MASTER THE MAN WHO Boyfriend DETECTIVE’S BATTERED FANNY Shot The CRITO DMEATH WroEng Sister CASEBOOK SNATCHED JULY 2022 BY A SERIAL KILLER – But Kara Survived To Turn The Tables! Deceit And Death In The Garden Of Eden THE MAN WHO KILLED ARSENIC WAS ALABA MA THE KING OF THE NURSE‘S “MEDICINE” KING’S ROAD International Casebook Of Women Executed For Their Crimes NEW SERIES: THE BUNGLED BEHEADThIeN MGyst eOryF D eAepNensN...A www.truecrimelibrary.com InsideMD J UNE IS one of the hottest months in South Carolina and 15-year-old Kara Robinson and her friend Alice were looking forward to a girlie day at nearby Lake Murray – swimming, listening to their favourite music and enjoying the picnic Alice’s mom had www.truecrimelibrary.com July 2022 packed up for them. O While Alice was upstairs in her ne minute she was in her pal’s front garden waiting to go for a swim, bedroom getting ready to leave, Kara the next Kara Robinson was trapped in a storage box in the boot of her waited for her in the front garden and abductor’s car. It was June 2002, 20 years ago, when the then 15-year-old decided to water the lawn as it looked from South Carolina was snatched at gunpoint by a killer and rapist parched. That year of 2002 had been searching for his next victim. But brave Kara lived to tell the tale. See this exceptionally dry. page for Snatched By A Serial Killer for the full, inspirational story. Squinting in the dazzling sunlight, Don’t miss too the first instalment of our new series, International she saw a car pull up and the driver Casebook Of Women Executed For Their Crimes – The Bungled Beheading approaching with a sheaf of magazines. Of Anna, on page 17. The series follows on from our Women On The He was smiling and she thought he Gallows series but, as the case of Swede Anna Månsdotter shows, it’s not looked friendly. He was wearing jeans, a all about hanging. And you’ll see more variety as the series unfolds. polo shirt and baseball cap. Enjoy the read! “Are your parents home?” he asked. “This is my friend’s house,” said Kara. 2 SNATCHED BY A SERIAL KILLER “Oh, well are her parents home as I’d How the teenage Kara Robinson survived abduction and like to show them some magazines?” rape at the hands of monster Richard Evonitz “No,” said Kara. “Her mom’s not home right now.” 5 PAUL DONNELLEY’S MURDER MONTH More Murder Months on pages 9, 16, 18 and 31 Case report by Mark Davis 6 EUROPEAN CRIME REPORT and Francesca Morrison “Deceit And Death In The Garden Of Eden,” “Was This The Man Who Murdered Moscow’s Al Capone?” “Man Who Escaped 10 Times From Jail,” “Killer Suspect “Well, I’ll just leave this with you then,” Asked, ‘Could I Join The Police?’” he replied, pulling a gun from under the magazines and sticking it in her neck. 13 VIEWPOINT “One sound and I’ll shoot you.” More of your letters and a chance to win a book Shielded from view by some bushes on the driveway, he jabbed her towards 14 SCOTLAND’S CLASSIC CASES: WAS DOLINA his car and ordered her to climb into a TERRIFIED TO DEATH? 50-gallon plastic storage box in the boot. Going on a shopping trip proved to be a fatal mistake for Once inside, he told her to kneel and Perthshire pensioner Dolina MacLean bound her ankles and wrists. 17 NEW SERIES – INTERNATIONAL CASEBOOK OF Faced with such unimaginable terror, WOMEN EXECUTED FOR THEIR CRIMES: Kara’s reaction was extraordinary and THE BUNGLED BEHEADING OF ANNA almost superhuman. In a split-second, she decided her survival depended on using Her “shameful love” scandalised the village, but Anna her brain to shut off her emotions so Månsdotter’s execution shamed a nation she could outsmart her abductor instead 23 MD FORUM: THE MAN WHO KILLED THE KING of trying to fight him. The mantra that OF THE KING’S ROAD played and replayed in her mind was: I How Ossie Clark, one of the shining stars of 60s fashion, will not be a victim. met his violent end in the 90s Memorising every detail of that convoluted journey was her way of 26 US EXECUTIONS – THE “ROCK ’N’ ROLL keeping her brain engaged: the serial YEARS”: ARSENIC WAS ALABAMA NURSE’S number on the storage box, trains “MEDICINE” passing, the classic rock station on the Why did Earle Dennison kill her two-year-old niece? car radio, the Marlborough cigarettes her kidnapper was smoking, the turns in 35 HANGED AT STRANGEWAYS: PART EIGHT the road. She remembered the bounce Including the case of one-eyed seaman-turned-killer as they crossed railway tracks, and how William Burtoft the car accelerated as they joined a main 40 SHE KNEW: DEAD LOVERS DON’T CHEAT road out of some woods. She recognised When philandering drug company executive Forrest Teel the sound of the concrete bridge as they crossed the Saluda River, and the was gunned down in Indianapolis, suspicion soon fell on sequence of surfaces changing from his long-term mistress gravel to tarmac. 