Granny Ripper who killed and 'ate' 11 victims was 'obsessed' by Russian 'vampire' maniac

Tamara Samsonova, 68, nicknamed the 'Granny Ripper', killed then dismembered her lodgers over a period of 20 years or more.

Police are investigating whether she also ate human organs from her victims, and she is currently undergoing psychiatric checks.

The fear is now that Samsonova modelled herself on the notorious Chikatilo, who was executed in 1994.

He was the Soviet Union's worst-ever 'maniac', a bloodthirsty 'vampire' who murdered, sexually assaulted and cannibalised at least 52 in a reign of terror stretching over a dozen years.

This psychopath violated the bodies of his victims, chopping off their tongues, bursting their eardrums, and gouging out their eyes which, he feared, had memorised his image.

Samsonova's neighbour Marina Krivenko - who has known Samsonova for 15 years - said her friend was 'very interested in maniac Chikatilo'.

'She gathered information about him and how he committed his murders,' the neighbour said, according to Lenta.ru, though the reason for her warped fascination is unclear.

Chikatilo evaded police for years due to a bungling police who assumed the perfect Soviet society could not contain such mass killers.

Samsonova - who also claims to have eluded police for years - 'was also obsessed with black magic literature', she claimed.

'I came to live here with my husband,' she said. 'I used to go to Tamara's flat and call from her phone. She looked a lot better 15 years ago, and her flat too was a lot more attractive than now.

'She looked after her appearance, and had this weird habit of sitting topless with her back to the window, making sure that her silhouette was seen by the neighbours.'

The neighbour's husband found Samsonova's nude body quite attractive, she admitted.

The former hotel worker 'boasted about her excellent English and German', she added.

Krivenko admits that Samsonova borrowed her hacksaw some years ago, and never returned it.

The revelation came as the first picture of her alleged final victim emerged. Valentina Ulanova was a keen gardener who she cared for in St Petersburg.

The 79-year-old woman's body parts were found buried in flowers close to a pond, but the detained suspected mass murderer has refused to tell police where her severed head is located.

Police investigators are currently examining her diary written in Russian, English and German, which it was earlier reported contained confessions of ten murders, excluding the Ulanova killing, which she admitted to under police questioning.

Reports say the police see the diary as a 'puzzle' which they are seeking to decipher.

The diary also includes poems, songs, lyrics and her thoughts on life.

It suggests she was involved in other killings, but sources say police will need to find evidence of other bodies to incriminate her.

One passage reads: 'I killed my tenant Volodya, cut him to pieces in the bathroom with a knife, put the pieces of his body in plastic bags and threw them away in the different parts of Frunzensky district.'

CCTV footage shows the pensioner carrying bags which were believed to contain Ulanova's body parts.

Neighbours say Samsonova was strange, but they are shocked that she has confessed to being a killer.

Usually she remained at home during the day, only venturing out at night.

Her technique was to poison or drug victims.

When they were comatose she started hacking them into pieces, police believe, but neighbours never heard screams or any other unusual sounds from her flat.

Senior investigator in St. Petersburg, Mikhail Timoshatov, said of the Ulanova case: 'Tamara Samsonova says that at first she made her friend sleep - and then cut her into pieces.'

Sources in Russia's powerful Investigative Committee - equivalent of the FBI - indicated internal organs, in particular lungs, were removed from the bodies of victims.

Asked if she was a cannibal, a police source said: 'It is not excluded.'

Samsonova 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.

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, as do the diary entries mentioning the man's tattoos, say police sources.

'The woman is incriminated in the murder of her tenant, a 44 year old native of Norilsk, who was renting a room in her apartment on 6 September 2003 during a sudden argument,' said a police statement.

(Daily Mail)