Police now fear she was also a cannibal and ate body parts of her victims

The serial-killing 'Granny Ripper' who confessed to 11 murders in a gruesome diary may have eaten her victims, police in Russia have said.

Tamara Samsonova, 68, is thought to have beheaded and dismembered her victims in a reign of terror that lasted two decades.

The pensioner dubbed the 'Granny Ripper' entered details of her secret life in diaries which she kept in Russian, English and German, alongside black magic and astrological books.

She was arrested last week after being filmed by CCTV cameras near her home in St Petersburg removing the body of her latest victim in black plastic bag.

Now detectives suspect that the former hotel worker also ate some body parts she removed from the people she killed, chopping off their heads, arms and legs.

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Deranged: In court after being remanded in custody Samsonova (pictured) told assembled journalists: 'I knew you would come... It's such a disgrace for me'

Gruesome: Latest revelations suggest former hotel worker Samsonova gave her final victim an overdose of sleeping pills before dismembering her body with a hacksaw while she was still alive

Home: The apartment block on Dimitrova street in St Petersburg where Tamara Samsonova lived for 40 years

Butchered: It is thought Samsonova (pictured) gave her final victim an overdose of sleeping pills before dismembering her body with a hacksaw while she was still alive

In particular, Samsonova had a penchant for gauging out and eating lungs, it is claimed. Asked if she was a cannibal, a police source said: 'It is not excluded.'

Sources in Russia's powerful Investigative Committee - equivalent of the FBI - indicated internal organs, in particular lungs, were removed from the bodies of victims.

It is also suggested the self-confessed killer gave her final victim, Valentina Ulanova, 79, an overdose of sleeping pills before dismembering her body with a hacksaw while she was still alive.

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

Samsonova killed her after a quarrel over unwashed cups, she told police investigating the murder.

Senior investigator in St. Petersburg, Mikhail Timoshatov, said: 'Tamara Samsonova says that at first she made her friend [Ulanova] sleep - and then cut her into pieces.'

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 headless, armless and legless man's body was found on the same street 12 years ago, and evidence found in her flat, including a business card for the victim, links her to the crime.

Mystery: Police are now comparing Samsonova's (pictured) elaborate diary entries with known cases of unsolved murder cases where victims were dismembered

Chilling: Russian police fear that serial-killing Russian grandmother Tamara Samsonova (pictured) may also have been a cannibal

Samsonova is also suspected of murdering her husband, who she reported missing in 2005. He was never found, dead or alive.

The 'Granny Ripper's' diary excerpts include a chilling confession of murdering one of her former lodgers.

'I killed my tenant Volodya, cut him to pieces in the bathroom with a knife, put the pieces of his body in plastic bags and threw them away in the different parts of Frunzensky district,' she wrote.

Detectives in Russia are refusing to release details of her diary until the multiple murder investigation is completed.

Between accounts of her killings are mundane details of her everyday existence.

Entries include such phrases penned on unlined yellowing unruled paper as 'Slept badly', 'Drank coffee', 'Take medicines' or 'I do not eat'.

'It was as if she was afraid to miss something important in her life,' said a source who has read the disturbing diary.

Amazingly, given the gravity of the charges against her, in her latest court appearance Samsonova seemed more concerned that journalists were there to report her case - and that her neighbours in St Petersberg were going to find out what she is accused of.

After being remanded in custody, she told journalists: 'I knew you would come... It's such a disgrace for me, all the city will know.'

Later she blew a kiss to reporters. When judge Roman Chebotaryov asked her to address the court, she replied: 'It's stuffy here, can I go out?'

Caught: Samsonova (centre) was arrested last week after she was filmed on CCTV cameras removing the body of her latest victim in black plastic bag

She then added: 'I was getting ready to this court action for dozens of years. It was all done deliberately... There is no way to live. With this last murder I closed the chapter.'

The judge said: 'I am asked to arrest you. What do you think?'

She replied: 'You decide, your honour. After all, I am guilty and I deserve a punishment.'

When he announced she would be held in custody, she smiled and clapped her hands.

A police source said that, despite her admission to murdering her latest victim, detectives can't force her to say where the missing head is hidden.

When Samsonova was questioned by the police last week, she admitted to committing the crimes but without going into detail, say reports. And in her flat, police found a saw, a knife, and blood spots in the bathroom.