47 BOYFRIEND SHOT THE WRONG SISTER Pulling into a layby, he stuffed a The Young family were all at home in Waverton, wad of tissues in her mouth to stop Cumberland, when a shot rang out, killing Sarah Jean. But her screaming when they arrived at his was she the intended target? And did her killer intend to apartment. But Kara continued to try fire the fatal shot anyway? and imprint every detail, still refusing to let panic take control. Cover and contents of Master Detective produced by Magazine Design & Publishing Ltd. Printed and The apartment was cluttered and full bound by Warners Midlands plc, Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 9PH, for the Proprietors and Publishers. of toy animals, teddy bears and a real Copyright and the rights of translation and reproduction of the contents of Master Detective are strictly hamster, guinea pig and lizard – surreal reserved. Distributed by Marketforce (UK) Ltd, 3rd Floor, 161 Marsh Wall, London E14 9AP. spectators at the 18-hour nightmare of Tel: +44 (0)330 390 6555. © Magazine Design & Publishing Ltd. pain and degradation that followed. 2 SNATCHED BY A SERIAL KILLER – But Kara Survived To Turn The Tables! Left, Kara Robinson refused to let panic take over as she tried to memorise every detail of her horrifying journey whilst crammed inside a 50-gallon plastic storage and took her to the nearest police station a box in the where she poured out her story. But by r t car boot the time cops and cars descended on the n of Richard apartment, Kara’s abductor had realised a Evonitz she’d escaped and fled. M (right). Above, In his bedroom, however, they found Evonitz’s a locked chest containing newspaper r e first victim, cuttings about the unsolved murders of H 16-year-old three teenage girls, and some underwear. Sofia Silva s O a ne step ahead of the law, Richard W Bound, spread-eagled on his double kind of relationship with him so he Evonitz was already speeding down bed and wearing furry handcuffs, Kara might relax his guard. a crisscross of backroads en route to ” somehow managed to keep her brain Despite her own exhaustion and Orangeburg on the South Carolina m focused on her surroundings and not injury, the strategy worked. As he fell border with Georgia 100 miles away. i on the outrage happening to her body. into a deep, snoring sleep, she managed From there he’d have a clear run to t c Forcing her to watch porn, he ordered to wriggle free of the cuffs, unclip the Florida where his sister lived. i her to call him daddy and raped her leg restraints and tiptoe to the front Later, during their brief meeting, he V repeatedly, threatening to kill her if she door without waking him up. Adrenalin confessed his many crimes to her, but A screamed. pumping, she pelted down the two said he’d rather die than face arrest. He e Even as he thrust himself on her again flights of stairs to a nearby car park, then took off down the main highway B and again, her eyes darted round the praying she’d find someone there to help towards Sarasota where he called his apartment, fixing details of his identity her. younger sister on his mobile and asked to t o like the names of his doctor and dentist A driver and his wife heard her cries meet her at a motel in Manatee County. M under a fridge magnet. She agreed but called the police who Over the hours, as his sexual mania “I believe there staked out the motel and laid in wait. l ebbed, his mood changed. He untied In fact he was already there, watching il her so she could use the bathroom, are other unknown them from his car parked across the W offered her food, and started tidying up road. Suddenly he floored the accelerator the apartment. She told him she wasn’t victims connected and roared off down the main highway I “ hungry but could help him clean the to Evonitz” at 95mph. D kitchen or sweep the floors. Instinctively, Manatee police lost him as he wove M she knew she must try and create some through traffic, but cops in Sarasota 3 spotted him topping 100mph and radioed ahead to have spike strips laid across the road. Even as his tyres exploded, rubber flew, and steel rims sparked, Evonitz drove on, only grating to a halt outside a café when the car swerved uncontrollably and the wheels gave out. Ordered to surrender, he waved a gun and made a run for it. But police loosed their dogs and he was quickly brought down, bloodied and screaming from their bites. Putting the gun in his mouth, he killed himself. Forensics soon showed he was responsible for the three murders police had found cuttings about in his chest as well as his attack on Kara