Early life Yuri Krinitsyn was born in
Moscow in 1938. Later, he moved to the Riga with his family. On 13 August 1950, he and his parents travelled on the steamer
Mayakovsky; the crowd on the pier did not wait for passengers to unload before climbing on board. As the boat could not withstand the load, it began to sink. In a matter of minutes, 147 people perished, including Krinitsyn's parents, but he himself was rescued. However, as his brain had trouble receiving oxygen for a prolonged period before he could be resuscitated, this caused him severe stress, which later led to him being diagnosed with reactive
psychosis. As an adult, Krinitsyn found a job at the magnetohydrodynamics design bureau in Riga and got married, but his new wife often had affairs and reproached him for his low salary, despite him receiving a salary of 200
roubles, which was considered high by the standards of the time. In order to release tension, Krinitsyn bought a
Luger pistol from a friend and began going out into the nearby forest to shoot at targets he positioned on trees.
Murders One day, after another argument with his wife, Krinitsyn went into the forest with his gun. While walking through the forest, he noticed a parked car in a clearing, with the driver sleeping inside. Krinitsyn tried to shoot the driver, but the gun misfired and so Krinitsyn hurried away. In January 1975, Krinitsyn got into the car of private taxi driver with the surname Mekkers, a former spy for
Nazi Germany who lived in the
Latvian SSR illegally under a false name, having fled his homeland to escape being drafted into the army. ==See also==