Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
On 22 April 1960, the very day on which, over 90 years ago, the Marxist, revolutionary and founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, was born, Vladimir Anatolyevich Mukhankin also came into the world in Rostov-on-Don. At that time, no one could have imagined that he would one day be included on the list of Russia’s serial killers. Vladimir’s childhood was marked by violence. He was abused both at home and at school, which is why he not only ran away from home time and again, but also dropped out of school after just seven years. Afterwards, at the age of 13, he committed several thefts and robberies, for which he was convicted on multiple occasions. Vladimir took particular pleasure in torturing animals. As an adult, he married and fathered a son, who, however, drowned in the River Kuban. He began his career as a serial killer in 1995. In Rostov-on-Don, within the former territory of the world-famous Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, Vladimir preyed on women and girls. Within two months, he murdered eight people and committed a further 14 criminal offences. His victims were always women and young girls, whom he either stabbed to death, suffocated or tortured to death. Sexual abuse was not part of his modus operandi. However, he did sexually abuse a 13-year-old girl. He subsequently dismembered the bodies or burnt them. The Russian police only uncovered Vladimir’s crimes by chance. On 1 May 1995, he had attacked a woman and her daughter. Unlike her daughter, the mother did not survive the attack. However, the daughter was able to provide a detailed description of Vladimir and later identify him. Vladimir was arrested and confessed to the murders, which he had committed out of pure hatred for women. During the investigation, it emerged that Vladimir had been planning a murder plot. He wanted to kill 40 police officers in revenge for his years in prison. Throughout the trial, Vladimir showed no remorse whatsoever, describing himself as a disciple of Andrei Chikatilo. He later retracted this statement, calling Chikatilo a ‘chicken’ but claiming that he himself was much ‘cooler’ than Chikatilo. Although Vladimir pleaded insanity, the psychologists deemed him fully sane. Vladimir was sentenced to death for eight murders and 22 criminal offences. This sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, which he is serving at the ‘Black Dolphin’ high-security prison in the Orenburg Oblast, considered one of the toughest prisons in Russia, where only the country’s most violent criminals are held. It is there that Vladimir is said to have discovered his love of poetry; he now works as a poet.
