A Russian man starts a life sentence of hard labour this week for a decade of torture and murder.
Alexander Borovkov, 39, terrorised people in Yaroslavl, a town 297km northeast of Moscow, and buried 15 of his victims under concrete.
He killed some owners of desirable properties and forged ownership documents, and used electric-shock torture to force others to sign over their homes.
He was arrested in 1994, but escaped from prison.
Anatoly Mikhailov, a deputy prosecutor for the Yaroslavl region, said: 'In jail he realised you can't leave witnesses alive and began to form a new gang with a clear aim - that they would leave no evidence behind'.
The gang formed a company to build houses on the outskirts of Yaroslavl, inviting clients to visit the properties when they were being built.
The victims were offered vodka laced with a paralysing drug, then strangled and dropped in a hole, which was then sealed over with concrete.
