Dozens of victims devoured. How a young man became Russia’s most terrible cannibal…
On January 21, 2012, late at night, the owner of a small shop in the town of Belinski, in the Pensa region, discovered a robbery. 10,000 rubles and three garden knives were missing from the cash register. In a provincial town with a population of only 8,000, [music] these types of robberies were rare, and the police took charge of the case with their usual slowness.
No one could have imagined that the search for a petty thief would lead to the discovery of one of the most horrific serial murders in modern Russian criminal history. This case would go down in history as the Belinski cannibal. Alexander Vladimirovic Bkov, 23, was arrested almost immediately. It wasn’t difficult to create a composite sketch of him, since this short, thin young man with a high-pitched voice was very well known in the city.
But when the investigators began the interrogation, something unimaginable happened. Bichkov, apparently unaware of the gravity of his situation or feeling an irresistible impulse of self-admiration, suddenly began to confess not to theft, but to murder. The words that came out of his mouth shocked even the most experienced agents.
The young man with the childlike face methodically listed, almost indifferently, the names, dates, and methods used to kill his victims. During a search of his house on Belinski Street, investigators discovered a veritable chamber of horrors, a collection of knives, personal belongings of the victims, videotapes with scenes of violence and dismemberment, and most importantly, a diary.
In this notebook, Pachkov described in great detail 11 murders, supplementing his notes with his own impressions of how he ate the flesh, livers, and hearts of his victims. He pompously called himself a predator, a lone wolf, and a sanitation worker for society, reasoning about his mission to cleanse the city of human garbage.
On April 1, 1988, in the city of Belinski, in the Pensa region, a boy was born who would become one of the most terrifying maniacs in the Russian interior. Alexander Bichkov was born into a family where alcohol was the main god and violence the only means of communication. His father worked as a combine harvester operator and later retrained as a refrigeration equipment repairman.
But his main occupation remained drinking. Her mother was no less fond of alcohol than her husband. Alexander and his two brothers’ childhood became an endless nightmare from which there was no waking up. Their mother forced the children to work in the garden from a very young age and also sent them to collect scrap metal and bottles.
If they returned home without money, he would beat them brutally. He used not only his hands and a belt, but also anything he could get his hands on, especially a thick electric kettle cord. This cable, as thick as a finger, left deep bruises and lacerations on the children’s skin . The younger siblings silently endured the abuse for fear of receiving even more beatings.
To survive this hell, the children learned to steal. When Alexander’s father [musician] turned 40, he committed suicide. For the children, this meant a new twist in the nightmare. Her mother was not at all affected by her husband’s death. [music] On the contrary, now noisy groups of drinking buddies [music] gathered at his house every day.
The woman changed partners one after another, and now the children were being beaten not only by their drunken mother, but also by her occasional lovers. The Pachkov house became a place filled with alcohol, swearing, and violence. In 2007, Alexander graduated from a vocational school with a degree in agricultural machinery repair and even enrolled in a teacher training college.
It seemed that the young man had the opportunity to break the vicious cycle. However, fate dealt him another blow. Unknown assailants brutally beat one of Alexander’s brothers, leaving him disabled. There was no hope for her mother, who was mired in alcoholism. Alexander was forced to drop out of school to take care of his disabled brother.
Alexander was not particularly strong or imposing in appearance. He was short and thin, with a high-pitched voice that hurt the ears. At school, his classmates gave him a cruel but fitting nickname. Dry Rambo. This nickname reflected the absurdity of his attempts to appear strong and dangerous. Something dark was brewing inside this thin young man, fueled by years of humiliation, beatings, and hopeless despair.
September 2009 was a turning point in the life of 21-year-old Alexander Bitchov. It was then that he committed his first murder, a crime that turned out to be surprisingly simple and inconsequential [music] and that paved the way for a whole series of murders. The victim was Evgeni Sitkov, 60, who had come to Belinski from his village to apply for his pension.
The old man decided to celebrate this event and went to a local bar where he met a nice young man. Alexander suggested he continue drinking alcohol at his house. Sitkov, suspecting nothing, accepted. [music] The meeting lasted until late at night and the guest spent the night at [music] his new friend’s house.
