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Tamara Samsonova (Russian: Тамара Самсонова; born 5 February 1947) is a Russian woman from Saint Petersburg accused of being a serial killer.

She has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a 79-year-old woman and dismembering her body. She is being investigated in connection to a total of 14 murders.

According to media reports, police found a diary which contained details of some of the murders. One entry read: "“I killed my tenant Volodya, cut him to pieces in the bathroom with a knife and put the pieces of his body in plastic bags and threw them away in the different parts of Frunzensky District.” (translated from Russian to English).

Her husband disappeared in 2005 and she is now a suspect in that case. Samsonova is possibly a sufferer of schizophrenia and was admitted to psychiatric hospitals three times.

 

Did she EAT her victims?: Serial killer 'Granny Ripper' who kept diary of 11 people she decapitated may be a cannibal

By Will Stewart In Moscow for MailOnline

August 5, 2015

• Tamara Samsonova, 68, is suspected of series of murders in St Petersburg.

• The 'Granny Ripper' is thought to have dismembered, beheaded 11 victims.

• Samsonova wrote down terrifying details of murders in her personal diary.

• Police now fear she was also a cannibal and ate body parts of her victims.

The serial-killing 'Granny Ripper' who confessed to 11 murders in a gruesome diary may have eaten her victims, police in Russia have said.

Tamara Samsonova, 68, is thought to have beheaded and dismembered her victims in a reign of terror that lasted two decades.

The pensioner dubbed the 'Granny Ripper' entered details of her secret life in diaries which she kept in Russian, English and German, alongside black magic and astrological books.

She was arrested last week after being filmed by CCTV cameras near her home in St Petersburg removing the body of her latest victim in black plastic bag.

Now detectives suspect that the former hotel worker also ate some body parts she removed from the people she killed, chopping off their heads, arms and legs.

In particular Samsonova had a penchant for gauging out and eating lungs, it is claimed. Asked if she was a cannibal, a police source said: 'It is not excluded.'

Sources in Russia's powerful Investigative Committee - equivalent of the FBI - indicated internal organs, in particular lungs, were removed from the bodies of victims.

It is also suggested the self-confessed killer gave her final victim, Valentina Ulanova, 79, an overdose of sleeping pills before dismembering her body with a hacksaw while she was still alive.

She was detained after the headless body of Ulanova - for whom she was a carer - was found near a pond on Dimitrova Street in St Petersburg.

Samsonova killed her after a quarrel over unwashed cups, she told police investigating the murder.

Senior investigator in St. Petersburg, Mikhail Timoshatov, said: 'Tamara Samsonova says that at first she made her friend [Ulanova] sleep - and then cut her into pieces.'

Police are now comparing her elaborate diary entries with known cases of unsolved murder cases where victims were dismembered, and body parts packed in bags strewn around the city.

A headless, armless and legless man's body was found on the same street 12 years ago, and evidence found in her flat, including a business card for the victim, links her to the crime.

Samsonova is also suspected of murdering her husband, who she reported missing in 2005. He was never found, dead or alive.

The 'Granny Ripper's' diary excerpts include a chilling confession of murdering one of her former lodgers.

'I killed my tenant Volodya, cut him to pieces in the bathroom with a knife, put the pieces of his body in plastic bags and threw them away in the different parts of Frunzensky district,' she wrote.

Detectives in Russia are refusing to release details of her diary until the multiple murder investigation is completed.

Between accounts of her killings are mundane details of her everyday existence.

Entries include such phrases penned on unlined yellowing unruled paper as 'Slept badly', 'Drank coffee', 'Take medicines' or 'I do not eat'.

'It was as if she was afraid to miss something important in her life,' said a source who has read the disturbing diary.

Amazingly, given the gravity of the charges against her, in her latest court appearance Samsonova seemed more concerned that journalists were there to report her case - and that her neighbours in St Petersberg were going to find out what she is accused of.

After being remanded in custody, she told journalists: 'I knew you would come... It's such a disgrace for me, all the city will know.'

Later she blew a kiss to reporters. When judge Roman Chebotaryov asked her to address the court, she replied: 'It's stuffy here, can I go out?'

She then added: 'I was getting ready to this court action for dozens of years. It was all done deliberately... There is no way to live. With this last murder I closed the chapter.'

The judge said: 'I am asked to arrest you. What do you think?'

