April 6, 1973 - Vladimir Krishtopa
Krishtopa carried out a rapid series of attacks in the summer of 1995, committing two murders and a third attempted killing within less than two months, each preceded by sexual violence. His case is notable in part for the legal turn it took: a death sentence handed down in 1996 was never carried out, converted instead to a lengthy prison term following Russia's moratorium on executions. The Wikipedia source also notes suspicions of earlier crimes in Ukraine, suggesting the Rostov offenses were not the beginning of his criminal history. He is included here for the severity and pattern of his documented attacks and the circumstances that ultimately kept him alive.
From Wikipedia
Vladimir Vasilievich Krishtopa (Russian: Влади́мир Васи́льевич Кришто́па; born 6 April 1973) is a Ukrainian-born Russian murderer and rapist.
Crimes
First murder
On 17 June 1995, Krishtopa, in a state of intoxication, attacked a woman on the staircase between the 6th and 7th floors of the No. 70 House on Orbitalnaya Street in Rostov-on-Don. The woman was raped by him, and then severely beaten. As a result of the beating, she died from a closed craniocerebral injury.
Second murder
A month later, on 21 July, Krishtopa, again intoxicated, committed another murder, raping the woman before strangling her. He then stole her cassette player without the headphones.
Third murder attempt
Krishtopa did not commit any more crimes until 3 August, when he was detained for attempting to kill a third woman. During the search, authorities found the audio player, which served as crucial evidence.
On 21 March 1996, the Rostov Regional Court judge Mikhail Rebrov sentenced Vladimir Krishtopa to execution by firing squad. But soon, a moratorium was imposed on its application, and the criminal who was already on death row in Novocherkassk was resentenced to 25 years in prison. When Krishtopa was in cell number 117 of the Novocherkassk prison, his neighbour was notorious serial killer Vladimir Mukhankin. Subsequently, while giving an interview for the television programme "Criminal Russia", Mukhankin said the following:
There, in the 117th [cell], stayed Krishtopa. He was here, on a death row, too, by the way, here, incidentally, here is the 45th cell, maybe he is still sitting there. Well, the complete scoundrel, but this, Amurkhan Khadrisovich, but this is a natural maniac. Because if a man weren't a maniac, he would not have gnawed his noses over there, nor would he sucked out there from the breasts over there, nor from the vagina, nor would he kill the little children, nor would not rape them over there, nor adults, nor especially grannies.
Krishtopa is also suspected of committing crimes in his native Ukraine before moving to Rostov.
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