During the party a fight broke out between the men, probably a drunken argument that both could have forgotten by the next morning, [music] but Alexander did not forget. In the middle of the night, when Sidkov was already asleep, Bitkov took a kitchen knife and stabbed the old man directly in the heart.
Later, during questioning, Alexander was unable to clearly explain to investigators what had led him to commit the murder. Perhaps it was the anger that had accumulated over the years and finally found an outlet. Perhaps the alcohol loosened his grip and unleashed dark impulses he had previously repressed.
Or perhaps at that moment Bichkov simply realized the power he had over a helpless, drunken old man. A power he never had as a child when his mother would beat him with the kettle cord. The murder turned out to be surprisingly easy. Bitchkov dismembered the corpse and disposed of the remains without leaving a trace.
The police didn’t even start a search. Sidkov was a visitor, an old drunk, and nobody reported his disappearance. For the small provincial town of Belinski, the disappearance of another vagrant was an unusual event. Bichkov understood the main point. He could kill and get away with it. This impunity gave him free rein.
After his first murder, Alexander Bitchov found his modus operandi, which he followed with a terrifying method. He chose his victims from among the most vulnerable segments of society. Homeless people, chronic alcoholics, seasonal workers, and elderly people without family. These were invisible people whose disappearance was rarely noticed and even less frequently investigated.
In the small town of Belinski, these characters formed their own special world apart from society. The house setting was reduced to the essentials. Povof would meet his potential victim in a bar or simply on the street, appearing friendly and generous. He offered to have a drink together, sometimes inviting her to his house, [music] sometimes taking her to a deserted place.
The victims readily agreed . Free drinks and company were a rare luxury for lonely elderly people and the homeless. They saw no threat in this thin, high-pitched young man. When the victim was drunk enough and let his guard down, Bichkov would attack. Most of the time he used a heavy hammer, stunned the person with a blow to the head, and then cut their throat with a knife.
Sometimes he would fly into a rage and strike the victim hundreds of times with the hammer, leaving his head covered in blood. The murders were committed in his house, in empty lots, in abandoned buildings, places where no one could hear the screams. After the murder, the darkest part of the ritual began. Bitchov dismembered the corpses using his skills as a sawyer and his knowledge of anatomy.
He would bury the body parts in his backyard or [music] throw them in a street dump. Lermontovskaya, who was nearby. Sometimes neighbors would find the remains, but in a provincial city where the police were overworked and underfunded, the investigation would stall. Alexander Bitchov’s second victim was very well known to him.
He was one of his mother’s many cohabitants, Vladimir Veresovski. This man was part of the alcoholic hell in which Alexander spent his childhood, one of those who drank vodka in his house, which had become a den. It is unclear whether Veresovski [music] participated in the beatings of the children or whether he became the embodiment [music] of everything Bichkov hated in his life.
In any case, this man disappeared and his death went unnoticed [music] in the alcoholic haze that enveloped the environment of Alexander’s mother. Then two more followed. Bitchov met them in the city park, two men he barely knew and who were probably happy to have some company while drinking. The details of these murders were recorded in the maniac’s diary, but the victims’ names were lost in the investigation files.
Alexander acted according to a well- established pattern: alcohol, conversation, a blow at the most unexpected moment, a hammer or a knife. The tools were simple but effective. The fifth victim was a man whose death marked a turning point in Bitchov’s criminal career. Arcadi Araquelian was a migrant worker who had come to Belinski to earn money.
Alexander met him as usual, offered him a drink, and took him to a secluded spot. But this time something went wrong. Perhaps Araquelian tried to resist, or he was simply stronger than the previous victims. Pitkov did not lose his composure and killed the man with his usual cruelty. It was after the murder of Arakelian that Alexander Bichkov crossed the definitive line that separates an ordinary murderer [music] from a cannibal.
As he dismembered the body, he felt for the first time not only the desire to get rid of the [musical] evidence, but something more. Curiosity, a perverse interest in human flesh. Later he wrote in his diary. Of course, I hid the corpse, but I took the heart. This confession, made with terrifying frankness, opened a new chapter in his crimes.
