Episode 657: The Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs Part II - 3 Guys, 1 Hammer

there's no place to escape to this is the last on the left that's when the cannibalism started so boys not you are you ready to come back to my world i'm here i'm in it so you this is your world Yeah, so you're giving up aliens for Hammer Maniacs. I have found a purpose. He's always been pretty enthusiastic about brutal murder. So no Satanism anymore, just straight Hammer Murders. That's all I like now. Now, how do you feel about the movie You Were Never Really There? The Joaquin Phoenix, Lim Ramsey, Taxi Driver Hammer movie. Extremely good movie. It's a phenomenal film. Great Hammer movie. Great Hammer? You know, there aren't enough Hammer movies. There are not. Also, you know, I'd also say Kill List. Kill List. Because it's got a great Hammer scene. There is a lot of Hammer scene in Kill List. Do you have a preference of Hammer? Claw? Mallet? Ball peen? Unfortunately, I like an old-fashioned, just fucking ball peen Hammer. Yeah. Just normal, out of an old fucking, like, that's the best thing. If you really want to kill somebody the old way. Maybe the old brother Hammers in. Dude, I honestly, I just type with my left hand and I swing my hammer back and forth to just get myself in the zone. But we're here. Welcome to last podcast on the left. I'm still your narrator, and I'm sorry, Henry Zabrowski. And to my right, I have comedic genius Marcus Park. Broste, this. What does that mean? It's gibberish. Oh, oh. Broste, big. Oh, perfect. Oh, Miss Muskin. Stoiesh, not Logan. And then we have race trader, Ed Larson. Very good How do you feel Being the Ukrainian representation On the show You know it's weird how little I know about my people It's incredible I had no idea that you had Ukrainian blood Until this episode Look at his brow structure Look at his face 25% Polish 25% Russia 50% Ukraine So I'm in there dude I always thought that was a Polish head. No, it's a Ukrainian head. It's a little Polish. It's a little Polish. They would have avoided you. Because I tell you what, it would have been really hard to smash your head open with hammers. That's what I'm saying. I'm surprised. Because Ukrainians, like, historically could take a punch. Because that's why they went after women and children. Ah, that's right. I forget. And I recently bought a tack hammer to answer your question. Very nice. I went to put up a pennant, and I had a tack, and the wall was too hard. And I was like, I know what I'm going to do. I went to the fucking lumber store and I got a tack hammer and I went home and I hit the tack. You're an old man. You're an old fucking man. We spent our Saturday eating stew and watching cruising. I'll save that for our other show. You know how old I am is I still buy pennants. Yeah. What's your favorite hammer? I'm good old fashioned claw. I love a claw, but I also love a good sledgehammer. And this is a claw. Yeah, that's a claw hammer right there. Because of the back. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because there's a lot of different options with a claw hammer. With ball peeing, with all this, you got one option with a claw hammer. You can bludgeon, you can rip, you can tear. There's a lot of stuff you can do. And unfortunately, our maniacs know, unfortunately, the proper way to hit somebody multiple times with the hammer is on the side because then it doesn't get stuck. And then you don't have to jimmy it out. Interesting. That is what they discovered using trial and error. Oh, wow. That is true. That is wild. Oh, yeah. What kind of hammer did they use? Good old-fashioned, that one, right there. Claw hammer. Oh, yeah, wrapped up in plastic. But let's get into it. When we last left our maniacs, when we last left our maniacs, they were revving up when they should have been given up. Eight victims in 12 days, each killed in the same horrific way. Tricked to the side of the road, surprised from behind, and then beaten with hammers until their faces were unrecognizable. This wave of mayhem took over Dnepropotrovsk, leaving its citizens terrified, looking over their shoulder at every yearn. The police investigation just couldn't get started. No one wanted to link the crimes together because that would make it too serious. Serial killers do not exist in Soviet-influenced Ukraine. The streets became empty. Cafes and movie theaters abandoned. The maniacs stalked Dnepro freely and were killing like they never cared. before. Fuck you both. That was great. That was beautiful. That was good. Up until this point, the boys... They're maniacs. It's about a lonely woman. Up until this point, the boys had mostly filmed animal torture and mutilation. It is believed they filmed some of their robberies as well, but their big hit would be a change of subject matter for their film oeuvre. This would be the first time they recorded a murder of a human being. and they were very excited. Who wouldn't be? Yeah. Now the long form video that the world would come to know was Three Guys, One Hammer is seen in an eight minute cut on the internet. The director's cut, which played in court, the original video was over 30 minutes long and featured our maniacs chuckling and nervous like virgins before a high school dance. You go talk to our... Literally the same energy. Yeah. Same energy. It's wild to see how young they are acting like they're about to do something fun together, like go on a jet ski, or see last podcast on the left live in Pittsburgh, May 29th at the Carnegie. That's right, man. If you bring a hammer, you get a free Brederside sticker. I promise you. I promise you. You got to leave the hammers in a basket, but initial them, you'll get them back. No one was supposed to see this footage outside of the judicial system and the boys. it would play in the trial alongside the recording of a kitten of the kitten crucifixion if you guys remember yeah i said the kitten crucifixion rather than a kitten crucifixion is that nice you think about the kitten crucifixion it's like you would think it'd be cuter you know but it really it just wasn't what i really wish i really wish i had pontius puglet you know with a little Roman, like little Romans, like little thing on there. Crucify him. It's better for the, you know, the pond, but if we're getting judgy dogs, it's going to be a corgi. You should have a corgi as the judge. And Punch's Piglet. Save it. Save it. This is our children's butt. You know, ambulances were actually parked outside of the court while this footage was shown because so many people, this is true, were feigning and vomiting after seeing it. three guys one hammer who would be named by the uploader was filmed on july 12th 2007 and it centers on the murder of 48 year old sergey yatsenko now we're going to go into the detail of this content verbally no but i'm not going to show any of the video and honestly it's hard because it's not really just because of taste it's because apparently chris d'alea bought the rights to show young ladies on snapchat where things are never deleted remember now I'm going to we are going to go by we're doing this beat for beat so we have here we have our cast Marcus Parks he will be playing Igor Sapunyuk and Victor Sayenko will be played by Ed Larson yes so you're going to read the lines I'm going to read the stage directions we're going to go we're going to go through the entire video so that you don't have to watch it in the first part of the video Igor and Victor plan what they will do to their victim. It's the first 