Threat against phantoms. Robbery Tactics

Gang of brothers Tolstopyatov- a criminal gang operating in Rostov-on-Don in 1968-1973.

The scale, technical equipment, preparedness and the very fact of the emergence and successful long-term existence of this criminal gang are unique for the USSR of the 1960s - 1970s, which gave the gang a legendary character and made it part of the folklore of the city of Rostov-on-Don and the USSR / Russia.

Structure and armament

The founder and leader of the gang - Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov Jr. was born in a village near Bryansk in 1940.

From childhood he was fond of designing, drawing and drawing. Vyacheslav especially liked to draw. He could spend hours poring over some book, redrawing the illustration, and achieving absolute similarity - down to the smallest detail. At about the age of 15, Vyacheslav got used to copying banknotes. He drew 50 and 100 ruble banknotes(this was before the monetary reform of 1961).

At first, Slava exchanged them in wine and vodka stores. He threw the purchased bottle into the bushes (Vyacheslav almost never drank alcohol all his life), and spent real money on sweets, books, tools. Over time, Vyacheslav adapted himself to sell the drawn money to taxi drivers: he drove a short distance by car, handed the driver a bill folded in a quadrangle (it should be noted that the “pre-reform” post-war banknotes were much larger than the current ones), took the change and disappeared.

Seeing that taxi drivers never unfold banknotes, Vyacheslav became bolder to such an extent that he began to draw money on only one side. This is what ruined him. On February 23, 1960, a taxi driver named Metelitsa, having brought Vyacheslav to the Prigorodny railway station, nevertheless unfolded the banknote offered to him - and was stunned when he saw a blank sheet of paper on the back!

“Vyacheslav confessed to everything at once,” recalled the investigator in the first case of Tolstopyatov A. Granovsky. - In an investigative experiment, using only colored pencils, watercolors, BF-2 glue, compasses, a ruler and a blade, Vyacheslav drew an absolutely exact copy of a 100-ruble bill in four hours (!) We all gasped. Even in the police, even while under investigation, Vyacheslav won universal sympathy with his politeness, modesty, and erudition. It was a pleasure to talk with him. I petitioned the court for a mitigation of punishment - given my young age, complete repentance, assistance provided to the investigation.

Forgery of banknotes belongs to the category of serious crimes against the state, but the sentence of the court was unusually soft; four years of imprisonment in a penal colony. In prison, Tolstopyatov met Sergei Samasyuk and the idea of ​​a gang appeared. Upon his release, Tolstopyatov Jr. enlisted the support of his elder brother Vladimir, who provided him with a room adapted for the headquarters and workshop of the gang. The fourth member of the gang was Vladimir Gorshkov, an old friend of the brothers.

All the weapons of the gang were made by the Tolstopyatov brothers themselves in semi-industrial conditions: the blanks were made in an underground workshop, the secret entrance to which was hidden with the help of a specially rotating mirror, and the figured parts were ordered by familiar factory millers under the guise of spare parts for household appliances. In total, four small-caliber seven-shot revolvers, three small-caliber folding submachine guns of a unique design, hand grenades and even improvised bulletproof vests were made.

Since the acquisition of personal vehicles was actually an impossible and unnecessary task (a personal car in those conditions would have instantly unmasked and exposed the group), the Tolstopyatovs worked out the tactics of seizing other people's cars with taking the driver hostage.

Information about an alleged attempt to assemble a helicopter for air raids, most likely, should be classified as urban legends, however, such a legend best characterizes the degree of technical ambitions of the gang's militants.

Robbery Tactics

In general, it should be recognized that the gang’s tactics were at that time advanced for the underworld of the USSR, and the degree of its development inevitably provokes comparison with the actions of Chicago gangsters, urban partisans and special services (many Rostovites suspected the gang of collaborating with Western special services). These tactics included "correct" bank robbery, hostage-taking, surveillance and information gathering after the action, evasion, conspiracy, preparation of alibis, retraining, covert treatment and disguise. For personal disguise, the gang members used black stockings, and therefore received the nickname "Phantomas".

The bandits developed two main options for robbery tactics:

• One of the bandits stops a car in the city asking for a ride. In the place named by him, under the guise of his friends, the rest of the gang members are waiting. After they get into the car, the driver is tied up, placed in the back seat or in the trunk. Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov gets behind the wheel and drives the car to the scene of the attack. The direct attack is carried out by Samasyuk and Gorshkov. After capturing the money at high speed, they leave the crime scene, the car with the driver is thrown in an inconspicuous place.

• Directly at the scene of the attack, the car of the collectors or the cashier is seized. The attack is carried out all together and they hide in the same car.

The duties of Vladimir Tolstopyatov included monitoring the situation after the crime, the actions of the police, and the stories of witnesses.

attacks

The gang attempted its first attack on October 7, 1968. On this day, Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov, Samasyuk and Gorshkov seized a car from Rostov watch factory with the aim of robbing a cashier near the building of the Regional Office of the State Bank of the USSR on the corner of Engels Street (now Bolshaya Sadovaya) and Sokolov Avenue. The attack was preceded by a lengthy preparation: the bandits monitored the process of receiving money by cashiers, established on what days and hours the most intensive issuance of money takes place. However, the driver D. Arutyunov, at the sight of a pistol, abruptly pressed the brakes and jumped out of the car. Then the bandits decided not to attack that day, realizing that he would report the capture to the police. The car was abandoned in the courtyard of the House of Actors. In order not to make this case unnecessary noise, Vyacheslav himself called the police from a pay phone and told where the car was, adding that he and his friends decided to play a trick on the driver, but he did not understand the joke and was frightened of the water pistol.

Three days later, in the car of Tolstopyatov's accomplice Srybny, an attempt was made to attack the cashier of the Rostov shoe factory. So that Srybny would not be suspected of complicity, his hands were previously tied. But even here the Fantomas were not lucky: at first they did not have time to attack the cashier before she got into the car, and then this car unexpectedly, in violation of the traffic rules, turned into the gates of the factory.

On October 22, 1968, bandits broke into store number 46 in the village of Mirny. Opening indiscriminate shooting, they went to the cash register. But the cashiers managed to hide the main part of the money, the production that day amounted to only 526 rubles. A pensioner, a participant in the war, G.S. Chumakov, who happened to be nearby, tried to detain the raiders, but was killed by an automatic burst in the back by Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov. On November 25, 1968, Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov, Samasyuk and Gorshkov, having stolen a car that belonged to the Rostov radio technical school, twisted the driver and drove to the Oktyabrsky branch of the State Bank. As soon as a woman with a bag appeared from the door, Samasyuk ran up to her with a machine gun, fired into the air and snatched the bag from the woman. The bag contained 2700 rubles. On December 29, 1968, the Tolstopyatov gang attacked a grocery store on Mechnikov Street; production amounted to 1498 rubles. The Tolstopyatov gang made an unsuccessful attack on the October Revolution Chemical Plant, although the attack was prepared meticulously: Vyacheslav himself came to the plant, tried to get a job, read the ads on the stands, found out the days when wages were brought, examined the cashiers, watched the machine bringing money from jar. And yet the attack failed: the bag with the money was carried not by the cashier, but by the guard. Shots into the ground did not help either. The guard with the bag ran inside the plant, then pulled out his revolver and pointed it towards the attackers. Shots rang out. The Tolstopyatov gang had to run away, they rushed to their car, and shots were heard from behind, one bullet hit Gorshkov in the back. On a truck seized along the way, they barely escaped from the chase. Realizing that they were being rounded up in the city, they decided to lay low. The break lasted for a year and a half. During this period, the gang did not take any active action. Gorshkov was healing his back, and at that time Samasyuk was sent behind barbed wire for some minor crime. In August 1971, the Tolstopyatov gang got together and on August 25 attacked construction organization UNR-112; production amounted to 17 thousand rubles. On December 16, 1971, the Tolstopyatov gang attacked collectors at the savings bank on Pushkinskaya Street; production amounted to 20 thousand rubles. In this attack, Gorshkov was wounded in the arm. From October 1968 to June 1973, "phantomas" carried out 14 armed attacks, two citizens were killed, three were wounded. total amount the loot amounted to about 150 thousand rubles.

