The Flagstaff Times
July 24th 2001

The Route 66 Killers were formed back in the year 2000, when four Russian serial killers met in a Siberian maximum security prison for the criminally insane. Sergei Fleminkov began recruiting his quartet while looking to form a prison revolt as a distraction so he could escape. Before his capture, he was often contracted as a freelance hit man for the Russian Mafia and even earned the nickname “The Scourge of Saint Petersburg,” for his merciless killings of both rival mafia members and government officials including members of the former KGB as well as two classified members of the Politburo along with their entire families. He personally carried out 42 confirmed hits in Moscow and is currently under investigation for suspicion of 13 additional homicides. He was constantly feared by both corrupt government officials and organized criminals alike until his eventual incarceration. He was captured in a blood splattered motel room in a Moscow ghetto while playing sad surf ballads over the gutted corpses of his three latest victims, apparently completely oblivious of both the task force which arrested him and the victim’s entrails which had stuck and dried on both his body and guitar.

He first met fellow member Vanya Vorlukavitch, AKA Ivan Gryohznii (Ivan the Terrible), when prison officials decided to contract out inmates to a local salt mine in order to boost their budget. Vorlukavitch was hand picked by a high ranking but classified naval officer as part of a joint effort between the Russian Navy and the Spetznaz to train assassins as undercover operatives in various European nations and then place them as close to their objectives as possible. It is rumored that during his training by the Spetznaz, Vanya excelled particularly in unarmed combat, edged weapons, and the formulation and use of neurotoxins. After several successful assassinations of various opponents of communism in both France and Belgium he made the decision to go AWOL and hire himself out as a mercenary. He was highly successful and carried out at least 37 assassinations until his greed led him to take a high paying job which turned out to be a trap set by his former employers. After working side by side in the mines and forced labor camps for many months, Sergei and Vanya became close and eventually managed to be transferred to the same cell block. It was later discovered that both men shared an interest in not only killing but the guitar as well.

Little is known of the mysterious Katarina Molotova. It is known that she is of German descent but was raised from the age of 7 in Barnaul, Siberia. She was exceptionally gifted from a young age in music and it was believed she would soon have her pick of the world’s music conservatories. She is extraordinarily intelligent and soon could speak both Russian, German and English fluently and without accent. At only fifteen she was recruited by the KGB and trained as an assassin. Her motus operandi was usually that of a high class call girl sent in to eliminate foreign dignitaries with political clout during business excursions. A subtle master in the use of lipstick poisons, garrote wire, chloral hydrate, and disguise, Molotova quickly earned a reputation as a lethal killer who truly enjoyed her work. Unbeknownst to her employers was the fact that she enjoyed her work so much that it soon became her pastime as well. She typically targeted Japanese businessmen and wealthy middle aged Westerners in order to fund her expensive lifestyle which included fast cars, valuable middle age Germanic weaponry, and antique musical instruments. She joined the gang when she was hired out to a wealthy mafia boss to assassinate Fleminkov for an old vendetta. She reportedly fell madly in love with the ringleader when, disguised as a prison guard she attempted to seduce and then poison her future lover. Sergei however, paranoid by nature suspected ulterior motives and nearly turned the assassination attempt into a murder. The two however, after years of training could not easily gain the upper hand against each other and soon fought to a stand still. After a rumored night of passion, Molotova was in the gang and would later prove instrumental in the prison break.

Alexander Varvarski is a bit of an enigma even to his closest allies. Born into a wealthy family in the Ukraine, Alexander was something of a pampered child. Brought up in a veritable mansion with a full staff and private tutors, this privileged and bright young boy would have been any profiler’s least likely candidate to become a serial killer. On one of his many family getaways, this time in Peru, he became enchanted by the Latin rhythms and begged his father for drums. His father hired renowned music tutors and tried to turn his interests to such classic instruments as the violin and piano. Young Sasha however would not be swayed and began to develop many original beats on anything he could find around the estate. In his thirteenth year his family took a Caribbean cruise which was then hijacked by Haitian pirates trying to collect ransoms from the wealthy families. Kept in a filthy warehouse in squalid conditions for three months; Sasha escaped during a police raid gone sour. Although his surviving relatives tried diligently through both political and private means to locate him, even their affluence yielded no information as to his whereabouts and for the next six and a half years he remained unaccounted for. During the summer of his sixth year missing he turned up working on a cargo liner to pay his passage back to the Ukraine. His family, overjoyed at his return first took his ravings about voodoo and zombification to be stress related from his tumultuous years lost in Haiti. He persisted however and when he then slaughtered the remnants of his family as well as the live in staff and attempted to resurrect them as zombies, authorities moved in quickly to arrest. He avoided arrest and soon began to spread his teachings across the Ukraine and moved quickly into Russia where he soon racked up a hefty death toll. When asked during questioning after his arrest for the killings 26 individuals with his bare hands Varvarski repeatedly told the investigators that he was going to raise an army of the dead. In prison Sergei was quick to spot both his fanaticism and his talents and brought him onboard shortly before the break itself.

The prison break occurred early on the morning of February 13th, 2001 as the shift change for the guards took place. Molotova, still in her guise as a prison guard had worked out most of the details which mainly included the locking and unlocking of various doors and gates, the switching off of certain security cameras, the poisoning of two prison guards in strategic positions as well as the strangling of the warden, and securing transportation away from the facility. They were nearly caught by several late arriving prison guards when they were delayed; “so that Sasha could perform a quick experiment,” said a nearby guard later that day. After the other members of the gang pried Sasha off the unfortunate guard, the guard appeared dead but was rushed to a nearby hospital to be sure. In the ambulance the guard reportedly awoke and began to methodically eat the flesh of the other passengers, killing two EMT’s and the driver. He then rampaged through a local supermarket killing six more civilians and devouring various pieces of their anatomies before police gunned him down in the produce section. It should be noted however that it took 114 rounds, 36 of them to the head before he stayed down. Later that day a prison guard near the scene of the escape reported off the record and anonymously that he heard Sasha screaming over and over as they made their way through the snow, “I did it! I told you I could do it, I finally did it!”

For many months nothing more was reported on the deadly crew until dockworkers in San Diego reported strange noises coming from one of the cargo holds. Upon investigation, the security guards were overwhelmed by several unarmed men and at least one woman. Despite being outnumbered and weaponless, the quartet quickly and savagely dispatched the guards in a way that one forensics lab technician described as “animalistic.” That was the last time anyone had a confirmed sighting, yet it is believed that they began hitchhiking east on the famous Route 66, committing a series of grisly murders and leaving surviving victims in a near death state and craving human flesh. Investigators from the FBI are working with local and state police to apprehend these fugitives but have so far generated few leads. The only theory they’ve come up with is that “The Route 66 Killers” as they’ve been dubbed, could be hiding out in Flagstaff, AZ. The FBI believes this because the trail of murders and instances of the “walking dead” seem to have stopped there and these types of crimes have begun appearing in and around Flagstaff, seeming to center around Beaver Street which runs through the downtown area. One official also speculated that the climate in Flagstaff is not unlike that of Siberia which could make them feel somewhat at home there. Police are warning residents to lock their doors at night and not to pick up any hitchhikers on or near Route 66. If you have any information on these fugitives from justice please contact your local law enforcement or department of public safety immediately.

Route 66 Killers © 2001-7