• Murder
• Torture
• Sexual assault
• Abuse
• Child abuse/pedophilia
• Animal cruelty/animal death

Shoutout:

Shoutout to Ysabelle (i-zah-bell) and her mom for tipping us off to Slivko. The last time we ran a poll on IG, Ysabelle’s mom, Celina, and I ended up chatting about Serial Killers, and she mentioned him. We would probably have never heard of him if it wasn’t for y’all, and we really appreciate the tip!

Now, if you have any weird or obscure monsters, cryptids, alien abduction stories, or hauntings you would like to see covered, hit us up on Instagram or Facebook @Black_Cat_Report, Twitter @Black_Cat_Pod, or send us an email to contact@blackcat.report. One of us is pretty much always online, and we love talking to ya!

Corrections / Backtrack

When we last left off, Slivko had accidentally murdered his first victim in 1964, started a youth club called Club Romantic in 1966, went on to get married in 1967, and somehow managed to have his 1st son, Igor, in 1971.

Well, In between those dates, in 1968, the part of the building hosting Club Romantic burned down after someone left a stove on overnight (most likely after cooking a hot pocket…)

Later that same year, after recognizing how popular Club Romantic was getting, The City Committee gave the Club a brand new location at the Palace of Chemists right in the heart of the city. This was hands down, the most important cultural center in the city. And with the fancy new location came a fancy new name! Club CherGid, which means “Through the Rivers, Mountains, and Valleys.”

Continuing On With The Story

CherGid

Now, continuing on with the story, 

Over almost 2 decades, the new Club, CherGid, will become a staple of youth social life in the community thanks to the tireless efforts and dedication of its founder, Anatoly Slivko, who the young kids now loving called Uncle Tolya (TOL-Ya).

From membership in the low hundreds before the move in 68 to eventually having over 2,000 at its height, by 1971, CherGid was well on its way to becoming a cultural force. But with such a massive rise in popularity, Slivko needed to begin introducing new systems of organization. 

You see, he wasn’t just taking a handful of kids into the nearby forest for a camping trip anymore; he was now leading entire troops on multi-day expeditions across the region.

Points System

Older children were taking charge of planning and organizing trips for the younger members, with diaries and reporting systems for leaders being put in place. 

And a new “Points” system was created to help enforce and encourage good behavior.

These points would be given to troop members if they messed up but could be removed if they showed good comradery with other members or by volunteering for specific tasks.

His Character & Appearance

Slivko’s dedication to the Club was beyond question. He completely ignored his wife and his newborn son and spent all of his free time planning and running CherGid. He didn’t have a social life and never smoked or drank alcohol, stating later. Quote, “I worked with children, I felt responsible, this is a matter of my morality, a matter of principle. I could not appear in front of children with the smell of alcohol … I did not communicate with anyone, I did not know neighbors on the site, I did not strive for anything, I did not envy anyone.”

The thing is, Slivko was absolutely incredible with kids. Even now, in light of what becomes known about him, this point comes up over and over again.

In 2016, after being asked if at any point people noticed something weird or off-putting about Slivko, former club member Tatyana Khozhan replied, “we did not notice anything bad – Slivko was perfect for all of us. An even calm voice, no mockery, not offensive to those who made a mistake in something, unobtrusive support for those who needed it – all these pluses would overshadow the obvious minuses….”

In another reply, and to answer Betsabe’s question from Slivko Pt 1. Someone asked if Tatyana thought Slivko was very handsome?.

Her response QUOTE: “No, Slivko did not impress the girls, because he was short, restrained, with pursed lips, but his eyes were most striking – blue and cold. We – then teenage girls said that if it were not for his looks, then all the girls would fall in love with him. And so he was infinitely respected and unquestioningly obeyed.” End Quote

And so Slivko, while known at first as an awkward loner who hangs out with kids in his free time, the classic stereotype of a creep, with the rising fame of CherGid will transform into a confident, untouchable celebrity who was quickly gaining social and political influence.

