Nikolai Dzhumagaliev

Nikolai Espolūly Jumağaliev (, Russified as Dzhumagaliev, ; born 15 November 1952) is a Soviet serial killer and cannibal who killed ten people in the Kazakh SSR (now Kazakhstan) between 1979 and 1990. He was nicknamed "Metal Fang" due to his dental crowns.

Between 1979 and 1980, Dzhumagaliev killed and cannibalized eight women, having also served a brief prison sentence for the accidental killing of a male co-worker during this time. He was institutionalized in 1980, but escaped custody in 1988. Dzhumagaliev remained a fugitive for two years committing at least one additional murder while on the run before his recapture in 1991.

Background Dzhumagaliev was born in Uzynagash, Kazakh SSR, the third of four children to a Kazakh father and Belarusian mother, both of whom worked on a collective farm. His birthdate is most commonly reported as 15 November, though it is sometimes reported as 1 January. Dzhumagaliev grew up with three sisters, one of whom disappeared during his childhood.

In school, Dzhumagaliev was a below average student, but otherwise well-behaved. In his teenage years, he had several sexual encounters with female schoolmates, but eventually had to stop after contracting a sexually transmitted infection.

After completing the ninth grade, Dzhumagaliev studied at a railway school. He was assigned to work in Guryev, where he was conscripted into the Soviet Army, serving in the chemical defence force. He was stationed in Samarkand, Uzbek SSR, and in Otar, near his hometown. After being demobilized, Dzhumagaliev tried to get a driver's licence and enroll in the geology department of Kazakh Agricultural Institute in Almaty, but failed to achieve either goal. For a few years, he travelled across the Soviet Union as a migrant worker, usually staying between the Ural Mountains and Siberia, where he found occasional employment as a sailor, a freight forwarder, an electrician, and a bulldozer operator. In 1977, after spending some time in Murmansk and Magadan, Dzhumagaliev returned to Uzynagash, living on 12 Chapayev Street and taking a job as a firefighter. In his diary, authored between 1979 and 1980, Dzhugmaliev stated that he was mainly motivated by sexual desire, particularly his "irresistible attraction to the female body", writing that by eating the corpses of women, he believed that he would "know it completely and entirely". He also professed a hatred for women, whom he viewed as inferior to men and called their murder a form of vengeance for "violating the laws of nature". Dzhugmaliev also claimed to have been inspired by a book called "Black Fog" ("Черный туман"), which contained accounts of "ancient Germanic women drinking blood to foretell prophecies", in reference to the Cimbrian seeresses, writing that by doing the same with the blood of his murder victims, he had been able to see his own future from 1980 to 1988. According to Dzhugmaliev, he planned two of the murders to take place on the death anniversary of his grandmother and the 100th birthday of his grandfather for similar reasons.

1979–1980 murders Through 1979, Dzhugmaliev killed six women. The earliest murder took place on the night on 6 January 1979, when Dzhugmaliev spotted Natalya Andronnik near the Uzynagach–Maybulak highway, walking home alone from a Seventh-day Adventist service. Dzhugmaliev ambushed Andronnik, stabbing her several times in the chest before dragging her to a landfill of the Kargalinsky clothing factory near Fabrichny. He killed her by slitting her throat and after drinking Andronnik's blood from the wound Dzhugmaliev dismembered her, also cutting off her breasts, calves, and some fatty tissue, which he carried back home in a backpack. Her torso and arms were partially buried under debris while her head and legs were left in the open. Andronnik's remains were discovered on 20 January by local residents. A forensic examination determining that some of her flesh had been removed, leading police to believe that Natalya Andronnik was cannibalized. A criminal case was opened on 22 January, but a manhunt, which included several sting operations to lure out the perpetrator, was unsuccessful. Residents remained shaken by the murder, with most men arming themselves with axes and other tools and accompanying female relatives when they went outside.

On 21 April 1979, Dzhugmaliev killed L. F. Krieger. She was reported missing, but her body never found. On 21 June 1979, Dzhugmaliev broke into a home outside of Almaty, killing L. I. Lavrishcheva and mortally wounding her adult daughter V. P. Aksenova by slitting their throats as they slept.

Shortly after Dzhumagaliev's 1980 crimes had gained wide attention, another serial killer, Alexander Skrynnik, was operating in Chișinău. He killed women and dismembered their bodies, after which he brought the body parts to his friend. The head of one of Skrynnik's victims was shown on television. In Chișinău, rumours spread that Dzhumagaliev had escaped and reached the Moldovan capital. The rumours were put to rest when Skrynnik was convicted of the crimes, sentenced to death, and executed.

First confinement, escape, and fugitive years Dzhumagaliev spent eight years in psychiatric holding. As his condition appeared to improve during treatment, a transfer to an ordinary mental hospital was approved. During the transport on 29 August 1989, Dzhumagaliev escaped custody by breaking down a wall during a bathroom break. His whereabouts during this time are unknown, but it's suspected that Dzhumagaliev continued his murders in the two years he was a fugitive. One murder was confirmed to have taken place in 1990 while in Aktobe, when he was caught leaving the house of a woman with blood on his face. A neighbour spotted and shouted at Dzhumagaliev, who distracted the man by threatening to shoot him before running away.

For several years, he was reported to be seen around Moscow, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Dzhumagaliev claimed to have spent most of his time in hiding in mountains of Central Asia, saying he traded plants as herbal medicine to locals in exchange for food. He also claimed that the same herbs "allowed him to overcome his psychiatric diagnosis and become a normal person". As of 2025, Dzhumagaliev is incarcerated in a specialized psychiatric clinic in Aktas. Doctors say about him: "His behavior is orderly; the patient is calm. He willingly works in the department, helping the staff. We have no grounds to believe that he poses a danger to others. He can quietly be in society and be observed in a regular hospital." The question of his discharge is still open. Specialists studying serial killers strongly disagree with the conclusions of the clinic's doctors.

In January 2016, there were rumours in WhatsApp and Facebook about his possible escape, being subsequently blamed for the disappearance of 22-year-old Saida Akzhanova. However, this was never confirmed. The police tracked down the author of the false report, who turned out to be a 21-year-old female resident from Dzhumagaliev's native village. She was subsequently arrested and confessed.

Russian lawyer Yuri Antonyan, ruminating on the psychology and sexual frustration of serial killers, stated that Dzhumagaliev "was disgusted by sexual intercourse".

In popular culture The song "Metal Fang" by Norwegian thrash metal band Blood Tsunami is about Dzhumagaliev. Dzhumagaliev's case is explored in the Russian documentary film "Satan" (2008) from the series The investigation led by ...