Rizhsky Rodion Raskolnikov: The Story of Serial Killer Kaspar Petrov

Journalists rightly compared the Latvian serial killer Kaspar Petrov to Dostoevsky's hero. He chose elderly, defenseless women as his victims, cold-bloodedly took their lives, and did not disdain even modest sums. True, unlike Raskolnikov, Kaspar was not tormented by mental anguish. The killer's prey included pensions, money set aside for treatment or funerals, and simply food from the refrigerator.

Kaspar Petrov was born in 1978 in the small Latvian town of Grobina, which was then part of the Latvian SSR. His family could hardly be called dysfunctional - the boy's parents were famous doctors. Kaspar was the youngest of the Petrovs' ten children and the most problematic.

Kaspar had absolutely no desire to study and even stayed back a year in the eighth grade. He was soon expelled from school for truancy and constant conflicts with teachers and peers. Petrov began drinking alcohol early, often ended up in the police station and repeatedly ran away from home.

The parents did not turn away from their problem son and tried to help him, but their efforts were in vain. Having barely reached adulthood, Kaspar left home. But Petrov knew nothing and could not do anything, and did not want to study. Therefore, he had to live as a homeless person, getting by with odd jobs and petty thefts. At 18, Kaspar settled in Riga, where he received his first sentence.

In 1996, Petrov broke into the apartment of an elderly disabled man and, threatening to kill him, stole 10 lats (80 rubles) and a piece of smoked fish from the refrigerator. He was caught almost immediately and the judge, considering that this was the guy's first conviction, sentenced him to only three years probation. Needless to say, such loyalty had no effect on Kaspar's attitude to life.

Petrov committed his first murder in October 2002. The crime was spontaneous - he did not plan to kill anyone. Kaspar went into the first entrance he came across in the old district and rang a random doorbell. He hoped to trick his way into the hallway and, having lulled the owners' vigilance, steal at least something from the apartment.

An old woman opened the door for him. Kaspar Petrov introduced himself as a gas service employee and reported on a scheduled inspection. The idea to kill the woman and clean out her apartment came to him unexpectedly. Together with the owner, he went into the kitchen and, grabbing a towel, began to strangle the pensioner. Taking the life of a weak elderly woman was easy.

Kaspar thoroughly searched the victim's home and took everything that he considered valuable. The killer's special luck was the "coffin" money found in the closet under the clothes. Petrov also did not disdain some things from the wardrobe, nice trinkets from the sideboard and food from the refrigerator.

The criminal's loot turned out to be meager, but for a homeless tramp, the old woman's savings seemed like a fortune. Kaspar also liked that everything happened quickly, easily and without noise. And Petrov continued his series of murders of pensioners. From October 2002 to February 2003, he committed 46 attacks in Riga, 38 of which ended in murder. Sometimes he committed 2-3 crimes a day.

Kaspar Petrov usually went on a job during the day, when working residents of Riga and schoolchildren were not at home. He chose old Soviet-built houses and rang the doorbell at random. If he saw that several people were home or a man opened the door, he pretended to have made a mistake, apologized and left. But the hunt did not end there, and the killer sought his luck elsewhere.

But if there was a pensioner at the door, Kaspar would introduce himself as a gasman or a city electricity worker and try to get into the apartment. Sometimes he was disappointed - the old lady was not alone at home. In such cases, Petrov would try to steal at least something and quickly leave. But if he was lucky enough to come across a lonely old lady, then her fate was sealed. Only eight women managed to survive - they raised a cry and actively resisted, forcing the cowardly Petrov to hastily retreat.

Kaspar managed to remain unpunished for a long time. The police did not suspect that a serial killer was operating in Riga. The fact is that most of Petrov's victims were very old women over 85 years old. The criminal tried to act carefully, without leaving unnecessary traces. He did not throw things around or damage bodies, and when leaving, he closed the door behind him.

Relatives who discovered the body often had no idea that their mother or grandmother had died a violent death. Especially since there was often nothing of value to the criminals in the apartments. Kaspar often left empty-handed or simply took food from the refrigerator.

The doctors invited to certify the deaths were also not very attentive. The causes of death were listed as heart attack, stroke, and blood clot. Only in 13 cases were the police called and experts determined that the women had been strangled. 25 pensioners were buried without ever determining that they had been killed by a maniac. The killer himself spoke about these victims during the investigation. But enough time had passed and it was too late to exhume them.

Over the three years of his criminal activity, the maniac's largest haul was 3,000 lats, which was approximately 150 thousand rubles at the exchange rate of that time. In total, 46 attacks brought the murderer and robber 18 thousand lats - about 900 thousand rubles at the exchange rate of 2002. Kaspar spent all the money on food, alcohol and the services of prostitutes. After the arrest, no savings were found on the maniac.

Kaspar Petrov was caught because of his own mistake. The killer left a thumbprint on one of the books in the victim's closet while looking for money. Yes, it could have been the fingerprint of a random person, a guest or a relative. But when it was checked against the police database, it turned out that it belonged to a convicted Kaspar Petrov, who could hardly have visited the deceased.

On February 3, 2003, the 25-year-old killer was arrested. Petrov did not deny it and immediately began to confess. His stories shocked the police, journalists and ordinary citizens. No one suspected the scale of the maniac's actions. Kaspar remembered most of the cases and spoke in detail about the loot, but he could not name the addresses or describe his victims. This greatly complicated the investigation.

The serial killer tried to give a philosophical justification for his actions in conversations with investigators. In his convoluted reasoning, he mentioned Darwin and the law of natural selection. According to Petrov, the strongest should survive in society, as in nature. The weak and the sick are relegated only to the role of victims.

But by the beginning of the trial, Petrov had lost the desire to reason. The maniac looked scared, asked for forgiveness from the relatives of the old people he had killed, and feigned sincere remorse. Only 13 murders could be proven, but that was enough to pass the harshest sentence. On May 21, 2005, the judges delivered their verdict: life imprisonment.

Kaspars Petrovs is still serving his sentence in one of the republic's prisons. He is calm, disciplined and, one might say, in good standing with the administration. The most famous maniac in Latvia even has a chance to be released. According to the law, he can appeal after 25 years of imprisonment, that is, in 2030.

Irkutsk maniac Vasily Kulik also chose elderly people as his victims. But his crimes were even more cynical, because the killer came to his victims' apartments in a white doctor's coat.