Yet this did nothing to slow down his darker desires.

2nd Victim

2nd Alexander Nesmeyanov (AKA Sasha or Aleksandar)

• November 14, 1973

Slivko’s 2nd victim would be a 15-year-old boy named Alexander Nesmeyanov., AKA: Sasha

A member of Club CherGiD, Alexander had recently been in trouble at school for growing his hair out. 

You see after his teacher noticed how long it was getting, she approached Alexander’s mom, Anna, demanding he gets it cut. That night she passed the message along to Alexander, and while at first, he tried to keep it secret, he eventually broke down and told her he was growing it out for a film he was going to be in soon and begged her not to tell anyone. 

Breaking his trust, she told the teacher anyways.

Not long after, his teacher made a point to mock Alexander in front of the whole class, saying things like quote, “look what kind of artist we found.” 

In an interview she gave in 2013, Sasha’s sister recalled, “Sasha always met me when I got home from work. When I came home, he was always always there, waiting in the yard with the key, or left it for me. I didn’t have a key, and he always worried about it. On November 14, I came home, and he was not in the yard.” “I waited for him all evening, but Sasha never came home” – Video Transcript

Knowing how much he loved CherGiD, Alexander’s mother went straight to Slivko, asking if he knew anything, if he had said anything about wanting to run away. Slivko told her that they hadn’t even spoken. Soon after, the police reached out to Slivko.

Trying to spread the word of the disappearance, they were hoping Slivko might have photos of Alexander they could put on the news. To their gratitude, Slivko was able to not only able to quickly print off high-def photos but also organize and lead a party of over 200 CherGiD members to help aid in the search through the Don forest.

Time passed, and after sending divers into the Kuban River and multiple searches of the forest, they were left empty-handed. With all of their leads exhausted, the police closed the case, concluding the boy was likely stolen by Gypsies.

His mother would continue looking for 13 years, writing letters to every official she could and traveling throughout the Soviet Union. – Video

The next time he would be seen was in a film playing in court. Dressed as a Young Pioneer, in a white shirt, red tie, black pants, and polished black shoes, everyone would watch as Alexander’s limbs were slowly and methodically cut from his body.

The Gloves Come Off

Now, this is an important turning point in Slivko’s development.

Unlike when he accidentally killed Nikolai Dobryshev in 1964, when he freaked out and chopped up his body, this time, he had been carefully planning the murder, grooming Alexander to look the part of his obsession for long enough that others began to notice his hair.

And It was during this murder when the gloves finally came off. Slivko stopped holding back the more extreme aspects of his appalling desires and started allowing his fantasies to push him deeper and deeper into their depths while capturing every moment on film.

For Alexander and the next 5 boys Slivko killed, he would take his time, upwards of 2 hours, stretching and positioning their lifeless bodies with rope before cutting off their legs, severing their heads, taking out their eyes, cutting off their noses, ears, and cheeks. Each time his ceremony would become longer, more intricate.

Opening up their torso and pulling out their organs before obsessively playing with them in his hands. 

Placing the limbs in such a way as to frame his victim’s severed head. Sawing off the end of their shoes with their feet still in them, then pouring gas on their shoes and watching their feet burn.

During all this, Slivko would collect the dripping blood in a special container and slowly drink it with a spoon.

Every horrendous moment, captured on film, Slivko would watch and masturbate to later with the boy’s genitals floating in a glass jar next to him in a private room at Club CherGid before classes started.

3rd Victim

1 year and 6 months later, on May 11th, 1975, just days after the official search for Alexander Nesmeyanov was closed, an 11-year-old 5th grader, Andrey Pogosyan, would go missing. 

On the next day, May 12th, Andrey’s school bag and clothes would be discovered on the city embankment.

The only lead police had as to Andrey’s whereabouts came after questioning his parents. All they knew was that days before, Andrey had asked his mom to buy him new swimming trunks for a film shoot someone wanted him to be in. They didn’t know the director’s name, just that he would be meeting them in the Don Forest. That day they let him head off to be filmed.

