Tamara Ivanyutina

Tamara Ivanyutina
Born	Tamara Antonovna Maslenko 1941 Ukrainian SSR
Died	1987 Ukrainian SSR
Cause of death	Executed by firing squad
Other names	"The Kiev Poisoner"
Conviction(s)	Murder
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Victims	9
Span of crimes	1976–1987
Country	Ukraine

Tamara Antonovna Ivanyutina (née Maslenko, born 1941 - 1987) was a Soviet-Ukrainian serial killer. She was the target of a wide scale investigation in Kiev during the 1980s.

Biography

Tamara Maslenko was born in a large family as one of six children, in which her parents always told her that material security is the main thing in life. Although forensic psychiatric examination recognized Ivanyutina as sane, she was noted as self-centered, vindictive and resentful. During the investigations into the poisonings, it turned out that Ivanyutina had been convicted of speculation, and had been employed by fake labor in her school.

Chemistry teacher Viktor Stadnik, who suffered from Ivanyutina's actions, noted such traits of her character as "perseverance and arrogance", as well as rudeness and lack of discipline.

Murders

Between March 17 and 18, 1987, several pupils and employees of School #16 in the Podilskyi District in Kiev were hospitalized with signs of food poisoning. Two children - Sergei Panibrat and Andrei Kuzmenko - and two adults died almost immediately, while the remaining 9 people were in intensive care. Doctors initially suspected influenza or an intestinal infection, but some timer later, the hair began to fall out from the victims, which is not typical for such diseases.

Poisoning was suspected, and a criminal investigation and an investigative team was established. The investigators, after interviewing the survivors, found out that they all felt unwell by having lunch the day before in the school cafeteria, after eating kasha and liver. When the question arose if there was quality control in the school canteen, it was found that a dietitian named Natalia Kukharenko (according to other sources - Kukarenko) had died two before th events, according to official data - from a heart disease. However, the circumstances of Kukharenko's death caused doubts in the investigators, and due to this her body was exhumed. As a result of corresponding studies, traces of thallium were found in corpse tissues. After that, searches were carried out for all persons who have access to the kitchen, including in the house Tamara Ivanyutina lived, who worked as a dishwasher in the dining room of School N#16.

During the search, Ivanyutina found some "small but very heavy jar" that interested operatives and investigators, which was given for examination. A laboratory study showed that the bank had "Clerici solution" - a highly toxic solution based on thallium used in some branches of geology.

Ivanyutina was arrested and initially wrote a confession, confessing to the poisoning in the school canteen on March 16, 1987. The reason for the crime, according to Ivanyutina, was that the sixth graders who dined in the dining room refused to set up tables and chairs, and "she decided to punish them". However, she later stated that the confessions were made up from investigators who pressured her, and refused to give further testimony.

Investigation

Further investigation of the "Ivanyutina-Maslenko-Matzobory case" showed that Ivanyutina and her family (sister and parents) used thallium for poisoning for 11 years (since 1976); and did not poison as a mercenary goal, but simply cause of personal dislikes. The family members purchased the substance from a friend who worked at the geological institute, explaining to her that the poison was for killing rats. The acquaintance admitted that for 15 years she had not less than nine times given Ivanyutina, her sister and parents a portion of the substance.

At the beginning of her criminal activities, Ivanyutina poisoned her first husband to get his apartment. After his death, she married a second time, but then poisoned her father-in-law and mother-in-law (died at intervals of two days), later poisoning her second husband in small portions (the purpose was to take possession of her husband parents' house with a plot of land).

In September 1986, Ivanyutina got a job as a dishwasher for the school. According to investigators, she needed this work in order to gain access to food and food waste, since she kept a large farm with pigs and chickens. During her time in the dining room, Ivanyutina poisoned (in addition to the previous poisonings) the school party organizer Ekaterina Arsentyevna Scherban (died) and the chemistry teacher (survived) who prevented her from stealing food from the canteen, and two first and fifth grade students (both survived), who had asked her for the remnants of cutles for their pets.

The investigation proved that Tamara's elder sister, Nina Matzobory, using the same solution, had poisoned her husband and taken possession of their Kiev apartment. Numerous poisonings were committed by their parents as well: in particular, they killed a neighbor in a communal apartment and a cousin, who made remarks about them.

While detained, Maria Maslenko explained her life position to her cellmates: "To achieve what you want, you do not need to write complaints, but to treat everybody as friends. But it is especially harmful to add poison to food". The geography of the criminal activities of the family was not limited to Ukraine; it was proven that some of the crimes committed by them in the RSFSR; in particular, her father Anton, while in Tula, poisoned his cousin by mixing poison in her moonshine. Also, members of the family also poisoned neighbors' pets.

Trial and sentence

45-year-old Tamara Ivanyutina, her older sister Nina Matzobory, as well as their parents - Anton Mitrofanovich and Maria Fedorovna Maslenko, appeared before the court on charges of committing numerous poisonings, including fatalities. The investigators and the court found that the family for 11, in selfish interests, and also personal hostility, committed numerous murders and attempted murders to kill various persons by poisoning them.

According to the current deputy chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, S.M. Vinokurov, who worked during the investigation as a senior investigator for particularly important cases in the city prosecutor's office in Kiev, proving that this was the largest case of thallium poisonings fixed in the USSR. In total, 40 cases of poisonings committed by the family were proven, 13 of which were fatal. At the same time, the largest number of poisonings (9) and assassination attempts (20) was committed personally by Tamara Ivanyutina. The trial lasted about a year, Ivanyutina did not admit her guilt and refused to apologise to the victims' families. All defendants were found guilty of murder and attempetd assassination committed through poisoning.

Execution

Ivanyutina was sentenced to death and executed. Her accomplices were sentenced to various terms on imprisonment: Nina was sentenced to 15 years (further fate is unknown) and their parents - to 10 and 13 years respectively (both died in custody). At the investigation, Ivanyutina admitted that her dream was to buy a GAZ car. She also tried to bribe to investigator, promising him "a lot of gold". Refusing to admit her guilt, she explained at her trial that she did not have "a good upbrining".

This unusual case was one of the only confirmed instances of a executed woman in the Soviet Union in the post-Stalin era - the others were 1979 execution of Antonina Makarova during the Eastern Front, and the 1983 execution of Bertha Borodkin. Ivanyutina's case is still included in Ukraine's training materials for criminal procedures.

In the media

• The documentary series "The investigation was conducted ..." - "Poisonous school" (issue No. 205, June 16, 2012), NTV.
  

External links

• "«Ядовитая школа»". НТВ. Из цикла передач «Следствие вели…». 16 июня 2012 года. Archived from the original on 2013-01-07. Retrieved 2012-11-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)