Anatoly BIRYUKOV

AKA "The Hunter of Babies"

Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Rape
Number of victims: 5
Date of murders: September-October 1977
Date of arrest: October 24, 1977
Date of birth: 1944
Victims profile: Boys and girls
Method of murder: Stabbing with knife
Location: Moscow, Russia
Status: Executed by firing squad on February 24, 1979

Anatoly Nikolaevich Biryukov (Russian: Анатолий Николаевич Бирюков, ca. 1939–1979) was a Russian serial killer, responsible for the kidnappings and subsequent murders of five infants from Moscow in the fall of 1977.

Biryukov kidnapped and murdered his first victim on 16 September 1977, when he took off with a stroller that had been left briefly unattended in front of an infant formula store on Marshal Biryuzov Street in Moscow (Улица Маршала Бирюзова). Later that day, the missing stroller was found empty and the baby was found dead in a the hallway of an apartment building on the same street.

Biryukov kidnapped his second victim (a three-months old girl) on 19 September 1977 when he seized a stroller from in front of the "Children's World" store ("Детский мир") on Prospekt Mira. At this point the Soviet authorities realized they had a possible serial perpetrator, and launched a large operation looking for the missing baby. The body of Biryukov's second victim was found in a landfill near Mamyrov (Мамыри) on October 17, and it showed signs of having suffered sexual assault before death.

Three additional infant victims are attributed to Biryukov before he was foiled in an attempt he made in October in Chekhov. In the aftermath of the attempt, he was chased after by citizens who later described him to the investigators, leading to Biryukov's arrest. Biryukov was sentenced to death. The sentence was appealed to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR in 1978, but he was executed in 1979.

The murders were the subject of episode 206, titled "Empty stroller" (Russian: "пустая коляска"), of the NTV show "Следствие вели...". Participants included two eye witnesses, the mother of one of the victims, two state investigators and the perpetrator's defense attorney. According to the presenter of the NTV show, Leonid Kanevsky, the Soviet regime avoided publicizing the Biryukov case, in part because Anatoly's father, Nikolai Biryukov, was a Soviet general who had been decorated a Hero of the Soviet Union during World War II.

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