Andrei Chikatilo

Andrei Chikatilo
Andrei Chikatilo
Background information
Birth name	Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo
Also known as	The Butcher of Rostov The Red Ripper The Rostov Ripper[1][2]
Born	October 16, 1936(1936-10-16) Yablochnoye, Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine)
Died	February 14, 1994(1994-02-14) (aged 57) Novocherkassk, Russia
Cause of death	Executed (Gunshot to the head)
Conviction	Murder
Sentence	Death
Killings
Number of victims:	53 confirmed, 56 + claimed
Span of killings	December 22, 1978–November 6, 1990
Country	Soviet Union
Date apprehended	November 20, 1990

Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo (Ukrainian: Андрій Романович Чикатило; October 16, 1936 – February 14, 1994) was a Ukrainian-born Soviet serial killer, nicknamed the Butcher of Rostov, The Red Ripper or The Rostov Ripper who murdered a minimum of 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990. He was convicted of 52 murders in October 1992 (although he confessed to a total of 56 murders and was tried for 53 of these killings), and was executed in February, 1994.

Chikatilo was known by such titles as The Rostov Ripper and the Butcher of Rostov because the majority of his murders were committed in the Rostov Oblast of the Russian SFSR.

Biography

Early life

Andrei Chikatilo was born in the village of Yablochnoye (Yabluchne) in modern Sumy Oblast of the Ukrainian SSR. He was born soon after the famine in Ukraine caused by Joseph Stalin's forced collectivisation of agriculture.^[3] Ukrainian farmers were forced to hand in their entire crop for statewide distribution. Mass starvation ran rampant throughout Ukraine and reports of cannibalism soared. Chikatilo's mother, Anna, told him that his older brother Stepan had been kidnapped and cannibalized by starving neighbors, although it has never been independently established whether this actually happened.^[4]

Chikatilo's parents were both farm labourers who lived in a one-room hut.^[5] As a child, Chikatilo slept on a single bed with his parents. He was a chronic bed wetter^[6] and was berated and beaten by his mother for each offense.

When the Soviet Union entered World War II, his father, Roman, was drafted into the Red Army and subsequently taken prisoner after being wounded in combat.^[7] During the war, Chikatilo witnessed some of the effects of Blitzkrieg, which both frightened and excited him. On one occasion, Chikatilo and his mother were forced to watch their hut burn to the ground.^[8] In 1943, while Chikatilo's father was at the front, his mother gave birth to a baby girl, Tatyana. In 1949, Chikatilo's father, who had been liberated by the Americans, returned home. Instead of being rewarded for his war service, he was branded a traitor for surrendering to the Germans.^[9]

Andrei Chikatilo in 1959, aged 22.

Shy and studious as a child, Chikatilo developed a passion for reading: by his teens he was an avid reader of Communist literature and was appointed chairman of the pupils' Communist committee at his school. Throughout his childhood and adolescence, he was consistently a target for bullying by his peers.^[10][11]

During adolescence, he discovered that he suffered from chronic impotence, worsening his social awkwardness and self-hatred.^[9] Chikatilo was shy in the company of females:^[12] his only sexual experience as a teenager was when he, aged 17, jumped on an 11-year-old friend of his younger sister and wrestled her to the ground, ejaculating as the girl struggled in his grasp.^[13]

In 1953, Chikatilo finished school and applied for a scholarship at the Moscow State University; although he passed the entrance examination, his grades were not good enough for acceptance.^[14] Between 1957 and 1960, Chikatilo performed his compulsory military service.^[15]

Marriage and teaching career

In 1963, Chikatilo married a woman to whom he was introduced by his younger sister. The couple had a son and daughter. Chikatilo later claimed that his marital sex life was minimal and that, after his wife understood that he was unable to maintain an erection, he and his wife agreed that in order that she could conceive, he would ejaculate externally and push his semen inside her vagina with his fingers.^[16] In 1965, their daughter Ludmila was born, followed by son Yuri in 1969.^[17] In 1971, Chikatilo completed a correspondence course in Russian literature and obtained his degree in the subject from Rostov University.^[18]

Chikatilo began his career as a teacher of Russian language and literature^[19] in Novoshakhtinsk. His career as a teacher ended in March 1981^[20] after several complaints of child molestation against pupils of both sexes.^[21] Chikatilo eventually took a job as a supply clerk for a factory.

Yelena Zakotnova, aged 9.

Beginning of the murders

In September 1978, Chikatilo moved to Shakhty, a small coal mining town near Rostov-on-Don, where he committed his first documented murder. On December 22, he lured a 9-year-old girl named Yelena Zakotnova to an old house which he had secretly purchased; he attempted to rape her, but failed to achieve an erection. When the girl struggled, he choked her to death and stabbed her body, ejaculating in the process of knifing the child. Chikatilo then dumped Zakotnova's body in a nearby river.^[22] Despite evidence linking Chikatilo to the girl's death (spots of the girl's blood were found in the snow near Chikatilo's house and a witness had given police a detailed description of a man closely resembling Chikatilo whom she had seen talking with Zakotnova at the bus stop where the girl had last been seen alive),^[23] a 25-year-old named Alexsandr Kravchenko who, as a teenager, had served a jail sentence for the rape and murder of a teenage girl, was arrested for the crime^[24] and subsequently confessed to the killing. He was tried for the murder in 1979. At his trial, Kravchenko retracted his confession and maintained his innocence, stating his confession had been obtained under extreme duress. Despite his retraction, he was convicted of the murder and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment (the maximum possible length of imprisonment at that time). Under pressure from the victim's relatives, Kravchenko was retried and eventually executed for the murder of Yelena Zakotnova in July, 1983.