Robinson. His pubic hair had been found on all four girls, and a clear palm print from one of his victims showed up on the inside of his car. But without Kara they would probably never have caught this serial Above and left, evidence killer, and for her help she received a taken from Richard Evonitz’s reward of $150,000. apartment including toy Although Evonitz had been suspected animals and newspaper of at least two rapes during the early cuttings on the unsolved 1990s, it wasn’t murders of three teenage girls until 1996 that his need for violent sexual crime intensified into murder when he snatched 16-year-old Sofia Silva from her front doorstep and choking often played a part in his one afternoon punishments. while she was His father’s behaviour took an quietly doing emotional toll, but Evonitz’s high school her homework. grades remained consistently high and Although her teachers considered him an outstanding sister was student. After leaving school, he took upstairs at a job briefly in car maintenance, then the time, the joined the US Navy in 1984, serving as a abduction seems sonar technician before being honourably to have happened Sisters Kristin and Kati Lisk’s abduction from their front discharged eight years later. without a garden had strong similarities to that of Sofia Silva He left the Navy with a number of struggle medals despite being arrested in 1987 for – possibly because Evonitz was slickness. masturbating in front of a 15-year-old good-looking, well dressed and Police launched a massive search that girl while on leave. He was charged with conversational. began before nightfall, and hundreds indecent conduct, but pleaded no contest Detectives feared the worst as there of volunteers joined in to scour the and admitted to having alcohol and were no reports or sign of her in the area. Every known sex offender in the psychosexual problems. After treatment early hours after her disappearance, and county was hauled in for questioning and therapy, he returned to active service neighbours in the little town of Loriella and recently paroled offenders were that included searching for the remains Park, Virginia, insisted her kidnapper interrogated and had their alibis checked. of the space shuttle Challenger. must be one of the “travellers” Hundreds of leads were followed up. But The Navy seemed to have taught him frequenting boarded-up houses nearby, on the fifth day, the girls’ bodies were skills and discipline and after discharge so the search was somewhat curtailed. found floating side by side near a bridge he had several good jobs in companies Six weeks later Sofia’s body was over the River Anna 40 miles from their making grinders and compressors. found in a creek. She’d been raped and home in Spotsylvania, Virginia. They’d Bosses said he was articulate, confident, beaten so severely that she was almost been sexually assaulted and strangled. and handled business presentations well. unrecognisable. Investigators made little or no progress He married 17-year-old hairdresser Less than a year later, Evonitz grabbed on the killings, and five more years Bonnie Gower in 1988 and the sisters Kristin and Kati Lisk, aged 15 would pass before Kara Robinson’s relationship lasted eight years, until she and 12, from their front garden shortly ordeal would finally help draw a line left him to live with a man she’d met after they’d been dropped off by the under Richard Evonitz’s life and crimes. on the internet. His abductions of Sofia school bus. They were never seen alive He’d grown up in a troubled, sexually- Silva and the Lisk sisters coincided with again. charged family with both parents this turmoil in his life. Their father, Ron Lisk, arrived home distracted by frequent affairs. His father Three years later he married to find Kristin’s bag on the front lawn, drank heavily and was sadistically 18-year-old Hope Crowley, a waitress in but Kati’s in the house. Again, the abusive towards Evonitz and his two a local waffle bar, and decided to give up abduction had been achieved apparently sisters, once deliberately drowning their his job to go self-employed. When the without a struggle and with a sinister beloved pet dog in front of them. Water venture failed and the bank foreclosed 4 on his home, he and Hope moved to suffers from a dissociation between her Paul Donnelley’s Columbia. But by 2002 the marriage mind and her body; an ability to switch was already foundering. Once again, an off her emotions. MURDER MONTH emotional crisis in his life precipitated In many ways, Kara views her violence, and this time Kara Robinson experience as almost religious: “I’ve July was the victim. never asked ‘why me?’ because I handled Psychologists have since noted that what