Vladimir Nikolayev, 65, was convicted in 1997 of the murders of two men in the city of Novocheboksarsk, western Russia – he dismembered the bodies and sold the meat on to unsuspecting locals
Vladimir Nikolayev’s horrific crimes were exposed when customers, who had been sold meat he claimed came from from various exotic animals including kangaroos, grew suspicious. Their concerns led them to report the matter to the police and upon examination by a doctor, it was discovered that the meat contained human blood.
Nikolayev, who already had an extensive criminal record, was swiftly arrested and confessed to murder shortly after being taken into custody. A search of his apartment revealed human remains and a bathtub heavily stained with blood.
Born in 1959 in Novocheboksarsk, a city in western Russia, Nikolayev is infamously known as the ‘Novocheboksarsk Cannibal’ or ‘The Ogre’. He first came under police scrutiny in 1980 when he was convicted for theft and robbery.
He has openly discussed his crimes, including the two murders for which he was eventually convicted. According to Nikolayev, his first murder occurred “accidentally.”
during a fist fight with a drinking partner who also had a criminal past, reports the Mirror US.
Believing he had merely knocked out his friend, Nikolayev attempted to revive him by carrying him upstairs to his apartment and dousing him with cold water.
In a desperate attempt to cover his tracks, Nikolayev dismembered the body in his bathtub after realising the man was dead. He initially planned to bury the victim, but while dismembering the body, he removed a chunk of flesh from the thigh and roasted it.
Featured in the National Geographic documentary “Russia’s Toughest Prisons,” Nikolayev recounted his first murder in more detail and showcased his tattoos.
He said: “I was coming home from a party a little drunk. And next to the door of my building, another guy, also drunk, asked me for a light. We started arguing and got into a fight. He hit me, and I hit him, and it turned out he died.”
Nikolayev explained that he dragged the victim to the bathroom, undressed him, and began to dismember him.
Unhappy with his initial attempt at boiling the thigh, Nikolayev turned to frying it and, pleased with the result, began consuming his victims as a source of food. He even went so far as to distribute body parts to acquaintances and sold eleven pounds of flesh as exotic animal meat at an open market, ultimately leading to his downfall.
In a chilling report from The Mirror, it emerged that the cannibal had deceitfully served human flesh to an unsuspecting family. He recounted how he passed the meat to a friend, whose wife unwittingly used it to make dumplings, consuming some herself and feeding her children with it.
Nikolayev remarked in an interview, his expression disturbingly gleeful: “Well, I said it was kangaroo but we don’t have kangaroos around here. They didn’t know what it was.”
Having committed despicable crimes, Nikolayev squandered the ill-gotten gains on alcohol. At his trial, he was convicted for two murders that occurred in 1997 and was initially sentenced to the death penalty.
However, when Russia abolished capital punishment in 1999, his sentence was commuted.
Despite generally opposing the death penalty, he has expressed a preference for death over life imprisonment. In 2001, his fate was sealed when he was moved to the infamous IK-6 Black Dolphin Prison, notorious for its severe conditions.