Rumors of Siberian Ripper Terrorize Town

KEMEROVO, Western Siberia -- This snowbound industrial city is in terror of a modern day Jack the Ripper, dressed in fur hat and sheepskin jacket and dubbed "the maniac," who is believed to have stabbed nine people, three fatally, in two separate mad sprees.


Police deny publicly that one maniac is responsible for the crimes and have already charged a suspect with one of the murders but the local newspaper, Kuznetsky Krai, is splashing the gory killings on its front page and residents all believe the story. Official denials are further proof, they say.


"Of course we have heard about it," said a group of 16-year-old school girls who were eating ice cream in a cafe on the main street, Sovietsky Prospekt.


"It was on the television," says Masha, 16, in convinced tone. "I did think a little bit and walked closer to the buildings," added Olga.


Police first sounded the alarm about a maniac on the loose when they launched a manhunt for a knifeman who stabbed police sergeant Yury Bocherov to death on his way home late on the night of Nov. 28.


That same night, a 14-year-old boy and a 27-year-old construction worker were also killed with knife wounds. Yet another man and three women and a dog were wounded with multiple knife wounds.


The stabbings were similar to incidents in September when a man was reported to have killed a dog and stabbed three people, seriously wounding them.


But police have now arrested two suspects for the Bocherov murder and are discounting the single maniac theory.


Sergei Shapalov, the deputy head of the city police, who is leading the investigation, declined to give any details of the Bocherov case now that it is pending trial, but he did say he was convinced the ripper was not one man.


"It was a coincidence of circumstances," he said in an interview in his warm, birch-paneled office in the Interior Ministry headquarters.


"What we have today is not a maniac, but several incidents that happened all at once, so it looked like that," he said.


Residents hurrying along the city streets were not calmed, though.


"So we have two murderers -- even worse," one old man said before hurrying away.


The case has fascinated locals with a web of speculation about whether the police sergeant and the other victims were attacked by the same man.


The single "maniac" theory was fueled by reports from survivors and witnesses describing the assailant almost identically as wearing a warm hat and a light-colored sheepskin jacket.


But now forensic evidence is emerging, according to reports in Kuznetsky Krai, that the slashing style of the rippers responsible for the various attacks was different.


Moreover, the paper reported, evidence is growing that two separate killers were abroad the night Bocherov was stabbed. Police say Bocherov was stabbed on railway tracks while the other stabbings on Nov. 28 occurred at about the same time in another part of town.


Two knives have been found, one under a bridge near where Bocherov was killed and one across town near where the construction worker was killed.


The cold is so fierce in Kemerovo that no one stays on the street longer than a few minutes and it is hard to imagine what prey a knife slasher could find.


With midday temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius and nighttime freezes even lower, everyone wears huge fur hats with the ear flaps down and, if they can, avoids going out at all. Night life in Kemerovo is practically non-existent in winter, local taxi drivers say.


Two female law students admitted they were scared and never went out at night.


"We go straight home from the institute," said Tatyana Golubovskaya, 22, who lives in an apartment with family friends.


"The [apartment] entrance has no light. You have to go with matches, people hang around there. They steal your hat, gold, anything nice you have with you," she said.


Police chief Shapalov is faintly irritated by the rumor-mill that has kept the idea of the ripper-maniac alive. But he is by no means surprised at the level of violence.


"People have become more evil because of the situation, their psyche is destroyed," he says. "Many people are out of work, a lot of crime comes from the fact that wages are not being paid. And Russia drinks like only Russia drinks."


Shapalov admits that the man or men who committed the other murders on the night of Nov. 28 and the slashings in September has not yet been apprehended. Whoever is guilty is probably psychologically unbalanced, Shapalov said. "He is either a mental case, an alcoholic or a drug addict."