happened and feel I’ve been Death of the innocents...The Evonitz’s wives both fitted his obsession chosen to show other people my story of telephone rang in the Queens, New with teenage brunettes and probably survival to help them survive.” York, police station on the morning on ceased to meet his fantasies as they grew Her career reflects this conviction, and July 14th, 1965. The caller was Edmund older. They have also identified ritualistic after graduating from college she trained Crimmins and he was ringing to say aspects of his murders that are often to be a police officer, specialising in that his children were missing from the the mark of serial killers. Evonitz always child abuse and sexual assault cases. ground-floor Kew Gardens Hills flat shaved the pubic hair off his victims and She left her job in law enforcement of his estranged wife Alice, 26. She had re-dressed them before dumping them when she married and had two sons. called him earlier, having discovered the in water – a significant element in his Then in 2019 she took part in a TV children were nowhere to be found, to ask own childhood trauma. While Kara was if he had taken them. held captive by him he tried to persuade The police went to the flat her to have a bath and may have been and found a bedroom window considering drowning her. open. Alice Crimmins revealed that she had last seen her Below, victim Kara Robinson. Her children when she retired at 4 ordeal happened five years after the a.m. abduction and murder of the Lisk Later that afternoon the sisters. Right, Richard Evonitz during body of four-year-old Alice a 1987 court appearance. He later Marie Crimmins, known as killed himself whilst on the run Missy, was discovered on Alice waste ground. A post-mortem Crimmins revealed that the girl had been killed about seven hours before her mother claimed to have last seen her. The body of Edmund Crimmins Jr., five, was found five days later, his remains already decomposed. A witness, Sophie Earomirski, claimed to have seen Mrs. Crimmins with a documentary featuring five man the previous night and the police other survivors of kidnap and suspected that rather than lose her rape. children in a custody battle she had killed This led to another them. They put her under surveillance. documentary called Escaping Two years passed and on September Captivity: The Kara Robinson 11th, 1967, Alice Crimmins was Story, which was first aired in arrested for the murder of her daughter. 2021, and she has since set up At her trial the following year many a website offering help to other witnesses testified to her loose morals survivors. and the numerous men with whom she “I want these girls to heal. I associated. For her part, she screamed want them to be empowered abuse at any witness who criticised and take ownership of their her. She was convicted of first-degree struggles to cope and move on. manslaughter, jailed for five to 20 years, We need better media standards and then released on bail pending an for how victims’ stories are told, appeal. Her sentence was set aside and a how they’re represented, and new trial arranged. how they’re treated.” In March 1971 she went on trial In the years since Evonitz’s A accused of the murder of her son and t the time of her horrific ordeal, death, investigators have worked hard the manslaughter of her daughter. Her Kara Robinson had no idea her to link him to other crimes and have courtroom antics replicated those of attacker was already a multiple murderer. an inch-thick file documenting his life. the first trial. One of her boyfriends She just felt it in her bones and knew she The FBI also have regular cross-state claimed that while in a hotel bed she had had to avoid panic or be killed. meetings at Quantico to discuss unsolved confessed to killing her children. “I can’t explain where that feeling cases in places where he lived or The jury returned a verdict of guilty came from. It was just a voice inside me travelled. on both charges and Alice Crimmins telling me I must will myself to remain as “I believe there are other unknown was sentenced to life imprisonment. She calm as I could for as long as I could, or victims connected to Evonitz,” says launched several appeals and in 1975 her I would die.” Kara. “It’s my gut belief that he was murder conviction was overturned. In Back at home with her parents, she responsible for more than the three January 1976 she was sent to a Harlem refused counselling because “I felt it murders we know about. When he open jail. would make me feel like a victim and I was on the run, he called his sister and On July 15th, 1977, she married didn’t want people to feel sorry for me. I confessed to other sexual crimes, but Anthony Grace, believed by some to wanted to be strong enough to show no didn’t mention specifics. be her accomplice and the man seen one need be destroyed by an experience “People ask me if it’s better to with her the night before the killings. like this.” forget and move on. But helping In November that year she was But her parents noticed a change in others is all part of my own healing paroled. Anthony Grace died in 1998 her. Their once affectionate daughter process. Believe me, this is a club no and Alice Crimmins lives quietly in refused all hugs and kisses for many woman ever wants to qualify to join Florida. months, and even today she occasionally – but we’re stronger together.” 