Sergei Golovkin, 35, an agrarian specialist from a family of intellectuals, remained expressionless as Moscow District Judge Alexander Dziban delivered his sentence Wednesday.
"He was completely calm," said Irina Korovkina, Dziban's clerk. "He didn't express a single emotion."
The evidence presented at the two-month trial was overwhelming, Yevgeny Mikhailov, a supervisor in the Moscow District Prosecutor's office, said Thursday. Almost immediately after his arrest in October 1992, Golovkin confessed, and showed investigators the scenes of his crimes.
The first few murders took place in the woods of the Odinovski region outside Moscow, after Golovkin lured his victims from nearby summer camps. Later murders were carried out in a specially equipped cellar under the garage at his home in Gorki-10. The last killing was carried out in September, 1992.Golovkin dismembered many of his victims, and there was also evidence of cannibalism at the scene of the crimes. The victims, who all resembled each other, typically came from poor families, Mikhailov said. A first victim was tortured, but survived.
The crimes generated enormous publicity in the press and on television, Mikhailov said, and terrorized the entire region. "It was a nightmare," he said. "Parents had no idea from day to day whether their children were safe."
Golovkin was a most unusual murderer. Born into a family of intellectuals, he had a higher education and was a well-trained agrarian specialist. "Bloody crimes like this rarely occur in such intelligent circles," Mikhailov said.
Aside from the death penalty, reserved for the most vicious killings, the maximum penalty for premeditated murder is 15 years. This case demanded an execution, Mikhailov said. "It would have been inhumane to give him any lesser punishment.
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