Maksim Gelman

At 5 AM on February 11th 2011, Ukranian graffiti artist and drug dealer Maksim Gelman was driving his car after apparently dealing drugs when his cell phone apparently messed up. He looked around and saw that the cars around him all had "official plates". He concluded that DEA agents were following him and that he had to flee to the Dominican Republic. He travelled to his mother's house in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn so he could get his passport. He woke his mother, Svetlana Gelman, up and asked her for his passport. She believed he was drunk, and eventually his stepfather Aleksandr Kuznetsov walked in and started swearing at him in Russian. Maksim snapped and grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stabbed him infront of Svetlana. He then used a carving fork after the knife broke. He was stabbed 55 times. His mother called the police and Maksim took Kuznetsov's car and fled, apparently running over a crossing guard while escaping.

He then decided that because the police would arrest him anyway, he might as well murder all the "rats" who had "wronged" him. He travelled to Yelena Bulhenko's house, who was an old female friend of his and his crush, and attempted to see her. Her mother was there and Yelena herself was at a friend's house. Gelman asked her mother, Anna Bulchenko, where Yelena was. Anna refused to tell him where she was, and they eventually ended up in Anna's kitchen. Gelman most likely took an 8-inch chef knife from a knife block in the kitchen (because Gelman's knife broke and in a prison interview he points out that a "wooden knife set" was in the kitchen) and stabbed her to death. He then left the house and apparently drove to other people's houses (the other "rats) however they luckily weren't home. He eventually drove by Yelena's to check if she was there yet and she was standing in the front garden after calling 911. Gelman walked up to her with the knife tucked in his sleeve. She apparently said "Wes?" to him and he stabbed her 11 times.

He soon hit a car, got out and attempted to carjack the driver, Arthur DiCrescento, who was stabbed 3 times. Gelman drove away in the car. He later ran over rare coin collector Stephen Tanenbaum, killing him. Gelman abandoned DiCrescento's car at 1 AM on February 12th, and got a livery cab in Crown Heights. As they were driving, he attempted a carjacking, which made it crash. He finds Shelden Pottinger in his car, waiting for his family to leave church. He steals Pottinger's car and stabs him and then drives at 60-70 miles-per-hour. Pottinger jumps out of the moving car. He abandones the car at a subway station in Queen's. This caused police to search the metro system for Gelman, thinking he was on a train. This was correct, and Gelman had even saw a lady reading about him on a newspaper and had knocked the newspaper out of her hand, scaring her. Maksim left this train and got on another one inbetween carriages. He then knocked on the door of the motorman's cab, saying "This is official business" and trying to make them open the door. An officer opened it but quickly closed it. Gelman then attacked Joseph Lozito. There are 2 versions of what happened.

According to many people, including Gelman, he attacked Lozito and Lozito fought him however the officers in the motorman's cab came out and disarmed him. According to Lozito, Gelman attacked him and Lozito disarmed him and then the police came out and arrested him. Lozito later filed a lawsuit against the NYPD because of this. Either way, Gelman was disarmed and arrested.

In court, Gelman claimed he'd been set up. He also insulted Yelena while talking to her boyfriend. He plead guilty to murder and assault and was sentenced to 200 years in prison.

Maksim Gelman was born on May 31st 1987 in Ukraine. Gelman's father had moved to the US in 1994 so, 2 years later, Gelman and his mother moved there too. Maksim became a US citizen in 2005. He was a loner in high school with a small amount of friends. He attended James Madison High School and Abraham Lincoln High School. He had sex with a girl and had gotten a STD from her, apparently getting lumps on his penis because of it.. He liked the gangster lifestyle and became a graffiti artists, making several Flickr accounts to show off his graffiti and starring in a YouTube video showing him vandalising what seems to be a garage door. He became a drug user and dealer, selling cocaine, heroin, pills and PCP. He'd also claimed to take PCP. He'd been arrested several times for vandalism and possesion of drugs.

Maksim Gelman had killed 4 people and wounded 5 others.

His Flickr accounts:
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Video starring him:

He appears at 0:39.

Here is a good documentary on Maksim Galman..

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