20 minutes of the 30-minute video. They had parked the Daewoo on the side of the road, waiting for the right victim. Victor balances the phone on top of the car to get a wide shot of the street. Igor says, We will stop a car that comes by, and if it's a big, strong guy that comes out, we tell him, No problem. As in, move on. But if a little one comes up, we tell him, Welcome. With this! And then he pulls the yellow hammer out of a plastic shopping bag. Eager plays it up for the camera. He hid the camera behind his back and then exclaimed, I want one other thief! He did. He's like Ren. At one point after they've been waiting for a few minutes, Victor says, At this rate, we'll be waiting all week. They also talk about hoping the person has a cell phone, but not one so nice that they won't be able to sell it quickly. Victor jokes about how difficult doing the killing while filming with one hand is going to be. They decide that if it's a one man and one woman who pass by first, they'll do it. But if it's two men, they'll have to see how they look. Igor yawns and struts around, bored. While they're waiting, they also talk about the bloodstains the other victims left on their day wound. Igor says they are like pigs, staining the car with their blood. Eventually, Sergei Yatsenko pedals towards the maniacs. This man is a survivor. He had already escaped as his van actually crashed in a lake, and he escaped from the lake on his own. He barely survived, and then he just got out of remission from throat cancer. He still had his surgery bandages on from the cancer surgery. So he got cancer surgery, got into his car to drive home. Bike. No, no, no, before that. The lake was before that. The lake was before that. I thought this was like just the worst possible thing that anyone could ever have. Yeah, it was that. I get into the lake, then I have throat cancer. I find out, they cut it out, I go home on bike, and then two maniacs kill me. That's what happens. In Russia, hospice is 12 hours long. So Igor says, Someone on the bicycle is coming. When Victor asks what the guy looks like, Igor responds he's normal. As they wait for Sergei to approach, Victor jokes that he'll take at least an hour and a half to get here. come on! Then right before the attack, Igor says, If he's strong, help me kill him. To which Victor responds, Of course, of course! And finally, Victor exclaims in excitement, What the video we will capture, not just pictures! We will be like Eisenstein or Tarkovsky! Cinema! Cinema! We were just watching Tarkovsky, and it's funny just how serious just the production still is, like just the logo is so serious? They throw a lot of pipes in that. They do. Now, Sergei rides past. Igor swings the hammer, still in the yellow plastic bag, and knocks him off his bike. The boys, giddy as schoolgirls, run over to the injured man now on the ground, groaning. Then Igor hits him in the head with the hammer. Victor runs over with the phone camera in hand at Igor's urging as he says, Get the shot. Get the shot. Still laughing, they drag Sergei off the road and into the woods. They smack him with the camera again, and Sergei seems to be trying to yell or speak, but in addition to being bludgeoned in the face and head, his voice hadn't recovered from his recent throat surgery. Igor tells Victor as he struggles not to laugh. They then bring the camera closer to the struggling Sergei as they hold for silence for a full minute as his muted groans fill the speakers. They laugh in his face as he mutely cries out. Then Victor uses a screwdriver to remove Sergei's eyeballs. Until we see the pink brain matter that is exposed to the air. He stabs Sergei over and over again in the belly with the same screwdriver. Igor says, Vitya, we must take a picture with him as a memory. Vitya's a cute little nickname for Victor. He then says, This time was awesome. Yeah. I don't understand how he stayed alive. I had screwdriver like this and I stabbed. He demonstrates how he had held the weapon. I could feel his brain. Sergei survived for a full eight minutes. The camera moves inches away from Sergei, his face now a puddle of bone and blood. Igor taunts him one last time, asking, what a fucking day for you, huh? They finally washed the weapon in their hands with a bottle of water. Victor appears panicked at this point, urging Igor to leave immediately. Igor says no. They must get the picture first. This is where we last see them with Sergei, standing over his corpse, zighiling. Was the zighiling too much? I don't want to put the hat on. No, no, they do. I put the hat on into MSP. Oh, so we fix in post? Yeah. We fix in post. Technically, Rushard is more hammer, you know? It was on the old flag. I don't know. Look at my thing in a different shoe. So hold on. Was Sergei dead when they left him? Yes. Or was he just still like dying? He was completely dead by the time that they were done. So by the time the video's over, you like see him die. You see him die. You see him die on camera. Yeah, it is a full murder beginning to end. Yeah. And both of you have seen this. I've seen the... I remember first seeing it when it first came out, like 2008. And then I don't... Now I've only seen stills since. Yeah, I think I saw it in 2011. I remember watching it in the closet at the creek. Yeah. Or the second place we recorded. Yeah, the tiny little closet. I remember watching it. I mean, you're allergic, by the way. The room that you had panic attacks in. Yeah. I wonder why. The room I had panic attacks in. But that had more to do with just impending claustrophobia from spending 10 to 12 hours a day in a closet. Yeah. And with many other people in there, three, sometimes four other people in there at a time. Breathing so loud. Big fat. Breathing so hot. Yeah. So drunk. So fat. So high. So they filmed this. So we know we don't know if they filmed every murder, but we know that it only took two days after shooting the video for them to murder again. July 14th, they knocked 45 year old Natalia Marmachuk off her scooter, dragged her into the woods, beat her to death. But they were getting very cavalier with their crimes. The murders were now just being openly done all day. This particular murder had several witnesses. A bunch of street boys, as they were described, were hiding in a rickety fort of old construction pallets and saw the entire attack. Obviously, once they were done singing about moving to Santa Fe, they gave a description to police which matched the one young Vadim gave under duress at the police department. All right. So is it always hammers and screwdrivers? It is always hammers and screwdrivers. No tire irons? They don change it up at all Pipes Some sand pipes as well Yeah Damn That the other one Sandfield pipes is fucking scary Yeah it Russian It how they killed the kids that were going out fishing at three in the morning So they knocked off the bikes Yeah, they just knocked them off the bikes and then beat them. They really like the simplicity of it. And I think they like the brutality of it. And they like stuff they can get from the store. Something they don't have to ask somebody to get, which is why they didn't get a gun. It's exactly why I used to huff computer cleaners at a drinking. I was too young. See? I could buy the computer cleaners. Yeah, that's legal. That was legal. But you're walking on sunshine. I mean, I understand. I'm walking on sunshine. No, I mean, we're here. We're talking about this. Did they also use the back of the hammer? Yeah, that was in the... Originally, that