St Petersburg's "Casanova Con" has been sentenced to death after being found guilty of two counts of murder and numerous other crimes.
The infamous Sergei Maduyev -- who convinced his love-struck prosecutor to smuggle a pistol into Kresty prison to help him escape -- will appeal to the Russian Supreme Court in the hope that the sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment.
Maduyev, 39, sat in a cage while the sentences were read out; his thin, pointed face a picture of evil.
His expression broadened into a malicious grin after presiding judge Lyudmila Sukhankina informed him that he would be executed for his crimes.
Chief among his offenses were the two murders he committed, both of which were considered to be particularly brutal.
Businesswoman Rosa Yurik was gunned down in front of guests in her own home.
Maduyev's other murder victim was a cafe waiter who asked the killer to remove his jacket and was callously shot.
The leader of a gang of desperadoes guilty of 30 cases of armed robbery, Maduyev became famous throughout Russia after he seduced Natalya Vorontsova, the detective assigned to prosecute him.
A hidden camera recorded a rendezvous arranged for the couple after the failed 1991 escape attempt had resulted in the 35-year-old Vorontsova's disgrace and arrest.
"Maduyev was caressing her body, stroking her knees and kissing Vorontsova, who was not fighting against his actions," read the report on the meeting
Two movies -- "The Prison Romance" and "The Woodgrouse" -- have been based on the story.
Vorontsova is still serving a seven- year term in a women's penal colony in the Leningrad Oblast.
Maduyev's image as a celebrity criminal was given added luster when the "Robin Hood" side of his character was revealed during the trial.
In one incident, Maduyev dialled the ambulance service after the man he was robbing had a heart attack.
He also returned a valuable piece of jewelry after discovering it had been a gift from his victim's dead mother.
Prosecutors described him as a well-spoken individual who had read widely.
Maduyev -- known as "Chervonets" or "10 roubles" -- listed his hobbies as philosophy and martial arts.
The 39-year-old recidivist also attempted to escape from Kresty last September when a prison guard bribed by Maduyev's friends again slipped the prisoner a pistol.
He was found outside his cell in possession of the gun and disarmed after a brief struggle.
The attempt was less dramatic than the 1991 escape bid assisted by Vorontsova when he wounded a prison guard before being recaptured.
His criminal career spanned 20 years from the time of his first arrest for burglary at the age of 17.
During that time he killed at least 12 people and spent 18 years in Soviet jails.
In 1981 Maduyev was sentenced to 15 years' hard labor for banditism.
Seven years later he escaped from a prison camp in Kazakhstan.
There he soon formed a gang of thieves and cutthroats which murdered and robbed its way across Russia.
The gang's modus operandi was straightforward and effective.
They would watch obviously wealthy men and women closely and pounce when they saw their chance to rob or kill them.
Victims included heads of firms and people who had withdrawn large sums of money in order to purchase a house or car.
A Russian citizen, Maduyev was born of a Chechen father and a Korean mother.
His father left the family when Maduyev was quite young and he was brought up in an orphanage. (SPP)