CHUVASH AUTONOMOUS REPUBLIC: On July 3, 1997, the supreme court of Russia's Chuvash Autonomous Republic sentenced Vladimir Nikolayev, 38, to death for killing and cannibalizing two people in the town of Novocheboksary.
Nikolayev, denounced as a particularly dangerous criminal ten years before, was being arrested in his apartment in the winter of 1996 when police found a pan of roasted human meat on the stove and another cannibal dish in the oven. In the snow on his balcony Nikolayev had more bodies part stored to eat later. Investigators who questioned Nikolayev said he had jokingly asked them to prepare him a dinner using his stock of human meat.
NOVOKUZNETSK: In a one man crusade to cleanse modern Russia from the permissiveness of democracy, Sasha Spesivtsev, 27, killed at least 19 street children who he saw as the detritus of society. The unemployed black marketeer would lure his homeless victims from the streets and local train stations in the Siberian town of Novokuznetsk to his home where, with the help of his mother, he killed and ate them.
UDMURTIAN: In a settlement of Novyy, two men -- Rasskazov and Bobylev -- were charged with killing and eating their drinking partner Alekhin.
In a stream outside Novokuznetsk, 43 bone fragments were found of six bodies -- four boys, one girl, and one man. The criminologists have a theory: A whole family was done away with. But in order to "establish genetic identity," it was necessary to conduct a special analysis of the bones. And the Internal Affairs Ministry official in charge of the case says, "These preserved bones have lain in my refrigerator for a month already, waiting for the chemicals. Special preparations are very expensive..."
MANTOROVO: Situated on a tributary of the Volga, Manturovo is a quiet town of 22,000, where two women -- Valentina Dolbilina, a 36-year-old mother of a four-year-old boy, and Vitaly Bezrodnov, 28, a factory worker -- were accused of killing their drinking partner and then cooking his flesh.
After a night of heavy drinking, Bezrodnov announced he was hungry and "would like some meat". After checking out one of their drinking buddies who was dead drunk in the corridor, they decided he was too skinny and packed him off home. Their gluttonous eyes then fell on a fourth member of the party, who was a bit fatter. Propelling him into the tiny kitchen, Bezrodnov asked Dolbilina for something heavy. With Dostoevskian inspiration she fetched an axe, and the victim was hit on the head, beheaded, undressed and then cut up into pieces. As Dolbilina held a tray, some 15 pounds of meat was cut from the thigh and rump, and put in the frying pan.
Awakened by the unusual smell of cooking meat, her flatmate, Boris Komarov, came into her room and asked to join the feast. Despite the haze of drink, even he noticed something strange. "It was a bit tough," he said. He was reassured by Bezrodnov, who said they had killed a stray dog for the pot.
Satisfied by this explanation, Komarov skept eating the leg of man straight from the pan. Little did he realise the full ghastliness of the situation: the dead man was his own brother, Leonid. Even the little boy, Roma, was served a slice of Leonid. The kid later blurted out: "Mummy killed a man and served him up to her friends."