Following Zakotnova's murder, Chikatilo was able to achieve sexual arousal and orgasm only through stabbing and slashing women and children to death, and he later claimed that the urge to relive the experience had overwhelmed him.^[25]

Chikatilo committed his next murder in September 1981, when he tried to have sex with a 17-year-old boarding school student named Larisa Tkachenko in a forest near the Don river. When Chikatilo failed to achieve an erection, he became furious and battered and strangled her to death.^[26] As he had no knife, he mutilated her body with his teeth and a stick.^[27]

Lyubov Biryuk, aged 13. Murdered June 12, 1982.

On June 12, 1982, Chikatilo encountered a 13-year-old girl named Lyubov Biryuk walking home from a shopping trip in the village of Donskoi.^[28] Once the path both were taking together was shielded from the view of potential witnesses by bushes, Chikatilo pounced upon Biryuk, dragged her into nearby undergrowth, tore off her blue floral dress and killed her by stabbing and slashing her to death.^[29]

Following Biryuk's murder, Chikatilo no longer attempted to resist his homicidal urges: between July and December, 1982, he killed a further six victims between the ages of nine and nineteen. He established a pattern of approaching children, runaways and young vagrants at bus or railway stations, enticing them to a nearby forest or other secluded area and killing them, usually by stabbing, slashing and eviscerating the victim with a knife; although some victims, in addition to receiving a multitude of knife wounds, were also strangled or battered to death.^[30] Many of the bodies found bore striations of the eye sockets. Pathologists concluded the injuries were caused by a knife, leading investigators to the conclusion the killer had gouged out the eyes of his victims.^[31] Chikatilo's adult female victims were often prostitutes or homeless women who could be lured to secluded areas with promises of alcohol or money. Chikatilo would typically attempt intercourse with these victims, but he would usually be unable to get an erection, which would send him into a murderous fury, particularly if the woman mocked his impotence. He would achieve orgasm only when he stabbed the victim to death. His child victims were of both sexes; Chikatilo would lure these victims to secluded areas using a variety of ruses, usually formed in the initial conversation with the victim,^[32] such as promising them assistance or company; with the offer to show the victim a shortcut;^[33] a chance to view rare stamps, films or coins or with an offer of food or candy. He would usually overpower these victims once they were alone, tie their hands behind their backs with a length of rope, and then proceed to kill them.^[34]

Sergey Markov disappeared on December 27, 1983.

Investigation

Chikatilo did not kill again until June 1983, but he had killed five more times by September. The accumulation of bodies and the similarities between the pattern of wounds inflicted on the victims forced the Soviet authorities to acknowledge that a serial killer was on the loose: on September 6, 1983, the public prosecutor of the USSR formally linked six of the murders thus far committed to the same killer.^[35] A Moscow police team, headed by Major Mikhail Fetisov, was sent to Rostov-on-Don to direct the investigation. Fetisov centered the investigations around Shakhty and assigned a specialist forensic analyst, Victor Burakov, to head the investigation. Due to the sheer savagery of the murders, much of the police effort concentrated on mentally ill citizens, homosexuals, known pedophiles and sex offenders, slowly working through all that were known and eliminating them from the inquiry. A number of young men confessed to the murders, although they were usually mentally handicapped youths who admitted to the crimes only under prolonged and often brutal interrogation. Three known homosexuals and a convicted sex offender committed suicide as a result of the investigators' heavy-handed tactics^[36]. But as police obtained confessions from suspects, bodies continued to be discovered, proving that the suspects who had confessed could not be the killer the police were seeking; in October 1983, Chikatilo killed a 19-year-old prostitute, and in December a 14-year-old schoolboy named Sergey Markov.^[37]

The killings continue

In January and February 1984, Chikatilo killed two women in Rostov's Aviators' Park. On March 24, he lured a 10-year-old boy named Dmitry Ptashnikov away from a stamp kiosk in Novoshakhtinsk. While walking with the boy, Chikatilo was seen by several witnesses who were able to give investigators a detailed description of the killer; when Ptashnikov's body was found three days later, police also found a footprint of the killer and semen and saliva samples on the victim's clothing.^[38]

On May 25, Chikatilo killed a young woman, Tatyana Petrosyan and her 11-year-old daughter, Svetlana, in woodland outside Shakhty. Petrosyan had known Chikatilo for several years prior to her murder.^[39] By July 19, he had killed three further young women between the ages of 19 and 22 and a 13-year-old boy.

In the summer of 1984, Chikatilo was fired from his work as a supply clerk for theft of property. The accusation had been filed against Chikatilo the previous February and he had been asked to resign quietly but had refused to do so as he had denied the charges.^[40] Chikatilo found another job as a supply clerk in Rostov on August 1.^[41]

Natalya Golosovskaya, aged 16, killed in Novoshakhtinsk on August 2, 1984.