Detention

To detain the gang, an operational headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was created, numbering over a hundred employees, mobile response teams were deployed, and partial radio coverage was carried out. Vehicle militia.

The end of the gang came on June 7, 1973, while trying to rob the cash desk of the Research Institute Yuzhgiprovodkhoz. The car, seized by the gang, was stopped after a slight collision with the train, a shootout with police officers ensued. Sergei Samasyuk was killed right on the money bag, the bandit Gorshkov was again shot, and was detained along with the others.

Junior police sergeant A.A. Rusov and V.A. Salyutin took part in the arrest of the bandits.

Sentence

On July 1, 1974, a verdict was passed, according to which three members of the gang (Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov, Vladimir Tolstopyatov, Vladimir Gorshkov) received capital punishment, and eight accomplices were sentenced to various prison terms for aiding or failing to report (Articles 77; 175; 196, part 1; 196, part 3 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR).

All cassation appeals were rejected, and on March 6, 1975, the sentence was carried out.

Gang of brothers Tolstopyatov- a criminal gang operating in Rostov-on-Don in 1968-1973.

The scale, technical equipment, preparedness and the very fact of the emergence and successful long-term existence of this criminal gang are unique for the USSR of the 1960s - 1970s, which gave the gang a legendary character and made it part of the folklore of the city of Rostov-on-Don and the USSR / Russia.

Structure and armament

The founder and leader of the gang - Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov Jr. was born in a village near Bryansk in 1940.

From childhood he was fond of designing, drawing and drawing. Vyacheslav especially liked to draw. He could spend hours poring over some book, redrawing the illustration, and achieving absolute similarity - down to the smallest detail. At about the age of 15, Vyacheslav got used to copying banknotes. He drew 50 and 100 ruble banknotes (this was before the monetary reform of 1961).

At first, Slava exchanged them in wine and vodka stores. He threw the purchased bottle into the bushes (Vyacheslav almost never drank alcohol all his life), and spent real money on sweets, books, tools. Over time, Vyacheslav adapted himself to sell the drawn money to taxi drivers: he drove a short distance by car, handed the driver a bill folded in a quadrangle (it should be noted that the “pre-reform” post-war banknotes were much larger than the current ones), took the change and disappeared.

Seeing that taxi drivers never unfold banknotes, Vyacheslav became bolder to such an extent that he began to draw money on only one side. This is what ruined him. On February 23, 1960, a taxi driver named Metelitsa, having brought Vyacheslav to the Prigorodny railway station, nevertheless unfolded the banknote offered to him - and was stunned when he saw a blank sheet of paper on the back!

“Vyacheslav confessed to everything at once,” recalled the investigator in the first case of Tolstopyatov A. Granovsky. - In an investigative experiment, using only colored pencils, watercolors, BF-2 glue, compasses, a ruler and a blade, Vyacheslav drew an absolutely exact copy of a 100-ruble bill in four hours (!) We all gasped. Even in the police, even while under investigation, Vyacheslav won universal sympathy with his politeness, modesty, and erudition. It was a pleasure to talk with him. I petitioned the court for a mitigation of punishment - given my young age, complete repentance, assistance provided to the investigation.

Forgery of banknotes belongs to the category of serious crimes against the state, but the sentence of the court was unusually soft; four years of imprisonment in a penal colony. In prison, Tolstopyatov met Sergei Samasyuk and the idea of ​​a gang appeared. Upon his release, Tolstopyatov Jr. enlisted the support of his elder brother Vladimir, who provided him with a room adapted for the headquarters and workshop of the gang. The fourth member of the gang was Vladimir Gorshkov, an old friend of the brothers.

All the weapons of the gang were made by the Tolstopyatov brothers themselves in semi-industrial conditions: the blanks were made in an underground workshop, the secret entrance to which was hidden with the help of a specially rotating mirror, and the figured parts were ordered by familiar factory millers under the guise of spare parts for household appliances. In total, four small-caliber seven-shot revolvers, three small-caliber folding submachine guns of a unique design, hand grenades and even improvised bulletproof vests were made.

Since the acquisition of personal vehicles was actually an impossible and unnecessary task (a personal car in those conditions would have instantly unmasked and exposed the group), the Tolstopyatovs worked out the tactics of seizing other people's cars with taking the driver hostage.

Information about an alleged attempt to assemble a helicopter for air raids, most likely, should be classified as urban legends, however, such a legend best characterizes the degree of technical ambitions of the gang's militants.

Robbery Tactics

In general, it should be recognized that the gang’s tactics were at that time advanced for the underworld of the USSR, and the degree of its development inevitably provokes comparison with the actions of Chicago gangsters, urban partisans and special services (many Rostovites suspected the gang of collaborating with Western special services). These tactics included "correct" bank robbery, hostage-taking, surveillance and information gathering after the action, evasion, conspiracy, preparation of alibis, retraining, covert treatment and disguise. For personal disguise, the gang members used black stockings, and therefore received the nickname "Phantomas".

The bandits developed two main options for robbery tactics:

• One of the bandits stops a car in the city asking for a ride. In the place named by him, under the guise of his friends, the rest of the gang members are waiting. After they get into the car, the driver is tied up, placed in the back seat or in the trunk. Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov gets behind the wheel and drives the car to the scene of the attack. The direct attack is carried out by Samasyuk and Gorshkov. After capturing the money at high speed, they leave the crime scene, the car with the driver is thrown in an inconspicuous place.

• Directly at the scene of the attack, the car of the collectors or the cashier is seized. The attack is carried out all together and they hide in the same car.

The duties of Vladimir Tolstopyatov included monitoring the situation after the crime, the actions of the police, and the stories of witnesses.

attacks

The gang attempted its first attack on October 7, 1968. On this day, Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov, Samasyuk and Gorshkov seized a car from Rostov watch factory with the aim of robbing a cashier near the building of the Regional Office of the State Bank of the USSR on the corner of Engels Street (now Bolshaya Sadovaya) and Sokolov Avenue. The attack was preceded by a lengthy preparation: the bandits monitored the process of receiving money by cashiers, established on what days and hours the most intensive issuance of money takes place. However, the driver D. Arutyunov, at the sight of a pistol, abruptly pressed the brakes and jumped out of the car. Then the bandits decided not to attack that day, realizing that he would report the capture to the police. The car was abandoned in the courtyard of the House of Actors. In order not to make this case unnecessary noise, Vyacheslav himself called the police from a pay phone and told where the car was, adding that he and his friends decided to play a trick on the driver, but he did not understand the joke and was frightened of the water pistol.

