Brooklyn Massacre. "An ordinary teenager with quirks"

End working week It turned out to be a turbulent month for New Yorkers. For more than a day, the police could not catch 23-year-old native of Ukraine Maxim Gelman, who carried out a massacre on the streets of the city. Four people became victims of the immigrant, armed with half a dozen knives, including his stepfather, as well as his long-time lover, who rejected Maxim’s obsessive advances.

Maxim Gelman took up the knife early in the morning on Friday, February 11. The first victim of the 23-year-old native of Ukraine was his stepfather Alexander Kuznetsov. The young man asked his mother's partner for the keys to his Lexus. Having been refused, Gelman flew into a rage, grabbed a kitchen knife and inflicted at least 11 wounds on Kuznetsov. The man later died. Maxim Gelman left his mother alive.

Having dealt with his stepfather and taking possession of his car, Gelman went to the house of his longtime lover Elena Bulchenko. The girl was not there, and her mother Anna opened the door for the Ukrainian. An enraged Gelman stabbed the woman and began to wait for Elena to appear. Six hours later, the 20-year-old girl returned home, where Gelman, armed with a knife, was waiting for her. A Ukrainian immigrant attacked Elena, but the girl tried to escape. Gelman caught up with her and finished her off. Later, more than a dozen stab wounds were recorded on the body of the murdered woman.

Then the killer got into his stepfather's stolen Lexus and drove through Brooklyn in an unknown direction. Eyewitnesses would later say that Gelman’s car was moving at great speed, knocking down everything in its path. As a result, the young man soon crashed into a Pontiac driven by 60-year-old Arthur Dicrescento. The elderly driver was luckier than Gelman's previous victims - he lost his car, but survived, although he was hospitalized in serious condition.

Maxim Gelman moved to Brooklyn with his mother Svetlana in 1994. Two years earlier, his father emigrated to the United States as a refugee. Having received American citizenship, Maxim’s father returned to his homeland, leaving his son and wife in New York. In 2005, Maxim and Svetlana Gelman also acquired US citizenship. According to media reports, the young man studied at the Abraham Lincoln School in Brooklyn, but it is unknown whether he graduated from it. The Ukrainian’s peers said that he was interested in skateboarding and graffiti.

A mile from the scene of the previous accident, Maxim Gelman, already driving a green Pontiac, hit and killed 60-year-old pedestrian Stephen Tannenbaum. Soon after, Gelman ditched the Pontiac and hailed a cab. Once inside, he attacked the taxi driver, Fitz Fullerton, but he fought back. Due to a fight inside the car, the car got into an accident.

After leaving the scene of this accident, Gelman stole another car, attacking its owner, Sheldon Pottinger. The man escaped with minor cuts to his hands. What Gelman did next is unknown. Pottinger's abandoned Nissan was soon discovered in Queens, neighboring Brooklyn.

By Saturday morning, the young man had made himself known again, this time on the New York subway, where he attacked a woman with a knife who was reading an article about him in the morning newspaper. According to the victim, Gelman pulled out periodical from her hands with the words: “Do you believe everything that they write about me?”

After this, the young man moved to another train, where he again attacked a passenger, wounding him in the neck. Then Gelman tried to break into the driver's cab, claiming to be a police officer. However, fortunately, there were real policemen in the cabin, who were assigned to guard the train amid reports of a criminal on the loose. They detained the killer when the train was near the Times Square station.

After his arrest, two knives were confiscated from Gelman - a kitchen knife and a pocket knife. Later, in the Lexus of his murdered stepfather, police found four more kitchen knives, which the criminal used in the first attacks.

The circumstances that pushed Maxim Gelman to commit a series of murders have yet to be established. According to one version voiced in the media, Gelman was obsessed with Elena Bulchenko, who rejected him. They met in the summer of 2010 and stayed for some time good friends. However, then Gelman became too intrusive, and Elena decided to stop all communication with him. She stopped answering his calls and refused to open the door when he asked to visit her. On one of these days, at the end of summer, Gelman threatened to kill Elena if she continued to avoid him.

Meanwhile, it is known that Gelman had previously repeatedly come to the attention of the police. Among Brooklyn youth he was known as a graffiti artist leading a riotous lifestyle. He was repeatedly taken to the police for damaging city property. In total, since 2003, Gelman was arrested ten times, and in last time, January 26, 2011, a dose of crack was confiscated from him. Police believe that Gelman was a drug addict and could make money by distributing drugs on the streets of Brooklyn.