On August 2, Chikatilo killed a 16-year-old girl, Natalya Golosovskaya, in Aviators' Park and on August 7, he killed a 17-year-old girl on the banks of the Don River before flying to the Uzbekistan capital of Tashkent on a business trip. By the time Chikatilo returned to Rostov on August 15, he had killed a young woman and a 12-year-old girl. Within two weeks an 11-year-old boy had been found strangled, castrated and with his eyes gouged out in Rostov before a young librarian, Irina Luchinskaya, was killed in Rostov's Aviators' Park on September 6.

Arrest and release

On September 13, 1984, exactly one week after his fifteenth killing of the year, Chikatilo was observed by an undercover detective attempting to lure young women away from a Rostov bus station.^[42] He was arrested and held. A search of his belongings revealed a knife and rope.^[43] He was also discovered to be under investigation for minor theft at one of his former employers, which gave the investigators the legal right to hold him for a prolonged period of time. Chikatilo's dubious background was uncovered, and his physical description matched the description of the man seen with Dmitry Ptashnikov in March. These factors provided insufficient evidence to convict him of the murders, however. He was found guilty of theft of property from his previous employer^[44] and sentenced to one year in prison, but was freed on December 12, 1984 after serving three months.^[45]

On October 8, 1984, the head of the Russian Public Prosecutors Office formally linked 23 of Chikatilo's murders into one case, and dropped all charges against the mentally handicapped youths who had previously confessed to the murders.^[46]

Following the September 6 murder of Irina Luchinskaya, no further bodies were found bearing the trademark mutilation of Chikatilo's murders and investigators in Rostov theorized that the unknown killer might have moved to another part of the Soviet Union and continued killing there. The Rostov police sent bulletins to all forces throughout the Soviet Union, describing the pattern of wounds their unknown killer inflicted upon his victims and requesting feedback from any police force who had discovered murder victims with wounds matching those upon the victims found in the Rostov Oblast. The response was negative.^[47]

Later murders and the manhunt

Upon his release from jail, Chikatilo found new work in Novocherkassk and kept a low profile. He did not kill again until July 31, 1985, when he murdered a young woman near Domodedovo Airport, near Moscow. One month later, Chikatilo killed another woman in Shakhty. Both victims were linked to the hunt for the killer.^[48]

In November 1985, a special procurator named Issa Kostoyev was appointed to supervise the investigation.^[49] The known murders around Rostov were carefully re-investigated and police began another round of questioning of known sex offenders. The following month, the militsiya and Voluntary People's Druzhina renewed the patrolling of railway stations around Rostov. The police also took the step of consulting a psychiatrist, Dr. Alexandr Bukhanovsky, the first such consultation in a serial killer investigation in the Soviet Union.^[50] Bukhanovsky produced a 65-page psychological profile of the unknown killer for the investigators, describing the killer as a man aged between 45 and 50 years old who was of average intelligence, likely to be married or had previously been married, but also a sadist who could achieve sexual arousal only by seeing his victims suffer.^[51] Bukhanovsky also argued, because many of the killings had occurred on weekdays near mass transportation and across the entire Rostov Oblast, that the killer's work required him to travel regularly, and based upon the actual days of the week when the killings had occurred, the killer was most likely tied to a production schedule.^[52]

Chikatilo followed the investigation carefully, reading newspaper reports about the manhunt for the killer^[53] and keeping his homicidal urges under control; throughout 1986 he is not known to have committed any murders. In 1987 Chikatilo killed three times; on each occasion he killed while on a business trip far away from the Rostov Oblast and none of these murders were linked to the manhunt in Rostov.^[54] Chikatilo's first murder in 1987 was committed in May, when he killed a 13-year-old boy named Oleg Makarenkov in Revda. In July, he killed another boy in Zaporozhye and a third in Leningrad in September.

In 1988, Chikatilo killed three times, murdering an unidentified woman in Krasny-Sulin in April and two boys in May and July. His first killing bore wounds similar to those inflicted on the victims linked to the manhunt killed between 1982 and 1985, but as the woman had been killed with a slab of concrete, investigators were unsure whether to link the murder to the investigation.^[55] In May Chikatilo killed a 9-year-old boy in Ilovaisk, Ukraine. The boy's wounds left no doubt the killer had struck again, and this murder was linked to the manhunt.^[56] On July 14, Chikatilo killed a 15-year-old boy named Yevgeny Muratov at Donleskhoz station near Shakhty. Muratov's murder was also linked to the investigation, although his body was not found until April 1989.^[57]

Aleksey Khobotov. Chikatilo led police to Khobotov's body in December, 1990.

Chikatilo did not kill again until March 8, 1989, when he killed a 16-year-old girl in his daughter's vacant apartment. He dismembered her body and hid the remains in a sewer. As the victim had been dismembered, police did not link her murder to the investigation. Between May and August, Chikatilo killed a further four victims, three of whom were killed in Rostov and Shakhty,^[58] although only two of the victims were linked to the killer.

