Nikolai Dzhumagaliev

Nikolai Dzhumagaliev
Born	Nikolai Dzhumagaliev (1952-11-15) November 15, 1952 Uzun-Agach, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union
Other names	Metal Fang, Kolya the Maneater
Conviction(s)	Not guilty by reason of insanity
Criminal penalty	Life imprisonment
Details
Victims	9-10+
Span of crimes	1979–1980
Country	Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union
Date apprehended	1980

Nikolai Dzhumagaliev (Cyrillic: Николай Джумагалиев, born 1952) is a Kazakh serial killer and cannibal. He was found to have killed seven women before he was caught in 1980 and it was suspected, that he may have killed more women. He was also known as "Metal Fang" for his white metal teeth.

Life before the murders

Dzhumagaliev was born to a Kazakh father and Belarusian mother. He was the penultimate child of his family and had three sisters. After completing the 9th grade, he entered a railway school. Following his graduation, he was assigned to work in Sasha (modern day Atyrau). In 1970, he joined the army and served in the armed forces of chemical protection in Samarkand and Otar. Women were treated as second-class beings in his environment, but despite this he had no problems in relationships with women. His sexual life began at age 18. In 1977, he contracted syphilis, soon followed by trichomoniasis.

At age 21 Dzhumagaliev tried to learn to be a driver and enter the Kazakh University, but he failed both goals. As an alternative he traveled the Soviet Union, visited the Ural Mountains, Siberia, Murmansk, where he changed a number of professions - from a sailor and forwarder to electrics and bulldozer. However, Dzhumagaliev did not stay long anywhere he traveled. In 1977, he returned to his native Uzun-Agach in Kazakhstan to take a job as a firefighter.

The first murder

Dzhumagaliev prepared his first murder very carefully. He chose a victim from the Seventh-day Adventist Church, killing her in January 1979, near the tracks in Uzunagach-Maibulak. During the investigation Dzhumagaliev described his first murder:

"I always loved to hunt, often went hunting, but this was my first time hunting a woman. When I went out on the Uzun-agach-Maibulak track, I saw some young peasant woman. She was alone. I felt my heart pound within me and I ran after her. Hearing my footsteps, she turned around, but I caught up with her and put my arm around her neck, dragged her to the side of the landfill. She resisted, and then I cut her throat with a knife. Then I drank her blood. At this point, from the village appeared Bus Factory. I laid down on the ground and crouched next to the murder. While I was lying in my cold hands. When the bus drove, I warmed my hands on the woman's body and stripped her naked. I cut the corpse's breast into strips, removed the ovaries, separated the pelvis and hips; I then folded these pieces into a backpack and carried them home. I melted the fat to fry with, and some parts I pickled. Once I put the parts through a meat grinder and made dumplings. I saved the meat for myself; I never served it to anyone else. Twice I grilled the heart and the kidneys. Grilled meat, too. But it was tough, and cook it for a long time had its own fat. The meat of this woman took me a month to eat. The first time I ate human flesh through the power, and then used."

Further murders and first arrests

In 1979 Dzhumagaliev made 6 more kills, all of whom he cannibalized. On August 21, in a drunken stupor, he accidentally shot his colleague, for which he was arrested. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia by the Siberian Institute. In less than a year he was released and returned to Uzunagach. On his return he committed three more murders.

Dzhumagaliev was arrested after his ninth murder. He invited several friends to his home, one of whom he killed and began to dismember in the next room. Dzhumagaliev told the police that his guests fled in terror from the house when they glanced into the room. Arriving police found Dzhumagaliev on his knees and smeared with blood. In shock, the policemen allowed Dzhumagaliev to escape. He fled to the mountains naked with only a hatchet. The next day, 19 December 1980, Dzhumagaliev was arrested at his cousin's house.

On 3 December 1981 his trial was held. Since Dzhumagaliev already had a previous diagnosis of schizophrenia, he was newly found insane and sent to compulsory treatment in a closed clinic, where he spent eight years.

Modus operandi

Nikolai Dzhumagaliev made it his mission to rid the world of prostitutes. He also said that he had fought against matriarchy. He stalked his victims in secluded places in Uzun-Agach. Twice he broke into houses, killing 3 women. At least two other victims were killed in Dzhumagaliev's house. He cannibalised his victims, drank their blood and practiced necrophilia, sometimes committing intercourse in stab wounds. During the series of murders Dzhumagaliev was also convicted for accidental murder of one of his male friends, from a shot from his hunting rifle. However, Colonel Dubyagin says that the murdered man might have been a witness of one of his crimes and that Dzhumagaliev killed him to avoid capture.

Conviction

Dzhumagaliev's crimes were discovered when two drunks, whom he invited over to his house, discovered a woman's severed head in the kitchen. He was found not responsible for his murders (which are believed to be at least seven) due to insanity, and he was committed to a mental institution in Tashkent.

Escape and recapture

Dzhumagaliev escaped in 1989 while being transported to another facility. It is unknown if Dzhumagaliev committed any murders during the time he was on the run. It was also suspected that he might have traveled to Moscow during this time. He was re-captured in 1991 in Fergana. Dzhumagaliev's current status had been unclear in the 1990s. Some sources said that he was released and returned to Uzun-Agach, where people remembered his crimes and humiliated him. He then asked to be taken back to the asylum. However, in the mid 2000s, Dzhumagaliev remained in a psychiatric clinic and gave an interview. Doctors said that he was cured and could be released, but Colonel Dubyagin was unsure if Dzhumagaliev could be cured of his cannibalistic instincts.

In popular culture

Hungarian poet and philosopher István Cs. Bartos wrote a short story about Dzhumagaliev titled True Story of the Kazakhstani Cannibal (Igaz történet a kazahsztáni kannibálról).

See also

• Albert Fish
• Hannibal Lecter

Further reading

• Николай Джумагалиев. People's History (in Russian). 2004-10-13.