The Ukrainian has already appeared in court. He was charged with the murder of four people and the attempted murder of another, as well as theft of property and illegal possession of weapons. Until next time court session Gelman was left in custody without the right to bail. According to eyewitnesses, in court the accused behaved impudently and defiantly, and on the way out he entered into controversy with the townspeople who had gathered for a protest against him. The defendant's lawyer said that Gelman appears sane and understands the punishment he faces.

By the way, Gelman told investigators that he had cancer and everything that happened to him on Friday and Saturday was a “set-up.” The 23-year-old killer of four people called himself a “sacrificial lamb.”

At the Brooklyn branch Supreme Court In New York State, Ukrainian immigrant Maxim Gelman pleaded guilty to four premeditated murders and other crimes and faces 25 years to life in prison for each murder.
24-year-old drug addict Gelman was arrested on the morning of February 12 this year after he stabbed to death his 54-year-old stepfather Alexander Kuznetsov, his 20-year-old friend Elena Bulchenko and her 56-year-old mother Anna within 24 hours.
At approximately 5 a.m. on February 11, Maxim woke up his mother, 48-year-old Svetlana Gelman, and demanded the keys to her car, a gray 2004 Lexus ES 330. Svetlana woke up her husband, but he refused to give the keys, and between adopted son and the stepfather started a quarrel. As a result, Maxim grabbed a kitchen knife, stabbed his stepfather several times in the chest, took the keys to the Lexus and drove away.
His mother called the police and ambulance, but by their arrival Alexander Kuznetsov had died. The next bloodshed took place three blocks away, at the house at East 24th Street and Avenue Y, where ex-girlfriend Maxim Gelman, 20-year-old Elena Bulchenko and her 56-year-old mother Anna. Unfortunately for her, Elena’s mother let Maxim into the apartment, and he killed her in the living room. Elena was at work, and Gelman waited for her for more than 6 hours. At approximately 4:15 pm, she entered the apartment, saw what had happened there, ran outside, called 911 and waited for the police at the entrance. There she was overtaken by Maxim Gelman. Elena was also killed. Both women were stabbed more than ten times. Elena Bulchenko worked as a receptionist at Bright Smiles Dental on West 5th Street in Brooklyn.
While fleeing the crime scene, Maxim abandoned the Lexus and stole a Pontiac Bonneville, stabbing the 60-year-old driver three times in the chest. While driving this car, he killed 62-year-old pedestrian Stephen Tannenbaum, and the rest of the time before his arrest he managed to wound a car service driver, the owner of another car and a subway passenger with a knife. The last attack was committed not in Brooklyn, but in Manhattan, where Gelman was arrested at the Times Square station.
At a press conference held that same day, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly admitted that he had never seen anything like it.
Soon after his arrest, Gelman told the police that he would get out of this case dry and the most he could face was several years in a mental hospital. “Everything is fine,” he allegedly said. - I'll fight back. I’ll end up in a mental hospital for several years and then be released again. You'll see." In April, he officially pleaded not guilty, but the evidence collected in the case and the conclusion of a psychiatric examination leave no doubt about his sanity. Now Maxim has changed his position, and his lawyer Edward Friedman explained that Gelman is tired of being in solitary confinement, and he wants to quickly begin serving his sentence in human prison conditions. However, Friedman's lawyer asked the judge to order another examination, hoping to prove that his client still needs treatment.
The meeting lasted about twenty minutes. Unshaven and dressed in an orange prison uniform, Gelman smiled and turned several times towards Gerard Henig, Elena Bulchenko’s boyfriend.
Prosecutor Kenneth Taub said that given the evidence of the defendant's guilt, Gelman made a reasonable decision and he certainly did not intend to "stand in the way of someone who wants to plead guilty." In admonishing Gelman, Judge Vincent Del Judice said: “It is very likely and almost guaranteed that any sentence I impose will mean that you will not leave the correctional facility alive.”
The judge set sentencing for January 11, 2012, and a week after that, Maxim Gelman will begin trial in Manhattan for wounding a subway passenger, 40-year-old Joseph Lozito. As he was being taken away, Maxim told the lawyer: “Everything is fine, Ed. Good luck".

"Russian Ripper" Maxim Gelman...

Igor GRADOV

Ukrainian immigrant Maxim Gelman killed four people in New York.

