A NOTORIOUS Soviet cannibal killer known as “Iron Fang” has spoken lucidly for the first time in four decades.
Murderous man, Nikolai Dzhumagaliev, who has been held in a high-security hospital in Kazakhstan since he was recaptured in 1991, was blamed for the murder of at least 10 people, beginning in 1979.
The now 73-year-old schizophrenic blood-drinker was allowed to call his family for the first time in 35 years, after doctors said his condition had stabilised.
Dzhumagaliev “regained consciousness“, becoming suddenly lucid and “communicating normally”.
After undergoing a new treatment, he had “begun to feel significantly better”, according to doctors.
Russian media outlet SHOT reported the killer will be allowed to speak with his niece twice a month.
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He earned his nickname due to metal crowns on his teeth.
The former firefighter’s violent crimes were long shrouded in Soviet-era conspiracy, with his name still eliciting shudders of terror across the former USSR.
Investigators and forensic psychiatrists labelled him a targeted, bestial, misogynistic serial killer, rather than an indiscriminate attacker, whose known victims were all women and girls.
Following brutal murders, Dzhumagaliev would feed on the flesh of his first victim for a month – “boiling it, frying it, salting it, and also making cutlets and dumplings”.
He even admitted to serving “human remains to guests”.
A mother and daughter were among his victims.
Investigators believe Dzhumagaliev developed a “deep hostility” towards women after being diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection, believing them to be “impure” and morally corrupt.
He told investigators he was “taking revenge” on women and attempting to “understand” their bodies through extreme violence.
His schizophrenia eventually fused with occult beliefs, leading him to see murder as ritual sacrifice.
Dzhumagaliev drank the blood of his victims, believing it would grant him supernatural powers, as well as dismembering their bodies for symbolic reasons and timing the killings to emotionally significant dates, according to records from Soviet experts.
Claiming he was descended from Genghis Khan, the blood-crazed killer was labelled a “Soviet Hannibal Lecter” and found not criminally responsible due to schizophrenia and sent for psychiatric confinement rather than to prison.
Profilers said he was driven by male dominance fantasies, ritualism and sexual resentment – a combination that made women both his exclusive targets and the focus of his delusions.
He struck fear into the hearts of Russians for 18 months when he escaped police custody in 1989.
Dzhumagaliev was finally recaptured in 1991 in Soviet Uzbekistan, when chilling footage of him speaking to police was revealed.
After being busted stealing sheep, he told cops: “I’m already in hospital, in [capital city] Tashkent”.
“I’ve fully come to terms with my past,” he added.
In 2016, the former USSR was plunged into uncertainty again following a report of him escaping prison; however, it was a false alarm.