How Ufa detectives caught a serial killer known as The Beast

In 2010, 70-year-old Tamara S. from Ufa was found brutally murdered in her own apartment. Her body was stabbed multiple times, and the pensioner had been raped before her death. The killer left a note — he turned out to be a criminal with a long trail of corpses behind him. The story of one of Russia«s most terrifying serial killers — in a report by UFA1.RU.

Nicknamed The Beast

In the note, the killer addressed his victim«s son. He apologized for causing trouble but also wrote that he had freed the man from a »burden.« There was a second message, addressed to the detectives. In it, the criminal wrote that he was not afraid of pursuit and told them where and when he could be found. He later explained that he was tired of his own atrocities.

However, he was found a month later in another region. By that time, his tally included murders in Sverdlovsk, Kemerovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Lipetsk, and Oryol regions, as well as in the Republic of Udmurtia. The press called him the Butcher, the Ripper, and the Beast.

«This man has the ability to quickly orient himself in an unforeseen situation, is resourceful, knows several languages, including Tatar and Uzbek. He does not look like a homeless person, he is always neat, in clean clothes,» investigators said.

Another one of his nicknames was The Fingerless. He began to be called that when detectives identified the suspect during their search. It turned out that in his youth he joined Afghan militants, and in one of the battles against Soviet troops, a grenade exploded in his hand, blowing off the phalanges of five fingers on both hands.

In fact, his name was Sergei Martynov. He was born in Nyazepetrovsk, Chelyabinsk region, on 2 June 1962. As a child, he practiced judo, learned to throw knives, and was interested in anatomy. At the age of 22, he was convicted for desertion from the army, as well as for hooliganism and escape. A military tribunal sentenced Martynov to seven years in prison, but under an amnesty, he was released two years early.

In 1991, Sergei was accused of raping and murdering an underage girl. This time, he received 15 years in a special regime penal colony, where he contracted tuberculosis. From there, The Beast was again able to be released early — in 2004, he was let go for good behavior.

While free, he drank, used drugs, and, traveling the country by hitchhiking and with work crews, left dead bodies in his wake. Once, The Beast was detained on the heels of an attack on a girl but was released on a written pledge not to leave the area, and he disappeared again.

The criminal confessed that for many years he felt elusive — like an invisible man. He worked part-time as an electrician alongside migrant workers, lived here and there, didn«t have to show a passport, and could introduce himself under a different name. According to him, he escaped not because of the pledge, but on his own, allegedly because the detention center staff had lost their vigilance.

How long can you kill for?

In June 2007, The Beast beat Svetlana S. from Udmurtia to death and then cut out her internal organs with a scalpel. That same month, he kidnapped the 8-year-old daughter of his employer, raped and tortured her, leaving her tied to a tree in the forest. The girl miraculously survived.

In March 2008, The Beast was already living in Yekaterinburg with Iraida S. The killer attacked her during a feast and stabbed her to death. In May, he killed a novice monk, Sergei B., in Vladimir region, taking church money. Afterwards, he killed another woman near Yaroslavl.

In November, the wanderer took shelter in a village in Oryol region with 52-year-old Galina A. One evening, The Beast led his companion to a deserted field, forced her to her knees to pray, and then killed her with a knife blow to the heart. In 2010, he was already operating in Lipetsk region, where he took the life of a homeless alcoholic woman.

It is difficult to name the exact list of all of The Beast«s victims. Officially, 9 were proven; he himself spoke of 16, while denying involvement in a number of other murders that also resembled his modus operandi. Not all law enforcement officials believed Martynov could be called a maniac, noting that he was found sane and that he committed most of the murders simply in a fit of irritability.

The Beast was caught in 2010 in Voronezh region. His last victim was a former confectionery factory worker — pensioner Nadezhda Ch. Her body was found on the outskirts of a village, and based on the traces, they suspected it was the work of a serial killer. Around the same time, detectives from Bashkortostan arrived in the region and picked up The Beast«s trail.

The fact was that the content of the note he left in Ufa did not pan out. However, the criminal had taken the victim«s phone, which law enforcement continued to track for months. By using it, The Beast gave away his true location.

He worked and lived in one of the roadside cafes 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Voronezh. During the arrest, the serial killer was sound asleep and did not even attempt to resist, although he had a knife on him. During the interrogation, they mentioned the challenge thrown to the Ufa investigators. The Beast explained that he had shown such audacity to attract attention.

«It had to end for me someday. I»m speaking frankly. How long can it go on?« he said.

Under the wing

He was tried in Voronezh and sentenced to life imprisonment in one of Russia«s harshest penal colonies — IK-2 in Solikamsk, known as »The White Swan.« It became famous back in the 1950s when the Soviet authorities began a brutal struggle against »thieves in law« (vory v zakone), a term still used for leaders of the Russian criminal world.

Conditions were created in «The White Swan» such that many criminal authorities broke down, renouncing their titles and convictions. Incidentally, it was only in 2017 that Russia introduced an article in the Criminal Code that implies punishment for the mere status position in the criminal hierarchy.

Those who receive a life sentence are sent to Solikamsk. A statue of a white swan is installed on the colony«s territory, and there are many symbols of this bird there. According to one version, the colony was nicknamed so because of the way prisoners are moved through the corridors — in a bent posture, with the head almost at the knees and the hands raised as high as possible behind the back, like wings.

«Lifers» sit in cells of two or three. Each cell has green triangles, black circles, and other signs on the wall that remind staff which inmates are prone to escape, hostage-taking, or suicide. Inside, there are bunks, boxes for storing personal belongings, and a toilet.

Some cells have a TV, but it can only be watched according to a schedule. Food is passed through a «feeding hatch» — a special opening in the door; drinking water is delivered in tanks. According to inmates, almost all their time in the colony is spent working. Some sew, others make souvenirs.

«The conditions are strict. We got what we deserved. Now at least we are of some use. We don»t live aimlessly. You cannot kill the human in a person. My life has already taken shape within these walls. Besides work, there is nothing,« one of the inmates told our colleagues from the portal 59.RU.

Among those who sat in «The White Swan» was, in particular, Salman Raduyev — one of the leaders of Chechen bandit formations. He spent just under a year here, dying, according to the official version, from complications after several wounds he received in battles with federal troops.

Also serving a life sentence in the Solikamsk IK is terrorist Yusuf Krymshamkhalov, responsible for more than 200 deaths. Another convict is former pharmaceutical company lawyer Dmitry Vinogradov, who in 2012 published a statement about his hatred for humanity and shot seven people dead.

«They all live for today,» the head of the colony explained to 59.RU. «Of course, they will tell you that»s not the case, that they live with hope. But we know them better. After 25 years, there is a chance to be released on parole. Absolutely everyone here hopes for that.«

Martynov himself said that in «The White Swan» he is guarded better than the president. He also told the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets that he committed the murders to practice his knife-handling skills.

«I am under constant surveillance, there are video cameras everywhere. And are you protected out in the free world? Even police officers aren»t protected. And some Seryoga Martynov walks calmly down the street — stab, and he«s plunged a knife. He just needs to check how his hand is working in the morning,» he said. «I have to train every morning. I swear to God. What have I come to? I asked God: »Stop me, stop me.«»

Read also about the serial killer who was caught in Bashkortostan and sent to another colony for life prisoners. Other crime stories are collected in a special UFA1.RU feature.