It’s been said that’s there is a fine line between genius and insanity, and a news item that recently came out of Russia goes a long way to proving this theory. Anatoly Moskvin, a well educated man who speaks thirteen different languages and is a respected historian, is at the heart of a bizarre police investigation of grave robbing crimes. But make no bones about it, Moskvin is the culprit here as he has been caught red handed. Inside his apartment in the city of Volga River, in Nizhny Novgorod, police discovered 29 exhumed corpses who had been ritualistically dressed and placed around each room. A little weird, eh?
Moskvin, 45, a supposed expert on cemeteries in the area, had chosen each corpse, dug them up and taken back to his place of abode where he would wrap their hands and faces with cloth and would then dress them in brightly coloured clothes and head scarves. Police even found instructions written by Moskvin on how to make these dolls. He only chose the corpses of younger women, generally aged between 15 and 29. I’m guessing that was quite the shocking scene to walk into.
Due to Moskvin being a cemetery expert, police originally had consulted with him on these crimes, thinking he could help them get into the mind of the grave robber. I’m sure this must have amused Moskvin to a certain extent. But it was the police that had the last laugh as Moskvin was caught red handed leaving a cemetery carrying a bag of bones. The original lead came from Moskvin’s parents who had recently discovered the grisly scene of skeletons upon visiting their son.
Well I’m going to spew out a couple of my now cliched phrases. “Truth is stranger the fiction” and “It takes all sorts to make this world go round”. I think both are very apt in this case. What an incredible tale. It reads like something out of a Stephen King novel. And it really does make me wonder how much bizarreness like this goes on under our noses every day. This guy was a supposed genius and look at all the mischief he was getting up to. There’s a phrase that says “It’s usually the quiet ones” and this tale does nothing to debunk that theory.
Nigel Windsor 