
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 11, 1992                   TAG: 9203110053
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Medium

CRIME-WRACKED RUSSIA STARTS TRIAL OF ITS OWN POETIC `JACK THE RIPPER'

The trial of Russia's "Jack the Ripper," accused of raping and killed nine women in 18 months, has begun with militiamen and police dogs guarding the courtroom, news accounts reported Tuesday.

Alexander Timofeyev, referred to as "Jack" in the Russian press, was arrested last year after "bringing terror to all women in . . . the Moscow region," the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper reported.

Timofeyev is accused of killing most of the victims near his home in southern Moscow, attacking three of them on Kostyakova Street - his "favorite spot," according to the paper.

Timofeyev, who has pleaded not guilty to the murders, has spent his time in jail writing "lyrical poems . . . probably about love, women and springtime," the newspaper said.

Crime has been rising throughout the former Soviet Union as prices soar and the former police state disintegrates.

Serious crimes increased by 9 percent in Moscow last year, according to the police. The Russian Interior Ministry recorded an 11 percent rise throughout the former Soviet Union, not counting the now-independent Baltic states. Crimes also are being reported in the press more often.

The trial is taking place under the surveillance of militiamen armed with automatic pistols, the Nezavisimaya newspaper reported.

Timofeyev was arrested seven times previously for offenses that "basically involved stealing," Nezavisimaya said.

In another well-publicized case, a man who had been arrested and charged with killing and cannibalizing seven women was caught after escaping last year. He was sent back to a psychiatric hospital in the former republic of Uzbekistan.

by CNB