Alexander Komin | Russia

Background

Alexander Komin was an electrician from Vyatskiye Polyany, Russia. He used his garage to dig himself an underground colony for female slaves.

Komin lured homeless women and kept them chained in a 100-square-foot bunker buried 40 feet deep. He starved, beat, and had sex with his captives. By the time he was arrested on July 21, two men and two women had been murdered.

Komin installed three sewing machines and put his captives to work stitching underwear, flowered housecoats, and oven mitts that he sold all over town. Everyone in Vyatskiye Polyany, an industrial town of 40,000 people 600 miles east of Moscow, was horrified by the secret life of Komin, who was well liked.

Nadezhda Kamskaya said:

"A normal woman would never have survived such conditions," Nadezhda Kamskaya explained tartly. "A normal woman would either have died or killed the man."

The article described that almost all the victims had a trail of broken marriages and abandoned children, and that at least one had a prison record.

The offence

Komin’s underground dwelling consisted of two tiny, cramped, damp, and filthy rooms: three bunks in one, and a television set and three sewing machines in the other.

When Komin arrived each morning, a light would go on as a signal for his slaves to put metal wires attached to the wall around their necks, lock them, and place the key where he could see it. Three trapdoors separated the bunker from freedom, including the sturdiest stolen from a military base. The steel ladder to the floor of his garage was electrified to prevent escape.

Mostly, the decor suggested Komin’s odd fantasies. Pornographic pinups adorned most walls, alongside hand-sewn crosses and icons. The victims had pasted their own sources of inspiration: pictures of the Madonna and Child and photographs of Harrison Ford and Barry Manilow.

Komin was described as beating his captives and raping them. He told reporters and police officers that he felt he was doing his victims a favor:

"He is trying to convince people that we wanted to be there, that we liked it," she said indignantly. "I hated him."

Komin was also described as having tattoos on victims’ foreheads and as punishing attempts to escape:

"When they tried to escape, they had to be punished. After that, I guess they did fear me."

Two of the three women who survived had the word "slave" crudely tatooed on their foreheads.

Investigation

The police initially assumed all the victims died of alcohol poisoning from moonshine vodka, a common cause of death in the provinces.

When Tatyana Melnikova, 37, and Tatyana Kozikova, 38, first showed their tattooed faces on local television, the municipal authorities opened bank accounts for them so viewers could donate the $400 it would cost to get the tattoos removed. So far, not a single ruble had been deposited on their behalf.

Komin sat calmly in his cell in a police office a quarter of a mile away, awaiting trial on murder and kidnapping charges. Russia had put a moratorium on the death penalty, so he faced 25 years to life in prison.

Arrest

Komin was arrested on July 21. The accomplice Alexander Mikheyev, 30, was also under arrest.

Trial

Komin awaited trial on murder and kidnapping charges.

Sentencing

Komin was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Appeals

No appeals were described.

Outcome

Komin expressed no remorse while in custody. He said:

"I am sorry that I didn't get a chance to marry Irina or finish my underground dream," he said -- to expand his bunker by adding several more rooms and a real bathroom.

He also said:

"I gave them a place to live and a steady job."

On June 15, 1999, Komin committed suicide in prison.

Aftermath

Tatyana Melnikova, 37, and Tatyana Kozikova, 38, returned to a so-called normal life. They camped together in one room of a communal apartment belonging to Mrs. Melnikova's mother.

Irina Ganushina, 23, returned to a so-called normal life after being held captive and then brought above ground. The account described that Ganushina was lured to Komin's garage on March 1, spent three months in the bunker until Komin decided to marry her, and then was settled in his apartment and bought a wedding dress. When she found a chance to get away from him, she went to the police. She lived with her mother and her 3-year-old daughter.

Tatyana Kozikova was angry at Komin for what he did and for what he now told reporters and police officers. She said they begged him for better food than potatoes and bread but he refused. She said:

"She personally craved a slice of cake -- but he refused."

She also said he once offered to cut up Mrs. Nazimova's body and let them eat a part of it. She said the only kindness she could recall was that he once brought her a book she asked for, a romantic biography of Napoleon and Josephine.

Tatyana Kozikova said she did not fall apart when the police took her back into the bunker during their investigation:

"I didn't feel like crying," she said. "I just could not believe that I lived there for two years."

Victims and participants

Captives and surviving victims

• Vera Tolpayeva was described as Komin’s first victim, coming to the bunker in the summer of 1995 after a drinking bout with Komin.
• Tatyana Melnikova, 37, was lured with help from Vera Tolpayeva to the bunker; she survived.
• Tatyana Kozikova, 38, was lured to the bunker and survived.
• Irina Ganushina, 23, was lured to Komin’s garage on March 1 and survived.

Other named people in the offence narrative

• Nikolai Malykh was described as Tatyana Melnikova’s boyfriend; he was poisoned and his body was dumped in a nearby field.
• Alexander Mikheyev, 30, was described as Komin’s accomplice; he was also under arrest.
• Yevgeny Shishov was described as a former paratrooper whom Komin recruited to help expand the bunker; he was later electrocuted and his body was dumped in abandoned fields.
• Tatyana Nazimova, 28, known as Oksana, was picked up in a railway station in 1996; she died of antifreeze poisoning. She was described as having leukemia and no work ethic.
• Malykh’s body was dumped in a nearby field.

Murder victims described

By the time Komin was arrested on July 21, two men and two women had been murdered. The named bodies and deaths described included:

• Nikolai Malykh was poisoned.
• Vera Tolpayeva was described as having been forced to choose between drinking antifreeze or having it injected in her veins; she died.
• Tatyana Nazimova (Oksana) died of antifreeze poisoning.
• Yevgeny Shishov was electrocuted and his body was dumped in abandoned fields.

Other details

The account described that it took Komin and an accomplice, Alexander Mikheyev, four years to dig the bunker and shaft.

Komin spent three years in jail for hooliganism in the early 1970s and learned the sewing trade in prison.

Komin sat in an iron cage in a cell in a police office a quarter of a mile away, awaiting trial.

Komin said he had felt weighed down by the responsibility of keeping his underground workshop going:

"Every day," he said, "I had to think about them, think about feeding them."

Komin said he had a dream dwelling and a dream of expanding the bunker; he said his underground dream included adding several more rooms and a real bathroom.

A Japanese TV report fragment stated “Japan TV Shocked With Vyatka Maniac 15.07.2003” and described that Komin was obsessed with a strange idea of making an underground city and persistently burrowed the rocky soil, cherishing a dream of making an underground menagerie. It also described that he wanted to breed black cats in the menagerie and had an idea to make souvenir pictures from cats' fells.

The Japanese report fragment included these quotations:

"I couldn't even guess that I would have to come down into the terrible cave that was about 15 meters deep. I don't think I will ever have a chance to see such things once again. The descending was an ordeal for my nerves."

It described that Komin tattooed the word "SLAVE" on the foreheads of the women and that he beat them with a rubber hose and raped them.

It described that accomplice Alexander Mikheyev was never present at the executions, but he saw how Komin tortured the people and helped him do away with the dead bodies of the executed.

It described a picture on a cave wall and an inscription on another attached picture:

"Zombie is the utmost evil"

An individual identified as Alfinur Gilmutdinova was quoted:

"It is strange that the church allowed to bury the killer on the same cemetery with other people."

The account stated that Komin was buried close to the grave of Tatyana Kozikova's father, and that the woman noticed that Komin was buried there as well.

The account stated that Alexander Komin kept Tatyana Melnikova captive in Vyatskie Polyany, and that she died in poverty before receiving any assistance from the state.