Tamara Samsonova

Tamara Mitrofanovna Samsonova (Russian: Тама́ра Митрофа́новна Самсо́нова; born April 25, 1947), known as Granny Ripper and Baba Yaga,[2][3][4] is a Russian alleged serial killer who was arrested in July 2015 on suspicion of committing two murders with extreme cruelty.[5][6] She supposedly has schizophrenia and was previously hospitalized three times in psychiatric hospitals.[3][7]

Tamara Samsonova
Тама́ра Митрофа́новна Самсо́нова
Tamara Samsonova (July 29, 2015) in the Frunze District Court of St. Petersburg.
Born
Tamara Mitrofanovna Samsonova

(1947-02-05) February 5, 1947
Uzhur, Krasnoyarsk Krai, RSFSR, Soviet Union
Other names"The Granny Ripper"
"Baba Yaga"
Alma materMoscow State Linguistic University
Spouse
Alexi Samsonova
​
​
(m. 1971⁠–⁠2000)​
Conviction(s)Murder
Capture status
In custody
Details
VictimsKnown:
  • Valentina Nikolaevna Ulanova

Presumed:

  • Alexi Samsonova (husband)
  • "Volodya"
Span of crimes
2000–2015
CountryRussia
Location(s)St. Petersburg
Killed2 proved (14 total[1])
WeaponsKnife, poison
Date apprehended
27 July 2015 (2015-07-27)
Imprisoned at26 November 2015 (2015-11-26)

Biography

Samsonova was born on April 25, 1947, in the city of Uzhur, now part of the Krasnoyarsk Krai.[2]

After graduating from high school, she arrived in Moscow and entered the Moscow State Linguistic University. After graduating, she moved to St. Petersburg, where she married Alexei Samsonova. In 1971, she and her husband settled in the newly built panel house number 4 on Dimitrov Street.[2][8]

For some time she worked for Intourist travel agency, in particular, in the Grand Hotel Europe. The amount of work experience Samsonova gathered at the time of her retirement was 16 years.[9]

In 2000, Samsonova's husband disappeared (she supposedly killed him and got rid of the body). She appealed to the police, but searches yielded nothing. Fifteen years later, in April 2015, she turned towards the authorities again, this time to the investigative unit of the Fruzensky District in St. Petersburg, giving a statement about her spouse's disappearance.[4][10]

Murders

After her husband's disappearance, Samsonova began renting out a room in her apartment. According to investigators, on September 6, 2003, during a quarrel, she killed her tenant. He was a 44-year-old resident from Norilsk. She then dismembered his corpse and disposed of it on the streets of St. Desyhis Way.[4][11]

In March 2015 Samsonova met 79-year-old Valentina Nikolaevna Ulanova who also lived on Dimitrov Street. A friend of the two asked Ulanova to shelter Samsonova for a time due to the fact that Samsonova's apartment was being renovated, to which Ulanova agreed. Samsonova lived in Ulanova's apartment for several months, helping with the housework. She began to like living in the apartment, wanting to stay there for longer and refusing to move out. Over time the relationship between the two deteriorated, and Ulanova eventually asked Samsonova to leave.[12]

After another conflict, she decided to poison Ulanova. Samsonova travelled to Pushkin, where she managed to persuade a pharmacist to sell her a prescription drug, phenazepam. Upon returning to the city, she bought an Olivier salad, one of Ulanova's favorite dishes, then put the pills in the salad and gave it to the unsuspecting woman.[13]

Samsonava later found Ulanova's body lying on the kitchen floor on the night of July 23 and proceeded to dismember it with two knives and a saw. Firstly sawing off the victim's head, she then sawed the body in half and then using the knives, she sheared it into pieces.[11] To take out all the bags outside of the apartment, she had to go outside and return several times. Samsonova left pieces of Ulanova's body scattered in the house.[4][13]