Again, the boy’s parents went to Slivko and asked, and again he denied seeing or talking to him; then police went straight to Slivko, who provided them with photos of the missing boy, and again, Slivko organized members of CherGid to help search the forest.

Cops Fuckup

Here’s where we have our first fuckup by the police.

An investigator on the case of Andrey Pogosyan’s disappearance began putting 2 and 2 together and asked the obvious question. Who is this person in the woods that was supposed to film Andrey the day he disappeared?

He put in an official request at the Nevinnomyssk Department of Internal Affairs to investigate this suspicious director, but they never followed up with it, and the investigator was transferred to Moscow for more advanced training. 

Again, they sent divers into the Kuban river to see if they could find his body and again came up empty-handed.

Son 2

That same year, 1975, Slivko’s 2nd son, Evgeny, was born. And while it has been impossible to track down the exact date, it seems safe to assume that based on his previous cool-down period and later testimony, it was after he murdered Andrey Pogosyan in May.

And while the birth of his son seemingly slowed down his blood lust, it did not hinder his thirst for asphyxiating and sexually assaulting young boys.

Slivko ramped up his narrative, making it more appealing to the victims of his non-lethal experiments. 

Volunteers 

For the next 5 years, Slivko methodically toyed with the balance between life and death, knowing full well how to get what he wanted. 

He began conducting what is often referred to as his “non-lethal” experiments.

He would convince young boys to volunteer, motivating them with either respect, money, the removal of penalty points from mishaps in the Club, or even going so far as to tell them this was their chance to be quote an “invaluable help to science.” After they agreed, he would tell them this was to remain secret, that no one should know what they would be doing. And in a further step to groom them, he would tell them not to eat 10-12hrs before the experiment. This was his sick way of ensuring they didn’t throw up or release their bowels during the process.

On the day of, it was common for Slivko to take the young boy down to the river and wash him by hand before giving them an outfit he picked out and meticulously prepared for them to wear.

When they would finally reach the spot for the quote “experiment,” he would have the child sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement which said, quote, “Being in sober health and without any coercion, I agreed to conduct a medical experiment with inducing loss of consciousness. I swear to keep the fact of participation in the experiment, as well as its results, in complete secrecy and never tell anyone under any circumstances.” end quote.

Once signed, Slivko would set up the camera and begin recording as he suffocated the boy until he was unconscious, sometimes with a rope or rubber hose, sometimes with a closed gas mask or plastic bag, even going so far on occasion as to force them to inhale ether to knock them out.

Everything was documented, not just on film to watch and pleasure himself to later, but in highly detailed notes he would take. 

The date, the time, how the boys’ bodies convulsed on the ground, and side effects once they woke up like slurred speech and loss of coordination, he obsessively recorded details down to the second. 

This fascination with documentation would lead to him saying later in court that he was able to bring the boys to stay, quote “in the next world” for 9 minutes, and still be able to revive them.

And if all of this wasn’t tragic enough, these experiments would leave some of his victims with lifelong disabilities.

Wins Award (1977) (Everybody Do the Slivko)

All the while, Slivko’s fame and the notoriety of Club CherGid were skyrocketing. 

By 1977 Slivko personally knew nearly all of the high-ranking officials and leadership in and around the city of Nevinnomyssk. One official, Kostina, the 3rd secretary of the city party committee, was widely known for absolutely idolizing Slivko. Along with being a constant advocate for Slivko and CherGid, Kostina would regularly make sure that CherGid always had steady access to scarce Soviet goods and resources, such as free bussing, equipment, and in particular, condensed milk. (a rarity at the time)

As Kostina rose up in the ranks of local and regional leadership, she never faltered in her vocal support of Slivko. Tying her own career to his achievements. Ultimately, when the region was given the rare opportunity to award one of their own teachers with the title of “Honored Teacher of the RSFSR,” she would go out of her way to bend the rules set forth by the Central Committee of the Soviet Union to have the award given to him which absolutely pissed off teachers in the region. Slivko didn’t have any of the qualifications to even receive this award. It would be like if ………

On top of that, he started receiving awards left and right, news articles were constantly being published about him and CherGid, and at least 24 times, Slivko’s Achievements were highlighted on the All-Union Radio station. Which was a national program.