On January 14, 1990, Chikatilo killed an 11-year-old boy in Shakhty. On March 7, he killed a 10-year-old boy named Yaroslav Makarov in Rostov Botanical Gardens. The eviscerated body was found the following day.^[59] On March 11, the leaders of the investigation, headed by Mikhail Fetisov, held a meeting to discuss progress made in the hunt for the killer.^[60] Fetisov was under intense pressure from the public, the press and the Ministry of the Interior in Moscow to solve the case: the intensity of the manhunt in the years up to 1984 had receded to a degree between 1985 and 1987, when Chikatilo had killed only two victims conclusively linked to the killer — both of them in 1985. By March 1990, six further victims had been linked to the killer. Fetisov had noted laxity in some areas of the investigation, and warned that people would be fired if the killer was not caught soon.^[61]

Chikatilo had killed three further victims by August 1990: On April 4, he killed a 31-year-old woman in woodland near Donleskhoz station,^[62] on July 28, he lured a 13-year-old boy away from a Rostov train station and killed him in Rostov Botanical Gardens^[63] and on August 14, he killed an 11-year-old boy in the reeds near Novocherkassk beach.

The snare

The discovery of more victims sparked a massive operation by the police; as several victims had been found at stations on one rail route through the Rostov Oblast,^[64] Viktor Burakov — who had been involved in the hunt for the killer since 1982 — suggested a plan to saturate all larger stations in the Rostov Oblast with an obvious uniformed police presence the killer could not fail to notice, with the intention of discouraging the killer from attempting to strike at any of these locations, and to patrol with undercover agents smaller and less busy stations where his activities would be more likely to be noticed. The plan was approved, and both the uniformed and undercover officers were instructed to question any adult man in the company of a young woman or child and note his name and passport number.^[65] Police deployed 360 men at all the stations in the Rostov Oblast, and only undercover officers at the three smallest stations — Kirpichnaya, Donleskhoz and Lesostep' — on the route through the oblast where the killer had struck most frequently,^[66] in an effort to force the killer to strike at one of these three stations. The operation was implemented on October 27, 1990.^[67]

On October 30, police found the body of a 16-year-old boy named Vadim Gromov at Donleskhoz Station. Gromov had been killed on October 17, 10 days before the start of the initiative. The same day Gromov's body was found, Chikatilo lured another 16-year-old boy, Viktor Tishchenko, off a train at Kirpichnaya Station, another station under surveillance from undercover police, and killed him in a nearby forest.^[68]

Surveillance

On November 6, 1990, Chikatilo killed and mutilated a 22-year-old woman named Svetlana Korostik in woodland near Donleskhoz Station.^[69] While leaving the crime scene, he was seen by an undercover officer.^[70] The policeman observed Chikatilo approach a well and wash his hands and face.^[70] When he approached the station, the undercover officer noted that his coat had grass and soil stains on the elbows. Chikatilo also had a small red smear on his cheek.^[71] To the officer, he looked suspicious. The only reason people entered woodland near the station at that time of year was to gather wild mushrooms (a popular pastime in Russia). Chikatilo, however, was not dressed like a typical forest hiker; he was wearing more formal attire. Moreover, he had a nylon sports bag, which was not suitable for carrying mushrooms.

The policeman stopped Chikatilo and checked his papers, but had no formal reason to arrest him. When the policeman returned to his office, he filed a routine report, containing the name of the person he had stopped at the train station.

On November 13 Korostik's body was found. Police summoned the officer in charge of surveillance at Donleskhoz Station and examined the reports of all men stopped and questioned in the previous week.^[72] Chikatilo's name was among those reports, and his name was familiar to several officers involved in the case, as he had been questioned in 1984 and placed upon a 1987 suspect list compiled and distributed throughout the Soviet Union.^[73][74] Upon checking with Chikatilo's present and previous employers, investigators were able to place Chikatilo in various towns and cities at times when several victims linked to the investigation had been killed.^[75] Former colleagues from Chikatilo's teaching days informed investigators that Chikatilo had been forced to resign from his teaching position due to complaints of sexual assault from several pupils.^[76]

Police placed Chikatilo under surveillance on November 14. In several instances, particularly on trains or buses, he was observed to approach lone young women or children and engage them in conversation; if the woman or child broke off the conversation, Chikatilo would wait a few minutes and then seek another conversation partner.^[77] On November 20, after six days of surveillance, Chikatilo left his house with a one-gallon flask for beer, then wandered around Novocherkassk, attempting to make contact with children he met on his way. Upon exiting a cafe, Chikatilo was arrested by four plainclothes police officers.^[78]

Final arrest

Chikatilo is arrested in Novocherkassk, November 20, 1990

Upon arrest, Chikatilo gave a statement claiming that the police were mistaken, and complained that he had also been arrested in 1984 for the same series of murders.^[79] A strip-search of the suspect revealed a further piece of evidence: one of Chikatilo's fingers had a flesh wound. Medical examiners concluded the wound was, in fact, from a human bite. Chikatilo's penultimate victim was a physically strong 16-year-old youth. At the crime scene, the police had found numerous signs of a ferocious physical struggle between the victim and his murderer. Although a fingerbone was later found to be broken and his fingernail had been bitten off, Chikatilo had never sought medical treatment for the wound.^[80] A search of Chikatilo's belongings revealed he had been in possession of a folding knife at the time of his arrest.

