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low-yield murder |
"skull-brain trauma" |
podyezd |
really stupid criminal |
children |
Russian Sports Connection |
murder-suicide |
cries for help ignored |
"investigation continuing" |
carved up like a turkey |
related to victim's job |
cannibalism |
riddled with bullets |
old people |
911 Is a Joke
Criminals in the Volgograd suburb of Ilovlya have figured out the ultimate method of committing crimes without without fear of capture: cut the phone line. All of it. In what federal Interior Ministry officials are calling an all-time record for metals theft, a gang of thieves made off with 47 kilometers of heavy aluminum telecommunications cable.
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| A dead body found last week |
The little bastards, they said, cut the wires right off the poles on the outskirts of town. Local police so far have discovered two sets of clues: tire tracks and two pairs of gloves, one rubber and one wool. Which means that you worried eXile readers should feel confident that arrests are on the way. We'll give you a call when the announcement comes.
Walk, Don't Run
Viktoria Berezina, aunt of four-time ex-con Vladimir Berezin, 30, couldn't understand what was wrong. Her nephew had buzzed her on the domophone almost ten minutes ago, and he still hadn't come upstairs. Confused, she went downstairs to investigate and found Volodya laid out on the first floor, dead from two Chinese-made TT pistol shots in the head and two in the chest. Police arrived on the scene and quickly uncovered, in the victim's pockets, the standard equipment of your low-level gangster: a cell phone and 70,000 dollars in cash.
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| A dead body found last week |
The killers, police deducted soon after, had not active on a motive of robbery. They also concluded that the not-$70,000-richer-culprits were probably moved to leave the scene prematurely by the large number of dog-walking future witnesses gathered outside the door. As for the actual motive and the status of the investigation, police say the killing was probably connected with the professional activities of the victim, and report that the investigation is continuing.
Reform Reaches the Family
Fyodor Cherkov may have only been a poor Moscow Metro station night manager, but that didn't stop him from wholeheartedly supporting the causes of modernization and reform. Cherkov, 45, had graduate degrees in economics and sociology, and wanted everyone in his family to be as great and accomplished a citizen as he was. So he kept his wife and stepson in line according to a strict behavioral regimen, even making plans to forbid the Russian language at home and force everyone to speak English, which he knew fluently.
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| A dead body found last week |
Cherkov had special affection for his stepson Pasha, whom he taught to read and write and held profound philisophical discussions with every morning and evening. As a motivational tool, he occasionally resorted to harsh words. Oh, and denial of food. Oh, and also beatings with belts and other blunt objects, and the removal of Pasha from his bedroom to sleep on the balcony in winter, and confinement indoors for weeks at a time. Cherkov was an innovative disciplinarian. Realizing that bad deeds arise from bad thoughts, he punished Pasha when he did his chores "insincerely" or hesitated too long before apologizing for a wrong deed, and so on. As a means of helping Pasha overcome his natural inclination to bad thoughts, Cherkov instituted a brilliant new motivational tool-a diary. Pasha was to write in the diary every day, describing what he did and did not do wrong. Making use of his pedagogical education, Cherkov often stood by Pasha as he wrote, making suggestions or even dicating whole phrases. A typical entry: "I wanted to leave my room to get some juice, and forgot to close the door. When confronted, I lied and made a scene. As a result of my actions, Mama spanked me 15 times." Or, even better: "At bedtime, Papa and I discussed the subject of law. I found out that there are people who obey the law, and they're in the majority and free. A minority, however, lives outside the law, and they are incarcerated... From this subject I was able to conclude that I have been living outside the law. As an example, I could cite my actions yesterday, when I did not clean my room on time, did not want to apologize, and then apologized insincerely..."
Pasha was a well-trained boy, but sometimes even training can't guide the really bad apples. He had been taught every day to awake with the following words on his lips: "Mama and Papa, I will try hard, will not be lazy, will not lie and will not make scenes." But some days he did not say the magic words correctly. In his diary he recalls one time he did wrong: "I finished saying it, and Mama said, 'You've already earned a spanking. How should you speak?' 'Clearly and succinctly,' I said. Then they made me pull my pants down, and Papa took off his belt..."
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| Three identical photos of Gary Coleman |
On Pasha's last day alive, Papa Cherkov had had a bad day at work and came home exhausted and in poor spirits. He laid down in bed and instructed Pasha to wake him in exactly half an hour. Pasha forgot. When Cherkov woke up, he chased down his stepson and and started beating him with he belt. When Pasha hid under the bed, Cherkov dragged him out by his legs and moved him to the bathroom, where he beat him with his fists, forcing his wife to beat him with the belt simultaneously. In a sudden display of maternal affection, Pasha's mother stopped beating her son after he collapsed to the ground, dead. Cherkov, however, felt the additional discipline was necessary and continued beating the corpse.
Cherkov last week was declared criminally insane by a medical commission. No charges have been filed against the mother.
Incidentally, police determined from testimony that Cherkov's neighbors-the family, incidentally, lived in kommunalka- were accustomed to hearing Pasha screaming, and routinely fried potatoes, turned the television up, and drank tea to make the time pass during these instances. On the night of the murder, the apartment-mates played cards and listened to the radio while the killing took place in the communal bathroom.
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