The "Blood Magic Gang" was a gang of Russian serial killers, organized in 2007 by 19-year-old Irkutsk resident Konstantin Shumkov. [1] [2] The gang consisted of teenagers from dysfunctional families aged 14-15 years, who lived in Leninsky District of the city. According to the investigation, from January to June 2008, Shumkov and four teenagers murdered five helpless elderly people, participated in one rape, and also caused serious injury to a further three people. On 1 March 2010, the Irkutsk Regional Court sentenced Shumkov to 25 years' imprisonment, and the juvenile offenders to various terms of imprisonment ranging from 6 to 10 years. [3]
Artyom Anoufriev and Nikita Lytkin, who committed six murders and a series of attacks in the Irkutsk's Academgorodok region during the period from December 2010 to April 2011, showed interest in the activities of the Blood Magic Gang. In particular, in one of the social networks Lytkin created a group called "Irkutsk anti-bum gang: Blood Magic". [4] [5]
A copycat crime is a criminal act that is modeled after or inspired by a previous crime. It notably occurs after exposure to media content depicting said crimes, and/or a live criminal model.
The Dnepropetrovsk maniacs are Ukrainian serial killers responsible for a string of murders in Dnepropetrovsk in June and July 2007. The case gained worldwide notoriety after the killers made video recordings of some of the murders, with one of the videos leaking to the Internet. Two 19‑year-olds, Viktor Sayenko, and Igor Suprunyuk, were arrested and charged with 21 murders.
Artyom Alexandrovich Anoufriev and Nikita Vakhtangovich Lytkin are two serial killers from Irkutsk, Russia, known as the Academy maniacs and the Irkutsk Molotochniki. The pair collectively committed six murders and injured nine others in a series of attacks that took place in Irkutsk Academgorodok between 1 December 2010 and 5 April 2011, while still teenagers.
Yevgeny Alexandrovich Chuplinsky, known as The Novosibirsk Maniac, is a Russian serial killer who killed at least 19 prostitutes in the Novosibirsk Oblast from 1998 to 2005. The murders were accompanied by dismemberment, extensive mutilations and removal of victims' hearts. Despite large-scale investigations by police and several arrests, Chuplinsky was only arrested in 2016, and sentenced to life imprisonment two years later.
Mikhail Viktorovich Popkov is a Russian serial killer, rapist, and necrophile who committed the sexual assault and murder of eighty-three girls and women between 1992 and 2010 in Angarsk, Irkutsk, in Siberia, and Vladivostok in Far East, although he has confessed to and is suspected of at least eighty-six in total. He is known as "the Werewolf" and "the Angarsk Maniac" for the particularly brutal nature of his crimes; he would extensively mutilate the bodies of his victims and perform sexual acts on them. Popkov was also known as "the Wednesday Murderer" due to bodies of his victims usually being found on Wednesdays. He is the single most prolific serial killer in Russian history.
Oleg Anatolievich Zaikin (Russian: Олег Анатольевич Заикин; November 18, 1972 — November 20, 2006), known as The Chernikov Maniac, was a Russian serial killer who committed at least 9 murders in 6 regions across Russia between 2001 and 2006.
Dmitry Sharifyanovich Karimov, known as The Concrete Products Maniac, is a Russian serial rapist and serial killer, who raped 10 women from 2005 to 2006, killing 7 of them.
Ivan Petrovich Panchenko, known as The Svetlograd Maniac, is a Russian rapist and serial killer.
Vladimir Sergeevich Zhukov, known as The Nizhegorodsky Chikatilo, is a Russian serial killer, rapist and pedophile.
Radik Tagirovich Tagirov, dubbed the Volga Maniac, is a Russian serial killer who murdered 31 elderly women in and around the republic of Tatarstan between 2011 and 2012. In March 2024, he was sentenced to life in prison.
The Danilovsky Maniac is an unidentified Russian serial killer. It is suspected that he committed at least seven murders between 2004 and 2007 in the city of Cherepovets, in the Vologda Oblast. Three of the murders were committed on an abandoned construction site on Danilovsky Street, from which the killer earned his nickname.
The Cleaners were a gang of Russian serial killers and neo-Nazis. Between 2014 and 2015, they killed more than 15 people in Moscow, the Moscow Oblast and the Yaroslavl Oblast. Their victims of choice were mainly homeless and alcoholics. On October 23, 2017, the Moscow City Court sentenced the member Pavel Voitov to life imprisonment, Elena Lobacheva to 13 years' imprisonment and Maxim Pavlov to 9 years and 6 months' imprisonment in a penal colony. Vladislav Karataev was sentenced to 16 years, and Artur Narcissov to 9 years and 6 months, which were to be served in a corrective labor colony.
Vladimir Viktorovich Mirgorod, known as The Strangler, is a Russian serial killer who killed 18 people from 2002 to 2004. He was detained in 2010 when his fingerprints matched with those found at the crime scenes. In 2012, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Alexey Sergeevich Falkin, known as The EMERCOM Maniac, is a Russian serial killer and rapist responsible for four murders and eight rapes from 2004 to 2017, in Yekaterinburg and Verkhnyaya Pyshma. Following his arrest for the murder of Irina Vakhrusheva, he was connected to previous crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Alexey Vladimirovich Ryzhkov, known as the Rubtsovsk Ripper, is a Russian serial killer who raped and murdered four women and a teenage girl in Rubtsovsk, Russia, between 2000 and 2001. He was caught by police shortly after murdering his last victim, and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.
Dmitry Nikolayevich Kopylov, known as The Youth Maniac, is a Russian serial killer and rapist who killed four women and one man around the Chelyabinsk Oblast from 2004 to 2005. He is noted for the fact that he committed all of his crimes before reaching the age of majority and that he is one of the youngest serial killers in modern Russian history.