On this date in 1983, Aleksandr Kravchenko was executed in the Soviet Union.
Kravchenko attempted to rape and then brutally strangled to death nine-year-old Lena Zakotnova in December 1978, dumping her body in a nearby river.
Oh … wait, no. That turned out to have been done by later-infamous serial killer Andrei Chikatilo: actually, Zakotnova was Chikatilo’s very first victim.
Sorry about beating that confession out of you, Sasha.
As for Russia’s present-day criminal justice system, there’s no more death penalty. But, “if a person ends up in a police cell as a suspect, he will find himself in court no matter what, and the court will find him guilty, guaranteed. And everyone knows it … you’ll end up in court, then straight to jail. The machine works automatically. It happens all the time.”
On this day..
- 1945: Harold Pringle, the last Canadian military execution
- 2010: Akram al-Samawi
- 1530: Johnnie Armstrong, border reiver
- 1723: Thomas Athoe the Elder, and Thomas Athoe the Younger
- 1453: The garrison of Poucques, Jacques de Lalaing's cannonball killers
- 2007: Jafar Kiani, stoned
- 1731: Jose de Antequera, Paraguayan comunero rebel
- 1655: Grete Adrian, Ruethen witch
- 1691: Jack Collet, sacrilegious burglar
- 1917: Gasim, by Lawrence of Arabia
- 1600: Jean Livingston, Lady Waristoun
- Themed Set: The Ballad
- 1947: Ding Mocun, not as hot a lay in real life