Three days later, in the car of Tolstopyatov's accomplice Srybny, an attempt was made to attack the cashier of the Rostov shoe factory. So that Srybny would not be suspected of complicity, his hands were previously tied. But even here the Fantomas were not lucky: at first they did not have time to attack the cashier before she got into the car, and then this car unexpectedly, in violation of the traffic rules, turned into the gates of the factory.

On October 22, 1968, bandits broke into store number 46 in the village of Mirny. Opening indiscriminate shooting, they went to the cash register. But the cashiers managed to hide the main part of the money, the production that day amounted to only 526 rubles. A pensioner, a participant in the war, G.S. Chumakov, who happened to be nearby, tried to detain the raiders, but was killed by an automatic burst in the back by Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov. On November 25, 1968, Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov, Samasyuk and Gorshkov, having stolen a car that belonged to the Rostov radio technical school, twisted the driver and drove to the Oktyabrsky branch of the State Bank. As soon as a woman with a bag appeared from the door, Samasyuk ran up to her with a machine gun, fired into the air and snatched the bag from the woman. The bag contained 2700 rubles. On December 29, 1968, the Tolstopyatov gang attacked a grocery store on Mechnikov Street; production amounted to 1498 rubles. The Tolstopyatov gang made an unsuccessful attack on the October Revolution Chemical Plant, although the attack was prepared meticulously: Vyacheslav himself came to the plant, tried to get a job, read the ads on the stands, found out the days when wages were brought, examined the cashiers, watched the machine bringing money from jar. And yet the attack failed: the bag with the money was carried not by the cashier, but by the guard. Shots into the ground did not help either. The guard with the bag ran inside the plant, then pulled out his revolver and pointed it towards the attackers. Shots rang out. The Tolstopyatov gang had to run away, they rushed to their car, and shots were heard from behind, one bullet hit Gorshkov in the back. On a truck seized along the way, they barely escaped from the chase. Realizing that they were being rounded up in the city, they decided to lay low. The break lasted for a year and a half. During this period, the gang did not take any active action. Gorshkov was healing his back, and at that time Samasyuk was sent behind barbed wire for some minor crime. In August 1971, the Tolstopyatov gang got together and on August 25 attacked the construction organization UNR-112; production amounted to 17 thousand rubles. On December 16, 1971, the Tolstopyatov gang attacked collectors at the savings bank on Pushkinskaya Street; production amounted to 20 thousand rubles. In this attack, Gorshkov was wounded in the arm. From October 1968 to June 1973, "phantomas" carried out 14 armed attacks, two citizens were killed, three were wounded. The total amount stolen was about 150 thousand rubles.

Detention

To detain the gang, an operational headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was created, numbering over a hundred employees, mobile response teams were deployed, and a partial radio equipment of police vehicles was made.

The end of the gang came on June 7, 1973, while trying to rob the cash desk of the Research Institute Yuzhgiprovodkhoz. The car, seized by the gang, was stopped after a slight collision with the train, a shootout with police officers ensued. Sergei Samasyuk was killed right on the money bag, the bandit Gorshkov was again shot, and was detained along with the others.

Junior police sergeant A.A. Rusov and V.A. Salyutin took part in the arrest of the bandits.

Sentence

On July 1, 1974, a verdict was passed, according to which three members of the gang (Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov, Vladimir Tolstopyatov, Vladimir Gorshkov) received capital punishment, and eight accomplices were sentenced to various prison terms for aiding or failing to report (Articles 77; 175; 196, part 1; 196, part 3 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR).

All cassation appeals were rejected, and on March 6, 1975, the sentence was carried out.

In the second half of the 60s, the police were headed by Brezhnev's old friend Nikolai Shchelokov. The State Security Committee is commanded by Yuri Andropov. A rivalry begins between the two departments. They use every oversight of the opponent to strengthen their own influence on Secretary General Brezhnev. The number of crimes is steadily declining. For example, in Rostov-on-Don, 97% of serious crimes are solved. But another 2 years will pass and the quiet city will tremble with horror, a gang of murderers will appear on its streets. The criminals will be armed like foreign spies with small folding machine guns. For nylon stockings on their heads they will be called Fantomas. Who are these raiders? Where do they get such weapons from? And most importantly, who will be responsible for the appearance on Soviet soil of a well-armed and well-trained gang? Police chief Shchelokov or KGB chairman Andropov? Far from paralyzed with fear, Rostov will begin a secret battle between the two heads of powerful departments. And in the city on the Don itself, the best detectives of the country will join the hunt for Fantomas.

The investigation was conducted .. with Leonid Kanevsky - Criminal investigation against Fantomas

1968 Middle of the 8th five-year plan. The Soviet Union has already conquered space, won the ice hockey world championship. Fashion includes short dresses, pumps and imported balloon raincoats. At this time, Rostov-on-Don is a quiet and safe city. The most serious offense is fighting at a dance. Armed criminals can only be seen in movies. For example, in the French film "Fantômas", which is released on the screens of the country in 1968.
I myself watched this picture several times in a row, and each time I laughed at the ugliness of Commissioner Julien performed by Louis de Funes. And the super villain Fantomas with a stocking on his head evoked complete delight in the audience. After all, he is not just a commonplace criminal, he is a technical genius. In Rostov-on-Don, it was almost impossible to get tickets for this film. One young man went to Fantomas for several days in a row. He was the only one in the room who didn't laugh.
On October 7, 1968, two armed men seized a car from the Rostov watch factory. The driver managed to get out of the car and escape. It looked like banal hooliganism. Unknown people wore masks made of nylon stockings, just like the movie villain Fantomas. But the detail was disturbing. In their hands were some strange machine guns. The injured driver, a war veteran, swore he had never seen anything like it.
Robert Kulakov: - We didn't have that then. A separate barrel broke and the weapon became much shorter.
A few days later, people in nylon masks attacked store No. 46 in the village of Mirny. The cashiers had just finished counting the money when the raiders burst into the hall. One of them fired a burst from a machine gun into the air.
Maria Tyrina: - Not tall. Everyone stay where they are, everyone stay where they are.
Cashier Orlova was not taken aback. She closed the cash register and threw the keys behind the counter. At that moment, the second cashier, Marina Goluneva, pulled out a heavy box of money from the cash register. In front of the bandit, she jumped into the back room with him. Here in the labyrinths of the store you can get lost. One of the robbers rushed after the cashier, but realized that he was wasting his time and returned to the trading floor. Marina ran into the accountant's office and hid it under the table. The robbers got only one cash register. And the one in the piece department, where they traded matches, pens, postcards. The extraction was small, only 528 rubles and 24 lottery tickets. However, none of them won. The criminals who ran out of the store tried to detain pensioner Chumakov. One of the bandits fired point-blank. An old man who went through the whole war, who had seen the enemy in the face more than once, died 100 meters from own house. A few hours later, at an urgent meeting, the deputy head of the Rostov Criminal Investigation Department, Vladimir Kucherenko, for the first time uttered the already forgotten word "Banditism."