was the problem was that they said it took too long for them to pull it out. You get stuck pretty easily. Yeah. Cool. So they're trying to make it go fast. See, by this point, the entire city of Dnipro is paralyzed. Streets are empty. Tourists left the industrial city center. Kids were being kept home from school. and still total silence from the police. The retorts? Yeah, right? Right? I don't know. We'll get to that later. We'll get to it later. The first mention of the hammer maniacs in Ukrainian news would be June 24th after the three of them were already arrested. This is where all the details begin to break down due to the sheer amount of murders. It seems the local media couldn't keep up and began to lump the murders together even as the each individual murder escalated in violence. From June 14th to the 16th, two people were found a day. Same MO, knocked off a bike, picked off a path, beaten, stabbed multiple times. The victims followed the same pattern, vulnerable, weaker people. This one, however, we're starting to see an edge up. One of the victims was eight months pregnant. When she was found, her face was unrecognizable as all the others. but at this very peak of their fucking total depravity, they removed the fetus from her belly and smashed that with hammers as well. Then to me, that's what they should be known for. Yes. Like, they should be like the fetus smashers. Like, that's not the hammer maniac. Well, they didn't film those. They didn't film them, but still. I mean, yeah, they should technically be the baby Tartar murderer. I think, yeah. Two more of those, they probably would have been. And I think that was the issue for them, really, was that they didn't want to be the baby Tartar murderer. It's crazy. It's like every time I think, like I've set my mind on there should be no death penalty, I learn about people like this. Hey, man. And that's the worst part, too, is that they're 19, right? They're fucking, they're evil. They're young. You're young and they're evil. Yeah. I actually looked up what the fetish smashers would be in Russian. It's actually kind of a cute little name. What does it mean? Oh, that is cute. That should be a cartoon. It's just like two little cute, like abortionists with pink hammers. from your grave. In mid-July, a funeral service was held for 13-year-old Andre, one of our younger victims from episode one. Young Vadim, the first to identify the pair to the police after days of beatings, was not ready to go to the funeral, so he stayed home. Luckily or unluckily for him, the Hammer Maniacs also attended. This would become another category in their photography portfolio. They attended the funeral, waited until the congregants left, and then took posed photographs with the casket. Afterwards, Igor would use MS Paint to add Hitler mustaches to Victor and his face. They attended several victims' funerals and always did a little photo shoot afterwards, giving the graves the middle finger and the traditional suck it X. Oh, like DX. Yeah. They didn't even have the common decency to nail the coffin shut. Right? You know what they're good for. Again, they don't build lasting legacies. After a truly horrendous run, leaving 21 people dead, Igor and Victor entered into a traditional cool-down phase. Probably. They noticeably stopped. Word had started to spread. Dnipro's only so big. How long could they hide if they stayed in town? Sure. By now, every police officer in Dnipro was on the case. Petro Ochvar, head of the investigative department of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Prosecutor's Office, even admitted their investigation had massive problems. Obviously. Yes. Many of the original attacks and robberies were never even reported to higher-ups. They were considered one-and-done crimes. They didn't do anything about it, but at least they admitted it. And there were several like disciplinary hearings. Yeah. My bad. They were like, oh! they probably have never fucking worked before these cops in a small ass town like this well it's it is again it's all about that this is the middle period in which everything that was russian about ukraine is still trying to become ukrainian and it is very difficult for them to get rid of the old world police attitudes yeah and all of these ideas that they just were they kind of were expected to run the place on their own and they had descriptions of them yes but You would have to first take the children witnesses seriously, which is, again, they were not wanted to do. I mean, it's not that small. It's the fourth largest city in Ukraine. I guess it is pretty fucking. I told you I know nothing about Ukraine. Yeah, it could be. I mean, like, you know. I mean, it's not that. I mean, it's around, according to Wikipedia, the 2022 estimate was a little under a million people. Wow. Yeah, wow. That's a huge city. You know what I'm wrong. It's the size of, like, Austin. Yeah. Or maybe, yeah, about the size of Austin. But it doesn't matter because the heat was starting to turn up. Igor and Victor would regularly pawn the goods they stole. This would be no different. See, the key was to rob people with brick phones. Nothing too new. They decided against their better judgment and tried to sell a newer one for $20 USD. Once activated, the SIM pinged the phone company. The police located a device. The pair were arrested as they walked out the door. Done. Wow. It was immediately they went to go. One cell phone. literally by the time they left they were arrested they then went to Alexander Hans' house and arrested him there almost simultaneously. And Alexander was the kid that wasn't a part of the murders. He had just robbed a couple of people and decided I'm out. And he was also the poorer one too. Yes, and he was included in the shots, like in the mug shots of the maniacs. And he probably knew they were doing it. Well there were other, yes, there's been other factors probably to the arrest but we're not quite certain. The cashier could have probably recognized them from wanted posters and have called the police discreetly. That is possible. We don't know, though. It is possible. This is what they're saying. This is one of those more interesting nebulous things is that they were ratted out by an acquaintance that was scouted by them to be a potential new third maniac like Shep. Wow. They were going to have another guy in there. Wow. And there was a guy that they might have been courting that then went and told the police. Okay. So you're saying that Igor and Victor, that's Larry and Moe, and Alexander is like curly. He was. Yeah. And then he left. He left. And then they tried getting a Shep, and then Shep told. Shep, boy, Shep, you like hammer. You hate face. Honestly, mostly what I do, I like a paintbrush. I like to make a pretty painting of a flower. That will not work with us. I make a pretty painting. I make a pretty painting. You know, they say there's a million ways to skin a cat. These guys know. I thought it was a thousand. Well, they invented like another bunch of them. I thought it was a hundred. Well, yeah, it depends. Igor and Viktor would be arrested on July 23rd and the Denipropetrovsk Hammer Maniac murder spree would come to an end. Investigators dispatched their homes to search for evidence. Igor and Viktor's parents were not exactly cooperative with authorities. Viktor's parents kept the police outside the home for 40 minutes as sounds of septic pipes flushing could be heard in the neighbor's living room. The next day, plumbers took apart the pipes inside the