Villains Beginning With 'A'

Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo AKA
'The Red Ripper'

(October 16, 1936 - February 14, 1994)

Chikatilo was born in the village of Yablochnoye in 1936 and had a traumatic childhood, witnessing famine caused by the USSR being at war with Germany, and some of the German bombing raids.

The young Chikatilo had to share a bed with his mother as his father was at War and he frequently wet the bed, for which his mother beat and humiliated him.

Later after finishing national service in 1960, he moved to Rodionovo-Nesvetayevsky and worked as a telephone engineer.

Chikatilo married in 1963 and the couple had a son and daughter. Chikatilo claimed that his sex life while married was minimal. In 1971, he completed a degree in Russian literature and tried a career as a teacher in Novoshakhtinsk. There were many complaints of sexual abuse on his students but they were usually handled quietly and so he was able to move from school to school. He eventually took a job as a clerk for a factory, using his many business trips around the Soviet Union to carry out his killings.

In 1978, Chikatilo moved to Shakhty, a coal-mining town, where he on December 22, he lured a nine-year-old girl to an old house and attempted to rape her, but ended up stabbing her to death. He ejaculated in the process; from then on Chikatilo was only able to achieve sexual arousal and orgasm through stabbing and slashing women and children to death.

His first murder spree came in 1982. Chikatilo established a pattern of approaching runaways and young vagrants at bus or railway stations, enticing them to a nearby forest, and killing them. In 1983, his murdering did not begin until June, but he murdered four victims before September. His victims were all women and children. The adult females were often prostitutes or homeless women who could be easily lured. Chikatilo would typically attempt intercourse with his adult female 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 inability to perform. He would achieve orgasm only when he stabbed the victim to death. His child victims were of both sexes; Chikatilo would lure them to secluded areas by promising them toys or candy.

Six bodies (out of 14) had been uncovered by 1983 and a Moscow police team, headed by Major Mikhail Fetisov, was sent to Rostov-on-Don to direct the investigation. Many known sex offenders were investigated. In 1984, another 15 murders took place. The police took to additional patrols and posted plain-clothes men at many public transport stops.

Chikatilo was identified behaving suspiciously at a Rostov bus station. He was arrested and held. It was found he was 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 but provided insufficient evidence to convict him of the murders. He was found guilty on other matters and sentenced to one year in prison. He was freed in December 1984 after serving three months.

Chikatilo found new work in Novocherkassk and did not kill again until 1985, when he murdered two women. He is not known to have killed again until May 1987 when, on a business trip to Revda in Ukraine, he killed a young boy. He killed again in Zaporozhye in July and in Leningrad in September.

The moribund police investigation was revived in mid-1985 and Issa Kostoyev took over the case. The known murders around Rostov were re-investigated and there was another round of questioning of known sex offenders. In December 1985, the police renewed the patrolling of railway stations. Chikatilo followed the investigation carefully, and for over two years he kept his desires under control.

In 1988 Chikatilo resumed killing, and kept his activities far from the Rostov area. He murdered a woman in Krasny-Sulin in April and went on to kill another eight people that year, including two victims in Shakhty. There was a long lapse before Chikatilo resumed killing, murdering seven boys and two women between January and November of 1990.

This led to a massive operation by the police, involving a large number patrolling train, bus stations and other public places around Rostov area. Smaller and less busy stations were patrolled by undercover agents, hoping he would choose a victim at a station where the presence of police was not apparent. A large number of young female agents were dressed like prostitutes or homeless people.

On November 6 Chikatilo killed and mutilated Sveta Korostik. While leaving the crime scene, he was stopped by an undercover policeman who was patrolling the Leskhoz train station and saw Chikatilo approaching from the woods. Chikatilo was not dressed like a typical forest hiker. He was wearing rather formal attire. Moreover, he had a nylon sports-bag, not suitable for carrying mushrooms. His clothing was dirty and he had what looked like smeared blood stains on his cheek and ear. The policeman stopped Chikatilo and checked his papers. Having no formal reason for arrest, the policeman let him go. Had the policeman checked Chikatilo's bag, he would have found the amputated breasts of Sveta Korostik. When the policeman came back to his office, he filed a formal routine report, indicating the name of the person he stopped at the train station. Shortly after the encounter, the police found two dead bodies, 30 feet apart, near the train station Leskhoz. It was determined that one of the victims was killed around the date of the police report filed about this suspicious man near the Leskhoz station. It was the second time Chikatilo was indirectly associated with a murder of a child (the first one was in 1978, when a witness reported seeing a man whose description matched Chikatilo with a girl that was later found dead).

He was constantly followed and videotaped by undercover agents. On November 20, 1990, he left his house with a one gallon flask for beer (at that time, one could hardly buy bottled beer in the Soviet Union; one could only buy beer from a mobile beer station or café selling beer by volume; but even this type of beer was hard to find). Chikatilo kept wandering around the city with the flask, and kept attempting to make contact with children on his way. Finally, in a small cafe he bought 300ml of beer (the police force wondered why anyone would wander around the city for several hours just to buy 300ml of beer). The fact that he kept approaching children triggered the decision by the police force to arrest him when he exited the cafe.

Upon arrest, the police uncovered more evidence against Chikatilo. One of his last victims was a strong (although mentally challenged) 16 year old boy. At the crime scene, the police had found numerous signs of physical struggle. One of Chikatilo's fingers had a relatively fresh wound. Medical examiners concluded the wound was, in fact, from a human bite. In fact, the finger bone was broken, for which Chikatilo never sought medical attention.

One of the chief interrogators convinced Chikatilo that sick and if he confessed he wouldn't be prosecuted by reason of insanity. Finally a psychiatrist was invited to "help" and after a long conversation, Chikatilo confessed to the murders. Again, confession was not enough to prosecute him. Interrogators still needed hard evidence. Chikatilo volunteered to provide evidence and showed Police where he had buried some of the undiscovered bodies. The police had enough evidence to put him on trial. Between November 30 and December 5, Chikatilo confessed to and described 56 murders, three of which he could not describe and was not charged with.

While in his cell, Chikatilo was put under 24/7 video surveillance to protect him. He ate and slept well. He exercised every morning. He extensively read books and newspapers. Chikatilo also spent a lot of time writing letters and complaints to his family, government officials, and the mass media.

He went to trial on April 14, 1992. Despite his odd and disruptive behavior in caught, he was judged fit to stand trial. During the trial he was famously kept in a cage in the center of the courtroom; it was constructed for his own protection from the relatives of the deceased. The relatives kept shouting threats and insults to Chikatilo, demanding the authorities to release him so that they could execute him on their own and the police guards had to suppress what looked like an emerging riot several times.

On October 15 he was found guilty of 52 of the 53 murders and sentenced to death for each offence. When given a chance to speak, Chikatilo delivered a rambling speech, blaming the regime, certain political leaders, his impotence and defending himself by pointing to his childhood experiences. At one point he claimed that he had done a favor to society by cleansing it of worthless people.

He was executed by a single shot in the back of the head on February 14, 1994 after Russian president Boris Yeltsin refused a last ditch appeal by Chikatilo for clemency.

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