Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
A Soviet serial killer who committed six murders and 15 sexual assaults on girls and young women in the Moscow area between 1964 and 1968 was Boris Vasilyevich Gusakov, also known as the Schoolgirl and Student Hunter. He was born on January 1, 1938, in the Russian city of Balashikha, the son of two severe alcoholics. At the age of 3, he suffered severe trauma during World War II when he witnessed a bomb killing several people. Particularly haunting was the image of a girl whose head was blown off during the bombing. Boris could never get this horrific scene out of his head, and he relived it every time he killed a girl, which gave him a so-called kick. From then on, Boris suffered from mental health problems, which he was able to skillfully hide from those around him. After graduating from school, he began training as a photographer, which he successfully completed. In 1958, he married a librarian, with whom he had a daughter. But he was unable to feel any love for her. Boris, who served in the Soviet Army from 1958 to 1961, repeatedly abused and tortured her. He was then convicted of theft. Boris was a talented photographer who was employed at the Kartolitografii GAPU factory from May 1962 to July 1965. Due to his talent, Boris worked in a laboratory in the film and photography department of the Ministry of the Interior from August 1965 to July 1966. He then worked for a year as a photo engineer at an oncology and chemical research facility from January 1967 until he was dismissed for violating work discipline. He then worked briefly as a chauffeur at the Moscow Post Office power plant in February 1968. Boris was then unemployed for several months until May 14, 1968, when he began working as head of the darkroom at the Moscow Children’s Distribution Receiver of the UOOP of the Moscow Executive Committee. Boris was considered a popular colleague. No one suspected that he was a true monster whose attacks on girls had already begun in December 1963. At that time, Boris was 25 years old. At the Moscow Institute of History and Archives, he attacked a girl, but she managed to escape into the courtyard. There, a team from the Komsomol combat command tried to catch him. But Boris managed to escape unrecognized. Vladimir Ionesyan, a Soviet killer better known as the “Mosgaz murderer,” was initially suspected of the crime. Boris committed his first murder just under a year later, on June 21, 1964. On that day, he raped 11-year-old Valya Scherbakova in Tomilinsky Forest Park in the Lyuberezky district, then smashed her skull with a blunt object. In the same park, Boris raped and killed the student Yanova on September 4, 1965. Three years passed before Boris became a murderer and rapist again. On March 11, 1968, he raped and killed the two students Olga Romanova and Elena Krasovskaya in the attic of the Moscow Institute of Power Engineering. He used a steel water pipe as a murder weapon, on which he fortunately left his fingerprints. Just one month later, in April, Boris killed a 9-year-old girl. He then attacked a couple. He struck the man and woman with a blunt object. Only the man survived and was able to provide an accurate description of Boris. Since the crimes took place in the Lyuberezky district, investigators searched for similar crimes that had occurred there in recent years. They found what they were looking for. They were certain that only one perpetrator was responsible for the murders of Scherbakova and Yanova, as well as the murders of the three girls. Meanwhile, Boris continued to search for new victims. He found them on May 16, 1968. He lured two 10th-grade girls to the countryside, where he tried to poison them. When this failed, he tried to kill them with a cleaver. But the two girls managed to escape and immediately alerted the police. The police arrested Boris, and his cruel crimes finally came to light. In 1969, Boris was found guilty of five murders and sentenced to death. Boris then submitted several petitions for clemency, but these were rejected. In 1970, the death sentence was carried out by a firing squad in Moscow. With that, the girl hunter was finally history.