Vladimir Kucherenko: - For 20 years, maybe. I don't know this type of crime. This excited everyone.
Now people have become accustomed to death on the screen and in life. Then people lived calmly, with confidence in the future. The youth worked and studied with pleasure. Older people fearlessly waited for retirement. More and more goods appear in stores, including outlandish electronics. Recordings of songs by the young artist of the Taganka theater Vladimir Vysotsky are scattered on reels throughout the Union. For the residents of Rostov, this song sounds prophetic. The city really begins hunting for wolves in human form. One of the saleswomen of the robbed shop drew a picture of a small, strange folding weapon that was in the hands of the robbers. The policemen only twirled their fingers at the temple, a woman's fright. However, the experts who studied the crime scene suddenly declared. One of the bullets fired by the bandits pierced a steel strut a few centimeters thick.
Yuri Kostanov: - Not a single expert could determine what kind of super powerful weapon it was. Four times more powerful shot than the average of machine guns in all the armies of the world.
This is the famous Kalashnikov assault rifle. Caliber - 7.62, weight - 4.5 kg. You can't hide that under a coat. Saleswomen of 46 stores claimed that the bandits had completely different machine guns: small ones with short barrels. Here's how this one. This is a Kedr submachine gun. These are now in service with special police units, but in 1968 they were not even on the drawings. Where did the bandits get such weapons from? Maybe foreign saboteurs.
By order of Shchelokov, a cameraman arrived in Rostov. He had an order to film all places where bandits appear. Send materials to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Attack on store number 46. Bandits in masks slashed at the ceiling with machine gun fire and ordered the customers to leave the hall. The bandits escaped along this road.
But it was already too late. Through its channels, the information was received by the regional department of the KGB. The very next day, a report lay on the desk of committee chairman Yuri Andropov. In Rostov-on-Don, armed bandits kill civilians in broad daylight.
Danil Koretsky: - It was incredible. There were no such crimes at that time. Especially the machine guns, the line to the ceiling - it was from another life. Then even films were avoided to be shown.
Danil Koretsky became famous after the novel "Antikiller", which was based on the film of the same name. It has all the mores of the modern underworld. Thieves' concepts and gangster lawlessness, arrows, graters, showdowns, Austrian blocks, Italian berets, Israeli ultrasounds, but for the first time Koretsky heard about serious weapons in the hands of bandits in his youth, when in the late 60s the Fantômas gang rumbled in Rostov.
Danil Koretsky: - There were practically no machine guns in the police. They were not used, and there was no such equipment.

And what if the weapon is imported from abroad? If yes, then part of what happened falls on the KGB. Spilled. If the machines are still ours, then the police will be responsible for this. The operatives of the State Security Committee received an order not to let the police authorities out of their sight. The history of the confrontation between the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs is, first of all, the history of the enmity of two people: Andropov and Shchelokov. One of them is an ascetic: modest, strict, indifferent to flattery and gifts. The other is seborite: a lover of antiques and expensive weapons. Andropov climbed the career ladder, losing his health, making enemies. Shchelokov, even from Dnepropetrovsk, from before the war, was dragged along by Brezhnev. Andropov, being the chairman of the KGB, began to dig, in which prominent police officials were involved. Shchelokov achieved the opening of special stores, in which the police authorities bought confiscated goods for a penny: equipment, gold, antiques. Andropov knew about it, but he couldn't do anything. After all, they said about Shchelokov, he had breakfast at the same table with Brezhnev.
Near store No. 46, robbed by Fantomas, they found an imported male beret. This is exactly what was on one of the bandits. The version that Fantomas belonged to foreign intelligence agencies was considered among others. Senior detective militia captain Ivanov. Rumors are circulating in the city. They are overgrown with details, sometimes turn into funny stories. But somewhere among this verbal garbage, a pearl can be lost. Kucherenko knows this, so he is in no hurry to dismiss the most incredible versions. An experienced detective understands that the bandits are about to attack again. A preemptive strike is required. At the next meeting, the district commissioners are tasked with checking all suspicious persons who appear near the shops.
Vladimir Kucherenko: - There was no computer. It was impossible to conduct, transfer all this. They conferred, gathered all the district police officers, spoke, told the behavior of these criminals.
Rostov precincts double their vigilance. Even the regulars of the wine departments are brought to the department. Information about foreign saboteurs, through their own channels, is checked by the KGB and the police.
Robert Kulakov: - We were also interested in whether there is a connection with foreign agents, foreign special services.
Andropov is informed that the Rostov raiders are not foreigners. Witnesses say the criminals had a characteristic southern accent. But Andropov doubts.
- Because, well, it was unusual that they planned it that way, they carried out operations at a high professional level.
The audacity of the Fantomas knew no bounds. Just a few days and again a raid.
In the afternoon, on November 26, having stopped a passing truck, they tied up the driver and went to the regional branch of the State Bank.
It is now that collectors are loading sealed bags of money into armored vehicles. Around the armed guards, video surveillance. Then, in the late 60s, the salary for factory workers could be taken into an ordinary shopping bag. Two people: a cashier and an unarmed driver. In their hands they have an astronomical, at that time, amount - 15-20 thousand rubles. This is what the calculation of the bandits is based on. They decided to set up an ambush here, near the branch of the State Bank, where the cashiers received money.
At the entrance, they snatched the bag with money from the ATX-5 cashier and hurried to escape in a seized car.
In the bag of the cashier of the motor transport sector, Matveeva, there were 2,700 rubles. At that time, one could live comfortably for a whole year on this money.
On the way, they dropped off the driver, and the car was abandoned in the courtyard of school No. 70. But the bag also contained Matveyeva's passport and purse, which contained 44 rubles. A day later, the unknown returned the passport and wallet, and, as if apologizing for the inconvenience caused, the bandits added 100 rubles from themselves.