Chikatilo was placed in a cell inside the KGB headquarters in Rostov with a police informer, who was instructed to engage Chikatilo in conversation and elicit any information he could from him.^[81]

The next day, 21 November, formal questioning of Chikatilo began. The interrogation was performed by Issa Kostoyev. The strategy chosen by the police to elicit a confession was to lead Chikatilo to believe that he was a very sick man in need of medical help. The intention of this strategy was to give Chikatilo hope that if he confessed, he would not be prosecuted by reason of insanity. Police knew their case against Chikatilo was largely circumstantial, and under Soviet law, they had ten days in which they could legally hold a suspect before either charging or releasing him.

Chikatilo in custody on November 20, 1990.

Throughout the questioning, Chikatilo repeatedly denied that he had committed the murders, although he did confess to molesting his pupils during his career as a teacher.^[82] He also produced several written essays for Kostoyev which, although evasive regarding the actual murders, did reveal psychological symptoms consistent with those predicted by Dr. Bukhanovsky in 1985. The interrogation tactics used by Kostoyev may also have caused Chikatilo to become defensive; the informer sharing a KGB cell with Chikatilo reported to police that Chikatilo had informed him that Kostoyev had repeatedly asked him direct questions regarding the mutilations inflicted upon the victims.^[83]

Chikatilo's confession

On November 29, at the request of Burakov and Fetisov, Dr. Aleksandr Bukhanovsky, the psychiatrist who had written the 1985 psychological profile of the then-unknown killer for the investigators, was invited to assist in the questioning of the suspect. Bukhanovsky read extracts from his 65-page psychological profile to Chikatilo.^[84] Within two hours, Chikatilo confessed to 36 murders police had linked to the killer: although he denied two additional murders the police had initially linked to him. On November 30, he was formally charged with each of these 36 murders, all of which had been committed between June 1982 and November, 1990.^[85]

Chikatilo confessed to a further 20 killings which had not been connected to the case, either because the murders had been committed outside the Rostov Oblast,^[86] because the bodies had not been found or, in the case of Yelena Zakotnova, because an innocent man had been convicted and executed for the murder.

In December 1990, Chikatilo led police to the body of Aleksey Khobotov,^[87] a boy he had confessed to killing in 1989 and whom he had buried in woodland near a Shakhty cemetery, proving unequivocally that he was the killer.^[88] He later led investigators to the bodies of two other victims he had confessed to killing. Three of the 56 victims Chikatilo confessed to killing could not be found or identified, but Chikatilo was charged with killing 53 women and children between 1978 and 1990. He was held in the same cell in Rostov-on-Don where he had been detained on November 20, to await trial.

Psychiatric evaluation

On August 20, 1991,^[89] after completing the interrogation of Chikatilo and having completed a re-enactment of all the murders at each crime scene,^[90] Chikatilo was transferred to the Serbsky Institute in Moscow for a six-day psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he was mentally competent to stand trial. Chikatilo was analysed by a senior psychiatrist, Dr. Andrei Tkachenko, who declared him legally sane on October 18.^[91] In December 1991, details of Chikatilo's arrest and a brief summary of his crimes were released to the newly-liberated media by police.^[92]

Chikatilo at his trial in 1992.

Trial and execution

The trial of Andrei Chikatilo was the first major event of post-Soviet Russia. Chikatilo stood trial in Rostov on April 14, 1992.^[93] During the trial, he was kept in an iron cage in a corner of the courtroom to protect him from attack by the many hysterical and enraged relatives of his victims. Chikatilo's head had been shaven — a standard prison precaution against lice.^[94] Relatives of victims regularly shouted threats and insults to Chikatilo throughout the trial, demanding that authorities release him so that they could kill him themselves. Each murder was discussed individually and, on several occasions, relatives broke down in tears when details of their relatives' murder were revealed; some even fainted.^[95]

Chikatilo regularly interrupted the trial, exposing himself, singing, and refusing to answer questions put to him by the judge. He was regularly removed from the courtroom for interrupting the proceedings.^[96] On May 13, Chikatilo withdrew his confessions to six of the killings to which he had previously confessed.^[97]

In July 1992, Chikatilo demanded that the judge be replaced for making too many rash remarks about his guilt. His defense counsel backed the claim. The judge looked to the prosecutor and even the prosecutor backed the defense's judgment, stating the judge had indeed made too many such remarks.^[98] The judge ruled the prosecutor be replaced instead.

On August 9, both prosecution and defense delivered their final arguments before the judge. Chikatilo again attempted to interrupt the proceedings and had to be removed from the courtroom. Final sentence was postponed until October 14.^[99] As the final deliberations began, the brother of Lyudmila Alekseyeva, a 17-year-old girl killed by Chikatilo in August 1984, threw a heavy chunk of metal at Chikatilo, hitting him in the chest.^[100] When security tried to arrest the young man, other victims' relatives shielded him, preventing him from being arrested.

On October 14, the court reconvened and the judge read the list of murders again, not finishing until the following day.^[101] On October 15, Chikatilo was found guilty of 52 of the 53 murders and sentenced to death for each offense. Chikatilo kicked his bench across his cage when he heard the verdict, and began shouting abuse. He was offered a final chance to make a speech in response to the verdict, but remained silent.^[102] Upon passing final sentence, Judge Leonid Akhobzyanov made the following speech:

“

Taking into consideration the monstrous crimes he committed, this court has no alternative but to impose the only sentence that he deserves. I therefore sentence him to death.

