Anatoly Slivko

Anatoly Slivko Анатолий Сливко
Born	Anatoly Yemelianovich Slivko (1938-12-28)December 28, 1938 Izerbash, Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR
Died	(1989-09-16)September 16, 1989 (age 50) Novocherkassk, Russian SFSR, USSR
Cause of death	Executed (Gunshot to the head)
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Victims	7
Span of crimes	1964 – July 23, 1985
Country	Russian SFSR
Date apprehended	December 1985

Anatoly Yemelianovich Slivko (Russian: Анатолий Емельянович Сливко; December 28, 1938 – September 16, 1989) was a Soviet serial killer who was convicted of the murders of seven boys between the ages of seven and seventeen in and around the Russian city of Stavropol between 1964 and 1985. Slivko was a married father of two young children.

Early life

In 1961, Slivko witnessed a gruesome traffic accident in which a boy in his early teens who was wearing a Young Pioneers (Soviet equivalent of the Scouts) uniform was killed. The scene sexually excited him and he later recalled the accident vividly: the smell of gasoline and fire. Slivko quickly exploited his position at the children's club he ran to relive the fantasies of this accident: once or twice a year, he would form a close friendship with a boy usually aged between 13 and 17. The boy would be short for his age and would be wearing the Young Pioneers uniform (just like the boy in the traffic accident). Slivko would gain the boy's confidence and tell him of an experiment he knew which involved a controlled hanging into unconsciousness, to stretch the spine, after which, the boy was assured, Slivko would revive him.

Over the course of 21 years, Slivko persuaded 43 boys to take part in this 'experiment'. Once the boy was unconscious, Slivko would caress and fondle him, take films in which he would arrange the body in suggestive positions, and masturbate. In 36 cases, Slivko revived the boys and they, cautioned by Slivko into silence, resumed their lives unaware just how lucky they were.

In seven cases, however, Slivko's behaviour became violent. Once these victims were unconscious, Slivko dismembered their bodies, poured gasoline on their limbs and torso, and set the remains on fire to remind himself of the traffic accident which sparked his arousal. He usually kept the victim's shoes as a memento. As with his surviving victims, Slivko both photographed and filmed the entire process.

Murders

Slivko killed his first victim, an unidentified homeless boy he estimated to be around 15 years old, in 1964. Slivko claimed this particular victim was killed unintentionally. Upon being unable to revive this boy once he was unconscious, Slivko dismembered the boy's body and buried him. He also destroyed the film and photographs he had taken of this particular victim. Nine years later, on November 14, 1973 a 15-year-old boy named Aleksander Nesmeyanov disappeared in Nevinnomyssk, southern RSFSR. Two years later, on May 11, 1975, an 11-year-old boy named Andrei Pogasyan vanished. The boy's mother told the police that a man had made some video recordings in a nearby forest and that her son was going to participate, but the police didn't do anything to prevent this because they knew the man and he had won awards for some of his videos. The man's name was Anatoly Slivko and he had a club for boys named Chergid. In winter 1975, a prison inmate claimed he knew where Aleksander Nesmeyanov was buried, but the police searched the area and found nothing, proving the claim was false. Five years later, in 1980, a 13-year-old boy named Sergei Fatsiev disappeared; as with Nesmeyanov and Pogasyan, he was a member of Chergid. On July 23, 1985, Slivko killed his final victim, a 13-year-old boy named Sergei Pavlov. He disappeared after telling a neighbour he was going to meet the leader of Chergid.

Arrest and execution

In November 1985, a prosecutor named Tamara Languyeva, investigating the disappearance of Sergei Pavlov, took an interest in the club's activities; however, she had no evidence that there was anything illegal in the way the club was run. The prosecutor interrogated many boys who had been to the club and they said they had suffered “temporary amnesia” and that Slivko had practiced many experiments with them.

Following a long inquiry, Anatoly Slivko was arrested in December 1985 and accused of seven murders, seven counts of sexual abuse and necrophilia. In January and February 1986, Slivko lead investigators to the whereabouts of the bodies of six of his victims, although he was unable to locate the body of his first victim. In 1986 he was sentenced to death. He was held on death row in Novocherkassk prison for three years. In 1989 he worked with the police to help arrest serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, who had killed 53 children and women. Only a few hours after he was interviewed by the police, Anatoly Slivko was executed.