was after bigger game. After the kill they ascended the stairs for the big bounty- the offices of the magazine "Kultura." Robbing news organizations is a dumb move but not dumb enough to be off the menu in this city; remember, Newsweek magazine was hit up for protection money a few years ago. But if Newsweek had no money, Kultura, in print as in life, had still less. Finding nothing at the magazine, they went up a few more floors to the offices of the trade firm "Privat." There, they bound and gagged the deputy director and three subordinates and robbed them blind- of about $366. The operation successful, they fled the scene. It took the hostages about 50 minutes to break free and call the police, by which time the gunshot victim had ten minutes to live. Nice city, eh? Wonder what's for breakfast tomorrow.
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