Chikatilo: The evil man

This is somewhat of a daunting task but I’m going to attempt it anyway because the subject intrigues me.

I am going to write about Andrei Chikatilo, the serial killer accused of murdering 52 women and children in the Russian SFSR (Sovetskaya Federativnaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika).

I have recently finished reading Robert Cullen’s “The Killer Department” and it is a fascinating story. Chikatilo is probably one of the most evil figures I have ever read about. The book concentrates on the hunt for one of the world’s most savage killers and the man who was determined to catch him: Viktor Burakov, head of the special investigative unit.

Chikatilo, also known as the red Ripper, was born in the Ukraine and suffered what you might call a typical childhood of a serial killer. He suffered physical abuse and was a bed wetter from early on. During the Ukrainian famine, Chikatilo’s mother told him that his older brother Stepan had been captured and eaten by starving neighbors and Chikatilo would also witness the effects of the German bombing raids.

He would grow up to be a dangerous young man, suffering from chronic impotence, feeling socially awkward and harboring a deep anger.

After getting out of the military in 1960, he worked as a telephone engineer and also had his first sexual experience, jumping a teenage girl and ejaculating while she struggled.

Despite of his social awkwardness, Chikatilo married in 1963 and fathered a son and a daughter. He then tried working as a teacher but he was let go after allegations of molestation.

It was in 1978 that Chikatilo moved to Shakhty which is a coal mining town near Rostov. Here he was to commit his first murder, that of a nine-year-old girl whom he attempted to rape and when he found himself unable to get an erection, he instead stabbed her as she struggled and found himself sexually aroused by the blood. An innocent man was sentenced and executed for this crime.

Chikatilo managed to control the urge until 1982 where he killed several times. He would approach children or young women at bus or railway stations and convince them to go with him for food or in the children’s cases candy. They would go together to a nearby forest where he would murder them. The big bad wolf luring children away from safety. Chikatilo murdered six times in 1983 but in 1984 the murders escalated to 15 , all killed in horrible, sadistic ways.

Close call:

It was also in 84 the Chikatilo was found to behave in a suspicious way at a Rostov railway station and when his past was undercovered, he was found guilty of theft and sentenced to one year in prison but he was free after serving only three months .

The incarceration may have scared Chikatilo a little bit because he would not kill again until August 85 and then commit yet another murder in 87 when he killed a little boy during a business trip.

The hunt had also intensified since Issa Kostoyev had taken over the case, railway stations were being watched carefully and witnesses were interviewed together with known sex offenders. Chikatilo followed the case closely and this may also have been the reason why he had his urges somewhat under control between 85 and 87. Chikatilo was far from a crazed monster who didn’t know what he was doing – he was not crazy, he was a human being able to resist murdering when the risk of getting caught was too great .

In 1988, however, the killings erupted again as Chikatilo would murder eight people that year alone and then again there was a lapse until between January to November of 1990 where another nine people died .

The police had uniformed officers at every major bus and railway station around the Rostov area thus forcing the killer to hunt a smaller stations where a number of female agents would dress as homeless people or prostitutes wandering around stations waiting for the killer to strike .

In 1990 Chikatilo could have been caught .

He was coming out of the woods having just killed a young woman. He was carrying a sports bag and had blood stains on his face. An undercover officer stopped Chikatilo, looked at his papers and let him go . Had he searched the sports bag , he would have found a severed breast . There was no reason to arrest a Chikatilo and therefore he was let go . It was another close call .

It was also what sparked the police’s interest in him and he was watched 24/7 from now on . The police found him wandering around town trying to strike up conversations with children. He was arrested while coming out of a café .

Naturally the police hoped the Chikatilo would confess and they used the strategy of mental illness, telling Chikatilo he was a very ill man who needed help and a psychiatrist was involved in questioning him . It was after a lot of talking that Chikatilo confessed to murdering 52 people which stunned the police who only knew of 36 murders until then. When Chikatilo showed the police some undiscovered grave sites, they were sure he was being truthful.

Chikatilo was imprisoned in a cell by himself because child abusers and murderers are equally loathed in the prisons around the world . He would act normally in his cell , eating well and exercising but his behavior would become bizarre in front of the investigators . This would also be the case during the trial where Chikatilo sat in a big cage to prevent relatives of his victims to attack him .

At one point Chikatilo would drop his pants and act crazy , going into long rambling speeches , a tactic used to convince the judge that he was indeed insane .

There was no doubt how the trial would end . Chikatilo was sentenced to death for each offense , the murder of 52 people . The audience applauded .

It was the end of a miserable life when Chikatilo was taken into a sound proof room in Rostov prison and killed by a gunshot behind the right ear.

I suppose I am fascinated by Chikatilo’s case because here is a man who was evil through the core. He seems to live in people’s minds as this crazy, depraved boogeyman luring children away from their parents when in fact he was a human being, able to resist killing when he was scared of getting caught. He was in total control of his urges, far from the beast foaming around the mouth, attacking in front of everybody.

Chikatilo was a man. A person. The only difference between him and us is that he was dominantly evil.

That’s absolutely fascinating.

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