[2] In September 1996, Golovachyov committed his first murder - while visiting a café with a friend of his, he started making romantic advances towards one of the waitresses.
[2] Forensic autopsies confirmed that all three had been beaten and then shot in the head, with ballistics establishing that the murder weapon was a TT pistol.
[3] At the end of 1997, during a hearing to extend his detention, the judge unexpectedly released him from custody on his own recognizance, after which Golovachyov fled the Komi Republic and went into hiding.
People present during the proceedings noted that he was rude and arrogant, that he bragged about being "God's executioner" and that he had the capability to decide who lives and who dies.
[4] He said that he killed the man during an argument, grabbing an axe which stood by the stove and hitting him on the head with it, claiming that it got stuck in the skull because of the force he had used.
[5] In the spring of that year, he killed his landlord and two of his friends, after which he fled Moscow Oblast and started living as a vagrant, constantly moving between various regions of the country.
Golovachyov claimed that he committed the murders after accidentally admitting that he was a wanted man in a drunken rambling, after which he killed the men out of fear they would expose him.
[5] During the interrogations, Golovachyov accurately named the dates, places, victims' facial and physical features, the circumstances and the reasons for each murder.