Danil Koretsky: - They threw it in the mailbox. Showing that they are Robin Hoods and they are not robbing ordinary people, but only the state.
The Rostov Fantomas were reported to the Central Committee of the CPSU. Andropov, who, unlike Shchelokov, was a candidate member of the Politburo, pulled the necessary levers. A resolution was issued in the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers "On serious shortcomings in the activities of the police." The Ministry of the Interior has been heavily criticized. It was a real slap in the face, with which Andropov dealt Shchelokov with someone else's hands. The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs began to prepare a retaliatory strike. A group of detectives of the famous MUR went from Moscow to Rostov. By order from the Kremlin, all information about the gang was classified. However, enemy radio voices have already told about the Fantomas.
Robert Kulakov: - I personally heard Israel broadcast. But my other comrades heard what the Voice of America was broadcasting. Air Force transmitted. And the information in general terms consisted of the fact that a certain gang was operating in the city of Rostov-on-Don. And the authorities can't deal with her, they can't catch her.
At that time, the foreign Russian-language radio stations Svoboda, Free Europe, and Voice of America were considered the mouthpiece of anti-Soviet propaganda. They were jammed, clogging the radio frequencies with interference, but the people listened anyway. Secretly in the kitchen, screwing a special wire to the receiver antenna. It was from these programs that one could learn the most interesting.
Evgeny Maslov: - The entire public of the city of Rostov-on-Don constantly lived in anxiety that these bandits would attack someone else. And so it happened. They made several very daring attacks on the cashiers of various organizations.
And again the attack on the driver of the car in the evening of November 5th. When the driver refused to lead the bandits, they severely wounded him with a shot. Random witnesses could not believe their eyes when they saw an episode that looked like a fragment from a movie about gangsters. The wounded driver of the Volga Arutyunov drove here. Right on the tram tracks. He hoped to attract the attention of the police. The tram coming from the other side stopped. The driver saw the bloodied driver fall out of the car. Then a man jumped out and rushed towards the central city hospital. The woman was not at a loss, grabbed a crowbar, which is usually used to switch arrows, and ran after the criminal.
The chase was short. The woman quickly lagged behind, the bandits hid in the yards. Passers-by ran up to the bleeding driver. The bullet hit him in the liver. Arutyunov was taken away in an ambulance. For several hours the doctors fought for his life.
Yuri Kostanov: - Thank God, he survived. But the liver must not be touched. The bullet was encapsulated in the liver, remained.
Why did the criminals seize the car every time? This question now seems strange, because there are thousands of car markets today. Then, in 1968, in order to buy a Moskvich-402 worth 5,000 rubles, it was necessary to save up for 5 or even 10 years. During this time, a line was just coming up that was scheduled for several years in advance. Not enough for all cars.
Having come to his senses, the driver Arutyunov, wounded by Fantomas, reported that he saw the face of the criminal. Jumping out of the car, he tore off his mask. Arutyunov described him. The identikit of the criminal was immediately sent to all police stations of the Soviet Union.
Robert Kulakov: - All persons who in the past participated in armed bandit attacks, starting from 1947, were taken into operational records.
The scale of the operation is hard to imagine. They checked all the men who had ever taken part in robberies. Information from all over the Soviet Union flocked to Rostov-on-Don. Photos of the most famous robbers of that time were shown to Arutyunov. Everything is in vain. Fantomas, confirming the resemblance to the legendary movie villain, were elusive.
Everyone was lost in conjecture. Everyone was lost in conjecture. Nobody, nothing... There are no exits. No exits.
The first secretary of the Rostov regional committee of the CPSU, Bondarenko, summoned the police chief of the city of Yelesoy to the carpet and delivered an ultimatum to find the bandits in a week. Otherwise, the membership card is on the table.
We had superiors. The requirements were very high. They demanded to solve the crime quickly and soon.
Attacks on collectors followed one after another. All this with the light hand of Rostov-on-Don began to be compared with Chicago in the 30s. The city was paralyzed with terror. The only link that could lead to the bandits was a weapon of unknown design. Vladimir Kucherenko came up with a crazy idea. But what if the machines are homemade? In 1968, it was even scary to think about it. The detective reported his suspicions to his superiors. A few days later, rumors spread throughout the city. Weapons for the elusive gang are made at Rostov factories.
Vera Yuzhanskaya: - Very persistently in these rumors they repeated that they were turning it in the shops of the Rostov Helicopter Plant. Then it was called a mailbox. For me, it was complete horror. Because my father worked there.
These rumors were also part of a secret war between the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After all, the secret mailbox was under the jurisdiction of the State Security Committee. If this weapon was made at the factory, it would be a severe blow to the reputation of the KGB.
Sudden inspections began at the enterprises of the city. The helicopter factory was literally turned upside down. But they didn't find anything. At that moment, the Rostov detectives were closer than ever to unraveling the secret of the Fantomas. Back in the summer of 1968, an inconspicuous guy often pushed around the factory gates of Rostov. Having found a turner, he asked for a part for a sewing machine. The masters agreed. But later, during police checks, none of them confessed to this. It never occurred to anyone that the boy was a member of a gang of robbers and murderers known throughout the Union. At the end of 1968, the patience of the police authorities was coming to an end. A little more and heads will roll. As if mocking Interior Minister Shchelokov, KGB chairman Andropov takes the position of an observer. He waits for the police detectives to confess their inability to handle the situation. The fight against crime does not leave the agenda of the Central Committee meeting. And then the Rostov militia takes an extreme step. In capturing the Fantomas, the population of the city is attracted. At that time, it was an honor to be a member of the DND, in the Voluntary People's Druzhina. The combatants took representatives of the working class: leaders, shock workers. Vigilantes were a storm of dudes who recently appeared in stagnation. They all wore cloaks with turned up collars, tight trousers and semolina boots. The dude was caught and taken to the police station. But the combatants were powerless against the armed bandits. They had only a red bandage with them and such a whistle. Numerous detachments of volunteers take to the streets of the city. According to the calculations of the police, this should scare away the bandits. But already on December 29, the Fantômas attacked store No. 21 of Gorpromtorg.
On New Year's Eve, they ran into a department store on Mechnikov Street with weapons in their hands and took about 3,000 rubles from the safe.
In desperation, the head of the Rostov police department, Yelesov, writes a resignation report. But Shchelokov does not accept her. The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not hand over his people. However, after the attack on the store, there is an unexpected lull. A month passes, the second, Fantomas do not appear. Vladimir Kucherenko is at a loss. It requires all the data on the dead for this period. Perhaps the leader of the Fantomas has died. Every death, especially violent, is carefully studied. Nothing.
- Inactivity has risen sharply. They failed to get out.
The police carry out raids, check the apartments where the criminal element gathers. The underworld of that time is shown in a joking manner in the film "Gentlemen of Fortune". The funny adventure of the four fugitives has nothing to do with reality. The truth about criminals is shown in another classic film "Kalina Krasnaya". Already in those years, the underworld was a tightly knit community. But the well-known criminals from Rostov, who were interrogated by detectives, did not themselves know who was hiding behind the black masks of Fantomas.
- Even such was a saying among criminals. At least they caught these Fantomas as soon as possible, otherwise there is no life for the police.
The gang does not make itself felt for 4 months. It was a real ambush at the factory building. The bandits were waiting for the cashier with a salary for the workers. They ran up to the cashier and snatched his bag of money. But on the way of criminals again there was a man who was not afraid of them. The driver Kovalenko, a war veteran, father of 8 children, put up fierce resistance. He fought bandits with his bare hands. One of the Fantômas shot him point-blank with a pistol.
- One bullet hits him in his chest pocket, flattened there, a soft lead bullet, small-caliber, into some part of a car. The second bullet hits the forehead.
The driver Kovalenko is covered in blood, but for some reason does not fall. With a stranglehold, he grapples with a bandit.
- He snatched the gun from him.
But the forces are not equal. Everything happens in a matter of seconds. Criminals take away their weapons, they no longer dream of prey. An attempt to rob the cashier of the plant named after the October Revolution failed. They were resisted by security guards. I had to flee.
Danil Koretsky: - They seize the car. They can't start it, move off. A guard runs up and shoots them from a fairly close distance from an antediluvian revolver.
The bullet of the guard Pluzhnikov hits one of the bandits. At this moment, the car starts and the Fantômas leave, taking with them a wounded accomplice. A few minutes later the police arrive. Information about the stolen car is immediately transmitted by radio to all posts and departments.
The legendary "Diamond Arm" was filmed just in 1969. The police officers, looking at this scene, smiled and sighed sadly. If they had patrol helicopters ready then, the Fantomas gang would have been taken on the same day.
But in the 1960s there was still no plan to intercept, when all exits from the city were taken under control. And hundreds of inspectors check all suspicious cars. Fantomas are hiding in a stolen car. Old man Kovalenko, who tried to detain the bandits, survived. Doctors removed a bullet from a small-caliber weapon from his head. He was invigorated, went through the whole war, survived and now I will survive.
- Well, now try to find a person who will rush just to cut across the armed criminals. The Lord is with them. Any brawl - everything is like mice in the corners and sitting there. Nobody will get on.
Meanwhile, witnesses to the crime remembered. Shortly before the raid, two vigilantes with red bandages on their sleeves were standing at the entrance of the plant. One of them suddenly took off his cloak, as if giving a signal. And then the attack began. But for some reason the combatants did not intervene, but on the contrary, they quickly left. It was pointless to check all the Rostov vigilantes. Anyone can make a red band. There was only one clue left. One of the Fantomas was wounded during the raid. This meant that in the coming days he would not come to work.
In Soviet times, all citizens were required to work. The exception was housewives with children. Big break in seniority threatened with criminal liability for parasitism. The punishment was often the so-called chemistry: forced labor at construction sites National economy, imprisonment in a colony for up to 2 years or exile.
All ballot papers have been checked. Those people who did not go to work during this period. There were 14 of them.
The district police checked 13 people. None of them were wounded.
- And they said about 14. Yes, no, he's a good guy. And it wasn't checked.
14 on the list was the foreman of the tram depot repairmen Vladimir Gorshkov. Shock worker of communist labor, production leader. The policeman didn't even go to him. And if he went, he would have found the foreman-strike leader in serious condition with a gunshot wound in the back.

