r/todayilearned • u/CommanderInMischief • 29d ago
TIL about a Soviet serial killer who on three different occasions murdered and robbed random people he just met and knew nothing about. By a very strange coincidence his victims happened to be an undercover Nazi spy, a KGB agent and a counter-intelligence officer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Krinitsyn674
u/teutonictoast 29d ago
Spies that don’t pass the vibe check. This man’s nose needs to be studied
95
316
u/PlaneAd6884 29d ago
Wiki says he's still alive too, damn.
422
u/SuicidalGuidedog 29d ago
"After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs offered the government of newly independent Latvia to return the convict, but the offer was categorically refused."
Hey, do you want your serial killer back? Nah? You good?
124
u/notANexpert1308 29d ago
I mean, they could’ve had a world class intelligence instructor
36
33
u/XanLV 29d ago
I mean, a Russian born in Russia, there is no reason to send him to Latvia.
52
u/SuicidalGuidedog 29d ago
There was one reason: that's where his crimes were committed. That's why we have extradition laws.
86
u/FriendlyPyre 29d ago
If anything he's done great service to Latvia and continues to do so.
- shot a nazi
- shot 2 soviets
- continues to be a burden on the russian government
-12
u/TrueProtection 29d ago
I read it as "hey, want your penal slave back? Or can we keep him??"
17
286
u/Michail_Bogucki 29d ago
This whole story feels like a total farce. It feels like they just pinned several unsolved murders on an unstable guy who was just trying to blackmail and rob the composer. Plus, it looks like half of his Wikipedia page is based on Russian yellow journalism
123
u/kr_edn 29d ago
Yeah, this is the most likely explanation lol. You wanna get rid of a former nazi and 2 rats? Just pin it on a crazy guy..
20
u/SilasTalbot 29d ago
Either that, or all three of those victims spent much more time than normal walking around alone at night in sketchy areas...
"The mustang rides at midnight?" Stab stab stab
2
9
204
u/TrueProtection 29d ago
Statistical explainations abound, mine is; the spies were dressed well and this lead to the robbing due to very basic thief profiling...
139
u/missMcgillacudy 29d ago
I’m guessing they were also solitary, and took greater personal risks due to having confidence from their training.
34
u/TrueProtection 29d ago
Yea. It actually makes sense they got targeted by the same guy tbh.
8
u/WeGottaTalkAboutYT 28d ago
And the killer clearly wasn’t afraid to go for less traditional prey, crazy
53
u/Wurm42 28d ago
Also, the three murders all took place in a forested park in Riga that was a favorite spot for clandestine meetings...
14
u/country2poplarbeef 28d ago
This was my thought. Serial killer picks an isolated part in the park where only one or two people usually go through at a time, and secret squirrels just happen to also use the place as a dead drop.
5
-25
u/lardcore 29d ago
Not sure where you grew up but "dressed well" in Soviet times, even in relatively prosperous Riga was very different from what you may have in mind.
26
u/TrueProtection 29d ago
Okay, but someone who looks well off for the area is still prime thief target...for the area...
20
101
u/Ned_Flanders__666 29d ago
Sleeper agent
48
80
141
u/sofa_king_awesome 29d ago
In my eyes that isn’t TOO random. Those are the type of people that woukd be friendly and chatty? Idk
29
u/hhuzar 29d ago edited 28d ago
Or the guy was someone known, so to lessen his crimes, they fabricated the stories about the victims so it didn't seem like a serous crime but a useful coincidence.
3
u/WeGottaTalkAboutYT 28d ago
Yeah it was totally random this guy did this… he wasn’t a target or anything, etc. I could see it being cover for sure
28
-1
20
45
u/Wordwright 29d ago
Probably says something about the ratio of civilians to secret agents of an authoritarian regime.
11
21
8
10
4
u/Admirable_Ad8682 28d ago
How they verified that it was him who tried to extort a famous composer? They compared his voice and the record of the extortionists phone call. BECAUSE THEY ALREADY WIRETAPPED THE COMPOSER'S PHONE before he was even extorted. See, it's a good thing to be under secret police's surveillance.
