Russia’s worst woman serial killer has been dubbed ‘Satan in a Skirt’ after she murdered 17 pensioners in an eight year reign of terror.
Alcoholic killer Irina Gaidamachuk, who posed as a social worker to gain entry to the flats of her victims, claims that she stole money for vodka.
Victims had their skulls smashed in with a hammer or axe by Gaidamachuk who pretended to be a social worker.
After securing their trust, the 41-year-old killed them by smashing their skulls with a hammer or an axe.
Then she robbed her victims, who were between 61-89-years-old, for the small amounts of cash in their purses.
In all her murders, police say she only gathered a total of around 1,000 pounds from her victims. Sometimes she killed for as little as 20 pounds.
“I did it for money. I just wanted to be a normal mum, but I had a craving for drink,” the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.
“My husband Yury wouldn’t give me money for vodka,” she said.
A court in Yekaterinburg, which is Russia’s fourth biggest city, heard evidence from psychiatrists that she was sane when she committed her murders.
Only one pensioner managed to escape, giving police the vital clue that the granny killer was a woman.
“We believed at first that only a man could be so cruel as to slaughter in this way,” a police source said.
In fact, during a bungled investigation, in which the town of Krasnoufimsk was living in fear, officers also believed the killer could be a man dressed as a woman.
They also arrested the wrong woman, Irina Valeyeva, then 29, extracting a confession from an entirely innocent person.
After questioning more than 3,000 people they finally arrested the real killer in 2010.
For her final victim instead of posing as a social worker, she offered to redecorate 81-year-old Alexandra Povaritsyna’s flat.
After she bludgeoned the pensioner to death, neighbours gave a description of the painter and police arrested her.
Gaidmachuk was known as an ordinary mother, who helped out at her younger daughter Anastasia’s school.
“I simply cannot believe Irina is a mass murderer. She was a kind and gentle mother, always eager to help,” one friend said.
Her husband Yury, who has since moved in with a new partner, said “I lived with her for 14 years but never suspected anything.”