She replied: 'You decide, your honour. After all, I am guilty and I deserve a punishment.'

When he announced she would be held in custody, she smiled and clapped her hands.

A police source said that, despite her admission to murdering her latest victim, detectives can't force her to say where the missing head is hidden.

When Samsonova was questioned by the police last week, she admitted to committing the crimes but without going into detail, say reports. And in her flat, police found a saw, a knife, and blood spots in the bathroom.

A source from the investigation said: 'She's either much more stupid, or much smarter, than she seems.'

 

Could 'Granny Ripper' have killed ten MORE victims? Russian police believes murderer is behind mysterious remains found in bags

By Emma Glanfield and Will Stewart for MailOnline

August 11, 2015

• Tamara Samsonova, 68, is suspected of series of murders in St Petersburg.

• 'Granny Ripper' is thought to have dismembered and beheaded 11 victims.

• Police fear she may also be behind 10 more murders after remains found.

• Samsonova wrote down terrifying details of murders in her personal diary.

The serial-killing 'Granny Ripper' who confessed to 11 murders in a gruesome diary may have murdered ten more people, it has been claimed.

Tamara Samsonova, 68, is thought to have beheaded, dismembered and possibly eaten her 11 victims in a reign of terror in St Petersburg, Russia, that lasted two decades.

However, police now fear she could be responsible for further killings after mysterious human remains were found dumped in bags, The Sun reported.

The pensioner told a judge last week 'I am guilty and I deserve to be punished' during a court appearance over the deaths of 11 people.

She was arrested last month after being filmed by CCTV cameras near her home in St Petersburg apparently removing the body of her latest victim in black plastic bag.

Dubbed the 'Granny Ripper', Samsonova entered details of her secret life in diaries which she kept in Russian, English and German, alongside black magic and astrological books.

Detectives suspect that the former hotel worker may have eaten some body parts she removed from the people she killed, chopping off their heads, arms and legs.

In particular, Samsonova had a penchant for gouging out and eating lungs, it is claimed. Asked if she was a cannibal, a police source said: 'It is not excluded.'

Sources in Russia's powerful Investigative Committee - equivalent of the FBI - indicated internal organs, in particular lungs, were removed from the bodies of victims.

It is also suggested the self-confessed killer gave her final victim, Valentina Ulanova, 79, an overdose of sleeping pills before dismembering her body with a hacksaw while she was still alive.

She was detained after the headless body of Ulanova - for whom she was a carer - was found near a pond on Dimitrova Street in St Petersburg.

Samsonova killed her after a quarrel over unwashed cups, she told police investigating the murder.

Senior investigator in St. Petersburg, Mikhail Timoshatov, said: 'Tamara Samsonova says that at first she made her friend [Ulanova] sleep - and then cut her into pieces.'

Police are now comparing her elaborate diary entries with known cases of unsolved murder cases where victims were dismembered, and body parts packed in bags strewn around the city.

A headless, armless and legless man's body was found on the same street 12 years ago, and evidence found in her flat, including a business card for the victim, links her to the crime.

Samsonova is also suspected of murdering her husband, who she reported missing in 2005. He was never found, dead or alive.

The 'Granny Ripper's' diary excerpts include a chilling confession of murdering one of her former lodgers.

'I killed my tenant Volodya, cut him to pieces in the bathroom with a knife, put the pieces of his body in plastic bags and threw them away in the different parts of Frunzensky district,' she wrote.

Detectives in Russia are refusing to release details of her diary until the multiple murder investigation is completed.

Between accounts of her killings are mundane details of her everyday existence.

Entries include such phrases penned on unlined yellowing unruled paper as 'Slept badly', 'Drank coffee', 'Take medicines' or 'I do not eat'.

'It was as if she was afraid to miss something important in her life,' said a source who has read the disturbing diary.

Amazingly, given the gravity of the charges against her, in her latest court appearance Samsonova seemed more concerned that journalists were there to report her case - and that her neighbours in St Petersburg were going to find out what she is accused of.

After being remanded in custody, she told journalists: 'I knew you would come... It's such a disgrace for me, all the city will know.'

Later she blew a kiss to reporters. When judge Roman Chebotaryov asked her to address the court, she replied: 'It's stuffy here, can I go out?'

She then added: 'I was getting ready to this court action for dozens of years. It was all done deliberately... There is no way to live. With this last murder I closed the chapter.'