Pitkov began not only to kill, but also to eat his victims. In later murders, cannibalism became an integral part of the ritual [music]. Alexander would cut out the livers and hearts of his victims, cook these organs, and eat them. [music] In his diary he described the taste of human flesh. and he shared his culinary experiments with the impartiality of a chef who jots down recipes.
These notes, later discovered by investigators, became some of the most shocking evidence in the case, although it was never officially proven in court that cannibalism had occurred. September 2010 brought a new wave of horror to Belinski. The dismembered bodies [music] of three people were found in the city. The remains were found in empty lots, abandoned buildings and a landfill on Lermontovskaya Street.
The police were finally forced to admit the obvious. A serial killer was operating in a small provincial town. The investigation began, but instead of the real criminal, another person became a suspect. Alexander Schupov, a resident nicknamed Shupik, was a disabled person with mental health problems. This unfortunate man did indeed lead a marginalized life, but his involvement in the murders was the result of the investigation’s desperate attempts to find the culprit at any cost.
Shupov was arrested and charged under Part 4 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for causing grievous bodily injury resulting in death. Instead of going to prison, the disabled man was sent to mandatory treatment. [music] Shupov’s arrest sparked a wave of criticism against the Interior Ministry.
Even in Belinski province, many understood that a disabled person with a mental illness could not have committed a series of brutal and well-planned murders, followed by the dismemberment of the bodies. But the investigation needed results, and the real killer was still operating, hidden in the shadows of the police’s mistake.
While the innocent Schupov was in a psychiatric hospital, Alexander Bitchov continued his house. After Araelian’s murder, there were four more victims. The names of some of them remain in the case files. Middle-aged Russian men. alcoholics, homeless people, people without strong social ties. According to Bichkov himself, they were all twice as healthy as me.
He was physically incapable of overpowering them in a fair fight, so he acted stealthily from an ambush. [music] In his diary, Alexander explained his choice of victims with a peculiar logic. He claimed that he did not dare to kill a woman or a child because they were defenseless. On the other hand, a man [musician] can defend himself.
This was his twisted justification, an attempt to imbue his actions with a kind of code of honor. In reality, Bitchov chose those whose disappearance no one would actively investigate and those he could easily lure with the promise of alcohol. On January 21, 2012, late at night, Alexander [music] Bitchov made a mistake that ended his criminal career.
He entered the store, Everything for the Home in Belinski, and stole three garden knives and about 10,000 rubles. It was a petty theft, incomparable in magnitude to the monstrous crimes he had committed during the last two and a half years. But it was this robbery that brought about his end. After the robbery, Alexander got drunk and fell asleep somewhere in the street or in a doorway.
The police arrested him almost immediately. It was easy to find a thief in a small town. The thin, 23- year-old with a high-pitched voice and a collection of stolen knives was pitiful. They took him to the police station to question him about the robbery, and nobody expected that this boy was the killer they had been looking for for more than 2 years.
However, a law enforcement officer was on the lookout. Perhaps it was intuition, or maybe a chain of logic. His fascination with knives, the rumors about a maniac, the dismembered corpses found. They began to question Bitchov more thoroughly, and he broke down unexpectedly quickly.
Alexander didn’t even try to lie; on the contrary, he began to confess with such willingness as if he had been waiting for that moment. The words that came out of the detainee’s mouth surprised even the most experienced investigators. Bichkov confessed to 11 murders committed between September 2009 and January 2012. [music] He methodically listed the names, dates, methods of execution, and burial locations of the remains.
[music] Alexander spoke of cannibalism, of how he extracted the internal organs of his victims and cooked them. He spoke about it calmly, almost naturally, as if he were sharing recipes or talking about fishing. The search of Alexander Bitchov’s house, located on one of the quiet streets of Belinski, turned into a journey to hell for the investigators.
What they found in the home of the 23-year-old killer shocked even the most experienced police officers , who had seen many things throughout their careers. The house was full of material evidence, [music] each of which told its own terrible story. A collection of knives of various sizes and shapes lay in plain sight.