To add even more to the madness, Slivko would go on to be elected as a deputy of the Nevinnomyssk City Council in that same year.

This dude took off like a macarena; everybody was doing the Slivko.

4th victim (1980)

In June of 1980, Slivko took the life of his 4th victim, another member of CherGid, 13-year-old Sergei Fatnev.

The search for him would last for a year, Slivko again would help aid in leading the search, and not once would investigators notice the fact that Andrey Pogosyan in 1973, Alexander Nesmeyanov in 1975, and now Serge Fatnev were all young boys and all members of CherGid.

Slivko was so far beyond suspicion that criminal investigators looking for any sort of connection between these disappearances didn’t even think to connect the dots.

5th & 6th Murders

Moving on, though, the names and dates of Slivko’s 5th and 6th murder victims are still unknown. With that said, I feel confident after learning way the hell too much about Slivko that they must have taken place between June of 1980 and July of 1985.

I bring this up because after checking sources, I realized that 3 websites were all referencing each other in a circle-jerk of false information. 

Specifically, 15-year-old Vyacheslav “Slava” Khovistik is being cited online as being the name of Slivko’s 6th murder victim, but then somehow, magically, a 15-year-old named Vyacheslav “Slava” Khovistik appears years later to give critical testimony that leads to Slivko’s arrest. 

And while all of Slivko’s victims should be recognized, Vyacheslav should be known as and remembered for his bravery in coming forward through a wall of silence.

7th victim

This leads us to Slivko’s last murder victim, Sergei Pavlov.

On July 23rd, 1985, 13-year-old Sergei left home, telling his mother and sister he was heading down to the river to go fishing.

Upon leaving his house, he ran into his neighbor, Lidia Polovinkina, and either out of boyish excitement or by mistake, slipped up and told her that he was off to meet with the head of Club CherGid to be photographed for a magazine.

Before long, Sergei’s mother realized something was off; he had left his fishing pole at home.

That evening, Sergei didn’t come home.

At some point, Lidia found out about Sergei not coming back and called over to CherGid. Speaking to Slivko, she asked if he had seen Sergei, to which, like every other time, he replied no. 

The next day, before the police could talk to Slivko, he took off for a trip to the Black Sea with a group of club members.

Over the next few months, the police proceeded to suspect everything from an accident or drowning to everyone, including Sergei’s own mother, as being responsible for his disappearance.

Tamara Langueva

Finally, on November 13, 1985, an investigator named Tamara Langueva took over the case.

She was the 1st person who treated the boys’ disappearances for the past 21 years as related. With that perspective in mind, she quickly discovered almost all of them were members of CherGid.

Adding to this lead was Elena Proyda.

While working in a special children’s room at the police station, Elena had been hearing rumors from the kids about a quote “Secret Cinema” and quote “Experiments” run by Slivko. 

Elena, along with Tamara, then went to Club CherGid and began asking the boys questions.

They went boy to boy for hours, asking if they had been in any secret films or participated in any experiments. Other than admitting to being in movies with strange plots, No one would talk. That was until Vyacheslav Khvostik spoke up and gave them official testimony stating quote “Slivko hung him in a loop, after which he lost consciousness and then was unwell for several days.”

After Vyacheslav stepped up, other boys began talking, all with similar stories.

With verified rumors, victim testimonies, and clear connections between cases in hand, Tamara presented her case to the prosecutor of Nevinnomyssk. She requested a search warrant for Club CherGid.

He looked it over and didn’t believe her; she literally had to argue with him until he realized that Slivko was the only suspect left and finally granted her a warrant to search the premises of ChieGid.

And it was on December 28th, 1985, Slivko’s 47th birthday, the police showed up at the Club and finally acted on their search warrant.