UG Wanted against a gang of Fantomas - 2

In 1968, a well-armed and well-trained gang suddenly appears in Rostov-on-Don. She makes a series of daring attacks on collectors and cashiers. The prey of criminals is fantastic money for those times. More than 40,000 rubles. The bandits are armed like foreign saboteurs: folding submachine guns with monstrous lethal force. Criminals always go to work in black nylon masks. For this, the raiders are called Fantomas. The elusive gang becomes a trump card in a gambling political game between the chairman of the KGB Andropov and the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Shchelokov. Each of them seeks to use the opponent's mistakes to increase influence on Brezhnev. Literally the entire militia of the Soviet Union takes part in the capture of Fantomas. But the gang is still on the loose.
The Fantômas case resounded throughout the country. Therefore, questions in the Central Committee of the CPSU were read out by the Prosecutor General of the USSR Rudenko himself. The same one who was the prosecutor at the Muninberg trials. All information about the investigation was transmitted here, to the Prosecutor General's Office. The case was registered with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB. A powerful investigative team was formed, reinforced by the capital's workers. But all this did not bring success.
This year the metallurgists of Nizhny Tagil have pledged to smelt tens of thousands of tons of iron and steel in excess of the plan. At that time, cameramen worked in every major city. But in Rostov-on-Don, among dozens of chroniclers, there is one special one. It captures what cannot be shown to ordinary Soviet citizens. Those places where the bandits attacked the collectors. Every week the Courier delivers film to the special laboratory of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After developing, the material is taken to the Minister of Internal Affairs Shchelokov.
On December 15, 1972, a courageous man died here defending state money. Collector Ivan Zyuba.
A police cameraman was working in the city center when the Fantômas seized a car nearby. But lost control and the car crashed into a tree. These shots were taken just a few minutes after the accident. It turned out that one of the bandits was seriously injured. He was taken on a ride to the City Hospital. The capture team went there.
Yuri Kostanov: - And I see police cars flying past me, the howl of sirens, the sparkle of these beacons, etc. Then I found out that, it turns out, all these cars were pulled from all over the city.
However, in the emergency room, the policemen were informed that there were no wounded today. The secret of the disappearance of Fantomas was revealed by the driver of the ride, who drove the bandit. According to the driver, the wounded man woke up and said that he himself would reach the hospital. The driver, not suspecting anything, released him. Fantomas slipped away just a minute before the police arrived.
The next congress of the CPSU was approaching. In this event, all labor collectives of the country reported on the successes achieved. The Rostov Criminal Investigation Department had nothing to boast of. Everyone understands that it is only thanks to Shchelokov's personal friendship with Brezhnev that the investigation team has not yet been dispersed. But the intercession of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs could not last forever. The watchful eye of the KGB followed every step of the Rostov detectives. Andropov was looking for every opportunity to prick his constant opponent Shchelokov.
During the post-war years, people have lost the habit of being afraid. The doors of the apartments were often not locked. And if they were locked, the key was usually hidden under the mat so as not to lose it. Bicycles, sledges, strollers were stored in open porches. In the early 1970s, many things changed in Rostov-on-Don. Even naughty children were frightened by phantoms.
Lyudmila Kalinina: - Rostov was shaking, that is, people were afraid to go outside. There were even such cases when they demanded that, when issuing wages at some enterprise there was an armed guard who would protect people.
The Tulip plan was still in effect in the city. Cars with armed police officers patrolled the city. On an emergency basis, at one of the secret factories, bulletproof vests were made by order of the police. Now policemen go on duty with weapons. In the early 1970s, they had no machine guns, no handcuffs, no clubs. Then the appearance of an armed policeman in the city caused unprecedented interest. Boys ran from everywhere. But from the moment the Tulip plan was introduced, the inhabitants of Rostov felt themselves under a state of siege. The machine can now be seen not only in the movies.
To implement the Tulip plan, young cadres were needed. Alexey Rusov was one of those employees. Sergeant Rusov was appointed driver of the PMG - patrol and police group No. 16. The crew commander was Yevgeny Kubyshta.
Yevgeny Kubyshta: - The institute's car came here from the bank with money.
Today, more than 30 years later, this man is reliving the dramatic events of the day when he, along with Rusov, fought the bandits here.
- The entrance was here in my opinion. The entrance was here.
The bandits attacked the cashier of the institute, pointed pistols and machine guns at him, and having snatched out a bag with money in the amount of 125,000 rubles, they began to leave.
Alla Maksimova: - One has a machine gun hanging on his chest. One is slightly forward, the other is slightly behind. And they're carrying a huge bag. Apparently heavy.
A simple Soviet guy, a store loader Volodya Bortovitsky, was the first to rush to the bandits.
Now in our turbulent times, it seems savagery. Go with bare hands against armed criminals. Recently in Perov, a young girl, stolen from her home and turned into a sex slave, shouted from the balcony "People, help." But no one even called the police.
Then, in the early 70s, people thought differently.