Murder weapons that Bitchov had carefully kept as trophies. The victims’ personal belongings, [music] documents, clothing, small objects, were neatly arranged [music] in the corners. But the most shocking discovery was a diary. In an ordinary notebook, Alexander meticulously described 11 murders committed [music] between September 2009 and January 2012.
The pages [music] of the diary contained detailed descriptions of each crime. How he chose his victims, lured them, killed them [music] and dismembered them. Bikov wrote about himself in the third person, [music] calling himself a lone wolf and a disinfectant of society. [music] He reflected on his mission to cleanse the city of human garbage, as he called the homeless and alcoholics.
The maniac [music] described acts of cannibalism in great detail. How he cut out the hearts and livers of two victims, [music] how he cooked and ate human flesh. In addition to the diary, a large number of videotapes containing horror movies, thrillers, and violent music were found in the house. This collection demonstrated not only an interest in the genre, but an absolute obsession with the theme of death and dismemberment.
Investigators also found books, including works by Ernest Hemingway, that Bitchov read between murders. This contrast between his cultural interests and his monstrous crimes made the maniac’s personality seem even more mysterious and terrifying. The dismembered remains of the victims were found on the grounds behind the house and in a landfill on Lermontovskaya Street.
In total, the investigators were able to identify nine of the 11 bodies that Bitchov mentioned in his diary. Two bodies were never found, perhaps because they were destroyed more thoroughly or because the maniac did not remember the exact places where he had buried them. The criminal case grew to 19 volumes, each page steeped in horror.
Alexander Schupov, an innocent man with a disability, was released immediately after the arrest of the real killer. This man spent months in a psychiatric hospital for crimes he did not commit. Victim of the negligence and incompetence of the investigation. Eshupov’s release became a symbol of shame for local law enforcement.
However, for the unfortunate man, it only meant a partial return to everyday life after the nightmare he had endured. Alexander Bitchov was charged with nine murders committed between September 17, 2009, and January 25, 2012. Two murders described in the diary were not included in the indictment due to a lack of evidence and the inability to find the bodies.
For each episode, the investigation gathered a substantial set of evidence: the defendant’s own confessions, diary entries, [music], the remains found, and the victims’ personal belongings. The key moment was the exhaustive psychological and psychiatric forensic examination . The experts had to answer the central question. Was Pachkov in his right mind at the time of the crimes? He could understand his actions and control them.
This conclusion would determine whether the killer would end up in prison or in a psychiatric hospital. The test results were unequivocal. [music] Alexander Bitchkov was diagnosed with a mixed personality disorder. This mental disorder, formed as a result of a horrific childhood filled with beatings and humiliations, undoubtedly influenced his personality and behavior.
However, the experts concluded that this disorder did not deprive him of the ability to understand and control his actions. [music] In other words, it was determined that Bitchov was of sound mind. This conclusion meant that the maniac would assume full criminal responsibility for his crimes. Psychiatrists confirmed that Bitchov was fully aware that he was killing people, consciously planned each crime, and methodically covered his tracks.
[music] Her diary entries, full of reflection and self-admiration, also testified to her lucid mind. Alexander Bichkov was not a madman who had lost touch with reality, but a cold-blooded killer who had made a conscious decision. On March 22, 2013, [music] the Pensa Regional Court delivered its verdict in the case against Alexander Bitchov.
By then, the accused had turned 25, a young man whose life had become a gallery of horrors. The courtroom [music] was packed. Journalists, relatives of the victims, curious onlookers from the town. Everyone wanted to see the face of Belinski’s cannibal. The judge announced the verdict [music] life imprisonment in a special regime penal colony for a total of nine murders proven under part two of article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
For the murder of two or more people, Bitchov received the maximum possible penalty. Despite the confessions [music] of the accused and the entries in his diary, the acts of cannibalism could not be proven at trial. The victims’ remains were too damaged by the passage of time and storage conditions for experts to confirm that the organs had been eaten.
