Rostov Fantomas collected a combat arsenal and almost five years left the police

On the morning of June 7, 1973, money was brought to the Rostov Institute Yuzhgiprokhoz to pay salaries. An employee of the enterprise Amerkhanov carried 124 thousand 500 rubles in a backpack.

Near the cash register, Vladimir Gorshkov and Vladimir Samasyuk were waiting for him. Nikolai Chernenko was on the first floor at the exit. Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov watched the situation outside. His older brother Vladimir came to the institute separately and watched from the outside.

Gorshkov and Samasyuk took the money, but could not leave unnoticed. The staff of the institute followed. The trucker Vladimir Martovitsky caught up with Gorshkov and tried to detain him. Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov ordered the accomplice to bow down and shot the pursuer.

The shooting was heard by police sergeant Alexei Rusov. He demanded to stop and fired warning shots. The raiders continued to flee, after which the policeman opened fire. Gorshkov was wounded, Samasyuk was mortally wounded.

Tolstopyatov stopped the Moskvich, pushed the owner out and tried to escape. Next came the fire protection workers Salutin and Doroshenko. They took Rusov with them. Kubashta district joined the persecution.

The chase ended in detention. In the salon of “Moskvich” found a backpack with money, homemade revolvers, submachine gun and three grenades. Another grenade was seized from Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov. On the money lay mortally wounded Samasyuk. Gorshkov was detained nearby.

Thus ended the history of the armed group, which in Rostov was called “phantoms”.

Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov had no engineering education. He worked as a driver and artist, independently mastered turning and locksmithing and learned to process metal.

In early 1960, Tolstopyatov produced several dozen fake banknotes worth 25 and 100 rubles. Some of the fakes he managed to put into circulation. The court sentenced him to four years in prison.

The idea of the armed group appeared while serving a sentence. Among its future participants was Vladimir Samasyuk. After his release, Tolstopyatov attracted his older brother Vladimir, who provided an outbuilding for the workshop. Later, Vladimir Gorshkov joined them.

The roles gradually split. Vyacheslav designed weapons and participated in raids. Samasyuk and Gorshkov worked with him. Vladimir Tolstopyatov made individual parts, conducted surveillance and analyzed the actions of the police. Before the attacks, the group studied the routes of cashiers and collectors, the location of institutions and possible escape routes.

The workshop was arranged in the wing on Pyramidal Street. Behind the massive mirror was a cache of weapons.

According to the materials of the criminal case, the Tolstopyatov brothers made four seven-shot small-caliber revolvers, three submachine guns and several grenades. Some parts they ordered from factory workers under the guise of elements of household appliances. The investigation found that the performers did not know the true purpose of the orders.

Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov headed the sports and rifle section at the motor transport industry. From there, he stole small-caliber ammunition for homemade weapons.

The samples collected in the wing could not be called fault-free. Submachine guns had no sighting devices and misfired. One of the revolvers violated the combination of the drum with the barrel. But at close range, those weapons were enough to kill.

Unusual ballistics simultaneously helped the investigation and led him to a dead end. Experts found that there was one group behind several attacks. However, the weapons were not listed in police records and were not associated with known thefts from military units or service storage facilities. Investigators saw the common handwriting, but did not know where to look for its authors.

The group's first attack was on October 7, 1968. The raiders took possession of a car belonging to a watch factory. The car was going to be used in an attack on the cash register of a shoe factory, but this plan failed.

On October 22, armed men broke into shop No. 46 in the village of Mirny. Their faces were covered with black fabric masks. After that, in the city talked about “phantoms”.

Production was 526 rubles 84 kopecks. A nearby pensioner Chumakov tried to intervene. He was shot.

Investigation of bullets and cartridges has linked this episode to other attacks. However, it was not possible to identify the group members. Criminal cases were investigated separately for some time, and some proceedings were suspended due to the absence of suspects.

Gradually, the results of the examinations formed into the overall picture. The police twice addressed the residents of Rostov on local television. However, no one brought the investigation to the usual outhouse, where behind the mirror lay a homemade arsenal.

The group changed routes, seized transport and figured out in advance when large sums were brought to the institutions. After the attacks, Vladimir Tolstopyatov remained nearby and monitored the actions of operatives. Then the participants discussed their mistakes and the reaction of the police.

On August 25, 1971, the target was the cashier of the Office of the Head of Works No. 112. Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov twice came there for exploration and found out the time of delivery of wages.

Gorbashov's cashier carried a bag with 17,000 rubles. On the stairs, she was met by the Fat Pigs and Gorshkovs. After taking the money, they ran out into the yard and left on a bus that turned up. Samasyuk waited outside.

A few blocks later, the bus was abandoned. In it remained a bag with 500 rubles in change. The raiders didn't carry her.

On the evening of December 16, 1971, a group attacked collectors near a savings bank on Pushkinskaya Street. Criminals waited for one member of the brigade to enter and attacked the rest near the car.

Zuba's collector opened fire with a service nagan. In the shootout, he was killed, and Gorshkov received a serious wound to his hand. The attackers seized the car, which was more than 20 thousand rubles. Later, the car with the body of the deceased was found in a city dump.

Along with the money, the group received two service nagans. One of them was found in the “Moskvich” after the final chase. The second was found in the building of the "Southern Guidekhoz".

The bullets from Gorshkov's hand were secretly removed by surgeon Dudnikov. The doctor was not involved in the raids. The prosecution did not consider him a member of the group or an accomplice, but later he was in the dock. Dudnikov was charged with hiding the traces of the crime in advance.

In the spring of 1973, the group chose the new target "Yuzhgiprokhoz". Participants figured out the order of delivery of wages, distributed positions and prepared weapons.

The attack was scheduled for May 22. Near the institute, Vyacheslav Tolstopyatov unexpectedly met a school acquaintance Kozlova. He feared that the woman remembered the meeting and after the raid could lead the police on his trail. The operation was canceled.

Two weeks later, the group returned.

During the attack on June 7, Chernenko was inside the building, but was not caught in a shootout and managed to escape. Before fleeing, he threw the nagan into a hole in the toilet floor. The police found a weapon. The next day, Chernenko was detained.

A search in the wing of the Tolstopyatovs revealed what the investigation had been trying to find for almost five years. Behind the mirror found a cache of weapons and details. Examinations linked the seized guns to murders and assaults that previously existed in various criminal cases.

Before the Rostov regional court appeared 11 accused. Vladimir Samasyuk did not live up to the trial. The main members of the group were charged with banditry, murder, armed attacks and other crimes. The rest were tried for helping the group members, concealing tracks and failing to report.

On July 1, 1974, the court sentenced Vyacheslav and Vladimir Tolstopyatov, as well as Vladimir Gorshkov, to death. The other defendants received various terms of imprisonment. The convicts' complaints were dismissed. The verdict against the three main members of the group was carried out.

For years, police have been searching for a source of weapons that did not exist in any record. Homemade barrels pointed to one group, but did not give out its participants. The cache behind the mirror was found only after the raid on the Yuzhgiprokhoz ended in shooting, chase and detention on the streets of Rostov.

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