Nikolai Espolovich Dzhumagaliev (Kazakh: Николай Есполұлы Жұмағалиев, Nikolai Espolūly Jumağaliev; Russian: Николай Есполович Джумагалиев; born 15 November 1952) is a Soviet serial killer, also known as Metal Fang, convicted of the murders of ten people in the Kazakh SSR (now Kazakhstan) between 1979 and 1990.

As an alternative, he travelled in the Soviet Union, visiting the Ural Mountains, Siberia, and Murmansk, where he tried a number of professions, including sailor, forwarder, electrician, and bulldozer operator.

Since he had previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia, he was again declared insane and remanded to a special treatment centre, where he spent the next eight years.

Shortly after Dzhumagaliev's 1980 crimes had gained wide attention, another killer by the name of Alexander Skrynnik was operating in Chișinău.

He wandered for a long time around the USSR, and according to some reports, committed a series of murders in Moscow and Kazakhstan.

In the past, Dzhumagaliev had previously been pronounced "cured" several times and released, returning to his native village, where he was not well received.

He hid in the mountains for two years, mainly in Kyrgyzstan, where he collected medical plants, bartering them for food with the local population.

With each passing day, it became harder for him to hide, as hang-gliders pestered him constantly and motor vehicles were also engaged in the search.

Dzhumagaliev decided to divert attention from Kyrgyzstan and put investigators on the wrong track by making them think that he was in the capital.

Dzhumagaliev asked a person with whom he was familiar to take a letter he had written to a friend in Bishkek and mail it from Moscow.

The population of Moscow was alarmed by a small item in the Kuranty newspaper, which said that Dzhumagaliev was seen in the city and surrounding region.

Dzhumagaliev decided to end his adventures by staging a theft, intending to return to Tashkent and go to prison for a minor crime.

Colonel Yury Dubyagin, who had participated in the effort to capture Dzhumagaliev, arrived in Fergana from the capital.

Currently, Nikolai Dzhumagaliev is isolated from society and is incarcerated in a specialized psychiatric clinic, fenced with barbed wire, in the village of Aktas in the Almaty region.

The police tracked down the author of the false report, who turned out to be a 21-year-old female resident from Dzhumagaliev's native village.