A Brief History
On November 20, 1990, serial killer Andrei Chikatilo was arrested in Rostov Oblast of the Soviet Union by undercover detectives that had been tailing him. Chikatilo eventually confessed to 56 murders and was executed in 1994.
Digging Deeper
Born in Ukraine in 1936, his family was starving during the Holodomor famine. Chikatilo claimed his family had to eat “grass and leaves” to survive, and that his brother was kidnapped by neighbors and cannibalized.
Poverty stricken and hungry, Chikatilo was weak and constantly bullied. Usually impotent, Chikatilo found sexual release in violence toward girls. Conscripted into the Army in 1957, Chikatilo had a relationship with a woman impaired by his impotence, earning him ridicule.
By 1973, Chikatilo’s career of sexual assault, mutilation, and murder began, including child victims of both sexes. Arrested in 1984, Chikatilo avoided murder charges and was released.
A massive police effort to nail the serial killer was needed to finally catch and convict The Ripper.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Krivich, Mikhail and Olgert Ol’Gin. Comrade Chikatilo: The Psychopathology of Russia’s Notorious Serial Killer. UNKNO, 1993.
Lawless Press. The Butcher of Rostov: The Shocking Biography of Andrei Chikatilo. Kindle, 2023.
The featured image in this article, a map of the Russian Federation’s administrative and political divisions in 1993, is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.
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