That evening, Brooklyn's Sheepshead Bay neighborhood resembled a disturbed anthill. The streets were patrolled by police special forces in bulletproof vests, with machine guns and shepherd dogs, patrol cars scurried around in the sky bird of prey a helicopter with a searchlight was circling with a burning eye.

They were all looking for a 23-year-old immigrant from Ukraine, Maxim Gelman, who committed a series of brutal murders...

Boy and girl were friends

Bringing the can of paint to the wall, the young man sharply pressed the spray head. A tight scarlet stream lay in a dense layer on the wall. In a couple of seconds everything was ready. Female name"HELENA", composed of pink letters, decorated the brick façade as if it had always been there. The young man took a step back, admired what he had done, raised his hand again, drawing a large pink heart below, and writing his names on the side: “Max” and “Wes.”

By these names he was known by graffiti artists living in the New York borough of Brooklyn. In life, the 23-year-old graffiti lover's name was Maxim Gelman, he lived nearby. Here, a hundred meters from the painted brick facade, lived the one whose name he tenderly wrote on the wall. The girl's name was Elena Bulchenko. At one time, she also came to the United States with her parents and settled in the same immigrant quarter.

True, it cannot be said that Maxim met with Lena regularly. After several dates, the girl began to avoid him, hanging up the phone as soon as she heard his voice. The 23-year-old young man guessed what frightened his beloved so much: the girl found out that Max was using all sorts of psychotropic crap, after which he became almost insane.

In addition, the girl was “enlightened” about him by mutual acquaintances - they said that Maxim does not work, plays Counter-Strike all day long, and in the evenings rushes around the city with the same slackers, painting the walls with all sorts of intricate patterns. All this was deeply alien to the young immigrant, strictly aimed at success in life. And Lena’s mother, 56-year-old dentist Anna Bulchenko, was categorically against her daughter dating a young slacker and drug addict.

Maxim’s parents, more precisely his mother and stepfather Alexander Kuznetsov, were also concerned about their son’s behavior. The stepfather was especially persistent: the 54-year-old man regularly held preventive conversations with the guy, setting him on the right path.

And today, on this warm February evening, returning home, Maxim was sure that his stepfather would again “rinse” his brains. But Gelman got used to this procedure, if only “dad” would allow him to take his car. Max was looking forward to how he would drive up to Elena’s house in a brand new Lexus and invite her for a ride. He was sure that all the girls in the world needed three things: sex, speed and money. And he was ready to offer the first two of them to his beloved today.

The young man did not yet know that the same girl’s heart painted on the wall would turn black with melancholy by the morning - its owner, like three other innocent people, would die at the hands of Maxim Gelman.

Bloody path of a maniac

By five o'clock in the morning Maxim had a quarrel with his stepfather over the keys to the family car. The stepfather did not want to give in to his stepson, and he, unable to listen to objections, rushed to the kitchen for a knife. Alexander Kuznetsov did not fully believe that Max was capable of this. But the stepson proved that he was capable by striking his stepfather several times in the chest. After that, he took the keys to the Lexus and left.

While driving a stolen Lexus through the streets of New York, he drove onto Ocean Avenue, where he hit 62-year-old Steven Tannenbaum. The elderly man was taken to the hospital on time, but there he died from his injuries.

Arriving at the girl’s house, Maxim abandoned the car nearby and headed to a familiar door. 56-year-old Anna Bulchenko, seeing Max on the threshold, reluctantly let him into the hallway and led him into the living room. A few minutes of conversation was enough for the guest to understand that his mother would never allow Elena to meet with him. So she must die. Several blows with a knife - and another “obstacle” was gone.

Now we had to wait for Elena, who by that time had already left for work. Despite the fact that Max was not in a very adequate state, he understood that on the way to work he would definitely be stopped by the police.

So for almost 6 hours Gelman sat in Bulchenko’s apartment next to the body of the owner.

At about 4 p.m., the key jingled in the lock. Elena entered the apartment and, seeing her mother’s corpse, ran out into the street. She did not know that there was a maniac in the house. After calling 911, the girl remained waiting for the police and rescuers at the entrance door. There she was overtaken by her former boyfriend. He was choking with rage. In a matter of seconds, Elena was killed. Both women were stabbed more than ten times.