5 EUR PEAN C R I M E R E P O R T DECEIT AND DEATH IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN The husband and wife toiled for 40 years to make their eight acres the most famous garden in France. Then, too late, they discovered there was a terrible price to pay for t their success... r o p e THE EIGHT-ACRE Jardin de R Saint-Adrien in southern France is no ordinary garden. Alive with rich s Mediterranean colours – bougainvillea, r e jasmine, hibiscus and a fine collection d of scented roses – it was voted France’s n favourite garden on the TV channel 2. a It was, according to the enraptured Daniel and Françoise Malgouyres in their “Garden of Eden” S viewers, a veritable Garden of Eden. That made its owners, Daniel and n Françoise Malgouyres, a short-lived TV the garden. Suddenly, as the security standing over him. h phenomenon as well as substantially of the villa diminished in her wake, a The two men dragged the couple back o wealthy. figure clothed in black loomed up in the into the villa and threw them roughly on J Their victory on live TV was the darkness. He spun her round and bound the floor. d culmination of 40 years’ dedication in her hands expertly behind her back. “Where’s the safe?” one of them n bringing their garden – their world – to Françoise forced herself to remain demanded to know. a life. But the price Daniel Malgouyres calm as he dragged her into the bushes Françoise bit her lip. There were e had to pay for that success was where she was confronted with her 100,000 euros in the safe. There were n something he was never able to calculate husband lying face-down on the ground, another two million euros in bank r until it was too late. with a second man, tall and athletic, accounts, spread across France and a The reckoning began when the couple Switzerland. The garden was always C Françoise bit her lip. dining together in their elegant villa at pretty much a cash-based business. She d Servien, to the west of Marseilles, heard There were 100,000 wasn’t going to tell. l their dog Gynko barking furiously. euros in the safe. As the intruders became increasingly a “I’ll check it out,” Malgouyres said, agitated, Daniel broke. “The safe is n There were another pushing back his plate. He left through upstairs,” he said. “I’ll take you.” o the conservatory into the award-winning two million euros in The intruder went with him. Françoise D garden. bank accounts, spread started up, alarmed at what might be D Minutes passed. Five, six, seven, across France and happening. The second intruder slapped M Françoise counted. Anxious, she her across the face. Then all was quiet. Switzerland followed her husband’s footsteps into Suddenly a shot rang out from 6 upstairs. The second intruder, guarding Françoise, ripped off his hood. His face had turned deathly pale as he sought to absorb what had happened. Then without a word he ran off through the conservatory and into the night. Seconds later Daniel Malgouyres raced down the stairs in pursuit of the second intruder. He was carrying a rifle and his intent was obvious. The second intruder, luckily for him, got clean away. Upstairs the body of the first intruder, David Viers, 43, lay dead on the bedroom floor. Malgouyres decided that the time had come to call the police. “Self-defence,” he told the gendarmes when they arrived. They nodded in assent, but not with total conviction. More doubts surfaced when Gynko the dog appeared from the garden. Why hadn’t he barked, the gendarmes wanted The Malgouyres’ home and garden to know as they patted him on the head? A whiff of sulphur seemed to hang over one predicted how brave and stubborn man you cannot believe he would do this this unexpected death. Inquiries were Françoise would be. Malgouyres was to you. But afterwards, when you analyse immediately set in motion. forced to act. He used the ruse of the what happened, you say to yourself that It was soon discovered that David safe to lead David Viers upstairs to he reacted differently from the way you Viers, a former footballer and