The Palo Alto History Project, Vladimir Pokhilko Murder

The Palo Alto History Project

The Death of Vladimir Pokhilko
418 Ferne Avenue

2006

Vladimir Pokhilko: A Silicon Valley Tragedy

During the past few decades, Palo Alto’s history has been intricately tied to that of Silicon Valley --- with its
start-ups and financial booms, bursting bubbles and fortunes lost. In well-to-do Old Palo Alto live some of
the Silicon Valley’s most profitable entrepreneurs --- those 30-somethings who struck gold through techie
genius and good fortune. One Palo Alto denizen, Steve Jobs, was one of the early pioneers who got the
Valley rolling in the first place --- then was fired, started over, and later reinvented himself and did it all over
again.

On the other hand, Silicon Valley stories tend to involve great personal and financial risk --- and sometimes
failure or even tragedy.

Vladimir Pokhilko was a Russian PhD and entrepreneur with a successful past in the tech industry. In 1985,
Pokhilko was a practicing clinical psychologist in Moscow experimenting with the use of puzzles as
psychological tests. A friend named Alexey Pajitnov showed him a computer game that he had invented
which entailed lining up stacks of blocks as they dropped to the bottom of the screen. The game was based
on the ancient Roman puzzle called Pentamino, but Alexey called it Tetris. Pokhilko immediately saw the
mass appeal of the puzzle and convinced him it had to be marketed and sold. The two began collaborating
to publish the now famous game, but their plans were derailed by Soviet authorities. In 1986 the government
demanded that Pajitnov sign over all rights to the game. Pokhilko and Pajitnov considered selling the game
directly to game companies, but were sure they would end up in a Soviet prison. Instead the USSR
brokered deals with Nintendo and Atari, and Pajitnov lost some estimated $40 million in royalties.

In 1991, both immigrated to Palo Alto. Vladimir, the former psychologist, who was now bitten by the
gaming bug, began AnimaTek International Inc. along with Gilman Louis and Henk Rogers. The San
Francisco based start-up developed 3-D computer animations, including El-Fish, a kind of virtual fishtank
game. Pokhilko was named president of the company, but by 1998 he feared for his job. AminaTek was in
financial trouble and Pokhilko went on tour to drum up support in hopes of landing new capital.

On Friday September 18th, 1998, Pokhilko went out for beer and sushi with other company execs Louie
and Rogers. According to Louie, “Vladimir asked, 'Do I have enough money to make payroll?' He was
clearly looking at the 'what if's' if everything went wrong. We told him he was overreacting and that people
loved his work. He thought that he would be fired. But we told him, 'Why would we fire you? You're doing
a wonderful job; you have investors coming in.'"

Bu the economic collapse in Russia (where most of AminaTek’s workers were based) and recent layoffs
seems to have given Pokhilko grave doubts. The company was short of money and Pokhilko seemed sure
he would be the fall guy if he could not find capital somewhere.

When he could not, Pokhilko seems to have snapped. Sometime Monday evening at his 418 Ferne Avenue,
Palo Alto home, Pokhilko apparently took a hammer and bludgeoned his wife Elena in the back a dozen
times as she slept. He then took an 8 inch long hunting knife and stabbed her repeatedly in the back, killing
her. He then went into his son’s bedroom --- Peter, a 12 year old 7th grader at JLS --- and hit him in the
back of the head with the hammer. Vladimir then stabbed him some 30 times with the hunting knife. Finally,
he slashed deeply once at his own throat and died on the floor face-down in his son's bedroom. Later police
found a following desperate and semi-coherent note in the house:

"I'VE BEEN EATEN ALIVE.

VLADIMIR.

JUST REMEMBER THAT I AM EXIST

THE DAVIL."

In an agonizing twist of fate, representatives from the Japanese computer giant Squaresoft, who were
unaware of the deaths, showed up Wednesday in AnimaTek's offices. They were ready to wire $200,000 to
AnimaTek's accounts for the next day. A company executive confirmed that “This would have relieved the
cash flow pressure on the company.”
-Matt Bowling

Friends of Peter Pokhilko pay
respects outside 418 Ferne
Avenue

Palo Alto detectives answer
questions on the murder (SF
Chronicle)

Henke Rogers, Pokhilko's
associate

Palo Alto Home Page

Palo Alto Police & Crime

The house at Ferne Avenue
where the murders took place

Tetris inventor Alexey
Pajitnov