Having dealt with his beloved and her mother, Gelman jumped into the car and rushed away. At one of the intersections, the Lexus' path was blocked by a dark green Pontiac. The driver was 60-year-old Arthur DiCrescento. Maxim jumped out of his car, ran up to the Pontiac and stabbed Arthur three times in the chest. The bloodied driver dropped his head on the steering wheel. Maxim opened the door, pulled the body onto the sidewalk, sat in the driver’s seat and drove off.

As it turned out later, the police found four knives in the abandoned Lexus - the maniac had thoroughly prepared for the “case.”

By 8 o'clock in the evening, police special forces units and patrol officers from local stations were sent to search for Gelman. Portraits of Maxim appeared on television news and on posters posted on the streets. At approximately 9:30 p.m., the stolen car was found with the engine running but the interior empty.

Meanwhile, a crazy killer tried to seize a limousine belonging to a service company. While fighting for the right to drive, he stabbed 55-year-old driver Fitz Fullerton in the shoulder and neck. But the car was never stolen.

But they managed to take possession of the Nissan, driven by 25-year-old Sheldon Pottinger. In a struggle with Pottinger, Gelman cut his hand, pushed him out of the car and drove away.

Having reached the metro station, the killer abandoned the car and went down into the subway.

The “ripper” spent the night underground. In the morning, entering the carriage, he saw a newspaper in the hands of a passenger with a message about his atrocities and rushed at him. He managed to slash the face and hand of 40-year-old passenger Joseph Lozito with a knife, after which he tried to open the carriage door leading to the driver - the killer wanted to get into the cabin and declare the passengers hostages. Fortunately, at that moment he was detained.

When the killer was brought to the police station and asked why he did all this, he replied: “Why? Because I said so".

Many believe that the “Russian Ripper” Maxim Gelman (although what does Russia have to do with it?) killed people under the impression of his favorite computer game.

On February 18, 2011, the killer was charged. It can be assumed that Maxim Gelman will end up in prison for the rest of his days - since 2007 death penalty in New York State, the sentence was commuted to life.

Ukrainian immigrant living in this moment in USA. He was arrested on February 12, 2011 for a series of attacks on residents of New York.

Gelman arrived in Brooklyn in 1994; His mother Svetlana arrived with him in the United States. Maxim's father had settled in the country two years earlier; however, having received the status of an American citizen, he chose to return to historical homeland. In 2005, Maxim and Svetlana received official American citizenship. For some time the young man studied at local school(named after Abraham Lincoln); V free time he loved to skateboard and paint graffiti. Because of his latest hobby, Maxim ended up in the police station more than once; However, damage to public property was by no means the most serious of Gelman’s offenses - for example, on January 26, 2011, a dose of crack was confiscated from Maxim. Later, police representatives stated that Gelman was a drug addict and - which, however, has not been definitely proven - was a drug dealer himself.

It is difficult to say now what role drugs played in what happened on February 11-12, 2011; By official version, main role Unhappy love played a role in Maxim's actions. The guy began the series of murders on the morning of February 11; His first victim was his stepfather, who carelessly refused to give Gelman the keys to his car. For his obstinacy, Alexander Kuznetsov received 11 stab wounds.

Having received the coveted car, Maxim went to a certain Elena Bulchenko, his old lover. He was met by Elena's mother, Anna; Maxim dealt with her too, after which he decided to wait for his “beloved”. The girl came home 6 hours later; Gelman attacked her almost immediately. Bulchenko tried to escape from her ardent suitor, but Maxim was faster; Later, more than a dozen knife wounds were counted on Elena’s body.

Once again getting into his stepfather's car, Gelman set off to drive around Brooklyn. Mind

Apparently, Maxim didn’t pay any attention to the speed limits; for a long time he managed to avoid clearly emergency situations, however, in the end, Gelman's Lexus pulled into the Pontiac of a certain Arthur Dicrescento. The 60-year-old driver was lucky - he escaped with “only” severe wounds. Maxim, meanwhile, took possession of the Pontiac and continued his crazy ride. Having hit a 60-year-old pedestrian, Gelman again decided to change his car; After leaving the Pontiac, he tried to take a taxi from Fitz Fullerton, who was passing by - he, however, put up worthy resistance. Maxim did not remain without a car for long - almost immediately he took possession of the vehicle of a certain Sheldon Pottinger.