a petty discuss changing the plan. Viers, who expected. criminal, was a man with a barrow-load was getting cold feet, demanded to be “I was terrified for 40 minutes. of debt. The abandoned hood led paid at once. The discussion turned into When you are so afraid, every second investigators to Richard Bruno, 43, an argument and Malgouyres, frustrated is stretched. When you see people with a down-on-his-luck poker player. He and increasingly angry, shot Viers. weapons you say to yourself, you think willingly blurted out the solution to the Realising that he had now gone you are facing your end.” mystery. beyond the point of no return, She thought Richard Bruno was a He and Viers, he said, were hired to Malgouyres chased Richard Bruno to thug with a human side and David Viers fake a burglary. They didn’t know all the details. They imagined it was a sort of scam but they didn’t care because they were being well paid for it. The man who hired them was Richard Llop, a horse breeder friend of Daniel Malgouyres. Malgouyres, Bruno and Llop were arrested. Malgouyres, who pleaded not guilty, faced the most serious charges of murder and attempted murder when they were brought before the Assizes de l’Hérault in December 2021. But what lay behind the plot? Georges Cutierrez, advocate-general, explained why it all happened. Daniel Malgouyres had fallen in love with a young gardener Left to right, victim David Viers; Richard Bruno and Richard Llop named Yolanda. So much so that he decided he had to end his 40-year marriage to be with her. despatch him too, but Bruno was already didn’t deserve to die, but he knew what “But there were problems,” the way down the path and heading for the could happen to him. advocate-general said. “First, there was exit. Malgouyres released Gynko from Maître Gaspard Cuenant, for Bruno, money in the safe and he didn’t want to the shed where he had locked him earlier said his client had cooperated fully with share that with Françoise. Second, there and returned to the villa. the investigation. He was never armed was the garden. For Malgouyres, the Taking centre stage in the three-week during the intrusion and only slapped garden was his whole life. His love of the murder trial, Françoise Malgouyres told Françoise to add authenticity to the garden led him to stage this scenario that the court theatrically, “What have I done charade. traumatised his wife.” to these men to go through all this?” For “Bruno’s friend was slaughtered, and To keep the garden he had to make weeks after her husband was charged she he will have that friend on his conscience Françoise leave. To do this, he had to said she believed he was innocent – but for the rest of his life,” he added. generate within her a sense of panic – a slowly doubts crept in. Describing the events of that night, sense that she was no longer safe there. “When you live for 40 years with a Bruno told the court: “After the gunshot “So he came up with a crazy plan – I was stunned. I was in complete panic. a folie grande. Terrorised by thieves, “For Malgouyres, the Then I saw Malgouyres coming down Françoise would choose to leave her garden was his whole the stairs with his rifle He was reloading husband and live elsewhere.” it. The feeling was indescribable, the life. His love of the That would leave Malgouyres to live feeling that we were all going to die.” garden led him to in a state of bliss with Yolanda in their Danielle Cany, a psychologist, said Garden of Eden. stage this scenario Malgouyres cheated on his wife with The problem was, the advocate- that traumatised his his sister-in-law at the start of his general continued, nothing went wife” according to plan on the night. No l Continued over page 7 WAS THIS THE l Continued from previous page marriage. When Françoise discovered this a permanent chill descended on the marriage. “Trust has never been MAN WHO restored.” Even so, the couple cemented a form of partnership through the garden, MURDERED valued at three million euros. The garden became the symbol of their social success. Shortly after they were awarded the MOSCOW’S TV prize for France’s Favourite Garden in 2013, Françoise was thrown from a horse and went into a coma for 12 AL CAPONE? days. She emerged to find her husband with another woman. “I was mad with rage,” she confessed. She demanded a divorce but changed her mind when he promised her half the garden, which until then was in his sole name. Twenty-five years after Russia’s legendary Mafia boss was found dead on a rubbish heap, Greek police have made an arrest. It could bring closure to a saga of killings that’s lasted for decades Daniel Malgouyres on the France’s Favourite Garden TV show “The motive behind his crazy scheme