A former policeman nicknamed ‘Russia’s Jack The Ripper’ has been found guilty of murdering and mutilating 19 sex workers in Siberia.
Evgeny Chuplinsky, 52, admitted to having sex with some of his victims shortly before killing them, and carving satanic signs on many of the dismembered corpses.
At home, he was ‘happily married’ to a glamorous and successful dentist – but lived a double life butchering sex workers who he claimed were ‘bad for society’, a jury found.
Killer: Former policeman Evgeny Chuplinsky, 52, has been found guilty of murdering and mutilating 19 sex workers in Novosibirsk, Siberia over a time period of seven years
He strangled his victims, aged 18 to 31, then used a knife to slice off the breasts of his victims, and severed their heads and limbs, while also stealing their valuables.
He hid their body parts around the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, and sought to confuse investigators by making it appear the killer had a satanic motive, carving devilish depictions on dismembered body parts.
‘He made friends with the women, asked to spend time with them, drove them away to remote places and killed them,’ said a state prosecutor.
‘Then he dismembered the bodies, throwing away the body parts – heads, arms, legs and others – leaving them along the roads or at dumps.’
Two worlds: Chuplinsky was reportedly ‘happily married’ to Vera, a dentist, who has now described him as a maniac
His wife Vera, a respected dentist who knew nothing of his double life has refused to speak in detail about his reign of terror but admits that he was a ‘maniac’.
Chuplinsky is to be sentenced this month after the jury’s unanimous verdict in Novosibirsk.
Russian state prosecutors have asked for a life term in a harsh penal colony.
All his killings were between 1998 and 2005 – yet it took Russian police until now to bring him to justice.
In an effort to snare the serial killer, some 5,000 local men were required to give DNA samples, 8,000 witnesses questioned and 300 forensic analyses completed.
Described as a ‘good family man’ and ‘perfect husband’, he claimed: ‘I am not Winnie the Pooh – but also very far from being a monster.’
After quitting the police, he worked as a taxi driver and later in the construction industry.
He was known to neighbours in Novosibirsk as ‘caring and kind’, and there was ‘disbelief’ when he was charged and labelled as a Russian Jack the Ripper.
Murdered: Police have released these portraits of some of Chuplinsky’s 19 victims
Evidence: This glove was part of the evidence presented against Chuplinsky in court
A top worn by one of Cuplinsky’s 19 murder victims is photographed by police
How he did it: A police reconstruction video sees Chuplinsky show officers how he strangled his victims
The women disappeared from an area known as ‘drunken road’, a red light district, and his crimes started before he left the police, it is alleged.
He drove his victims to deserted locations, before killing and dismembering them.
In one murder re-enactment he told police: ‘I dragged her out of the car, she was fighting back.
‘I grabbed her, pushed her. I was shaking, at that moment you don’t understand what’s happening. And I strangled her right here.’
His wife was quoted on her husband’s arrest, saying only: ‘You must understand that a maniac cannot change his nature. A person like this cannot suddenly become normal.’
Investigators said that sophisticated DNA matching – not available at the time the bodies were found – linked him to the crimes.
Jack the Ripper: Chuplinsky would pick up his victims from Novosibirsk’s ‘red light district’ and admitted sex with some of his victims shortly before strangling and mutilating them
Chuplinsky had initially confessed to the crimes, then pleaded not guilty.
He claimed his genetic trace was on the dead women because he had regularly associated with prostitutes.
This was ‘nothing to be proud of’ but it ‘happened quite often’.
He claimed that as a policeman he was ‘in close touch with prostitutes who were working on my patrol beat.
‘It was about getting information on different crimes and offences. I used their knowledge.
‘With their assistance I solved crimes and detained drunk drivers.
‘Sometimes I let drivers go for a bribe, it’s a sin of course. I was protecting them from physical harassment.’
He is the second ex-policeman serial killer in Siberia in recent years who claimed to target prostitutes or young women whose morals he judged to be ‘loose’.
Mikhail Popkov, from Angarsk in Irkutsk region, known as The Werewolf, was convicted in 2015 of killing 22 women, but has since confessed to murdering more than 60 more.
He routinely raped his victims before killing them with axes, knives and screwdrivers. He wanted to ‘cleanse the streets of prostitutes’, he said.
He is currently facing a trial in Irkutsk for murder of the 60-plus he confessed to following his original conviction.