The judge said: 'I am asked to arrest you. What do you think?'

She replied: 'You decide, your honour. After all, I am guilty and I deserve a punishment.'

When he announced she would be held in custody, she smiled and clapped her hands.

When Samsonova was questioned by the police last week, she admitted to committing the crimes but without going into detail, say reports. And in her flat, police found a saw, a knife, and blood spots in the bathroom.

A source from the investigation said: 'She's either much more stupid, or much smarter, than she seems.'

 

Exclusive: Granny Ripper who killed and 'ate' 11 victims was 'obsessed' by Russian 'vampire' maniac who raped and mutilated at least 52 women in 12 year reign of terror

By Will Stewart In Moscow for MailOnline

August 12, 2015

• Feared that Tamara Samsonova modelled herself on killer Andrei Chikatilo.

• The Soviet murderer sexually assaulted, murdered and mutilated victims.

• Samsonova's neighbour said she was was 'very interested in Chikatilo'.

• 'She gathered information about him and how he committed his murders'.

A serial-killer Russian pensioner who confessed in her diary to 11 murders was 'obsessed' with notorious Soviet murderer Andrei Chikatilo, aka the 'Red Ripper', it was revealed today.

Tamara Samsonova, 68, nicknamed the 'Granny Ripper', killed then dismembered her lodgers over a period of 20 years or more.

Police are investigating whether she also ate human organs from her victims, and she is currently undergoing psychiatric checks.

The fear is now that Samsonova modelled herself on the notorious Chikatilo, who was executed in 1994.

He was the Soviet Union's worst-ever 'maniac', a bloodthirsty 'vampire' who murdered, sexually assaulted and cannibalised at least 52 in a reign of terror stretching over a dozen years.

This psychopath violated the bodies of his victims, chopping off their tongues, bursting their eardrums, and gouging out their eyes which, he feared, had memorised his image.

Samsonova's neighbour Marina Krivenko - who has known Samsonova for 15 years - said her friend was 'very interested in maniac Chikatilo'.

'She gathered information about him and how he committed his murders,' the neighbour said, according to Lenta.ru, though the reason for her warped fascination is unclear.

Chikatilo evaded police for years due to a bungling police who assumed the perfect Soviet society could not contain such mass killers.

Samsonova - who also claims to have eluded police for years - 'was also obsessed with black magic literature', she claimed.

'I came to live here with my husband,' she said. 'I used to go to Tamara's flat and call from her phone. She looked a lot better 15 years ago, and her flat too was a lot more attractive than now.

'She looked after her appearance, and had this weird habit of sitting topless with her back to the window, making sure that her silhouette was seen by the neighbours.'

The neighbour's husband found Samsonova's nude body quite attractive, she admitted.

The former hotel worker 'boasted about her excellent English and German', she added.

Krivenko admits that Samsonova borrowed her hacksaw some years ago, and never returned it.

The revelation came as the first picture of her alleged final victim emerged. Valentina Ulanova was a keen gardener who she cared for in St Petersburg.

The 79-year-old woman's body parts were found buried in flowers close to a pond, but the detained suspected mass murderer has refused to tell police where her severed head is located.

Police investigators are currently examining her diary written in Russian, English and German, which it was earlier reported contained confessions of ten murders, excluding the Ulanova killing, which she admitted to under police questioning.

Reports say the police see the diary as a 'puzzle' which they are seeking to decipher.

The diary also includes poems, songs, lyrics and her thoughts on life.

It suggests she was involved in other killings, but sources say police will need to find evidence of other bodies to incriminate her.

One passage reads: 'I killed my tenant Volodya, cut him to pieces in the bathroom with a knife, put the pieces of his body in plastic bags and threw them away in the different parts of Frunzensky district.'

CCTV footage shows the pensioner carrying bags which were believed to contain Ulanova's body parts.

Neighbours say Samsonova was strange, but they are shocked that she has confessed to being a killer.

Usually she remained at home during the day, only venturing out at night.

Her technique was to poison or drug victims.

When they were comatose she started hacking them into pieces, police believe, but neighbours never heard screams or any other unusual sounds from her flat.

Senior investigator in St. Petersburg, Mikhail Timoshatov, said of the Ulanova case: 'Tamara Samsonova says that at first she made her friend sleep - and then cut her into pieces.'