Alexander Bichkov and his defense lawyer disagreed with the verdict and filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. In the appeal they tried to challenge the severity of the sentence, arguing the young age of the convicted man and his difficult childhood. However, on June 19, 2013, the Judicial College for Criminal Affairs of the Supreme Court considered the appeal and upheld the sentence unchanged .
The final decision was approved on November 20 of the same year. Life imprisonment for Alexander Bichkov meant the end of his freedom. He was sent to serve his sentence at the Noto 5 penal colony in the Bologda region located on the island of Ognieni. This special regime facility, known in criminal circles as Bologda’s five-copex room, is intended for Russia’s most dangerous criminals.
Serial killers, terrorists, and maniacs. Here Bkov spends his days isolated from society without the right to early release. [music] What turns a person into a monster? Researchers, psychologists, and journalists asked themselves this question while studying the case of Alexander Bichkov.
The answer was obvious, but no less tragic for that. [music] A horrible childhood filled with beatings, humiliations and a complete lack of love broke the child’s psyche and turned him into a predator. The beatings with the electric cord of a kettle [music] that his mother used to discipline her children left him not only with scars on his body, but also with unhealed wounds in his soul.
[music] The suicide of his alcoholic father and the endless succession of partners of his mother, who turned the house into a den of perversion, shaped the personality of the future murderer. Alexander grew up in an environment where violence was the norm, where human life had no value, and where the only way to survive was to learn how to inflict pain.
First, Bichkov’s choice of victims was not random. She deliberately sought out people who resembled her mother’s partners, homeless people, alcoholics, marginalized individuals. In his diary he wrote about his [music] negative attitude towards people who abuse alcohol and lead a vagrant and begging life. Each murder was an act of revenge, [music] not against specific people, but against an entire social class that embodied his nightmarish childhood.
Cannibalism was the logical continuation of this pathological hatred. By eating the hearts and livers of his victims, Bitchkov [music] committed an act of absolute domination, of ultimate destruction. It was not hunger or a primitive impulse, but an attempt to obtain the power he had been deprived of all his life.
The decision to become a cannibal came to him spontaneously, under the influence of alcohol, and from that moment on, music became an integral part of his murders. Paradoxically, Alexander Bitchov did not consider himself a villain. In his diary he wrote about his mission to cleanse society of human garbage and called himself a sanitary worker.
He created a perverse moral system for himself, in which the murder of homeless people and alcoholics became almost a noble cause. [music] This self-deception allowed him to live with himself, justifying his monstrous crimes with noble goals. Today, more than 13 years after his arrest, Alexander Bitchkov is still serving a life sentence on Ogneni Island in the Vologda region.
He is now 37 years old and has spent most of his adult life behind bars. In the special regime colony, he is kept in strict isolation with virtually no contact with the outside world. In recent years there have been reports that the cannibal Belinski has found an admirer, an American woman whom he even married while in prison. This woman, fascinated by the maniac’s story , corresponds with him and even tries to get his case reviewed.
These cases are not uncommon in criminal history. Serial killers often find admirers among people with mental disorders or perverted ideas about romance. The city of Belinski is slowly healing from the wounds inflicted by the series of murders. This small provincial town of 8,000 inhabitants, where everyone knew each other, was shocked to learn that a serial killer and cannibal had been living and acting among them for years.
The memory of the victims, nine ordinary men whose lives were cut short with monstrous cruelty, remains in the hearts of their loved ones. The story of Alexander Bkovicial, but a tragedy in several acts. The tragedy of a child who was beaten and humiliated, turning him into a monster. The tragedy of a society that failed to notice the degradation of the family and did not protect children from cruelty.
The tragedy of a police system that spent two years looking for the killer in the wrong place, imprisoning an innocent man. And finally, the tragedy of nine people who paid with their lives for the sins of others and for their own misfortune. The Belinsky Cannibal has gone down in the history of Russian criminology as one of the most terrifying serial killers of the 2000s.
Hundreds of psychologists, criminologists, and sociologists continue to study his case, trying to understand the mechanisms that shaped this serial killer. [music] But the main question remains unanswered. Could this chain of tragedies have been avoided if someone had come to the aid of the abused child living in an alcoholic hell on a quiet street in a provincial town?