Alexander Solonik. Russia’s criminal fraternity dubbed him Alexander the was to regain sole control over the Great and The Terminator for his successes as a hit-man property which he still considered his own,” said the psychologist. Defending, Jean-Marc Darrigade RESPONDING TO an anonymous control the state. said, “No irrefutable evidence exists to tip-off, Greek police found the body Former communist bosses, the military, support the prosecution’s theory, while of Russian gangster Alexander Solonik, senior police and others turned to crime. there is a profusion of evidence against 37, wrapped in plastic in a rubbish dump. They formed alliances with senior it. The accusation against Malgouyres He had been strangled. They searched managers in newly privatised industries – is based on the statements of two men, his home and found some AK-47s in the oligarchs – to get what they could for both self-confessed criminals. We are a military duffle bag, which seemed to themselves. in the danger zone of hypotheses and underline the victim’s criminal status. “As organised crime spread, it gathered speculation.” Checks established that Solonik fled to a new generation of recruits,” wrote After 11 hours of deliberation the Greece from Russia on a Greek passport journalist Mark Galeotti. “Some were jury found Malgouyres guilty of David obtained from the Greek consulate in bodyguards, some were runners, some Viers’ murder and a number of other Moscow. It bore a false name. were leg-breakers and some were killers.” charges. He was sentenced to 18 years’ Solonik was a man of legend. “He is Alexander Solonik emerged from out imprisonment. Richard Llop was one of the world’s best known and most of the mayhem. A former police chief, sentenced to eight years and Richard ruthless contract killers,” said a magazine he took to crime with consummate ease. Bruno to seven years. article. “His almost supernatural ability to Admirers said he could shoot with both Rattled by the sentence, Malgouyres disappear and emerge again might easily hands like the killers in a John Woo movie. called from the box: “I am totally be compared to that of Carlos the Jackal.” There was a blip in his career when innocent.” He showed no remorse. So how did this apparently highly he was sentenced to eight years for rape, Throughout the trial the only time tears talented bandit manage to end up dead but Solonik used his prison experience touched his eyes was when Françoise on a Greek rubbish dump? to hone his skills. He was ruthless in the mentioned the garden. His story begins with the collapse of prison fights and, again according to She reflected on the scene communism in the Soviet Union, taking admirers, could take on as many as 12 chillingly when she summed up her down with it the social structures – men at a time. He escaped from jail after testimony: “If he had succeeded pensions, health, education, government. two years, made his way to Moscow and in killing Richard Bruno as well, I For a decade Russians were in for a wild became an assassin for a local mob. don’t think I would be alive today.” ride as shadow structures emerged to A Russian journalist wrote: “Solonik’s 080 MURDER MONTH July An axe-murderer...or was it the gruel bowl? On November 12th, 1900, at the Manchester Assizes, the case was heard of Henry Bland, 54, accused of murdering his wife Hannah on July 13th that year at their home, 30 Bury Street, Gorton. They had shared the house with their two offspring, boilerman Michael, 26, and Hannah, 14. When asked how he pleaded, Bland replied in a strong voice: “Not guilty.” The court heard that on the day in question, at 11.30 a.m., Hannah placed a bowl of gruel before her Left, Svetlana Kotova. Her dismembered remains were found in a suitcase. husband. Half an hour Right, Alexander Pustovalov. He was sentenced to 24 years for murder later, Bland asked a local boy, nine-year-old Albert stock rose when he killed mob boss Viktor passport but had Greek residence. A new Atkinson, to fetch him a Mr. Nikiforov in 1992 and six months later recruit to the mob, he was keen to make quarter of a pint of beer. Justice another boss, Valeri Dlugatsj, who was his mark. When he had received Darling gunned down by two-handed Solonik There was no identification on the drink, he shut and in a crowded nightclub surrounded by Solonik’s body when the police found it bolted his front door. Five minutes later, security staff.” on the rubbish tip in February 1997. He the door was opened and Mrs. Bland Two years later Solonik killed Vladislav was almost unrecognisable – his face was staggered out, her head covered in blood. Vinner who took over the Dlugatsj burned and blurred by acid. She asked young Albert to fetch the