Charged with 53 counts of murder, Andrei Chikatilo would be convicted of 52 of those in 1992 and was subsequently put to death in 1994 by a single gunshot to the back of his head.
Born in Ukraine in 1939 Chikatilo and his family were victims of Joseph Stalin’s brutal reign. There were rumors of cannibalism by those who were starving to stay alive and, according to Chikatilo, his own brother was cannibalized.
By serial killer standards Chikatilo started killing late in life. Under the guise of a wife and two children he graduated from molesting students at a school he worked for to murdering random victims solicited from train and bus station terminals and depots in 1978.
Chikatilo had no preference and therefore killed both males and females ranging from small children to adults. His first string of victims were feverishly stabbed, strangled and/or raped. As Chikatilo became more confident in his ability to lure and murder without being caught the more heinous his crimes became.
However, it would not be until 1981 that Chikatilo began to kill in earnest. Bodies were discovered in and around the woods surrounding each train or bus station terminals and depots. For the next nine years Chikatilo’s victims would be found not only stabbed an overtly extreme amount of times but some had their tongues or the tips of their noses bitten off. Some women would be missing one or both of their breasts while certain male victims would have been completely castrated.
Bodies would be discovered disemboweled with organs missing, eyes would be gouged or cut out and on a few victims semen was uncovered. Chikatilo was brought in for questioning on two occasions, but in 1984 and due to DNA testing and results being in its infancy, he was released and again able to roam free and kill again.
Labeled the “Rostov Ripper”, Chikatilo murdered and mutilated for six more years before finally being caught. Because of the communistic society in which he lived, hunted and killed in police were forbidden to release descriptions of both Chikatilo and his crimes, therefore it took much longer to finally apprehend and illicit a confession.
After several days of interrogation Chikatilo finally began to confess to his crimes. He claimed he was not a cannibal, however, but that he would bite off and chew on certain parts of the body and internal organs. More grisly were his retellings of some of his murders where he admitted to committing some of his depraved atrocities while his victims were still alive.
While on trial it is said that Chikatilo, from within his caged sitting area, exposed his genitals to those attending his trial, proclaimed he was pregnant, sang loudly and incessantly and overall ranted like a madman. The court was not to be dissuaded and after twenty-plus years of slayings Chikatilo was convicted of his crimes and executed accordingly.
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