complex to find a watch and three cell phones belonging to victims of the Hammer Maniacs. Who is it? I can't hear you! I don't know! Oh, God, I'm not dressed! I'm not proper! Make a flush! Make a flush! Oh, no, now I have to take feces, Dom! I have much bors for lunch today! Listen, I cannot argue I also had the borscht for lunch and currently I am fighting much diarrhea. Fighting and fighting diarrhea with all of the strength of hush inside of my life. If you grill Ukrainian, fight diarrhea and win! If Ukrainian toilets weren't so clogged, they would have never found this evidence. Right? Right? So, these two cross-eyed trolls, they were awful at being elite soldiers of the Aryan race. laughable considering the nazis killed hundreds of thousands of their countrymen i mean to be fair they helped for freelance maniacs they did good like 21 is pretty good it's a pretty high number but you know but we learned remember from the fox catcher series like if you have the support of the state you can accomplish anything honestly that's why we need those art programs back so according to detectives while searching for clues in igor's and victor's rooms It looked as if no attempt was made at all for covering for their many crimes. In both Igor and Victor's closets, every single item had bloodstains. Every shirt, every jacket, every pair of sneakers was splashed with fat drops of crusty red and brown sluice. Mostly brown. Blood dries brown. Brown. Also among the maniac's personal belongings, they found a bloody earring ripped from the lobe of one of the victims and several computer hard drives containing their self-made memorabilia. Igor collected newspaper clippings about the killings in a scrapbook. Think about a 19-year-old keeping a scrapbook. He followed his own story obsessively. Several murders would only get linked to the pair because Igor saved the specific article about a random dead body. Otherwise, police would have no idea. In the report, detectives noted Igor's dog-eared copy of Mein Kampf at the side of the bed. Dog-eared, so he saved certain passages to read again. Yeah, it's been like, oh, yeah, this is a good one. My struggle. It must have fucking reeked in there. Oh, yeah, yeah, full calm. Well, that's the question that I have, is that, you know, they say that Victor's parents wouldn't let them in. Yeah. Because, you know, they were flushing evidence. So did their parents just know that they were killing people? and they just sort of said, you know, we'll deal with it later. They had opened animal skeletons in the house, right? Her parents, the way they, the parents seem to really view that they are doing the harmless boy thing of mutilating many, many animals. Sure. That is what they're saying is that it's, this is how could this be a crime? They are just boys. Yes, they have systematically like tortured these animals, but they are, they viewed them as like, oh you know it's this country boy do country thing like and so they were begging off entirely uh saying that there's no way that they ever could have done it's also like they were busy they were they both were professionals both of them both of their parents worked they were not around they also were just they just kind of by that point they were in 19 yeah but even so it seems like there's like richard chase's apartment is like inside somebody's home yes and how are you going to miss that it's because they were uh they didn't want it to be true yeah also um as someone with the ukrainian mother she would have done anything to keep me out of jail no matter what my crimes were you're funny enough it's true because that it will come up that's going to come up they refuse to believe that they were guilty once at the police station igor and victor quickly confessed to at least 19 killings victor tried to soften his involvement staying you're Stating he only did it for the money. Igor, on the other hand, he enjoyed his newfound spotlight. When asked by detectives how he felt after murdering almost two dozen innocent people, he responded, What do you feel when you cut a sausage? Excitement. Oh, do you feel good? Yeah, I feel credible. I feel good, too. I like cutting sausage. I cut sausage all day. Oh, well, I think you mean something else. I cut sausages. Oh, man, when they're on the grill and they get all fat and you cut it and the juice squirts out. Yes, I love a toddler. Yeah, I love a toddler. Now I can see you're Ukrainian. When I see the joy in your eye when you talk about sausage juice. That's so good. We're going to Minneapolis only trying to get sausages. Igor was quite excited about the details, explaining step by step the murder of Sergei Yatsenko. When asked by interrogators why did he film this, he simply stated, To remember. In their first initial hearing, the boys jeered at the live human audience. they were held in a cage in court like a traveling oddity but we know that's how they do it in eastern europe they did it with andre cicatillo it's kind of fun yeah i want that i want it yeah the cage in the courtroom it's pretty great alexander was the only one visibly beaten by police even though he was the only one of them to not murder a human being we know why they didn't like beat them for fun even no no because they were very connected yeah that's crazy to me so alexander got all of The anger. All of it. They beat the living shit out of him. Because they were beating a confession out of him that he didn't, and he actually, he held strong in a weird way. He gave up the other two. They were given a psych evaluation, and they were proven as fit to stand trial. That didn't stop Igor's lawyer from mounting an insanity plea defense for his client. Victor's lawyer would also follow suit, stating Igor got pleasure from the murders and admitted to the investigators that if the police had not taken him away, he would have continued to commit atrocities. Igor forced Victor to film videos. Victor was afraid of becoming a victim of the Hammer Maniac himself. That's always the fucking defense when there's two people. One person, like, it's the same thing with fucking... Ken and Barbie killers? Ken and Barbie killers. Yeah, all I could think of was Ken and Barbie killers. But yeah, it's... Yeah, that's always. In the pre-trial hearings... But we're scared. I've got to be scared of a guy in bars and snush. In the pre-trial hearings, the boys acted like conquering heroes. They were proud of their exploits. Igor explained it all for detectives. By killing first cats and dogs, and then people, we overcome our fear of death. Apparently, they don't even do enough towards their own homicidal goals. Igor lamented detectives that only if they had a gun, they could kill for real. And beat Chikatilo's record. Igor and Victor, I'm sorry to do this. I don't want to get too... Who's Chikatilo? Ah. Andre Chikatilo. The Red Ripper. The most infamous zero killer in Russian history. Yeah, that's... You didn read the book that we wrote This whole chapter on it No You fucking illiterate piece of shit I read the one chapter that you told me I had to read for the thing that we did No, Andre Ticotillo is a truly one of the worst of the worst. Yeah. One of the worst of the worst. Killed children. He couldn't come unless they were screaming and dying. Yeah. So he became, once he realized that he just would murder to come, and then one of the worst things he did was he cut that little girl open and he chewed on her uterus. He said it was like chewing gum. Yeah, he liked it. He really liked... You don't like that? He