Yuri Kostanov: - This is our city. And now in our city some bandits are running around, who prevent us from living.
Volodya Bortovitsky saw machine guns in his hands and nevertheless stood in their way.
Semyon Eselson: - They shouted to him "Go away!". Then they gave a turn on the legs.
The next turn pierced the guy through and through. Bortovitsky was killed. The leader of the Fantomasov gang, Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov, notices a car that has stopped at the institute building. Running up to the driver, he forces the driver to get out at gunpoint.
Many years have passed, but Yevgeny Korsunov, who ended up in that car, still remembers the feeling of bewilderment. How can it be that a man with a machine gun walks along the street.
Yevgeny Korsunov: - It's as if he has a brilliant automatic machine for children. In the middle of the day, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, I started a game with the boys.
The criminals beat the driver and drag him out of the car. Sergeant Rusov sees from afar how the Fantômas get into the car.
The robbers knew how to shoot. Aleksey Rusov also knew how to shoot. He fired 6 times. 4 bullets hit the target. These shots were heard by the deputy polit of the fire department Viktor Salyutin. He had just come home for lunch.
Yuri Kostanov: - He heard the shots. He jumped out onto the balcony, also assessed the situation quickly. He flew off his second floor like a bullet. Downstairs, his driver in a gas truck is waiting, jumped up "Gena, come on!".
Firefighter Salyutin had nothing to do with the police and the hunt for Fantômas. But I saw a bandit with a machine gun, I decided that the criminal should not leave.
Gennady Doroshenko: - And we started the car. Here, here is a hole like this. When I jumped over, we went straight for him. Here are two more that we did not see.
Salyutin and Doroshenko are in a hurry, but the bandits still manage to leave in a seized car. Policeman Rusov jumps into the car to the firemen. The chase begins. Never before have the residents of Rostov-on-Don seen such an exciting chase. Someone must have thought they were making a movie. A police jeep raced along the oncoming lane, turning on the siren. Aleksey Rusov was aiming at the wheels of the Moskvich, but the car with Fantomas, wagging, overtook passing cars.
Exciting pursuit of armed criminals is not uncommon today. Almost every month, TV companies in different countries of the world report live from the next police operation. Operators and viewers already understand that the fugitive is doomed. But he himself is still trying to escape from his pursuers. And here is the logical result: the villain is captured, the police are triumphant, the municipal services are counting the losses.
In 1973, something similar happened in Rostov-on-Don. Moskvich-403, captured by bandits, was a wonderful car for its time. 4 cylinders, 45 Horse power. He could accelerate to 115 kilometers per hour. The policemen who rushed in pursuit of the Fantomas had only Kostik, K-69. 65 horsepower, but the speed is only 95 kilometers per hour. In this pursuit, Rusov and Kubyshev could only rely on luck.
On an alarm signal, capture groups were raised. All exits from the city are blocked.
Gennady Doroshenko: - When we caught up with this car, there were 15-10 meters left. We clearly saw through the rear window, they were aiming at us with a machine gun.
However, for some reason the bandits did not shoot. Finally, the criminals, trying to dodge another car, hit the curb. Oil gushed from a broken engine. These are unique shots taken from the place where the criminals were captured. Two Fantomas have just been arrested. The third hijacker was unable to get out of the car. Looking at this neatly dressed man, it is hard to imagine that he is the most cruel and desperate member of the elusive gang. However, at parting, he left his gift to the police.
Gennady Doroshenko: - There is a machine gun and a lemon on the bag with money on this backpack. He pulled out the pin, but for some reason it didn't explode.
Inspection of a car seized by criminals is carried out by a senior forensic expert of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Russian Executive Committee, police major Sofya Denisovna Kalinberg.
During the day, several more raiders were arrested. Fantomas caught - this news instantly flew to the General Prosecutor's Office of the Central Committee and the building on the Lubyanka. Andropov did not expect such a swift ending. Of course, KGB officers will take part in the investigation. But all the laurels will still go to the police. The history of the Fantomas gang consisted of only orders. How did they manage to hide from the best detectives in the country for so many years? Where do bandits get amazing weapons? Who taught them the tactics of attacking collectors? Why did they always manage to leave before the police arrived?
Prosecutors have been looking for them for a long time. They appeared suddenly, acted quickly. They brazenly attacked shops, stole cars.
The backbone of the gang consisted of 4 people. The Tolstopyatov brothers: Vyacheslav and Vladimir, as well as Sergey Samosyuk and Vladimir Gorshkov. Slava Tolstopyatov dreamed of getting rich all his life. But in the 60s in the Soviet Union only store directors and speculators could be considered rich. However, the young man found his own way of getting money. Storublevka is the largest Soviet banknote. She rarely fell into ordinary people. Few had any idea what she looked like. Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov painted a copy of a hundred-ruble note using simple watercolors. The process technology was simple. First, a contour was applied to the light with a pencil, and then painted. Manually. It turned out something like this. In general, in the hustle and bustle at the cash desk, real banknotes cannot be distinguished. Soviet money of the 61st model, which had been in use for 30 years, did not differ in serious protection. A talented artist could even forge watermarks. Now, twirling these banknotes in your hands, you are surprised. They seem somehow small, not serious. They say that this size was determined by Khrushchev. When the first banknote was brought to him for approval, he flared up and cut off almost half with scissors. There is nothing to transfer paper. Compared to the current one hundred rubles, the Soviet one looks like a match label. However, it was completely different money. In the early 70s, a good worker received up to 200 rubles a month. Taxi driver - 300-400, because he had left money. The butcher's job was considered prestigious. A professional who knew the art of proper cutting could get 500 rubles a month. But at the risk of being behind bars.
Cautious Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov sold painted banknotes in the markets and in taxis. But one day he ventured into the store and got caught. After serving 4 years, he was released with a firm intention. To take revenge on the state, which he considered, broke his life.
Vyacheslav's older brother Vladimir was the brain of the gang. For the investigation, the fact that the hardened and cynical criminal turned out to be a war veteran was a revelation. At the front, Vladimir was an artillery officer. It was he who developed the tactics of attacking collectors. Only the investigation revealed the secret of the amazing elusiveness of the Fantômas. Many raids they rehearsed in advance.
Robert Kulakov: - They were found near some object, they talked about such and such a store, such and such an institution was attacked by bandits. There is a robbery. And then they stood by and watched. How many minutes will the police arrive?
By experience, Vladimir Tolstopyatov established that the gang has 4 minutes to rob. Vladimir himself never participated in raids. For his mind and corrosiveness, his accomplices called him a political officer.
In this little room, the bandits made weapons. They counted on surprise and paralyzing fear.
But no planning could take into account the psychology of the Soviet people. They threw themselves under the bullets, did everything to stop the bandits.
- He called those people who really resisted him, on whom he had not yet had time, but was only going to attack, with a very impersonal word - the enemy.
Some of the opponents paid with their lives for getting in the way of Tolstopyatov's gang. Vladimir Tolstopyatov worked here at the Rostov Zoo. He called himself an artist. Although, in fact, he only painted signs on the cells. Vladimir could not stand the crowds of visitors. Yes, he didn't like animals either. Eyewitnesses say that he stood for a long time only at the cages with wolves. Probably, these predators aroused sympathy in him. After all, wolves should be free, and they vegetate in cages.
In the late 60s, Vladimir Vysotsky's song "Hunting for Wolves" was distributed around the country on magnetic reels. Then the Tolstopyatov brothers were just beginning their criminal activities. It will take a little time and they themselves will turn from predators into prey.
The history of the Fantomas gang began in the DOSAAF shooting range, where Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov got a job as an instructor.
DOSAAF - in Soviet times, the Voluntary Society for Assistance to the Army, Aviation and Navy. Mass defense-patriotic organization. Its task is to prepare the working people for the defense of the Socialist Fatherland. DOSAAF driving schools are widely known. As well as clubs for shooters, scuba divers and paratroopers.
The youngest of the Tolstopyatov brothers was literally obsessed with pistols and rifles. But most of all he wanted to build the best machine gun in the world.
He considered himself a talented inventor. He made counterfeit money, for which he spent 4 years in prison. This is his latest invention.
And yet he created his own machine. Unlike the usual one, this one fired metal balls. Such weapons have not been made before. Later experiments in military factories in the US and Europe ended in failure. The Tolstopyatov machine gun is unique. His killing power was incredible.
Denis Minin: - And they also made ammunition for these barrels, their weapons. Here is a sectional cartridge of regular capsules. Everything else is homemade.
All parts for weapons at the factories were made by local craftsmen. For bottles of vodka. Even experienced turners had no idea that they were helping bandits. The cunning Tolstopyatov added unnecessary fragments to the drawings of each detail. Then, in his workshop, he removed these extra parts, and the factory part for the machine was ready.
There are many episodes in the criminal history of our country when homemade weapons were used. Many years after the high-profile Fantomas case, the criminal group of Vyacheslav Santalov will operate in the neighboring Krasnodar Territory. Using homemade weapons, a talented gunsmith Vyacheslav Santalov, his wife and a friend committed robberies. 5 people were killed by them. During his arrest, Santalov tried to commit suicide by cutting his own throat. But operatives intervened. Santalov's wife, meanwhile, took a lethal dose of the drug. It was not possible to save her. Santalov was active in 2002. At a time when a gun could be bought.
In the late 60s and early 70s it was much easier to make. Along with the secret of the unique weapon, other secrets of the life of the Fantomas gang were also revealed. Vespiary. Here lived the leader of the gang. Behind the mirror is the door of a hiding place with cunning locks. In the cache are pistols, machine guns, grenades. The diary of Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov was kept separately from the weapons. It contains shocking revelations of a bandit who hated everyone except his own brother and his mistress.
Vladimir Gorshkov.
The Tolstopyatov brothers knew Vladimir Gorshkov from childhood. The reckless guy always got involved in unpleasant stories. He worked in a tram depot as a foreman of repairmen and was even a shock worker for Communist Labor.
Evgeny Maslov: - He got it more often than others. Among them, he had a nickname - a catcher.
During the attack on the cashier of the chemical plant named after the October Revolution, the guard Pluzhnikov opened fire. A bullet fired from his pistol hit Gorshkov in the back. For several months, the bandit, like a wounded animal, lay in bed in a shelter. They did not touch the bullet, it had grown into the tissues. On another robbery, the collector Dzyuba managed to fire a single shot a second before his death. And again Gorshkov was wounded.
- They went to the railway hospital to the doctor Dudnikov, a surgeon.
So, according to the description of witnesses, one of the criminals looked like. Doctor Dudnikov knew him. In this house, he performed an operation on one of the robbers, who was wounded by the collector Dzyuba.
Is it possible to operate at home? What if an allergic shock occurs? But what about sterility? Fantomas did not ask such questions. Surgeon Dudnikov was assisted by Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov during the operation. And so skillfully that the doctor mistook him for his colleague. The bullet was removed from Gorshkov's hand. For help and silence, Dudnikov received 10,000 rubles. This is the salary of a good doctor for about 6 years. Later, Dudnikov will answer for this before the law. He gets 2 years for not reporting.

