A pensioner dubbed the 'Granny Ripper' wrote a diary confession to to at least ten murders, hacking apart her victims in a reign of terror that may have lasted two decades.

Suspected serial killer Tatiana Samsonova, 67, beheaded and dismembered her targets in Russia's second city, St Petersburg, it is believed.

The former hotel worker entered details of her macabre secret life in diaries which she kept in Russian, English and German, alongside black magic and astrological books.

She was detained this week after CCTV footage showed her carrying body parts of an elderly woman in a black plastic bag.

Police are now comparing her elaborate diary entries with known cases of unsolved murder cases where victims were dismembered, and body parts packed in bags strewn around the city.

A police source said: 'A diary was found where the woman described murders which took place more than ten years ago. Now police are going through all old unsolved cases for the last 20 years.'

Samsonova was detained after the headless body of 79 year old Valentina Ulanova - for whom she was a carer - was found near a pond on Dimitrova Street in St Petersburg.

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