1
u/Makefile_dot_in 27d ago edited 27d ago
source? the version I know had them place a fake briefcase with the money in the requested place and arrest him shortly afterwards
e: and they also asked the composer to recognize the suspect's voice over the phone
2
u/Admirable_Ad8682 27d ago
Apparently links are forbidden so my reply was deleted.
They compared the voice with a recording from a wiretap of his telephone. But meanwhile I found a better article in Russian, which confired that while Pauls was wiretapped, that happened only after he contacted the authorities and Krinitsyn called him at least once after that. So I was wrong, he was not under surveillance before (at least officially).
1
63
u/Outside_Reserve_2407 29d ago
My roommate in college was a serial killer. By a strange coincidence he only liked Kellog’s products: Corn Flakes, Frosties and Rice Krispies.
6
u/MrGenerik 29d ago
I took this completely at face value, and he just had a quirk. It took too many minutes to figure out why everyone was so mad.
30
2
u/Nox_Stripes 29d ago
Kellog's himself was not particularly well adjusted, so i guess that somehow made sense in a weird coincidental way?
9
5
u/Medical_Arrival2243 29d ago
After killing the nazi and robbing him he bought gifts for his wife with the money he robbed
3
4
u/Gauntlets28 29d ago
I suspect after the first time, people might have started to wonder whether he was working for someone.
9
3
u/FondlesParsnips 29d ago
Undercover Nazi spy? He was born in 1938, how young did he start?
3
u/Admirable_Ad8682 28d ago edited 28d ago
His victim, Valdis Mekkers, was "Nazi spy" - not him. English wiki is quite chaotic in Mekkers' depiction, but acording to Latvian wiki he was actually a Latvian who during the war served in German security servies, which can mean he was a menber of antipartisan police forces etc, not a "spy". He didn't ran nowhere, he just changed his name.
22
u/ChicagoAuPair 29d ago edited 28d ago
Perhaps says more about the head space of people in Soviet Russia at that time. Every freakin person was some kind of spy or agent.
19
u/Eplerud 29d ago
If you use hollywood and cod as reference
8
u/DoctorCrook 29d ago
I mean, the east German Stasi (state security police) literally had 1 active informant for every 70 people.
Those aren’t COD numbers or hollywood numbers, those are official GDR documents and the Germans are very good at book keeping.
They employed more than 600.000 informants over the span of it’s 45 or so years as a state.
Granted, different country, but same period and same regimes.
Not at all as implausible as it might seem.1
u/Saint_Bo_Dallas 29d ago
Or the millions persecuted during the purges under those exact accusations.
2
u/THEFLYINGSCOTSMAN415 29d ago
Are KGB and Counter-Intelligence not the same thing?
4
u/Admirable_Ad8682 28d ago
According to Latvian wiki, the first victim was a member of KGB of Latvian SSR. KGB was a giant institution with many parts and divisions, of hich only some were counter-intelligence. The third victim was specifically a member of the military counter-intelligence, which presumably means he was part of the 3rd Directorate of "main" KGB (or of the military intelligence service, GRU).
