Irina Gaidamachuk, a 41-year-old mother of two in the remote Urals region town of Krasnovfimsk, had a big thirst for vodka. But her husband Yury wouldn't give her money to buy the drink. So, Irina decided to earn it herself. From 2003 until June 2010, Gaidamachuk, by posing as a social worker, gained entry into the flats of women living on government pensions. Using this ruse, she used a hammer to smash the skulls of 17 women between the ages 61 and 89. Each murder brought a small amount of cash from the victims's purses.
Following Gaidamachuk's arrest in June 2010, the accused serial killer confessed that she had murdered these women for vodka money. At her trial in western Russia's Yekaterinburg, the country's fourth largest city, three psychiatrists testified that the defendant was sane when she hammered her victims to death. Gaidamachuk was charged with 17 counts of murder and 1 attempted murder. Forensic psychiatric examination conducted in GNTSSSP Serbsky showed that Gaidamachuk, although she showed some variation in the mind, was legally sane at the time of the murders. In February 2012, the court case began. Gaidamachuk gave a confession to the indictment during the preliminary investigation; but, contested this throughout her trial. On June 12, 2012, Gaidamachuk was sentenced to 20 years in prison.