Sergey Shipilov

Sergey Aleksandrovich Shipilov (born May 17, 1959 in Arkhangelsk, RSFSR), known as the "Velsk Chikatilo", is a Russian rapist and serial killer sentenced to life imprisonment for 14 murders and 9 rapes. He murdered mostly in the town of Velsk, his victims being women whom he raped before killing them.

Life before the murders

Shipilov was born on May 17, 1959 in Arkhangelsk to a simple, working-class family. In addition, the family had a sister who was two years younger than Sergey. When he was seven years old, his mother died, and, in his own words, Shipilov described how his father began to constantly bring women and booze into their home.

Before the crime series, Shipilov led an unremarkable life: he received a secondary special education, served in the army, married, and had three children. He worked as a foreman in the vocational school, where he taught students how to drive. At work he was characterized extremely positively, as a result of which he was able to use the official car at his own discretion.

Initial crimes

The first murder Shipilov committed was in 1995, when he robbed and then killed a woman. However, he confessed to this crime only in 2016.

In 1996, a series of rapes and murders began. While Sergey was driving his truck, he took a fellow traveler. From his words, she herself, while in a drunk state, agreed to an intimate relationship. However, Shipilov then killed the woman, inflicting several stab wounds on her. Noteworthy is the fact that the "inexperienced" maniac's knife had broken during the killing stroke, with the blade getting stuck in the victim's body. Later Shipilov admitted to being afraid that the victim would come to his house and tell his wife about the betrayal. He buried the woman's corpse in the territory of Arkhangelsk's brickworks.

During the same year he killed two more women in the same way. Another woman was deafened by a fist blow to the head. The victims' bodies were buried in the Primorsky District, and they were found only after Shipilov was captured.

In late 1996, Shipilov committed a rape. The victim managed to escape (according to other sources, he let her go), and she reported him to the police. Shipilov was subsequently arrested. In the trunk of his car a bead from one of the victims' ornaments was found.^[1] In addition, it was found that he had committed 8 more rapes in 1996.^[2] On January 16, 1997, the Primorsky District Court sentenced him to 8 years imprisonment in a general regime colony, but was not even suspected in the three murders.^[3]

Later, while serving his life sentence, Shipilov said that there was no rape: the sexual intercourse with the woman had been by mutual agreement, and that she had submitted a statement "in order to make money from it".^[4]

In the colony

Arriving in the colony UG-42/14 in Velsk, Shipilov came up with a unique scheme, with which he committed all his crimes. In this colony there was practised the so-called "beskonvoynaya" system of detention, that is, convicts could freely move through the territory of the colony and even sometimes could travel beyond its borders for any administrative needs. Shipilov immediately understood that this could be used for his criminal purposes. In the summer of 1998, for good behavior, he was allowed to drive the colony's honeywagon.^[5] On December 8, 1998, he killed his fourth victim, a woman named Doilnitsyna. Her body, unlike the rest, he did not bury, but only covered with branches. After that Shipilov hid, because he was afraid of getting caught, but when he returned to the crime scene and found that the body hadn't been found, he safely buried it and decided to continue the murders. The next murder committed on May 16, 1999. A week later, on May 24, Shipilov killed another woman. He buried the bodies at the final point of his route - at the dump.

Through June 11 to 27, Shipilov committed four more murders, all of the victims were middle-aged women, only two of them being young girls. According to his own confession made after the arrest, "he was sorry for the young virgins", so he switched only to middle-aged women.^[6] Then, in August, Shipilov hid again. On September 22 to 24, he committed his last murders.

All murders were carefully committed by Shipilov. He picked up women on desert roads, and since the opening mechanism from the passenger door was removed, they had no escape path. On the way, he offered the women vodka and when he got a polite refusal, he stopped the car in a deserted place, and then killed them.

In one of the interviews, the criminal told reporters that he only killed those victims whom he considered prostitutes, and always let go those who refused to drink with him. However, later investigations found that alcohol was poured into the victims violently: Shipilov poured the drink in a plastic bottle, and made a carving on the cork, thereby facilitating the "soldering procedure".

Arrest, trial and sentence

The investigation team set up under the Prosecutor's Office of the Arkhangelsk Oblast, unsuccessfully engaging in the investigation of the disappearing women. Nevertheless, one day they noticed Shipilov's honeywagon pass by a place where one of the victims disappeared. It was found out that most often on this road a honeywagon from the UG-42/14 colony passes by. Since Shipilov's schedule coincided with the time of the murders, he was detained. Initially there was no evidence against him, and for a long time the murderer did not give any evidence, but later Shipilov lost his nerve, and attempted suicide by cutting his veins. He was saved by the doctors, and subsequently confessed to committing 12 murders, including those three before the conviction. During the interrogation, he calmly told about how he raped and killed, demonstrating an amazing memory, describing in detail the atrocities and showing with incredible accuracy the burial places. When asked by the investigators if he intended to kill more, he replied that he indeed did and that he even had "figured out different ways of kiling his victims".^[7] Despite raping each victim, Shipilov denied sexual prejudice being his main motive, and from his own words, he was motivated only by the thirst of "crime for the sake of crime".

On October 25, 2000, the Arkhangelsk Regional Court convicted Shipilov of 12 murders and 9 rapes, sentencing to life imprisonment due to the moratorium in Russia on the death penalty.^[8] The Supreme Court of Russia upheld the verdict without change, and Shipilov was sent to the correctional colony of the Black Dolphin Prison in the city of Sol-Iletsk.

Present day

On May 25, 2016, being in a special regime, Shipilov could not stand it and confessed to committing several more crimes. He was sent to the Arkhangelsk Central, where he sits in a single solitary cell.^[9] He confessed to two more murders committed in 1995 and 1996, for which he was sentenced to 9.5 years of imprisonment - this punishment was absorbed into the life imprisonment sentence.

Experts do not rule out that Shipilov, in order not to return to the Black Dolphin, can stay in Arkhangelsk Central for a couple of years and possibly remember any other crimes he committed earlier.^[10]

In the media

• Criminal Russia. "Infernal barrel" (2001).
• Lifetime deprived of liberty "Maniacs from the Black Dolphin" (2010).
• Invisible battle: "Anomalous zone" (2013).

References