Alexander Spesivtsev

Case information

Alexander Nikolayevich Spesivtsev (Russian: Александр Николаевич Спесивцев ), also referred to as Sasha Spesivtsev, was a Russian man. He was born in the Siberian town of Novokuznetsk in 1969 and was born March 1, 1970. He practised cannibalism on his victims.

Background

Spesivtsev was raised in an abusive home. The account described a violent father who tortured the whole family.

As an adult, he murdered his girlfriend and was committed to a psychiatric institution, from which he was later released. He previously had been released from a psychiatric hospital and had been committed after being convicted of murdering his girlfriend.

At the time of his arrest, he was an unemployed black marketeer and a former mental patient living in the Siberian town of Novokuznetsk. He subsequently shared a flat with his mother, Ludmilla, and with his Dobermann.

Spesivtsev was described by authorities as an "intellectual" who had written some books on philosophy. In prison, he spent all his time undergoing psychiatric testing and writing poems about the evils of democracy. When asked how he justifies his crimes, he answered with a rhetorical question:

"How many people have our democracy destroyed?... If people thought about that, there wouldn't be any of this filth. But what can you do?"

The offence

Spesivtsev was accused of killing up to 80 people and cannibalising some of his victims. His crimes were discovered in 1996.

He was responsible for the murders of at least 19 street kids. In the account, police later found evidence of 19 different murders. The prosecutor believed investigators would add more bodies to the tally over time.

The account described a pattern in which Spesivtsev lured homeless children from the streets and local train stations to his home.

In one account of a specific case, Spesivtsev’s mother, Lyudmila Spesivtseva, was said to have helped lure victims to their home. The account stated that Spesivtsev raped and beat three girls. He killed one of the girls and forced the other two to cut her into pieces in the bathtub. The mother cooked her body parts for dinner. The second girl was killed by the Dobermann. Spesivtsev escaped over the balcony when he heard someone opening the door.

A second account described how he trapped visitors in the flat, with a fierce dog, and then murdered and mutilated them.

Investigation

Suspicion of a serial killer active in the area surfaced in the summer of 1996 when body parts appeared in the river Aba near the school where Sasha's mom, Lyudmila, worked.

During the initial stages of the investigation, one of Spesivtsev’s neighbors repeatedly complained to police of the deathly stench and deafening music coming from his apartment. The account stated that no officer ever came to investigate the complaints, and it described the matter as being treated as cleanliness and civil problem rather than suspected homicide. It also stated that in 1991 a teenage girl had been found dead at the man’s apartment.

A year later, police investigated and found 15-year-old Olga Galtseva on the couch of Spesivtsev’s apartment with multiple stab wounds to her stomach and chest. The account stated that she was still alive but barely. Before dying, Olga told police that she, together with two other 13-year-old friends, helped the cannibal mother carry some bags to the apartment. Once inside, the girls were trapped by Sasha and a fierce dog. The account stated that police assumed the other two were dead, but that due to a lack of funds they were unable to look for them in the gardens around the apartment block nor perform tests on any body parts they found.

When authorities entered the flat, the account described evidence including body parts and mutilated remains. It stated that police found body parts strewn everywhere, including a headless corpse found in the bathroom and a human rib cage on the living room floor. It stated that authorities found evidence of 19 different murders.

In a different description, a pipe breakage forced the neighbours to call a plumber in 1996. The problem was determined to be in the Spesivtsev apartment. The plumber had the door opened by force because no one was answering the knock. Authorities found blood covering the walls. The account described bowls with pieces of human bodies in the kitchen and a mutilated, headless body in the bathtub. Olga Galtseva was found also mutilated but still alive on the sofa. She was taken to a hospital, where she was able to tell the public prosecutor about what had happened, and she died seventeen hours later.

The account stated that the police found a diary which detailed the murders of nineteen girls. It also stated that Spesivtsev was generally suspected of having been responsible for over a dozen other deaths, but Russian authorities lacked the funds to successfully investigate those cases.

A prosecutor for the trial, Alexei Bugayets, said that a thorough search revealed at least 80 pieces of bloodstained clothing in Spesivtsev's apartment. Bugayets said tests established that none of them contained blood from anyone in Spesivtsev's family. Bugayets also said investigators believed they could prove Spesivtsev killed 19 people and expected to add dozens of other cases.

Arrest

Spesivtsev was later captured while attempting to rape a woman in her own apartment. An account also described that he had escaped over the balcony when he heard someone opening the door during one of the incidents.

Trial

At trial, Spesivtsev was declared guilty in all 19 cases and sentenced to death. His mother, Lyudmila Spesivtseva, denied any involvement. She was convicted as an accomplice and sentenced to life in prison.

The account stated that the prosecutor for the trial was Alexei Bugayets, and it included Bugayets’s remarks about the evidence found in Spesivtsev's apartment and expectations for proving additional cases.

Sentencing and mental health ruling

On October 5, 1999, a court ruled that Spesivtsev was insane and committed him to a psychiatric hospital.

Appeals

No appeal details were provided.

Outcome

After the court ruled him insane, Spesivtsev was committed to a psychiatric hospital on October 5, 1999.

Aftermath

Spesivtsev’s mother withdrew into herself and had not uttered a word since her arrest. In the account, Spesivtsev wanted to sell his head to some institute so they could study his brain and get paid, "in advance, in cigarettes."

"in advance, in cigarettes."