An elderly Russian woman, infamously known as the ‘Granny Ripper’, committed a series of horrific crimes against up to 11 victims. Tamara Mitrofanovna Samsonova drugged her friend’s salad, decapitated her and boiled the head, among other gruesome acts.

Born in Uzhur in 1947, Samsonova led an apparently ordinary life in her early years. She completed her high school education and pursued studies at Moscow State Linguistic University.

Subsequently, she relocated to St. Petersburg, married Alexei Samsonov, and spent 16 years working for a travel agency.

In 2000, her husband mysteriously disappeared. Despite Samsonova’s pleas to the police, he seemed to have evaporated without a trace.

In 2015, she approached the investigative unit of the Fruzensky District in St Petersburg to report her husband’s baffling disappearance, reports <a href=”https://www.themirror.com/news/world-news/granny-ripper-serial-killer-who-1241771″ rel=”Follow” target=”_self”>the Mirror US</a>.

However, later that year, her sinister side was shockingly exposed when a passer-by discovered the mutilated remains of her tenant. CCTV footage captured the then 68-year-old Samsonova disposing of large plastic bags from her flat under the cover of darkness, one of which allegedly contained a human head in a saucepan.

These remains were believed to belong to Valentina Ulanova, 79, her boarder who met a grisly fate. According to the Russian Investigative Committee, Ulanova died “on the spot” after Samsonova spiked her salad with over 50 sleeping pills in July 2015, before proceeding to dismember her.

Samsonova made a trip to Pushkin, where she cunningly convinced a chemist to sell her phenazepam, which she slipped into Valentina’s beloved Olivier salad. The grim aftermath saw Valentina’s body parts swathed in a shower curtain discarded on the street.

In their declaration, detectives said: “Then, in order to conceal the committed crime, she dismembered the body of her victim and placed the parts in different places near the apartment block.”

The elderly woman is said to have dismemembered her tenant with a handsaw, motivated by “personal hostile relations” stemming from an altercation with her friend. It’s alleged she even stewed Valentina’s head in a pot.

Upon appearing in court, Samsonova’s behaviour was erratic as she puckered a kiss towards reporters and admitted to killing Valentina. Yet her diaries revealed a more chilling narrative, hinting at possibly 11 other murders, including her own husband and mother-in-law, who vanished without explanation.

Her poor health and uncooperative stance compounded with an absence of further remains meant additional charges were impractical.

A source told The Sun: “We may never know the extent of this granny’s killings.”

Her 2015 arrest brought up past accusations; specifically, that in 2003 she had butchered another lodger, Sergei Potanin, a 44 year old from Norilsk. Samsonova faced allegations of mutilating his body and scattering it about the streets.

Samsonova was under investigation for a staggering 15 deaths when authorities uncovered a chilling diary confession saying she had “killed my tenant Volodya, cut him to pieces in the bathroom with a knife and put the pieces of his body in plastic bags and threw them away in the different parts of Frunzensky District.”

It emerged Samsonova may have been influenced by Andrei Chikatilo, a notorious serial killer responsible for nearly 50 murders between 1978 and 1990.

A neighbour, who had known her closely for 15 years, remarked on her obsession with Chikatilo, stating: “She gathered information about him and how he committed his murders.”

During her court hearing for the murder of Valentina, Samsonova admitted to the judge: “I am guilty and I deserve to be punished.”

At 78, she bizarrely applauded and smiled when informed she would be kept in detention.

Following a forensic psychiatric assessment in 2015, it was concluded that Samsonova posed a threat to both society and herself, resulting in her confinement to a specialist facility before being transferred for mandatory psychiatric care at a hospital in Kazan.

In 2017, she received a life sentence to remain in a psychiatric institution, with the court determining that her mental disorder exonerated her from culpability for Valentina’s death.