really liked eating people, just chewing on the body parts of his victims. Killed somewhere around, I think it was 52, 53 that we know of. Yeah, he was the worst. Oh, God. His name sounds like a menu item coming back to Taco Bell. The Andre Chikatilo. now available after midnight at Taco Bell. Bong. Ding. Oh, now with beats? Igor and Victor, they had created a fake mythology out of old racist ideas played out on the internet like a game of telephone. They must have researched the Icelandic parts of the Himmler Silmarillion. Why are you bringing Iceland into this? We got to because, remember, Himmler stole the Iceland's past in order to rebuild the white people who were from the mountains and created everything. is the poetic edda yes ccc beautiful beautiful piece of literature it is that was fucking corrupted by the nazis right the shitheads said they were building an army for heaven the more people you killed the more souls would be bound to you in the afterlife all of this to say they were teenage morons making up shit to sound cool yeah once the trial began however the tune changed igor and victor begged off they claimed their confessions were tortured out of them even even though Alexander was the only one showing any signs of physical violence. Their parents, with access to good lawyers, attempted to prove that all the videos were faked, that it was a Russian disinfo scheme. Igor's father went as far to harass witnesses to not testify. Victor's parents will claim until this day that the videos were a Byzantine machination of Russian and U.S. special ops using CGI that hadn't been invented yet. Lock them up, too. Hey, man, who cares? The prosecution's evidence was much stronger. They had many eyewitnesses, all of the trophies they found in Igor and Victor's home belonging victims and lots of DNA evidence. But obviously, the most damning was the video footage. The evidence that the prosecution had was so overwhelming that it's not even worth mentioning. It's just one of those where I just wanted to say, like, they put up like a defense and then it's like and then it was like, here's all the stuff that you did. You know, like, here's what you did. Prosecutors showed several film crimes in court. the director's cut of three guys one hammer the kitten crucifixion video and another attack with a survivor her name was lydia marishin cava she got to watch herself get her own teeth kicked in several times while attending court that day there were at least four other videos shown whoever leaked three guys one hammer must have had access to court records we're going to get to it it didn't hit the internet until 2008 way a year after they were convicted or months after they were convicted. The maniac's defense fell short. The judge in the case responded, do you think the blind are judging you? We have already seen enough of you from the front and the back and the profile. It took two days to read the 150-page long verdict. Alexander Hansa would get nine years for his participation in the armed robberies, but nothing for the murders. Surprisingly fair for an Eastern European court. They literally, this was a good move and most everyone believed in this. They were all happy about the fact that he only got nine years, even though he was a part of it. From what I understand, I could be wrong. It seemed like Alexander also agreed with it. Yes, he was like, because he felt really bad. He was a part of the case against the other two. Yeah. That's how it worked. And then Igor and Victor didn't get the book thrown at them as they should have. They were declared guilty on all counts and were sentenced to life in prison, where they are still today. Unfortunately, their reputation would outgrow their input into this life. They became internet famous after the court footage was leaked and went viral. Millions of views on hundreds of websites featured three guys, one hammer. Black-pilled urchins from Dnipro would brag about the proximity and access to the maniacs like an incel badge of honor. In 2011, Russian teenagers Artyom Onufrev and Nikita Litkin would be directly inspired to murder strangers with hammers themselves. The press would dub them the Academy Maniacs, and the murders happened in Irkutsk, a Russian city this time. Very similar run-up. Two shithead kids get wrapped up in neo-Nazi ideology. The Academy Maniacs went as far to actually join a legit white power organization with the clever name, get this, White Power. Whoa! Hide in plain sight. That's the idea. It's called White Power. What is this about? White Power. Chicken sign. They were obsessed with becoming like their favorite serial killers. First, it was the chessboard killer, Alexander Pushnikina. A Russian serial killer, we have to do a whole thing on him. He's very famous. There have been many Russian serial killers that I discovered when we were writing the book about Audrey Chicken Killer. I love that you're surprised I didn't read a book. You've known me for almost 20 years. I've read less books than those years. the two idiots would form a fan club called putschiskina for president when three guys one hammer hit the internet they saw how they could enter the history books like their idol andre chikatilo they beat a 12 year old boy riding by on a hiking trail to death with mallets no homicide investigation was necessary since police determined it was a snow scooter accident The failure on behalf of the police made the little fuckers feel invincible. They mimicked the Hammer Maniacs' attacks for several more weeks before they were caught. In total, six people would be murdered, nine injured. They formed a band called the Evil Dwarves. Did you listen to it? I did not listen to the Evil Dwarves, but I'm well familiar with their biggest influence, Anal Cunt. Yes, and Anal Cunt seems to be... I looked up Anal Cunt, and there seemed to be nice men. Right? Is Anal Cunt bad? Well, Anal Cunt was a joke. well it started off as a joke they wanted to do they wanted to have the most offensive band name ever that's not it it's gotta be worse than that and also G.G. Allen ripped off Anal Cunt because a lot of people say oh you know it's based on a G.G. Allen song no G.G. Allen ripped off Anal Cunt and to be fair the first two Anal Cunt records they're called Everyone Should Be Killed and I Like It When You Die but it's obvious it's a joke it's ironic Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse listen to some of the song titles from Everyone Should Be Killed. Yeah, you're gay, technology's gay. Well, that's a different album. But the first, that's the second album. The second album's always the worst. Yeah, because the second album, they decided they were from New Jersey, and it's like they wanted to do things like, it's gay, everything's gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay. But the first album's like, you got some songs, some more songs, even more songs. Song titles are fucking stupid. Having to make up song titles sucks. And of course, a cover of EMF's Unbelievable amongst 52 other tracks on the album. Every Anal Cunt song is less than a minute long. Most of them are like 30 to 40 seconds. It's crying chords. It's really fast. It's supposed to be funny. I would also say straight up, their band is bad. No, Anal Cunt is awful. No, Evil Dwarves is bad. Anal Cunt has some charm to it. Yeah, Anal Cunt has a lot of charm, but controversial to say the least. No, I like just the Dwarves. Yeah, the Dwarves are great. Dwarves are fantastic. Dwarves are great. The maniac's legacy would be