WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: Tamara Samsonova once earned a living from catering to foreign tourists at a hotel before she gained notoriety ten years ago when her grisly case came to light
Tamara Samsonova, a former hotel worker, was arrested ten years ago. It wasn’t long before the suspected serial killer and cannibal was chillingly dubbed the ‘Granny Ripper’. The then 68-year-old was apprehended after grainy CCTV footage showed her removing big plastic bags from her apartment block in the middle of the night. Footage also captured her carrying a pan that was said to contain a head.
These were reportedly the remains of a woman called Valentina Ulanova, 79, whose life ended in horrific circumstances. And below, we look back at the disturbing case that shocked the people of Russia after harrowing details emerged in 2015. It was Russia’s Investigative Committee that sent this harrowing case to court, with Samsonova being the alleged murderer.
They said the victim died “on the spot” after her friend Samsonova crushed at least 50 sleeping pills into her salad in July 2015 before hacking her to pieces.
A statement from the investigators read: “Then, in order to conceal the committed crime, she dismembered the body of her victim and placed the parts in different places near the apartment block.”
Russian-born Samsonova, who lived in St Petersburg, was said to have used a handsaw to slice up the elderly woman. The Investigative Committee said the pair were experiencing “personal hostile relations” and that the killer had a “conflict with her friend”. After slicing up the pensioner, she was then said to have boiled the head in a saucepan.
Samsonova, whose paranoid schizophrenia was later confirmed, famously blew a kiss to reporters in the court room. She told authorities she was responsible for killing Valentina – but in chilling diary entries she hinted at having 11 more victims.
These potentially included her husband and mother-in-law who both mysteriously vanished. However, due to ill health, a lack of cooperation and the absence of further remains, more charges would prove impossible.
An extract from her grisly diary read: “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.”
One source was reported in The Sun as saying: “We may never know the extent of this granny’s killings.”
It was also reported that she was inspired by Andrei Chikatilo who committed more than 50 murders between 1978 and 1990. Her neighbour and friend of 15 years said she was “very much interested in maniac Chikatilo”.
According to Lenta.ru , the neighbour added: “She gathered information about him and how he committed his murders.”
After being brought to court to answer for the murder of Valentina, she told the judge: “I am guilty and I deserve to be punished.”
The suspected serial killer, now 78, who was also interested in black magic and astrological books, then clapped her hands and smiled when told she would be remanded in custody.
In 2017, she was sentenced to life in a mental hospital, with the judge ruling her mental illness absolved her from being responsible for Valentina’s killing. This all but confirmed that it will never be truly known how many people died at the hands of Samsonova.