empire. Three mob bosses notched on The dismembered remains of Svetlana neighbour, Mrs. Frost, who took Mrs. his belt drew gasps of admiration from Kotova were found in a suitcase in a Bland back into the house. Russia’s criminal fraternity. They called shallow grave three months later. She died Meanwhile, Henry Bland had gone to him Alexander the Great, the Terminator, the same night as Solonik, so it remains Gorton police station where he handed the Superkiller. He was to Moscow what a mystery why the killer or killers didn’t himself in, telling them he had killed his Dillinger and Capone were to Chicago. leave her with him. wife. A policeman was despatched to Films were made that emphasised his In 2005 three members of the Moscow the house where he found Mrs. Bland audacious kills, his frequent encounters Mafia were sentenced in a Moscow court still alive and covered in gruel. A doctor with the law and many escapes from for the murders of Solonik and Svetlana. was summoned and stitched her wound, prison. which she said was caused by her “Solonik’s stock rose Even when the net was closing in, as husband flinging the gruel bowl at her it always does on big-time gangsters, when he killed mob head. Solonik proved difficult to catch and hold. boss Viktor Nikiforov in On July 17th Bland appeared before In 1995 he was arrested in a Moscow a magistrate, charged with aggravated 1992 and six months nightclub while drinking with friends. assault. He was sentenced to six months’ Taken to a nearby police station, he later another boss” hard labour. While he was behind bars, shot his way out with a Glock-17 pistol, Hannah Bland’s condition worsened wounding five police officers on the way. One of the trio, Alexander Pustovalov, a and she died on August 5th. An autopsy Re-arrested in Siberia, he escaped friend of Solonik, was given 24 years. A showed her skull was badly damaged and from prison 18 months later using tackle year later Andrei Pylev, one of the Pylev fractured in places. It was also noted that smuggled in by a Mafia contact. He left a brothers, was sentenced to 22 years, later Mrs. Bland’s skull was very thick so it mannequin in his bunk so the officer on reduced on appeal to one year. was not likely that a bowl thrown from a night watch thought he was asleep. In 2011 Sergei Butorin, another Mafia few feet could have caused the damage. Russia was now much too hot for assassin, was sentenced by a Moscow A search of the Blands’ house now Alexander the Great. Solonik packed his court to life for 20 murders after he was discovered an axe with a missing piece bags along with those of his partner, Miss arrested in Spain and extradited. Halfway that matched an indentation on her skull. Russia beauty queen finalist Svetlana down the list of Butorin’s victims was the A police sergeant visited Bland in Kotova, 21, and took a plane to Athens. name of Alexander Solonik. prison and told him that he was being Within weeks he was back in business, Was Butorin involved on the night of charged with his wife’s death. The first having penetrated the Greek underworld the double-murder? Maybe, but police witnesses at the trial were the Bland and taken command of a gang of 50 believe that Joachim Karsliadis organised children who testified to their parents’ recruits. Solonik and Svetlana lived in a the affair, bugged the villa, planned the tempestuous relationship. The jury took mansion with a double garage, basketball deaths and cleaned up the scene. He 30 minutes to return a verdict of guilty court, private golf course and an Italian knew the area, spoke the language and of murder but with a recommendation garden filled with classical sculptures. was the Mafia man on the ground. for mercy. Then Solonik made a fatal mistake. He So it was that when Karsliadis, Before the judge passed the told his gang that it was time to remove now 48, boarded a plane in Cyprus sentence of death, Bland denied the Pylev brothers, who were his seniors bound for Thessaloniki on January using the axe on his wife. Mr. Justice in the gangster hierarchy. 10th, 2022, detectives were waiting Darling said: “Your statement that Unbeknown to Solonik and Svetlana, for him in the arrivals hall. They you did not use the axe on your wife, their classy villa was bugged by his former flashed a warrant card at him no one will credit,” and then donned Mafia employers. Every word the couple and arrested him. His trial for the the black cap. But on November said was picked up by a Mafia man double-murder next year could be 22nd, Bland’s death sentence was on the ground and passed on. He was the last chapter in the legend of commuted to life in prison. Joachim Karsliadis, who held a Georgian Moscow’s Al Capone. 9