Little is known about Gelman’s further adventures that day. Pottinger's car was found in Queens; Maxim himself showed up only the next morning - in the subway. His next victim was one of the passengers; The woman angered Gelman by reading an article about his previous adventures. After transferring to another train, Maxim wounded another passenger, after which he tried to get through to the driver. Gelman introduced himself as a police officer; this, however, did not help him. There were real policemen in the cabin at that moment - the metro security was seriously strengthened due to what Maxim had done the day before. The killer was detained and taken to the police station; During the search, six knives were confiscated from him - Gelman had two at the time of his arrest, and four more were in the car he seized from his stepfather.

Maxim’s defender has already stated that his ward is absolutely sane and fully aware of his prospects. Gelman himself claims that he was the victim of some carefully planned provocation and is not at all to blame for the terrible events of Friday and Saturday.

Sometimes in New York, monstrous bloody showdowns take place not only in Harlem, among African Americans and Latinos, but also in respectable areas of the “city big apple" Sometimes our former fellow citizens are involved in such atrocities.

Maxim Gelman, 23 years old, moved to Brooklyn in 1994 with his mother Svetlana to live with his father, who received refugee status even earlier. The guy studied at Lincoln School and was fond of skateboarding and graffiti. Reviews from neighbors were entirely positive.

“They live in the same condominium as my husband and I, but in a different entrance. Literally behind the wall. Maxim's patio is next to our bedroom, and their car was always parked in the garage next to mine. Maxim's mother Sveta is the most intelligent woman I have ever known. And his stepfather, Shurik, was an amazing person,” Raisa Chernina, known in the Russian community of New York as a public figure, said in an interview.

She explained what happened on the fateful Friday, February 11, in only one word: “Drugs.” Although in fact the drugs were just doping in this situation. The circumstances that forced Maxim to carry out the massacre in the middle of Brooklyn are still unclear. Presumably, the reason why Gelman “went off the rails” could be unrequited love to a certain Elena Bulchenko, with whom young man The relationship didn't work out.

Gelman began killing at 5 o'clock in the morning. During a quarrel (the reason for which was his stepfather’s refusal to give Maxim his car), he pulled out a knife and inflicted several fatal wounds on his stepfather. He grabbed the keys and stole his parents' Lexus.

The murder takes place in front of Maxim's mother. The woman, terrified, doesn’t know what to do, calls 911. Meanwhile, Maxim rushes along the roads of New York and hits a 40-year-old woman, who is taken to the hospital with numerous injuries. All this time he is looking for his ex-girlfriend Elena.

Finally he gets to Elena's house, in a state of drug intoxication, he breaks into the house and begins to stab everything that moves with a knife. He inflicts several stab wounds on Elena's mother, who is trying to shield her daughter from the murderer with her body.

Stepping over the woman's body, he attacked the girl. He stabbed the unfortunate Elena Bulchenko 40 times. The girl tried to escape, but the guy caught up with her on the street and finished her off right on the sidewalk. Having dealt with the offender, Gelman shouts: “My girlfriend ruined my life!”

He attacks 60-year-old city resident Art DiCrisento and stabs him several times. All in order to take possession of his old Pontiac. Rushing at breakneck speed through the city streets, he hits and kills another pedestrian, 60-year-old Steve Tannebaum. All over the city, cops are hunting for the "crazed Russian."

Meanwhile, Saturday night arrives. The guy, realizing that he has nothing to lose, attacks the car service driver. But he bravely fights back and Gelman runs away, stabs the owner of a Nissan parked near the church, gets into the car and drives away.

Having abandoned the car near the metro, he goes down into the subway, trying to get lost in the crowd. However, vigilant police were able to identify him. Fleeing from the law enforcement officers, Maxim casually stabs several times the passenger who appeared in his path at the wrong time.

However, the passenger was not so simple. The man has been involved in martial arts all his life. Although he was stabbed in the head, he was able to neutralize the scumbag and detain him until the New York Department police arrived.

Everyone, from the police chief to the guy's neighbors, is shocked by what happened that fateful weekend. Maxim was immediately dubbed the “Brooklyn Butcher.” The guy behaved impudently during interrogations and said that people had to die because: “He said so”!

The killer does not repent of anything and plans to go to psychiatric clinic, in order to confirm his insanity, serve a sentence of several years of compulsory treatment and be released. Otherwise, he faces 175 years in prison.

Maxim Gelman is a drug addict with extensive experience. Some publications call him an “artist”: Gelman was engaged in graffiti - he drew on the walls, signing his drawings as “Max” or “Wes”. According to Maxim’s “friends,” he smoked PCP (Phencyclidine) and used many other drugs.