Sources in Russia's powerful Investigative Committee - equivalent of the FBI - indicated internal organs, in particular lungs, were removed from the bodies of victims.

Asked if she was a cannibal, a police source said: 'It is not excluded.'

Samsonova was detained after the headless body of Ulanova - for whom she was a carer - was found near a pond on Dimitrova Street in St Petersburg.

A headless, armless and legless man's body was found on the same street 12 years ago, and evidence found in her flat, including a business card for the victim, links her to the crime, as do the diary entries mentioning the man's tattoos, say police sources.

'The woman is incriminated in the murder of her tenant, a 44 year old native of Norilsk, who was renting a room in her apartment on 6 September 2003 during a sudden argument,' said a police statement.

'After that she dismembered his body and took it outside.'

She has admitted at least one more murder to police, another tenant whose dismembered body was dumped in plastic bags around Frunzensky district of the city.

Another victim is feared to be her husband, who she reported missing in 2005.

'We had some coffee in her kitchen, and we chatted,' said neighbour Marina Krivenko.

'She already looked strange then. She told me about her husband, that he left home and did not come back,' she said.

'And at that moment I noticed some kind of pleasure in Tamara's eyes.'

Law enforcement spokesman Sergey Kapitonov said:

The investigation continues at full speed.'

Police are refusing to release details of the diary until the investigation into the multi-lingual killer is complete.

Detectives are still seeking to match all her chilling confessions to known killings in Russia's tsarist-era capital city.

Entries include such phrases penned on unlined yellowing unruled paper as 'Slept badly', 'Drank coffee', 'Take medicines' or 'I do not eat'.

'It was as if she was afraid to miss something important in her life,' said one source who glimpsed the sinister account.

In court after being remanded in custody Samsonova told assembled journalists: 'I knew you would come.

'It's such a disgrace for me, all the city will know.'

Later she blew a kiss to the reporters.

When judge Roman Chebotaryov invited Samsonova to address the court, she replied: 'It's stuffy here, can I go out?'

She then added: 'I was getting ready to this court action for dozens of years. It was all done deliberately.

'There is no way to live. With this last murder I closed the chapter.'

The judge said: 'I am asked to arrest you. What do you think?'

She replied: 'You decide, your honour. After all, I am guilty and I deserve a punishment.'

When he announced she would be held in custody, she smiled and clapped her hands.

A police source said despite interrogations and her admission to her elderly friend's murder police 'cannot make her say where the missing head of her last victim is hidden.'

Psychic Fatima Khadueva said that Samonova - who is known to have studied the occult - said that an interest in cannibalising lungs could mean she feared having a weak lung.

Police have yet to comment on a possible link to Chikatilo.

At least four male mass killers in Russia have admitted to eulogising this notorious killer, also called the Rostov Ripper.

These were led by 'Chessboard Maniac' Alexander Pichushkin, who set out to beat Chikatilo and kill one person for every square on the chess board. He was jailed for life in 2007 for killing 62 people mainly in Bitza Park in Moscow.

Siberian slaughterer Mikhail Popkov, a former cop, was convicted this year of killing 22 but is now under investigation for another 30-plus murders. 'He compared himself to Chikatilo,' said Olga Muzykova, senior prosecutor of Irkutsk region of Siberia.

Penza Cannibal Alexander Bychkov manically stabbed his male victims in the same way as Chikatilo, one of his idols. The other was Hitler. He was nabbed after killing 11 by the age of 23. 'I saw him cutting out stories about Chikatilo from the newspapers and putting them in his scrapbook,' said his mother.

Ex-detective Serhiy 'The Beast' Tkach, 62, was convicted by a Ukrainian court in 2008 of 29 murders and 11 attempted murders. The Russian-born monster claims to have killed up to 200 over a quarter of a century, saying his motive was revenge on women and 'simple sexual pleasure'. He boasted:

'I'm not a man, I'm a beast. Same as Chikatilo.'

Chikatilo's case inspired the killer in movie Child 44 starring Tom Hardy, a secret policeman tasked with snaring a Stalinist-era monster who preyed on young children.

 

Serial killer cannibal 'Granny Ripper' reenacts how she cut off head of final victim then boiled it in a saucepan to shocked police

By Will Stewart In St Petersburg For Mailonline

September 4, 2015

• Tamara Samsonova, 68, is suspected of killing up to 11 over two decades.

