St. Petersburg Jack the Ripper: the story of Russia’s first serial killer – cadet Nikolai Radkevich

Nikolai Radkevich himself decided his fate, saying: “Keep me at least 10 years in the hospital, I will remain the same. I don’t need half measures: neither forced labor nor freedom! And the judge decided that he would carry out the desire of the accused.

Radkevich’s date of birth is not known with certainty. He himself said so in 1888, but it is possible that Nicholas chose this year only because it was then that the famous Jack the Ripper was unleashed in London.

Radkevich studied at the Arakcheevsky Cadet Corps in Nizhny Novgorod. As Nikolai himself said, at the age of 14 he was seduced by a 30-year-old woman, she also infected the teenager with syphilis.

Nikolai, in a fit of rage, tried to kill the former lover, but her new boyfriend twisted the boy and took him to the police. Radkevich was expelled from the educational institution, then the cadet decided: his mission is to cleanse the world of prostitutes.

The first to die at the hands of Radkevich was 20-year-old prostitute Anna Blumentrost: her body was fished out of the Neva on July 1, 1909. The girl was disfigured by numerous injuries: Nikolai stabbed her 12 times in the face, at the neck and shoulders.

The rest of the “moths” immediately fell into a panic – everyone was afraid that the same thing would happen to them. The Blumentrost case was taken over by the city’s chief of police, Vladimir Gavrilovich Filippov, who had already solved very complex crimes more than once.

But little was known about the killer: only a few witnesses said Anna was last seen with a man who wore a long coat and stooped. It was impossible to find a person with such a description in the capital.

On July 14 of the same year, Radkevich killed the second daughter. He brought Ekaterina Gerus to the Hotel Danube, stabbed her with a knife, spent the whole night next to the body and left at eight in the morning, ordering the bellhop to wake up his “sleeping girlfriend” in a hour.

The police quickly realized that both girls had died at the hands of the same criminal. And 10 days later, the maniac attacked the woman again – shouting “Death to the beauties!” Nikolai attacked the maid Zinaida Levina, but bystanders scared him off, preventing him from completing the murder.

On July 25, Radkevich tried to kill the prostitute Clotilde, but she managed to make a fuss, to which the brothel bouncers rushed. Nikolai, fleeing from them, jumped out of the window and fled. This time he kept a low profile and didn’t attack the next time until September.

By that time, all employees of hotels in St. Petersburg had already received a description of the criminal, and only the deaf had not heard of the appearance of the Russian Jack the Ripper. Therefore, Kyao Hotel bellboy Yakov Kazyonov immediately suspected that something was wrong when the guest tried to leave without a girlfriend, with whom he got into the room.

Yakov asked the guy where his companion was, and in response he heard: “She is already ready, and you will be!” Immediately after these words, Radkevich attacked Kazyonov, trying to keep quiet. Miraculously, the hunter managed to fight back and scream. Hearing the screams, the second number and the maid came running – all three managed to twist the criminal.

At first, Nikolai was placed in a psychiatric hospital, but the doctors did not come to an agreement, discussing the mental health of the patient. Some saw Radkevich as a degenerate with birth defects, who was captive to false super-ideas, others saw him as an ordinary sadist who understood well what he was doing.

Radkevich himself announced during the trial: he will not change, does not consider himself sick and asks for either hard labor or freedom. The judge opted for the first option and sentenced Nikolai to eight years of labor. But the maniac did not work a single day for the good of the state: other criminals killed him as he was transported to the place of punishment.

Photo: Legion Media