In typical cop style, they flipped the place, looking over everything, under desks and tables, pulling out boxes, and sifting through the contents. 

Nothing,

That was until maybe one of the most ridiculous moments in police history.

After searching through everything and coming up empty-handed, a cop pointed to a door with a bright red sign that said, “Don’t go in – he’ll kill you” and asked, “Whats in there?”

Slivko’s face went from calm to an enraged fear.

The police opened it up.

The Arrest

Inside there were stacks and stacks of photos with children bound and hanging, 100’s of feet of film where Slivko was clearly visible torturing, killing, and decapitating boys, jars with preserved genitals, Pioneer Uniforms, piles of shoes, some with the ends sawed off, ropes, rubber hose, hatchets and knives, everything.

Once the shock of what they saw passed, the police immediately arrested him.

Even then, with this room in full view, a little boy there began crying, yelling, “Uncle Tolya was taken to the police.”

Confession

Once arrested, it took almost no pressure before Slivko confessed to everything.

Between January and February of 1986, he would admit to the murders of 7 boys and help direct police to the locations of most of their bodies.

In the meantime, though, before the realization of why he was arrested fully set in, the community was enraged. 

They assumed he was arrested for something minor like stealing Soviet Property, a crime nearly everyone was guilty of.

When word finally spread, the people of the city proceeded to burn down Slivko’s property while the police sat back and watched, but not before a criminal investigation inspector, Batyr Akaev, carried out his orders to gather up Slivko’s wife and 2 sons, take them to a nearby train station and sent them off to a location even he didn’t know.

It was also around this time that Kostina, the 3rd secretary of the city party committee who was such a massive supporter of Slivko, locked herself in her apartment and committed suicide.

Pending Trial

For the next few months, until his trial in June, Slivko would rot in a cell. Allegedly, attempting to commit suicide twice, once after he found razor blades left on his mattress.

The Trial (June 1986)

Considering the massive number of non-lethal victims and murders, the trial was short. During it, Slivko was seen crying and apologizing non-stop. 

When his videos were finally presented as evidence, he was asked if he had anything to say, any objections to any of the people present seeing them; he replied, “I expressed the wish to the investigation that the circle be as narrow as possible … What will be presented now … even (to) the human race is a disgrace … I saw it once … And this can neither be washed away nor forgotten. It will leave only with death … I’m scared that people will watch it.”

After that, the court, filled with the mothers, fathers, friends, and family of those who went missing, finally started watching the films. For the victim’s families, seeing their loved ones being choked to death before being decapitated was the only closure they would find after years of hope and searching.

People began to have heart attacks. The city would literally end up having ambulances on standby outside of the courthouse during the viewings.

Once this was all over, Slivko was found guilty and sentenced to death. 

Farewell Letter to his Wife

“From a letter from Slivko to his wife (June 15, 1986): “Dear Lyudmila Ivanovna. Forgive me for all. It was only in prison that I realized that I had no right to marry and have children. I am a freak. I am sending you a list of signs of my deviation. Keep them a secret, but watch the kids. The most important thing is to become their friend. You must know their thoughts and dreams. Take courage and tell adult children about my deviation. Doctors do not recognize this as insanity, but the power of vice is such that I lost my mind and obeyed the evil will.” – hometi.ru

Did anybody catch what he did there?

Along with apologizing, he told her that his issues are likely hereditary and that she needs to always be close to their sons, to keep an eye on them as they grow up.

Execution

For the next 3 years, Slivko would rot in solitary confinement. In true Russian fashion, he had no clue when he would be called out for execution. 

Every time the door opened to his wing, every shout or yell down the hall tormented him. 

His last visit would be from the detective investigating another serial killer, Kostoev, the man in charge or tracking down who would later be identified as Andrei Chikatilo.

On September 16, 1989, within hours of Kostoev’s last interview with Slivko, he was pulled out of his cell, brought into a room, and shot in the back of the head. 

It would be the exact same place Chikatilo would be executed 3.5 years later.