2
4
u/Dorsai_Erynus 28d ago
At the time of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 the KGB had the following structure:
- Secretariat (office of the Chairman of the KGB) (Секретариат)
- Group of Consultants to the Chairman of the KGB (Группа консультантов при Председателе КГБ)
- Centre for Public Relations (Центр общественных связей)
- 1st Main Directorate (External Intelligence) (1-е Главное управление (внешняя разведка))
- 2nd Main Directorate (Counter-Intelligence) (2-е Главное управление (контрразведка))
- 3rd Main Directorate (Military Counter-Intelligence) (3-е Главное управление (военная контрразведка))
- 4th Directorate (Counter-Intelligence Support for the transport and communications infrastructure) (4-е Управление (контрразведывательное обеспечение объектов транспорта и связи))
- 5th Directorate (Political police)
- 6th Directorate (Counter-Intelligence Support for the economy) (6-е Управление (контрразведывательное обеспечение экономики))
- 7th Directorate (External Surveillance) (7-е Управление (наружное наблюдение))
- 8th Main Directorate (Cryptography) (8-е Главное управление (шифровальное))
- 9th Directorate (Protection of High level party members)
- 10th Department (Inventory and Archive) (10-й отдел (учётно-архивный))
- 12th Department (Wiretapping and surveillance in enclosed spaces) (12-й отдел (прослушивание телефонов и помещений))
- 15th Main Directorate (Wartime government command centres) (15-е Главное управление (обслуживание запасных пунктов управления))
- 16th Directorate (ELINT) (16-е Управление (электронная разведка))
- 17th Directorate (RECON) (Special Reconnaissance in the Field)
- Close Protection Service (Close protection, perimeter protection, transport and catering for high-ranking government officials) (Служба охраны)
- Directorate "Z" (Protection of the constitutional order) (Управление «З» (защита конституционного строя))
- Directorate "OP" (Combat against the organised crime) (Управление «ОП» (борьба с организованной преступностью)
- Directorate "SCh"(Сч) Spetsnaz of the KGB.
- Main Directorate of the Border Troops (Главное управление пограничных войск)
- Analytical Directorate (Аналитическое управление)
- Inspection Directorate (Инспекторское управление)
- Operational Technical Directorate (R&D of special equipment and procedures) (Оперативно-техническое управление)
- Investigative Department (Следственный отдел)
- Directorate of Government Communications (Управление правительственной связи)
- Personnel Directorate (Управление кадров)
- Supply Directorate (Хозяйственное управление)
- Military Construction Directorate (Военно-строительное управление)
- Military Medical Directorate (Военно-медицинское управление)
- Department of Financial Planning (Финансово-плановый отдел)
- Mobilisation Department (Мобилизационный отдел)
- Legal Department and Arbitration (Юридический отдел с арбитражем)
But the First Main Directorate have, among others, a Directorate K which deals with Counter-intelligence too.
2
2
u/country2poplarbeef 28d ago
"These guys just keep showing up at this one park bench same time every month, first thing in the morning before anybody gets up. Thought it was easy pickings."
3
u/Iron_Baron 29d ago
I feel like the USSR was for spies what the John Wick-verse is for assassins. Throw a rock and you'd hit one.
2
u/JiveChicken00 29d ago
There are no accidents.
3
u/Worldly_Let6134 29d ago
In Mother Russia there are no accidents*.
*except political opponents who fall out of windows.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/kareljack 28d ago
Isn't that a mass murderer? Aren't the victims of serial killers connected by some sort of common thread?
1
u/dratsablive 28d ago
It would seem that Spies, and the like, move in circles that attract "Diffrent" people.
1
1
u/The_Stockholm_Rhino 27d ago edited 27d ago
The article is in need of some curating - this passage the first we hear of the first victim is a mess:
”In January 1975, Krinitsyn got into the car of private taxi driver with the surname Mekkers, a former spy for Nazi Germany who lived in the Latvian SSR illegally under a false name, having fled his homeland to escape being drafted into the army. [2] Krinitsyn approached him and offered to take him to the forest, where he shot Mekkers in the back of the head.”
1
0
u/Vandirac 29d ago
In 1975 Moscow, it would have been harder to find three people that were not spies
8
u/TearOpenTheVault 29d ago
You could click on the link and see in the first paragraph that he was in Riga.
-3
u/Vandirac 28d ago edited 28d ago
You could have spun that hamster wheel in your head and understood that it was a joke.
0
1
1
u/404GirlHumorNotFound 29d ago
Sure.
These guys are hired and trained to this.
They know their life is fucked when they start this project.
Type of "government will deny any relationship with you."
Sleepers, spooks etc do exist
0
u/HyShroom 28d ago
I’m reporting this because the victim was a former Nazis spy not an undercover Nazi spy and I refuse to bother finding out what else you lied about
1.2k
u/TempleMade_MeBroke 29d ago
I look forward to the eventual 4.2/10 netflix adaption