”

On January 4, 1994, Russian President Boris Yeltsin refused a last-ditch appeal for clemency^{[citation needed]}. On February 14, Chikatilo was taken to a soundproofed room in Novocherkassk prison and executed by a single gunshot behind the right ear.^[103][104]

List of victims

Number[105]	Name[106]	Sex	Age	Date of Murder	Notes
1	Yelena Zakotnova	F	9	December 22, 1978	Chikatilo's first victim. Accosted by Chikatilo while walking home from an ice-skating rink.
2	Larisa Tkachenko	F	17	September 3, 1981	Approached by Chikatilo while waiting for a bus back to her boarding school.[26]
3	Lyubov Biryuk	F	13	June 12, 1982	Biryuk was abducted while returning from a shopping trip in the village of Donskoi.[107]
4	Lyubov Volobuyeva	F	14	July 25, 1982	Killed in an orchard near Krasnodar Airport.[88] Her body was found August 7.
5	Oleg Pozhidayev	M	9	August 13, 1982	Chikatilo's first male victim. Pozhidayev was killed in Adygea. His body was never found.[108]
6	Olga Kuprina	F	16	August 16, 1982	Killed in Kazachi Lagerya. Her body was found October 27.[109]
7	Irina Karabelnikova	F	19	September 8, 1982	Lured away from Shakhty station by Chikatilo. Her body was found September 20.
8	Sergey Kuzmin	M	15	September 15, 1982	A runaway from a boarding school. Kuzmin's body was found at Shakhty station in January, 1983.
9	Olga Stalmachenok	F	10	December 11, 1982	Olga was lured off a bus while riding home from her piano lessons in Novoshakhtinsk.[110]
10	Laura Sarkisyan	F	15	After June 18, 1983	Sarkisyan was from Armenia. Her body was never found.
11	Irina Dunenkova	F	13	July 1983	Dunenkova's body was found in Aviators' Park, Rostov, on August 8, 1983.[35]
12	Lyudmila Kushuba	F	24	July 1983	Killed in woodland near a Shakhty bus station. Her body was found March 12, 1984.[111]
13	Igor Gudkov	M	7	August 9, 1983	Gudkov was Chikatilo's youngest victim. He was the first male victim linked to the manhunt.
14	Valentina Chuchulina	F	22	After September 19, 1983	Chuchulina's body was found November 27, 1983 in woodland near Kirpichnaya station.[112]
15	Unknown woman	F	18–25	Summer, 1983[113]	Chikatilo claimed he encountered this victim while she tried to find a "man (client) with a car."
16	Vera Shevkun	F	19	October 27, 1983	Killed in a mining village near Shakhty. Her body was found October 30.[114]
17	Sergey Markov	M	14	December 27, 1983	Disappeared while returning home from work experience. His body was found January 4, 1984.
18	Natalya Shalapinina	F	17	January 9, 1984	Shalapinina had been a close friend of Olga Kuprina, killed by Chikatilo in 1982.
19	Marta Ryabenko	F	45	February 21, 1984	Chikatilo's oldest victim. She was killed in Aviators' Park, Rostov.
20	Dmitriy Ptashnikov	M	10	March 24, 1984	Lured from a stamp kiosk by Chikatilo, who pretended to be a fellow collector.[34]
21	Tatyana Petrosyan	F	32	May 25, 1984	Murdered together with her daughter outside Shakhty. She had known Chikatilo since 1978.[115]
22	Svetlana Petrosyan	F	11	May 25, 1984	Svetlana saw Chikatilo murder her mother before he chased her and killed her with a hammer.
23	Yelena Bakulina	F	22	June 22, 1984	Bakulina's body was found August 27, in the Bagasenski region of Rostov.[116]
24	Dmitriy Illarionov	M	13	July 10, 1984	Vanished in Rostov while on his way to get a health certificate for summer camp.[117]
25	Anna Lemesheva	F	19	July 19, 1984	A student who disappeared on her way to visit a dentist. She was killed in Shakhty.
26	Svetlana Tsana	F	20	July 1984	Originally from Riga. Her body was found September 9 in Aviators' Park, Rostov.[116]