brought up again in the crimes of Luca Magnata, the proto-looks-maxer from Canada who purposely broadcast his crimes to Gorsites. His video, One Lunatic, One Ice Pick, depicted the dismemberment of a young man, a student named Lin Juan. The most infamous fallout from this case, however, would have to be, in my opinion, the use of the maniacs' crimes to inspire an invasion of another country. Vladimir Putin has developed an intense hard-on to occupy Ukraine. From what I can glean, Putin wants to be an emperor. And one can't be that without an empire. Russia wants Ukraine's location and its resources. We learned that from risk. But some countries' evil dictators will at least take the time to lie about a reason why. And to that, we can thank Vladimir Putin. in putin's february 2022 speech declaring his intention to denazify ukraine with an invasion he was referring almost directly to the hammer maniacs stills from three guys one hammer would be used as examples of young nazis filling the streets of ukraine this is a spin on the actual history ukraine did have its own nationalist fascist party during ww2 the oun organization of Ukrainian nationalists. Yeah, almost every Eastern European country had Nazi collaborators and anti-Semites. Not almost every single one. Every one. Every single country that the Nazis occupied, there were collaborators in that country and people that were like, yeah, bring them in, kill all the Jews. And then what they also did was then think they could still hold their own, right? Like the OUN would help the Nazis come to violence against the Ukrainian people. They'd help during Operation Barbarossa, but they had this idea in their head that then we'll form our own OUN nationalist Ukraine, and the Nazis will love us, and then we'll all get to hang out with Germany and Italy and a whole pure utopia made out of total hate. And did it happen like that? Absolutely not. Nazis fucking backtracked. They completely backstabbed them. They eventually arrested all of the OUN. They put them in concentration camps, and the idiots left over from the OUN would still be around to do the thankless dirty work for the Germans during the occupation. Yeah. Now, the Ukrainians, the one thing I do know about the Ukrainian government is they were incredibly corrupt and incredibly violent up until Zelensky. So what happened? So this is the truth is that they were corrupt. But this is it was all systemic and it was sort of like a hangover from the Russian occupation. It was more like a confusion and a malaise and a giant parliamentary system that was really like and made things really fucking complicated and slow. Yeah. And the economy was in the shitter. There was a lot of problems. But the truth is fascism isn't that chill of an idea. No. And across the board. And honestly, for the most part, people don't really even like it in practice. Nazism really only took place amongst the people in Western Ukraine. Fascist policies were deeply unpopular in the majority of the country. About 20 percent of the population stood with the O.U.N. and the Nazis. So it's like there's a whole thing here in modern propaganda. The Dnipro Hammer Maniacs would be featured in television commercials and magazine articles as examples as the rise of the neo-Nazi. And rumors were spread that Igor and Viktor were released to join the Ukrainian armed forces and have since escaped and were murdering freely in the chaos of war. And that, again, is a that is a spin on reality. Ukraine has released many prisoners like, yeah, if you want to get out and fight for us, you can. But it's for like nonviolent offenses. specifically for people that have only killed you can kill one person you can have killed one person and they will let you go but that is it it's all it's more than two no sexual crimes it's anything it's like it's non-violent crimes mostly except for the one yeah the one murder rule they need people yeah yeah i don't blame them for that i don't think the maniacs would qualify either way we're just saying that it's very complicated right so and they try to propaganda was trying to simplify it because russia has its own problems with neo-nazis hate groups like mad world the blood magic gang and the cleaners committed crimes across the country now and i know those those guys they aren't playing fucking bumbershoot they are the names of russian far-right extremist militia gangs who've also killed dozens of helpless people and the name of adolf hitler and his tiny mustache it's an extremely complex issue there are decades of nuance, but I will, I'm just going to say my opinion here as the narrator is I will declaratively state that I don't trust Vladimir Putin. I don't. Maybe it's just because I've been hurt by shirtless Russian daddies before. Yeah, I think you have. How would you, what would be your first move in defeating Putin and risk? Oh, honestly, first of all is to fucking get him in the room with me playing risk. That's the first move. Slowly poisoning. Yeah, because you don't know, Vladimir Putin actually speaks perfect English. she just chooses not to. No, Vladimir Putin would be very good at risk. I bet you he's super good at risk. He brings his own dice. And as for the rumors, and this is a big thing, and as for the rumors, that the Dnipro Hammer murders were content farming for international snuff markets. The evidence is thin. The only videos to surface from their collection came from a leak within the court system. Only three guys, one hammer is confirmed to be legit on the internet. The rest, we've only heard the description. Take this just like it sounds, but a source that was friends with Igor stated that he said, Igor said, when we hit 40 kills, then we get rich, implying that they were vendors making an order. But there is no significant evidence of a Ukrainian mafia snuff film ring connected to this case, full stop. None. As awesome as that may be, ironically. How is that ironically awesome? It's cool to think that there's something like that because that's just a fun idea. It's a fun. From like an evil Satanist perspective. Yeah, yeah, yeah. From my perspective, it's fun. Even though I would say the general concept of an international snuff film market seems a more realistic possibility each passing day. Snuff question. All right. Do snuff films have to have rape in them? No, that's if you pay the extra premium. See, personally, Three Guys, One Hammer is a snuff film. If it was paid for. A snuff film is only, is done to order. Okay. Yeah, snuff film is a produced project. It has been asked for. It's been paid for. So you can't make it and then sell it. That's not a snuff. Yes, you can. That would be snuff. Yeah, if you make it and then say it would be like if you made a movie or made a TV show and then sold it to a distributor, then it becomes snuff. Until then, it's just private. Yeah, that's the problem, man. It's like painting alone in your house. See, this is my personal opinion. I think that snuff films could potentially exist in very small batches in even smaller circles. The only reason why is I could apply the same rules that CSAM has right Private encrypted groups It WhatsApp chats right It like just literally texting people on the phone Tell it was a telegraph Telegram Telegram. I love my telegram. He loves it. Oh God, he loves it. Every time. You go ahead. You talk. There's all these lists dedicated to extreme tastes and pornography all the way across the legal spectrum from like not a crime, but don't dog sit for me style. Like I love eating