On the evening of July 26, Ulanova's decapitated body with severed limbs, wrapped in a bathroom curtain,[3] was found near a pond at house number 10 on Dimitrov Street. The package initially didn't attract any attention for several days, until a local resident took an interest in its contents.[14]

The identity of the deceased was established on July 27, after a survey of apartment residents. When they knocked on Ulanova's apartment, Samsonova opened the door to the authorities. Having entered inside, police officers found traces of blood in the bathroom, and also fastening from the torn off curtain. After this, the pensioner was immediately arrested.[3][1][15]

Investigation and compulsory treatment

On July 29, 2015, Samsonova was brought to the Frunze District Court of St. Petersburg. She underwent a forensic psychiatric examination, and on November 26, 2015, the results determined that she was a danger to society and herself, and therefore she was placed in a specialized institution until the end of the investigation.[16]

In December 2015, Samsonova was sent for compulsory psychiatric treatment in a specialized hospital in Kazan.[17]

She is being investigated in connection to a total of 14 murders.[1]

According to media reports, police found a diary which contained details of some of the murders. One entry, translated from Russian to English, read: “I killed my tenant Volodya, cut him to pieces in the bathroom with a knife and put the pieces of his body in plastic bags and threw them away in the different parts of Frunzensky District.”[5]

See also

References
  1. "Elderly Russian Woman Suspected of Multiple Macabre Murders, Dismemberments | News". The Moscow Times. 2015-07-29. Archived from the original on 2015-08-02. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  2. Alexander Kalinin (29 July 2015). ""Diary of Death" Kupchinskaya grandmother" (in Russian). Rosbalt. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  3. Sophia Savina (29 July 2015). "Tamara the Ripper" (in Russian). Gazeta.ru. Archived from the original on 8 August 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  4. Alexey Kobylkin (28 August 2015). "She did not describe the murders: the diary of the St. Petersburg dismemberment was at the disposal of NTV" (in Russian). NTV. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  5. Siobhan Fenton (2015-08-06). "Russian pensioner Tamara Samsonova may have eaten victims - Europe - World". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2015-08-09. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  6. "YouTube - Tamara Samsonova, la "abuela destripadora" que mata, descuartiza y se come a sus víctimas". ABC.es. 2015-08-06. Archived from the original on 2015-08-09. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  7. "Тамара-потрошительница". Gazeta.ru. 29 July 2015. Archived from the original on 8 August 2015. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  8. Svetlana Samodelova (31 July 2015). "Aunt Toma's hut" (in Russian). Moskovskij Komsomolets. Archived from the original on 16 July 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  9. Alexey Kobylkin (28 August 2015). "The Granny Ripper was educated at an elite university in Moscow" (in Russian). Life. Archived from the original on 16 March 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  10. "Suspected serial killing granny may have eaten parts of her victims | World | Ne". Torontosun.com. 2015-08-05. Archived from the original on 2015-08-05. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  11. "Investigators in St. Petersburg asked not to rush to assign a series of murders to the pensioner" (in Russian). Interfax. 29 July 2015. Archived from the original on 25 May 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  12. "The Granny Ripper showed how she dismembered her friend" (in Russian). Life. 7 September 2015. Archived from the original on 16 March 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  13. Supposedly she had eaten body parts of her victims but this hasn't been proven yet. "The Granny Ripper showed how she dismembered her friend" (in Russian). Life. 7 September 2015. Archived from the original on 16 March 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  14. "A decapitated body with severed limbs was found on Dimitrov Street" (in Russian). Fontanka.ru. 26 July 2015. Archived from the original on 12 April 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  15. "A St. Petersburg court arrested a pensioner suspected of cruel murder" (in Russian). RIA Novosti. 29 July 2015. Archived from the original on 23 December 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  16. "A retired woman, to whom the media has attributed more than 10 murders, was placed in a psychiatric hospital" (in Russian). TASS. 26 November 2015. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  17. "Grandmother-warder from St. Petersburg is transferred to Kazan" (in Russian). Rosbalt. 9 December 2015. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
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