27	Natalya Golosovskaya	F	16	August 2, 1984	Vanished on a visit to Novoshakhtinsk, where she was to visit her sister.[118]
28	Lyudmila Alekseyeva	F	17	August 7, 1984	A student lured from a bus stop by Chikatilo, who offered to direct her to Rostov's bus terminal.[119]
29	Unknown woman	F	20–25	August 8–11, 1984	Killed in Tashkent by Chikatilo while on a business trip to the Uzbek SSR city.
30	Akmaral Seydaliyeva	F	12	August 13, 1984	A runaway from Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, also killed by Chikatilo in Tashkent.[120]
31	Aleksandr Chepel	M	11	August 28, 1984	Chepel was killed on the banks of the Don river, near where Alekseyeva had been killed.[117]
32	Irina Luchinskaya	F	24	September 6, 1984	A Rostov librarian, killed by Chikatilo in Aviators' Park, Rostov.[121]
33	Natalya Pokhlistova	F	18	July 31, 1985	Lured off a train by Chikatilo near Domodedovo Airport, Moscow Oblast. Her body was found August 3.[122]
34	Irina Gulyayeva	F	18	August 27, 1985	Killed in a grove of trees near Shakhty bus station. Her body was found the following day.[123]
35	Oleg Makarenkov	M	13	May 16, 1987	Killed in Sverdlovsk, Ukraine, Chikatilo led police to his remains after his arrest.[124]
36	Ivan Bilovetskiy	M	12	July 29, 1987	Killed by Chikatilo on a business trip to Zaporizhya, Ukrainian SSR. His body was found July 30.[125]
37	Yuri Tereshonok	M	16	September 15, 1987	Lured off a train in Leningrad Oblast. Chikatilo led police to his remains after his arrest.[105]
38	Unknown woman	F	18–25	April 1–4, 1988	Killed near Krasny Sulin train station. Her body was found April 6.[126]
39	Aleksey Voronko	M	9	May 15, 1988	Voronko was killed near a train station in Ilovaisk, Ukraine: the Rostov–Ukraine rail route.[127]
40	Yevgeniy Muratov	M	15	July 14, 1988	The first victim killed near Rostov since 1985. Muratov's body was found on April 10, 1989.[128]
41	Tatyana Ryzhova	F	16	March 8, 1989	A runaway from Krasny Sulin, she was killed in Chikatilo's own daughter's apartment.
42	Aleksandr Dyakonov	M	8	May 11, 1989	Killed in Rostov city centre the day after his 8th birthday. His body was found July 14.[123]
43	Aleksey Moiseyev	M	10	June 20, 1989	Killed in the Vladimir region, east of Moscow. Chikatilo confessed to this murder after his arrest.[129]
44	Helena Varga	F	19	August 19, 1989	A student from Hungary who had a child. She was lured off a bus and killed in a village near Rostov.[130]
45	Aleksey Khobotov	M	10	August 28, 1989	Vanished from outside a theater in Shakhty. Chikatilo led police to his remains after his arrest.
46	Andrey Kravchenko	M	11	January 14, 1990	Lured from a cinema by Chikatilo. He was killed in Shakhty. Kravchenko's body was found February 19.[131]
47	Yaroslav Makarov	M	10	March 7, 1990	Lured from a Rostov train station by Chikatilo. He was killed in Rostov botanical gardens.[132]
48	Lyubov Zuyeva	F	31	April 4, 1990	Lured off a train near the Donleskhoz station near Shakhty. Her body was found August 24.
49	Viktor Petrov	M	13	July 28, 1990	Killed in Rostov botanical gardens; a few yards from where Makarov had been murdered.[133]
50	Ivan Fomin	M	11	August 14, 1990	Killed at Novocherkassk municipal beach. His body was found August 17.[134]
51	Vadim Gromov	M	16	October 17, 1990	A student from Shakhty. Gromov vanished while riding the train to Taganrog.[135]
52	Viktor Tishchenko	M	16	October 30, 1990	Killed in Shakhty. Tishchenko fought hard for his life; he was the victim who bit Chikatilo's finger.
53	Svetlana Korostik	F	22	November 6, 1990	Chikatilo's last victim. Her body was found November 13 in woodland near Donleskhoz station.

