Andrei Chikatilo

 

The full name of the Soviet serial murderer Andrei Chikatilo was Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo, and he operated from 1978 to 1990 mostly in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (now Russia). He was dubbed the "Butcher of Rostov" and the "Red Ripper" and was one of the most notorious serial killers in Russian history.

Although his victims were of all ages, Chikatilo's crimes mostly targeted children, adolescents, and young adults. He would entice his victims, who were frequently runaways or people from underprivileged families, to remote locations where he would sexually abuse, mutilate, and kill them. Chikatilo was known as the "Red Ripper" because of his propensity for biting and dissecting the bodies of his victims.

The Soviet police originally failed to catch him because there was a general unwillingness to admit the existence of a serial murderer in the country. His crimes continued for years. Chikatilo, however, was detained in 1990 as a result of his suspicious behaviour near a train station. He admitted to killing 56 people while being questioned, although he was ultimately found guilty of 53 murders.

Andrei Chikatilo was tried in 1992 and was adjudged to have committed the crimes. On February 14, 1994, he was given the death penalty and killed by firing squad. The Chikatilo case significantly altered the Soviet criminal justice system and brought about changes to how serial-crime investigations were conducted.

His case is investigated in the fields of criminal psychology and criminology, and various books, documentaries, and films have been written about Chikatilo's horrific crimes and the inquiry into them.