My True Crime Writing Journey

On the night of February 11, 2011, I met a friend for drinks in Brooklyn despite my mother calling me and pleading with me to stay home. She had been watching the news and had informed me that a “crazed knifeman” was on the loose. Tuning her out, I went on with my night, unscathed.

By the next morning Maksim Gelman’s face was everywhere: on the news, in the newspaper, on Facebook. Within 28 hours he had stabbed and killed his stepfather, Aleksandr Kutznetsov, a former friend and romantic partner, Yelena Bulchenko, and Yelena’s mother, Anna Bulchenko. In an attempt to flee from police, he then went on to hijack a car from Arthur DiCrescento, stabbing him but not killing him, and ran over a pedestrian, Stephen Tanenbaum, who later died. Later that night, still on the run from police, he carjacked and stabbed two others, Fitz Fullerton and Sheldon Pottinger. By the next morning, Gelman ended up on a train in Manhattan, stabbed straphanger, Joe Lozito, and was then subdued by police.

Once it was reported that Gelman was 23 years old and had lived in Sheepshead Bay, I wondered if I knew him, this supposed “crazed knifeman”. The neighborhood where I had grown up, Old Mill Basin, was only about 15 minutes away and we were about the same age.

It turns out that I did not know him directly, but I knew some people who did. I immediately became invested. Sheepshead Bay was not a neighborhood notorious for murders committed in broad daylight in the middle of the street, which is where he killed Yelena. How did he evade police for 28 hours? But most importantly, why would he kill all those people? What inspires such a rampage?

The news had been reporting an unrequited love story as his motive for killing Yelena, but my intuition told me there was more to the story. As for his other victims, not much of a motive was discussed. The questions haunted me. Religiously, I read every news story and Facebook post I could find about his case, but I never found answers.

One day I had been catching up with a friend from grad school, another writer. As I expressed my dissatisfaction with the news reporting of Gelman’s story, my friend planted the seed in my mind as he questioned, “How about you search for the answers on your own?” He suggested, “You could write him a letter,” reminding me, “That’s what Capote did.”

I had never contacted anyone in prison before. In fact, my knowledge of the prison system was minimal, to say the least. However, I took a chance and wrote a letter to Gelman in April 2011. In May 2011, I received a response, a courteous “Thank you for your letter” in addition to a couple drawings of graffiti. As months passed, the letters increased, but I still did not have answers to my questions. It would take time to build a rapport with Gelman.

In January 2012, I found myself on Rikers Island conducting my first in-person interview with Gelman. At the time, I knew I wanted to write his story, but I was not sure of the form it would take: an article, a short story, a book? At this point, I had only written and published some poems and short stories. I only recently graduated with an MFA in creative writing, so what authority did I have? Did I really possess the capability to write such a book?  I was clueless. Yet, I was driven by my intuition. I was on a quest for answers, for knowledge. I was meant to write his story.

As time went on, I would spend most of my time interviewing Gelman over the phone and in-person long after he had been transferred to prison in upstate New York. I also began interviewing people who knew his victims and those who knew him; I tracked down surviving victims and witnesses. I collected and read countless court documents and medical records. Before I knew it, I had learned of the many layers of his story.

After seven years of researching, writing, and overcoming many obstacles, I finally have answers to my initial questions. Recently, I have completed a full manuscript, and it is currently on the road to publication. I cannot wait to share my findings with the world, for I feel as I have always felt, that this story is significant when understanding crime, specifically the reasons behind a killing spree.

There is so much more to Gelman’s story and my journey into true crime than what I have presented here, so if you are reading this, I hope that you will read my book once it is released. I will be sharing updates as the publication date approaches.

Since finishing my manuscript about Gelman, I began to think about the importance of understanding the reasons why people commit murder and whether prisons are meant to punish or rehabilitate those who commit such crimes. The goal of this site is to share new information and insight about people who are incarcerated for murder in addition to their experience(s) within the criminal justice system. Blog posts will include topics of the inmate’s choosing, which may or may not include their crime(s) but will most definitely reflect part of who they or their lives in prison.

Stay tuned and stay well!

-Maria