Andrei Chikatilo, the Butcher of Rostov
The greatest serial killer in the Soviet Union, he is responsible for at least 52 cases. He lived a double life. On one side he was married, a worker, a member of Communist society and on the other side he was a clever murderer with great skills to gain children’s trust. He acted at railway and bus stations. In 1990, after getting away with murder for twelve years, he was discovered.Retained by the KGB, the senile looking criminal said: “How can you do this to a person my age?” He finally broke down and ended up confessing and promising to provide evidence of his crimes in exchange for not being interrogated anymore. He hoped that the number of murders he had committed would make him a “specimen of scientific study.” In his statement he said that, since childhood, he had felt worthless as a man and as a person, and that he had not done it for pleasure, but because he needed to find peace.
“I am a mistake of nature, a mad beast.” The ruthless murderer tried to allege a mental illness, but psychiatrists considered him a prudent sadist whose actions were premeditated. On October 15, 1992, he was sentenced to death and executed with a single gunshot on February 14, 1994. His awful actions were fictionalized by Tom Rob Smith in the best-seller, Child 44.