Robert Kulakov: - Samasyuk was a daring person with independent thinking, and who claimed to take the lead in the gang.
However, Samasyuk failed to take a leading position.
Yuri Kostanov: - Tolstopyatov even wrote about this somewhere in his diary that it was time to get rid of him, they say.
Samasyuk proposed to storm the State Bank and immediately seize 200-300 thousand rubles. He often repeated, I want to die drunk and on a bag of money. Then the bandit did not know yet, one day fate would give him such a chance. The very first big jackpot of 17,000 rubles revealed a disagreement in the gang. Then, for this huge amount, you could buy 2 Volga, 12 imported walls or 20 of the most fashionable sheepskin coats. But Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov said, we will spend several thousand, the rest must be hidden. Otherwise, we'll fall.
This is the paradox of the time. Even if you had a lot of money, it was impossible to spend it. A car is a queue for several years. Normal furniture - by appointment. Products - for good measure. It is now possible to come to the store with a suitcase of money and buy half of the goods. Then a man living beyond his means attracted everyone's attention. Especially the attention of the organs. Phantomas mediocrely spent the loot. Wealthy gangsters were chic in wretched restaurants by today's standards. They, as before, huddled in small apartments, wore clothes of Soviet tailoring. They didn't even have their own transport. Therefore, every time for a robbery, they seized other people's cars. 4 years after the creation of the gang, relations between the Fantomas finally went wrong.
Yuri Kostanov: - Tolstopyatov wrote that Samosyuk began to steal money from the general cash register. And Gorshkov demanded that he be paid more. He considered himself offended. He thought he wasn't getting paid. And then Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov took an unprecedented step. He decided to hand over his accomplices. This letter is a unique document. In fact, a sincere confession of the leader of the gang, Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov, sent to the editorial office of the regional newspaper Komsomolets.
- Writes to you one of those, more precisely from the trio, which caused you a lot of trouble. And which you so unsuccessfully search for. The first, as it were, repents, holding the jackpot, do not say that it is not hefty. There seems to be a saying. I am both the organizer and the leader of this group.
Pay attention, Tolstopyatov calls the gang a trinity. Although, in fact, there were 4 criminals. He did not want to hand over his older brother Vladimir. That's why I didn't name him. Vyacheslav offered to stop the attack on the cashiers and extradite his accomplices. In return, he asked for a place in the design bureau of a secret institute. The editors of the newspaper decided that another madman wanted fame. Meanwhile, the bandits continued to rob and kill.
Bags with stolen money, home-made grenades, and a fuse were put into this bag.
Decisive and cruel Fantomas hid from the best detectives of the country for 5 years. They did not even know that they themselves were being used in political games. The public let their attention, but they could not even think that they were being dealt with in the Lubyanka, and even in the building of the Central Committee on Staraya Square. The culmination of the criminal drama was the attack on the cashier of the design institute Ezhgriprokhoz. This time, the Fantômas managed to capture the very big jackpot they so dreamed of. As much as 125,000 rubles. Now, in the former building of the institute, everything is different. But the stairs are the same. Samosyuk and Vershkov carried a heavy backpack along it. Tolstopyatov with a machine gun covered them from behind. The bandits descended to the first floor, and then their plan breaks down for the first time. The cleaning lady closed the back door through which they were supposed to leave. Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov has no choice but to go outside through the central entrance. Passing by the watchman, he impudently throws him, well, why are you sitting here. Your cash register was robbed. While the frightened watchman calls the police, the Fantômas leave in courtyards. The bandits are pursued by employees of the Institute, who demand to return the money. Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov fires into the air to keep the crowd behind. It is these shots that policemen Rusov and Kubyshev, as well as Volodya Bortovitsky, hear.