• 'Granny Ripper' has admitted she boiled the severed head of final victim.

• CCTV footage showed Samsonova carrying her head inside a saucepan.

• She wrote of how she cut up victims' body parts and ate them in her diary.

The Russian pensioner dubbed 'Granny Ripper' has admitted in macabre testimony how she boiled the severed head and hands of her final victim after sawing up her body.

Alleged serial killer Tamara Samsonova, 68, from St Petersburg, is suspected of killing up to 11 victims over two decades.

In new revelations today, she told police investigators how she drugged 79-year-old Valentina Ulanova's food - causing her to collapse on the floor after the woman had informed her she no longer wished her to share her flat.

'I came home and put the whole pack of Phenazepamum - 50 pills - into her Olivier salad. She liked it very much,' she said during an interrogation leaked to Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.

'I woke up after 2am and she was lying on the floor. So I started cutting her to pieces.'

'It was hard for me to carry her to the bathroom, she was fat and heavy. I did everything at the kitchen where she was lying.'

During a crime re-enactment, she showed investigators show she cut Mrs Ulanova's body using a handsaw which she had borrowed from neighbours years before.

She began by severing her head which she put in a large saucepan, cooking it on her victim's stove, reported Komsomolskaya Pravda.

While police suspect her as a cannibal, another theory is that she boiled the head and hands to seek to hide her victim's identity when she dumped the body parts close to her apartment block.

Chilling images were previously released of Samsonova carrying the saucepan down the block's stairs and outside.

She explained how she wrapped Mrs Ulanova's dismembered body parts in curtains and put them in bags before carrying them out and dumping them near a pond on Dimitrova Street.

'She managed to carry the hips and legs only as far as the nearest back yard,' reported the newspaper, which was given access to a video of her testimony.

'Tamara boiled the head and arms of the dead woman in the big saucepan. The head and hands and all the inner organs have not been found by police. It took Tamara two hours to sort everything that night.'

She went outside seven times in total, carrying the body parts. 'The figure in the blue raincoat was filmed by the CCTV camera of the block. She dragged the bags, leaving blood marks on the floor,' the report continued.

Local dogs sniffed the remains on 26 July, leading to a major police hunt. A social worker reported Mrs Ulanova as missing after Samsonova refused to allow her into the flat.

Police quickly arrived at the flat and Samsonova confessed to this killing and three others.

She was detained and police went to search the killer's own flat where they found her bizarre diaries written in German, English and Russian.

Some reports claimed these notes admit to up to ten separate murders, but the Russian Investigative Committee - in charge of the mass murder investigation - has not given full details.

An extract revealed today by Komsomolskaya Pravda includes only mundane details of her life.

'I woke at 5am. I am drinking coffee. Then I do work around the house,' was one entry. It goes on to reveal that she went out to buy marshmallow.

One entry makes clear she liked living with Mrs Ulanova, who she called Valya, writing: 'I love Valya.'

An earlier alleged extract, released by the Russian media, reads: 'I killed my tenant Volodya, cut him to pieces in the bathroom with a knife, put the pieces of his body in plastic bags and threw them away in the different parts of Frunzensky district.'

Samsonova told police she killed two male lodgers who had lived with her in the past, drugging them before cutting them up.

But one man who rented a room from her and was suspected dead had been found alive and is now a witness in the case.

Police are examining whether she also killed her husband who vanished 15 years ago.

At the time she told neighbours he had run off with a new woman, but informed police he had simply disappeared.

In her interrogation, Samsonova said that her victim had told her: 'I am tired of you.'

She asked her to leave and go back to live in her own home.

'I was scared to live at home,' she said, 'I panicked.'

By killing her, she said she could 'live here in peace for another five months, until her relatives turn up, or somebody else'.

Natalia Fedotovskaya, friend and neighbour to keen gardener Mrs Ulanova, said police fear the head and body parts were placed in a garbage skip by Samsonova.

'It is very likely that she threw this saucepan with the head into the garbage skip, which is usually taken away on a Saturday morning,' she said.

'So it seems the head has gone with the skip. It will be hard to find it now.'

Asked if she was a cannibal, a police source said: 'It is not excluded.'

In court after being remanded in custody, Samsonova told assembled journalists: 'I knew you would come.

'It's such a disgrace for me, all the city will know.'

Later she blew a kiss to reporters.