Born on; 7 April, 1947 – 25 September, 1987. Gennady Modestovich Mikhasevich was a killer active in the Soviet Union. He murdered 36 (confessed to 43 - possibly 50+) women during the period from 1971 to 1985 in Vitebsk, Polotsk and the rural areas in the nearby regions of the Byelorussian SSR.
Gennady Mikhasevich was born in the village of Ist (Vitebsk Oblast) in 1947. He committed his first murder in May 1971, the killing spree started after he had returned from the army only to find out that his girlfriend had left him and got married. On the night of 14 May, 1971, he was on his way from Vitebsk to Polotsk. It was late and he missed his bus to Polotsk where his parents lived. Mikhasevich reported that he was feeling despondent because of the breakup with his girlfriend, and had prepared to hang himself. By chance, he encountered a young woman on the road, and in order to vent his anger, he killed her. He murdered again in October 1971, and strangled two other women in 1972, near Vitebsk. Mikhasevich graduated from a technical school in Vitebsk in 1973 and returned to Ist, starting work in a sovkhoz (State farm or Soviet farm). He got married in 1976, but that didn't silence his new desire...
Many of his murders were committed to facilitate rape. He invariably strangled or smothered his victims, either assaulting them in solitary locations or, during later years, after having lured them into his own red Zaporozhets (Supermini/compact car) or the machines of his workplace (he later had a job in machine repair service). He never carried weapons, choosing instead to use a variety of improvised means, including in one case, a cord made of rye. Besides killing, he robbed his victims of money and valuable items, some of which he would later present to his wife as a gift. He would also take mundane household items, like scissors. The year 1985 was especially 'prolific' for the murderer: he killed 12 women in this year alone.
He was finally arrested in December 1985, after initial denial, he confessed and was sentenced to death and executed in 1987. His case became notorious in the USSR - “The Vitebsk Case”. It had revealed both the incompetence and corruption of the State Police. By the time Mikhasevich was finally arrested, 14 people had already been convicted for the crimes, the suspects had been often forced to confess by torture, and a couple of them had been sentenced to death and executed for crimes they did not do.
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