shit and watching people eat shit. You can get that. That's legal. you can get it. That's fine. But you might have to go find it, right? But on those same places where you find that stuff, you're probably going to find the fully illegal, it's not a Serbian film, triple X. Right? Like, you're going to find the real thing. Maybe. Maybe. But I think that in my opinion, you could, in my opinion, you could apply the same rules to snuff, but just shrink it, shrink it, shrink it, shrink it, shrink it. The lists are extremely short. But there's another theory that Rachel, our researcher, fucking dug up. She saved my butt. Rachel saved my butt this fucking series. But I do want to say about snuff films like i i truly do think that if there was a market for snuff film like if there was an actual market people producing them we would have found out about it by now it would be but we would know about it like they there's no way that they can operate under such intense extreme secrecy where we wouldn't know because that's the thing about all the epstein stuff it's like we knew about all of it in rumor for years yeah uh yeah it even floated and floated and floated for so long. Yeah, and something like this, it's people cannot keep their fucking mouths shut. They just said that is the human condition. Human beings cannot keep their mouths shut about things. They cannot keep secrets. And if snuff films existed, we would know about them because somebody would say, I have a snuff film. Yeah, if there was a market for snuff films. Yeah, if there was a market. Of course, people, of course, there have been plenty of people that have filmed murders on camera, of course. And I'm sure that those have been sold at some point to other people, but I don't think that there is an underground market where people are producing snuff films. But there's an interesting thing Rachel brought up that we were talking back and forth. So we got a little bit into exactly where was Three Guys, One Hammer first put up. Yeah. That was like hard to figure out. So Rachel Burke, kind of, there's a theory that might connect some dots of all of this. The biggest gore site to host Three Guys, One Hammer was Ogrish.com. She pointed out, like as Rachel said, if you look at it, It's the only one of all of these gore sites that had a submit context rule. So you literally had to say what it was, where it came from, so it was technically kind of legit. And this was back in the day. It wasn't like YouTube. It was bulletin boards. So this is really about the conversation. This is about putting things up and watching, and people would, like, talk about it. Just so you know, there was a time back in the day before YouTube, for those of you that are younger, all right? Because remember, you should know that right now you have big pants on. You're going to get skinny again. And then those skinny pants are going to get big again And they're going to go back to skinny And they're going to go back to big It doesn't matter Keep the old style pants Because they're going to come back Okay Alright but there was also a thing like bulletin boards Where the internet was more about talking to people And not about likes Stuff like this Ogres.com But what if Gore sites came of age Which they did when millennials came of age Because most of it was fueled by the war on terror This is a very good point. This comes from Rachel. The basic argument is that footage of beheadings, war crimes, and other forms of extreme violence was being repackaged as amateur war porn. This was a huge benefit to gore sites because, like amateur pornography, it gave them a steady stream of material that they could regurgitate and recirculate without dealing with copyright costs, invading all of the other legal issues, as with dealing with actual snuff paid-for content. so essentially it's a lot of like why pay for it when there's so much of it for free it's all out there it's already being filmed many of these hostage and execution videos were much longer just like the dnipro one from then their original forms a lot of them when we see stuff like people dying on gore like gore.com and these other things what we actually don't know is that a context has been stripped from them so a lot of them are way longer from the violence they take the violence out and they show it but you don't see all the other stuff like minutes of political speeches confessions all this kind of stuff to show you that these were filmed by people in war yeah doing this as a like hostage situation man one that stuck with me that i saw was like there was a guy who was like being drawn quartered by pickup trucks yeah and like they dread and then finally like his arm got ripped off and then they were dragging his ass and then fucking his shoulder fell out of his body like while he was like and then like of course like the thing i saw like paused and showed the shoulder fall out of his body and then they stopped the truck and then just shot him a bunch legitimately why pay for it yeah when you can when there's just so much of it and this ogre would eventually turn into live lake which is why it was the the most legit one because it stayed around there and those of you don't remember live leak that was a gore site that essentially had a news skin put on it yeah and then it became legit but god i love live lake Why did they get rid of it? Because it was bad. Yeah, it was a bad thing. I know it was bad. I used to watch it, too. What happened is all of these websites also then got shot. They basically rose up during a war of terror, then got shut down when all these guys started seeing military videos being shown and private military videos like the Abu Ghraib stuff, all the stuff getting coming out. So then the government sort of cracked down on the Gore websites, saying that they were a threat to national security. So maybe we could see because now Gore sites are basically gone. Yeah. There's still motherless. There's still a couple of other things. And one more interesting detail in relation to the Hammer video, the author's claim of this. We got all this from his dissertation that this guy wrote. Ogress relied heavily on a global network of about 50 key contributors working in fields like law enforcement and medicine. this makes it pretty likely according to Rachel which I think is interesting that one of the cops or gotten someone else that was in the actual a member of the court uploaded those files or more than likely sold them I mean we see that shit I mean a cop took a picture of Kobe's body and fucking sold it yeah with Chris Farley I saw that with Chris Farley oh no it's very often let's just say coroners are not always the most moral humans. Not always. Not always. It's not about it. It's just easy to do. They're like, yeah, I'll take a picture of a body. We know I fucking care. I see them all day. And the other big question I have is, if you're going to, let's say all it's true. Let's say all the stuff market is true and you've got all of these factors and all this kind of shit. You're going to hire these 19-year-old fucking idiots that can't hold on to a goddamn job when you have a whole world of four-pay mercenaries. There's all of this, like, inter- country, former soldiers of some, like there's so many guys looking for work. There's no way Victor wouldn't have ratted on it. Right? There's no way Victor wouldn't have spilled the beans. If they knew assassins, it wouldn't be the first thing out of their fucking mouths. Yeah. It really would be. And there's also, but on