St Petersburg/Russia
The serial-killing 'Granny Ripper' who confessed to 11 murders in a gruesome diary may have eaten her victims, police in Russia have said.
Tamara Samsonova, 68, is thought to have beheaded and dismembered her victims in a reign of terror that lasted two decades.
The pensioner dubbed the 'Granny Ripper' entered details of her secret life in diaries which she kept in Russian, English and German, alongside black magic and astrological books.
She was arrested last week after being filmed by CCTV cameras near her home in St Petersburg removing the body of her latest victim in black plastic bag.
Now detectives suspect that the former hotel worker also ate some body parts she removed from the people she killed, chopping off their heads, arms and legs.
In particular, Samsonova had a penchant for gauging out and eating lungs, it is claimed. Asked if she was a cannibal, a police source said: 'It is not excluded.'
Sources in Russia's powerful Investigative Committee - equivalent of the FBI - indicated internal organs, in particular lungs, were removed from the bodies of victims.
It is also suggested the self-confessed killer gave her final victim, Valentina Ulanova, 79, an overdose of sleeping pills before dismembering her body with a hacksaw while she was still alive.
She was detained after the headless body of Ulanova - for whom she was a carer - was found near a pond on Dimitrova Street in St Petersburg.
Samsonova killed her after a quarrel over unwashed cups, she told police investigating the murder.
Senior investigator in St. Petersburg, Mikhail Timoshatov, said: 'Tamara Samsonova says that at first she made her friend [Ulanova] sleep - and then cut her into pieces.'
Police are now comparing her elaborate diary entries with known cases of unsolved murder cases where victims were dismembered, and body parts packed in bags strewn around the city.
A headless, armless and legless man's body was found on the same street 12 years ago, and evidence found in her flat, including a business card for the victim, links her to the crime.
The serial-killing 'Granny Ripper' who confessed to 11 murders in a gruesome diary may have eaten her victims, police in Russia have said.
Tamara Samsonova, 68, is thought to have beheaded and dismembered her victims in a reign of terror that lasted two decades.
The pensioner dubbed the 'Granny Ripper' entered details of her secret life in diaries which she kept in Russian, English and German, alongside black magic and astrological books.
She was arrested last week after being filmed by CCTV cameras near her home in St Petersburg removing the body of her latest victim in black plastic bag.
Now detectives suspect that the former hotel worker also ate some body parts she removed from the people she killed, chopping off their heads, arms and legs.
In particular, Samsonova had a penchant for gauging out and eating lungs, it is claimed. Asked if she was a cannibal, a police source said: 'It is not excluded.'
Sources in Russia's powerful Investigative Committee - equivalent of the FBI - indicated internal organs, in particular lungs, were removed from the bodies of victims.
It is also suggested the self-confessed killer gave her final victim, Valentina Ulanova, 79, an overdose of sleeping pills before dismembering her body with a hacksaw while she was still alive.
She was detained after the headless body of Ulanova - for whom she was a carer - was found near a pond on Dimitrova Street in St Petersburg.
Samsonova killed her after a quarrel over unwashed cups, she told police investigating the murder.
Senior investigator in St. Petersburg, Mikhail Timoshatov, said: 'Tamara Samsonova says that at first she made her friend [Ulanova] sleep - and then cut her into pieces.'
Police are now comparing her elaborate diary entries with known cases of unsolved murder cases where victims were dismembered, and body parts packed in bags strewn around the city.
A headless, armless and legless man's body was found on the same street 12 years ago, and evidence found in her flat, including a business card for the victim, links her to the crime.
