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While trying to catch serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, the Soviet police solved more than 1000 unrelated crimes

Chkatilo
Chkatilo

Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo was a Soviet serial killer, nicknamed the Butcher of Rostov, the Red Ripper, and the Rostov Ripper, who committed the sexual assault, murder, and mutilation of at least 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990 in the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, and the Uzbek SSR. Chikatilo confessed to a total of 56 murders and was tried for 53 of these killings in April 1992. He was convicted and sentenced to death for 52 of these murders in October 1992 and subsequently executed in February 1994.

Mugshot taken of Andrei Chikatilo, taken following his arrest. By Rostov Police Department - Rostov Police Department photographic records., https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2454134
Mugshot of Andrei Chikatilo, taken following his arrest. Source by Rostov Police Department

By January 1983, four victims thus far killed had been tentatively linked to the same killer. A Moscow police team, headed by Major Mikhail Fetisov, was sent to Rostov-on-Don to direct the investigation. Fetisov established a team of 10 investigators, based in Rostov, charged with solving all four cases. In March, Fetisov assigned a newly appointed specialist forensic analyst, Viktor Burakov, to head the investigation. The following month, Olga Stalmachenok’s body was found. Burakov was summoned to the crime scene, where he examined the numerous knife wounds and eviscerations conducted upon the child, and the striations on her eye sockets. Burakov later stated that, as he noted the striations upon Stalmachenok’s eye sockets, any doubts about the presence of a serial killer evaporated.

Technical School No. 33, Shakhty. Chikatilo worked at this school at the time of his first murder. By Nonexyst - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41994045
Technical School No. 33, Shakhty. Chikatilo worked at this school at the time of his first murder. By Nonexyst – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,

Chikatilo did not kill again until June 1983, when he murdered a 15-year-old Armenian girl named Laura Sarkisyan; her body was found close to an unmarked railway platform near Shakhty. By September, he had killed a further five victims. The accumulation of bodies found and the similarities between the pattern of wounds inflicted on the victims forced the Soviet authorities to acknowledge that a serial killer was on the loose. On 6 September 1983, the public prosecutor of the USSR formally linked six of the murders thus far committed to the same killer.

Yelena Zakotnova, aged 9. Murdered 22 December 1978. Source
Yelena Zakotnova, aged 9. Murdered 22 December 1978. Source Wikipedia/ Fair Use

Due to the sheer savagery of the murders and the precision of the eviscerations upon the victims’ bodies, police theorized that the killings had been conducted by either a group harvesting organs to sell for transplant, the work of a Satanic cult, or a mentally ill individual. Much of the police effort concentrated upon the theory that the killer must be either mentally ill, homosexual, or a pedophile, and the alibis of all individuals who had either spent time in psychiatric wards or had been convicted of homosexuality or pedophilia were checked and logged in a card filing system. Registered sex offenders were also investigated and, if their alibi was corroborated, eliminated from the inquiry.

Lyubov Biryuk, aged 13. Murdered 12 June 1982. Source
Lyubov Biryuk, aged 13. Murdered 12 June 1982. Source: Wikipedia/ Fair Use

Beginning in September 1983, several young men confessed to the murders, although these individuals were often intellectually disabled youths who admitted to the crimes only under prolonged and often brutal interrogation. Three known homosexuals and a convicted sex offender committed suicide as a result of the investigators’ heavy-handed tactics. As a consequence of the investigation into the killings, more than 1000 unrelated crimes, including 95 murders and 245 rapes, were solved.

 

Tijana Radeska

Tijana Radeska is one of the authors writing for The Vintage News