Chikatilo in Media

In film

• The film, Citizen X, based on Robert Cullen's book The Killer Department, was made in 1995 about the investigation of the "Rostov Ripper" murders. Citizen X starred Jeffrey DeMunn as Chikatilo, with Stephen Rea as Viktor Burakov, Donald Sutherland as Mikhail Fetisov, and Max von Sydow as Dr. Alexandr Bukhanovsky.

• The 2004 film Evilenko, starring Malcolm McDowell and Marton Csokas, was loosely based on Chikatilo's murders.

Factual books

Four books have been written about the case of Andrei Chikatilo:

• The Killer Department, written by Robert Cullen (ISBN 1-85797-210-4)

• Hunting The Devil, written by Richard Lourie (ISBN 0-586-21846-7)

• The Red Ripper, written by Peter Conradi (ISBN 0-86369-618-X)

• Comrade Slayer: Andrei Chikatilo and his victims, written by Mikhail Krivich and Olgert Olgin (ISBN 0-45001-717-6)

Fictional books

Child 44, a novel by Tom Rob Smith, draws heavily on the Chikatilo story, with the events set several decades earlier during the time of Joseph Stalin and immediately thereafter.

See also

• List of murderers by number of victims

Footnotes

1. ^ The Killer Department
2. ^ The Red Ripper
3. ^ http://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/crime-files/andre-chikatilo-the-rostov-ripper/biography.html
4. ^ Andrei Chikatilo
5. ^ The Killer Department, p. 213.
6. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 14.
7. ^ The Killer Department, p. 263
8. ^ The Killer Department, p. 262
9. ^ ^{a b} Andrei Chikatilo: The Rostov Ripper - Famous Criminal - Homepage - Crime And Investigation Network
10. ^ The Killer Department, p. 262
11. ^ The Killer Department, p. 214-215
12. ^ The Killer Department, p. 264
13. ^ Profile of Chikatilo at True Life Crimes
14. ^ The Killer Department, p. 217
15. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 20
16. ^ The Killer Department p. 266
17. ^ The Killer Department, p. 219
18. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 29
19. ^ The Killer Department, p. 221
20. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 252
21. ^ Verbal Plainfield. "Serial Killers A-Z; Andrei Chikatilo". Archived from the original on 2009-10-25. http://www.webcitation.org/5knI0A7Y4. 
22. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 43
23. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 44
24. ^ The Killer Department, p. 194
25. ^ The Killer Department, p. 198
26. ^ ^{a b} The Red Ripper, p. 55.
27. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 54-57
28. ^ The Killer Department, p. 4.
29. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 60.
30. ^ Real Life Crimes, issue 7, p. 150.
31. ^ The Killer Department p. 30
32. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 178
33. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 98
34. ^ ^{a b} The Killer Department, p. 202.
35. ^ ^{a b} The Red Ripper, p. 253.
36. ^ The Killer Department, p. 251.
37. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 76.
38. ^ http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/chikatilo/killer_6.html
39. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 85-87
40. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 79
41. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 254
42. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 1.
43. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 8.
44. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 118
45. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 118.
46. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 112-113
47. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 115
48. ^ The Killer Department p. 111
49. ^ The Killer Department p. 118-119
50. ^ The Killer Department.
51. ^ The Killer Department, p. 126–129.
52. ^ The Killer Department, p. 129.
53. ^ The Killer Department p. 233
54. ^ The Red Ripper p. 133
55. ^ The Killer Department, p. 146.</here
56. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 256-257
57. ^ The Killer Department, p. 152
58. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 256-257
59. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 257
60. ^ The Killer Department, p. 159
61. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 158-159
62. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 157
63. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 167
64. ^ The Killer Department p. 164
65. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 187.
66. ^ The Killer Department p. 163-165
67. ^ The Killer Department p. 165
68. ^ The Killer Department p. 166
69. ^ The Killer Department p. 169
70. ^ ^{a b} The Killer Department p. 171
71. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 186.
72. ^ The Killer Department p. 170
73. ^ The Killer Department p. 170-171
74. ^ The Killer Department p. 251
75. ^ The Killer Department p207
76. ^ The Killer Department p172
77. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 192
78. ^ The Red Ripper, p.193
79. ^ The Killer Department, p. 181
80. ^ The Killer Department, p. 177.
81. ^ The Killer Department, p. 179
82. ^ The Killer Department, p. 187-188
83. ^ The Killer Department, p. 190
84. ^ The Killer Department, p. 193-196
85. ^ The Red Ripper, p.258
86. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 95
87. ^ The Killer Department, p. 204
88. ^ ^{a b} The Killer Department, p. 205.
89. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 214
90. ^ The Killer Department, p. 210
91. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 216
92. ^ The Killer Department, p. 235
93. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 229
94. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 230
95. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 231
96. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 234
97. ^ The Killer Department, p. 243
98. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 236
99. ^ The Killer Department, p. 245-246
100. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 241
101. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 247-248
102. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 249
103. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=iu8VAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1xMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5278,1621788&dq
104. ^ http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/chikatilo/epilogue_14.html
105. ^ ^{a b} http://vitaextensa.narod.ru/chikatilo_victims.htm
106. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 252–257.
107. ^ The Killer Department, p. 3–5.
108. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 60.
109. ^ The Killer Department, p. 15
110. ^ The Killer Department, p. 25.
111. ^ The Killer Department, p. 65
112. ^ The Killer Department, p. 49.
113. ^ The Killer Department, p. 46-47
114. ^ The Killer Department, p. 48-49
115. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 82.
116. ^ ^{a b} The Red Ripper, p. 254.
117. ^ ^{a b} The Killer Department, p. 78
118. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 93
119. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 93-94.
120. ^ The Killer Department, p. 205
121. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 101.
122. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 123-124
123. ^ ^{a b} The Red Ripper, p. 256
124. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 256.
125. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 133-135
126. ^ The Killer Department, p. 146
127. ^ The Killer Department, p. 147
128. ^ The Killer Department, p. 152.
129. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 257.
130. ^ The Killer Department, p. 156
131. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 165
132. ^ The Killer Department, p. 157
133. ^ The Red Ripper, p. 166.
134. ^ The Killer Department, p. 160-161
135. ^ The Killer Department, p. 165.

Bibliography

• Conradi, Peter. The Red Ripper: Inside the Mind of Russia’s Most Brutal Serial Killer. 1992. ISBN 0440216036
• Cullen, Robert. The Killer Department: The Eight-Year Hunt for the Most Savage Serial Killer of Our Times. Orion Media, 1993. ISBN 1857972104
• Lourie, Richard. Hunting the Devil. The Pursuit, Capture and Confession of the Most Savage Serial Killer in History. 1993. ISBN 0060177179
• Smith, Tom Rob. Child 44. 2008. ISBN 1847371264. A crime novel loosely based on Chikatilo.
• NTV (1997). Criminal Russia: The trail of Satan. A documentary on Chikatilo's case, produced by a Russian TV channel.

External links

• Chikatilo's sentence
• Andrei Chikatilo profile from Crime and Investigation Network
• List of Chikatilo's victims with photos
• Son of Andrei Chikatilo tries to follow in dad’s footsteps
• Tchikatilo’s Calvary by Mikhail Volokhov

Persondata
Name	Chikatilo, Andrei
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 16, 1936
Place of birth	Yablochnoye, Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine)
Date of death	February 14, 1994
Place of death	Novocherkassk, Russia