Alexei Sukletin lived in the village of Vasilevo, in the Zelenodolsk district of Tatarstan, near Kazan. Between 1979 and 1985 he killed women and girls there and in Kazan, in several cases with the help of the woman who shared his home. A criminal case was opened on June 4, 1985. A court found seven episodes of murder proved, sentenced him to death on April 18, 1986, and he was executed in Kazan in 1987.
The outline of the case is settled. Many of its dates, the number of victims and the names of some of them are not.
Sukletin was born in Kazan in March 1943. BUSINESS Online and Life.ru give the date as March 23; E1.ru, in a feature by a correspondent of the 116.RU news site, gives March 13. His mother worked as a nurse in field military hospitals, and he did not know his father.
In 1960, at 16, he was convicted of an offense against a young woman, and BUSINESS Online and E1.ru say he received two years in a labor colony. Life.ru describes the sentence as two years in a juvenile colony.
Around 1964 he took part with friends in a robbery. BUSINESS Online reports that he served 12 years for it, and Life.ru and Vechernyaya Moskva say that he was sentenced as a repeat offender and released in 1976.
After his release he settled in Vasilevo, where BUSINESS Online says he worked as a watchman for a garden community.
In 1979 Sukletin met Madina Shakirova, then 23, according to E1.ru and Vechernyaya Moskva. BUSINESS Online calls her his partner in crime from that year, and Life.ru and Men Today describe her as the woman who lived with him. All of the outlets agree that she took part in several of the killings. Life.ru writes that she admitted involvement in five killings, and Men Today and Vechernyaya Moskva say that she at first denied her part and then confessed to the investigators.
The number of victims is the first point on which the accounts diverge. E1.ru, Vechernyaya Moskva and Life.ru all say that investigators proved seven episodes of murder. BUSINESS Online gives the same total but lists eight separate victims, without explaining the difference. Vechernyaya Moskva adds that Sukletin confessed to 15 killings, a figure no other account repeats and no court tested.
Some of the victims are known by name.
Ekaterina Osetrova, 22, is described by BUSINESS Online (which spells her surname Osterova), E1.ru, Life.ru and Men Today as the first. Men Today and Life.ru date her death to November 1979; Vechernyaya Moskva places a 22-year-old woman among the killings of 1981. BUSINESS Online and E1.ru place the killings of this period in Vasilevo.
Tatyana Illarionova, 22, is named by Men Today and E1.ru, and Life.ru gives her first name. Men Today and Life.ru place her death in January 1980; Vechernyaya Moskva dates a comparable death to December 31, 1981.
A girl of 15 was among the victims, according to E1.ru and Vechernyaya Moskva, who place her death in Kazan and in the period before 1982. A girl of 11 was also killed. Men Today dates her death to May 1980, Vechernyaya Moskva to May 1982, and Life.ru and E1.ru to the early 1980s. BUSINESS Online says that two schoolgirls were among six people killed in Vasilevo between November 1981 and 1982, which does not match any of the other accounts. E1.ru names two more young women, aged 22 and 19, among the seven, while Vechernyaya Moskva describes two sisters, aged 22 and 19, killed in March 1982. The two accounts could describe the same pair or different women.
Lidia Fedorova, 23, was the last victim. BUSINESS Online and E1.ru give her date of death as March 12, 1985; Life.ru writes that she died in the summer of 1985, which does not fit the opening of the case on June 4, 1985. Men Today says that she had threatened to report him to the police. BUSINESS Online, Life.ru and E1.ru say that a relative of the victim, Anatoly Nikitin, took part in the killing. Vechernyaya Moskva puts about three years between her death and the previous one.
Taken together, the accounts place the killings between November 1979 and March 1985, in Vasilevo and in Kazan. The exact dates, and the order of the victims between 1979 and 1982, are not on record.
According to Life.ru, a criminal case was opened on June 4, 1985, after a friend of Sukletin's went to the police. Men Today and Vechernyaya Moskva say that the friend went to the police after Sukletin made statements to him. E1.ru writes that the police in Kazan did not at first believe the man. Life.ru says that Sukletin was taken into custody and that Shakirova was detained within hours. The exact date of the arrest is not on record.
The investigator in charge of the case was Farit Zagidullin, according to E1.ru. Madina Shakirova was questioned and, according to Vechernyaya Moskva, confessed after first denying involvement. Sukletin was examined by doctors who found him sane, Men Today reports.
The case file ran to 19 volumes, BUSINESS Online and E1.ru both say, and the trial lasted about a month. The name of the court is not on record, and the year of the trial is given only as 1986. BUSINESS Online and E1.ru give the date of the sentence as April 18, 1986, and say that he was sentenced to death. Life.ru uses the Soviet formula "the highest measure of punishment." The exact wording of the verdict and the legal articles under which he was convicted are not on record.
Shakirova and Nikitin were tried and each was sentenced to 15 years, E1.ru reports, and Men Today and Vechernyaya Moskva give the term for Shakirova as 15 years in a strict-regime colony. E1.ru writes that both were released in 2001.
Sukletin was executed in Kazan in 1987. BUSINESS Online gives the date as June 29, 1987, and Life.ru as July 29, 1987. Men Today says only July 1987. Vechernyaya Moskva writes that reports give either July 1987 or 1994, and no other account supports the 1994 date.
Proven by the court: seven episodes of murder, a sentence of death on April 18, 1986, and execution in 1987.
Not tested in court: the figure of 15 killings, which Vechernyaya Moskva attributes to Sukletin's own confession.
Dates and names that differ between outlets: the day of his birth (March 13 or 23); the date of Ekaterina Osetrova's death (November 1979 or 1981) and the spelling of her surname; the date of the death of the girl of 11 (1980 or 1982, or the early 1980s); the number of victims listed by BUSINESS Online (eight, against seven proven); the identities of the two further young women; the date of Lidia Fedorova's death (March 12, 1985 or the summer of 1985); and the date of execution (June 29, July 29, or July 1987).
Not on record: the court, the presiding judge, the legal articles of the verdict, the date of the arrest and any statement by the families of the victims.
March 1943: Alexei Sukletin is born in Kazan.
1960: convicted at 16 and sentenced to two years in a labor colony.
About 1964: takes part in a robbery; sentenced to 12 years as a repeat offender.
1976: released; settles in Vasilevo.
1979: meets Madina Shakirova.
November 1979: earliest date given for a killing (Ekaterina Osetrova).
January 1980: second killing in the record (Tatyana Illarionova), according to two outlets.
1980 to 1982: further killings, including those of a girl of 15 and a girl of 11; dates conflict.
March 12, 1985: Lidia Fedorova is killed, with the help of a relative, Anatoly Nikitin.
June 4, 1985: criminal case opened after a friend goes to the police; Sukletin and Shakirova are detained.
April 18, 1986: sentenced to death after a trial of about a month; the file has 19 volumes.
1987: executed in Kazan (June 29 or July 29).
2001: Madina Shakirova and Anatoly Nikitin, each sentenced to 15 years, are released.