Tamara Samsonova (1947-?)
Tamara Samsonova, also known as The Granny Ripper and Baba Yaga, is a Russian serial killer. She was arrested in 2015 on suspicion of committing 2 brutally cruel murders. It is believed that Samsonova suffers from schizophrenia. After graduating high school, Tamara moved to Moscow, where she married Alexei Samonsov. The couple settled into their new home at 4 Dimitrov Street. In 2000, Samsonova’s husband disappeared (it is believed that she killed him and got rid of his body). She informed police of his disappearance, but searches turned up nothing. Not long after, Samsonova began to rent out a room in her apartment. According to authorities, on September 6, 2003, she killed her 44-year-old male tenant during an argument. She proceeded to dismember him and disposed of the body in the street. In March 2015, Samsonova met 79-year-old Valentina Ulanova, who also lived on Dmitrov Street. A mutual friend asked Ulanova to shelter Samsonova for a while, as her apartment was being renovated. Ulanova agreed, and Samsonova moved in for several months, helping with chores, and growing to like the arrangement. She liked it so much that she refused to move out and the relationship between the two women deteriorated to the point that Ulanova told Samsonova to leave. Following this conflict, Samsonova decided to poison her friend with the prescription drug phenazepam. She bought an Olivier salad, one of Ulanova’s favourite foods, put the pills in it and fed it to her roommate. Samsonova later discovered her friend’s body lying on the kitchen floor, where she proceeded to dismember it with two knives and a saw. She cut off the victims head, cut the body in half and sheared the flesh into pieces. Samsonova then made several trips out of the apartment, transporting Ulanova’s body parts in bags, with some left scattered around the apartment.
On July 26, 2015, Ulanova’s decapitated body with severed limbs was found, wrapped in a shower curtain, near a pond at 10 Dmitrov Street. The package didn’t attract attention for several days, until a curious local man took an interest in the contents. Ulanova was identified on July 27, after a survey of residents was conducted. When authorities knocked on the door of Ulanova’s apartment, Samsonova greeted them. Once they had entered, police found traces of blood in the bathroom, and a missing shower curtain. Samsonova was immediately arrested. She was taken to the Frunze District Court of St. Petersburg and was forced to take a forensic psychiatric exam. The results determined that she was a danger to herself and others, so she was placed in an institution until the investigation was over. In December 2015, she was sent for compulsory psychiatric treatment in Kazan. Samsonova is now being investigated in a total of 14 murders. Police located a diary which contained details 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.”
