Fatal Coat Check Beating

The ubiquitous coat-checks at Russian theaters and restaurants can be annoying. It's not that there's anything wrong with leaving your coat at the door. In fact, it's often rather convenient. It's the fact that one is REQUIRED to check one's coat in many venues that can be irksome. If it's a bit chilly in a restaurant, for example, and you'd like to keep a light jacket on, you're likely to be told that it's against the rules or that it's nekulturny. It's unclear exactly what about the coat-check at a local bar perturbed a man in the Karelian town of Segezha so severely that he beat the coat attendant to death. This depressing crime, the Karelian branch of the Investigative Committee notes, "is distinguished by the mercilessness and cynicism with which it was committed." On the night of Jan. 18, the coat attendant was on duty at the bar when he asked a patron to remove his jacket. The response from the customer was swift: He punched the employee in the face. A scuffle ensued, and the customer eventually calmed down and left the establishment — not for long, as it turned out. The man returned two hours later, knocked the attendant off his feet with a "crushing" blow to his skull. He then began stomping on the man's skull as employees and patrons looked on. There was no word on whether any of them tried to intervene. The victim, 38, was taken to the hospital with craniocerebral injuries and died two hours later. Tragically, he had a wife and children, who were "left without a breadwinner," investigators said. Police have arrested the suspect, 27, who had served time for violent crimes but was paroled last year. He is being charged with aggravated manslaughter. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.