the other hand, what if it's like amateur porn? What if they really do enjoy, like let's take a couple of kids and let's do what we will with them and see what they do. That's what I was saying. What if they were an indie production company that was looking for a big distributor? It's not called Hammer's Gone Wild. That'd be cool, though. But I don't think that's the case. I do 100. I mean, I'm just playing devil's advocate. Of course. I 100% think that they're just doing it all on their own. Yeah, same thing. Because you're right. They would have fucking flipped immediately. All day. Yeah. Or they would have just been killed in prison. Exactly. Because right now, they're still alive. They're sitting in there. God, crazy that no one's killed them in prison. It's hard. I mean, I'm sure they're in a fucking, just a tiny box. Oh, yeah. And they're not allowed interactions with other prisoners. No. I'll sum up this series by asking, Yo, why can't we give peace a chance? Why use a hammer to crush your person? We use a screwdriver to pop eyeballs like fat-filled gushers. Use a hammer to build a house for an old lady. Use a screwdriver to calm down your podcast host. Hey, motherfucker. Wait, what? It's vodka drink. Oh. Oh, I thought you meant that. Like, stab me while I'm talking. No, it's a vodka drink. I thought turn it around and stick the handle up his ass. No, no, no. I would have said, fuck me, you're my butt with it. No, I'm talking about the drink. By the way, back of the hammer probably would have been way better to pop out the eyeballs. Really good. I wish you were there. See, unfortunately. No, it would be too. See, that's the thing. It would be too awkward to get it in there. You get a lot of cheekbones. The screwdriver is, I think, a better fulcrum. Thank you, Marcus. You know, guys, unfortunately, I'm going to say I don't think there's an easy lesson here. Sometimes, because, you know, come down to if we're going to do this wrap up, you guys would have tried to get inspired. I'm sorry. Because sometimes bad things happen to people not asking for it. It's easy to do violence, especially to weak, unarmed citizens not prepared for a fight. The Hammer Maniacs are just another example of the effective strategy of kill all, loot all. we've seen since man organized his violence. These fuckers, you gotta remember, they don't build lasting things, though. They don't. The Hammer Maniac's legacies, they may be long and they may be dark, but it did not kill the heart of Dnipro. I don't care what you say, you can still go river eel trapping in the Dnipro anytime you want. That's so nice. It's flush with eels. And you have to see. And honestly, and I would even beg you to see in the majesty of the monument to the students and staff of the Medical Institute who died during the Great Patriotic War in person. Yeah. Because that's got to be fun. Yeah. Well, the Great Patriotic War, by the way, that's what the Russians called World War II. Yeah. Yeah. It's a, that's a weird monument to have. It's just that one. The students and staff of the Medical Institute who died. Yep. I love the monument. I guarantee you we're going to get an email about how this is a very important monument in Ukraine. Teach me. Okay. Big Agil got it. I'll fucking read a plaque, dude. I'll read any plaque in the goddamn world. It's his favorite thing to read. I'll be at an airport. I'll just be like, plaque? Yeah. That's what I'm fucking learning about. You just occupied my hour. I'll catch the next block, man. There's a plaque here. So actually, so I think no matter what anybody says, Dina Propitrovsk is doing great. Except actually, I just got this note from our researcher, Rachel. Dnipro has actually become a frequent target in Russia's war against Ukraine. On January 14, 2023, a Russian missile strike destroyed a nine-story apartment building, killing five people and injuring at least 60, including 12 children. As recently as January 22nd, 2026, another missile strike damage a residential building injuring at least 11 people, four of them children. But hey, no hammers. That's right. Way to go, Vladimir Putin. He's climbing up. He might surpass them one of these days. You know, Vladimir is, he's sick. Yeah. Yeah. He's sick. They've been saying that for years, though. I wonder if it's cold. In Moscow? Yeah. Yeah. Do you think he ever... He must be lonely. No one can sit only... He can't sit with him with, like, 20 feet at him. He doesn't have a wife. Wow, he doesn't have a wife. He has a girlfriend, right? Maybe. He has someone who, like, sits next to him so people don't call him gay. Did you ever see... Is that what I'm doing? No, no, no. When they say I go out to ride bear, I mean actual bear. Everyone always. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I have actual bear. This guy, he bucks. He bucks like a true traditional cartman. I love to come inside if he's tasty. One thing I know is if you want to buy a legit American hammer, try Nestwig. Made in Rockford, Illinois. Wow, wow. Thank you, Eddie. Our locomore hammers. I also like when you type in three guys one hammer There's like at least One article That's about home improvement It's so funny to have it immediately be It says three guys one hammer And you're like what the A couple of buddies And what a couple of tools can do On a weekend You don't need three guys when you got Bob Vila Bob Vila he himself is ten men But thank you for allowing me to do this Fantastic job Henry This was really a lot of fun To be over here in this side And you really have an easy week Sometimes Sometimes I'm rock hard But I have also been able to use this time To get caught up on No Dogs in Space New episodes coming in April New season starting in April Fuck yeah Hey it's time for Punk 2.0 We just figured out the full season yesterday And it's going to be fucking insane Hell yeah I love it. It's so exciting. I can't wait. I love to fucking hear it. Go to patreon.com slash last podcast. And on the left to get ad free episodes. You can also pay to see our last stream on the left live every Tuesday, 5 p.m. PSD. That's right. We're going to be on the road April 25th. We're going to be in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Taft Theater. May 29th, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Carnegie. You know that already. Yeah, I pushed it. June 27th, Grand Rapids, Michigan, the GLC live. and on a full weekend in Oklahoma. July 17th, Tulsa at the Canes Ballroom and July 18th, Oklahoma City at the Tower Theater. And then in two weeks, if you're in LA, I'm going to be at the Lyric Hyperion with Amber Nelson on April 3rd and with Ashley Brooke Roberts. It's going to be a lot of fun. Good Friday. Spend it with us. The day they killed Jesus, come see some comedy. It was the only good thing they did on that Friday. That's right. Oh, they loved it. Kill them again. Go on YouTube Check out someplace underneath LPN Romanticity The Foreign Report No Dogs in Space It's coming back out for a brand new season And LPN TV you're gonna see the new season Of Vampire Masquerade At some point And HGX2 I saw the first cut of the first episode Fucking good It's funny It's gonna be good So you go out there And I hope you have a child He go out there and he find his own peace John Concage you? You know what you're inside tonight Oh is this Hermler's back? Yeah oh John There ain't no reason for it Always hammering Never just sitting down Instead of doing the tip of the tap on the head Why don't you do it on a drum? Alright let's get out of here