Alexander Bychkov

Alexander Bychkov
Born	(1988-04-01) April 1, 1988 Russia
Other names	Belinsky Cannibal; Rambo
Criminal penalty	Life imprisonment
Conviction(s)	Murder, burglary
Killings
Victims	9–11
Span of killings	2009–2012
Country	Russia
Date apprehended	January 2012

Alexander Vladimirovich Bychkov (Russian: Александр Владимирович Бычков; born April 1, 1988) is a Russian serial killer and self-confessed cannibal. He committed at least nine murders of men in the town of Belinsky, Penza Oblast, between 2009 and 2012.

Background

Alexander was born in 1988. His parents, Irina and Vladimir Bychkov, resided in a house bought by his paternal grandmother. Two years later his younger brother Sergei was born. The mother suffered from alcoholism, soon the father began to drink too. He hanged himself at the age of 40. Neighbours claimed that the alcoholism and the suicide of Vladimir Bychkov were apparently caused by the infidelity of his wife.

The mother forced her children to work hard on the family's vegetable garden from the age of five. The boys also were forced to work for money for their neighbours, collect metal scrap and beaten when returned home with no money. The boys also committed petty thefts from the property of townspeople. They were caught several times, but pitied every time.

In the late 2000s Sergei was badly beaten and had his brain injured after being thrown out of a car when it was on motion. Alexander had to leave college in order to take care of his brother, who survived but eventually became disabled.

Murders

Alexander Bychkov committed his first murder on 17 September 2009. He met the victim, 60-year-old Yevgeni Zhidkov, at a local tavern and offered to let him spend the night at his home. Zhidkov came to the city to fill out the documents needed for drawing a pension from the district archive. When the two came to Bychkov's house and the elderly man fell asleep, Bychkov stabbed him to death and dismembered the corpse.

Bychkov, who called himself "Rambo", lured his victims, men who suffered from alcoholism or were tramps, to his home or other lonely place where he killed them with a hammer or a knife. He then dismembered the corpses and buried the remains in the backyard of his house and in the city's rubbish dump. He decided to kill in the warm season in order to make the police suspect migrant workers. Bychkov also killed a man who started to suspect him of the murders and tried to blackmail him.

The first dismembered corpse was found in the Spring of 2010. It belonged to Sergei Berezovsky, an ex-partner of Irina Bychkova. In September of the same year two more dismembered corpses were found. A local man, Alexander Zhuplov, was arrested for the murders on 19 September 2010. Zhuplov, who was insane, confessed to all three murders. He was found guilty of all three murders and sent to a mental institution.

Arrest

On the night of 21 January 2012 Alexander Bychkov broke into a hardware store and stole three knives and money to the total amount of 9,908 Russian rubles (ca 315$ at the time). He was arrested several days later. Police found in his home a personal diary in which the author, calling himself a "lone wolf", claimed to be responsible for 11 murders. In the diary he also wrote that he began to murder after being kicked out by his girlfriend.

Being questioned by police, Bychkov claimed that he ate livers, hearts and muscles of his victims.

Trial and conviction

Bychkov was diagnosed with mixed personality disorder but declared mentally competent to stand trial. He was found guilty of nine murders and a burglary. The bodies of two other victims mentioned in the diary were not found. On 22 March 2013 Bychkov was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Penza Oblast Court.

Lyubov Zhuplova, mother of Alexander Zhuplov, made a petition to Rashid Nurgaliyev at the time of his service as the Minister of Internal Affairs in Russia, asking for reviewing the case of her son. It became possible only after the sentencing of Bychkov.

See also

• Alexander Spesivtsev
• Nikolai Dzhumagaliev