World of Criminal Justice on Andrei Romanovic Chikatilo
Andrei Chikatilo's career as the cannibalistic "Shelter Belt Killer" spanned 12 years and won him notoriety as the 20th century's most savage serial killer. Growing up in a small Ukranian village, Chikatilo often heard his mother describe how an older brother had been abducted and eaten during the 1930s famine. Other strong memories included nearly dying of hunger and seeing the bodies of children dismembered by the Nazis. Near-sighted and afflicted by a brain-based sexual dysfunction, Chikatilo came to believe he had been blinded and castrated at birth. However, he and his wife Feodosia had two children, whom he supported by becoming a teacher after completing his military service.
A harmless-looking family man, Chikatilo did not kill until he was 42. After attempting to rape nine-year-old Lena Zakotnova, Chikatilo stabbed the girl three times and threw her into a river. Police suspected convicted rapist Alexander Kravchenko, who confessed under pressure and was executed in 1983. After his first murder, Chikatilo lost his teaching job for molesting students. Allowed to resign, he began teaching at a mining school. Ridiculed by his students, who called him "Goose," he found a new position as a senior engineer at the Rostovnerud factory.
Chikatilo's travels to procure supplies often took him to the train station in nearby Rostov. There he met Larisa Tkachenko, with whom he attempted to have sex. When she mocked his inability to perform, he strangled her and then bit her, swallowing one of her nipples. He then covered the body with newspapers and left it in the woods.
Chikatilo's second murder contained all the elements of what became his ritual: attempted sex, humiliation, murder, mutilation and sexual cannibalism, followed by an improvised funeral. In the system he used to classify victims, this seventeen-year-old was an EM, someone with "easy morals." Other categories were homeless people, adolescents, and the mentally disabled. Nine months later, Chikatilo murdered a twelve-year-old girl. Later that year, he killed three youths within three weeks. As he bit off his first male victim's tongue, Chikatilo fantasized that he was interrogating one of the Nazis who invaded Russia during World War II.
In 1984, after fifteen murders, Chikatilo was arrested by the Rostov police. A knife and rope were found in his possession, but a mentally challenged boy had confessed to the "Shelter Belt killings" and Chikatilo's blood type did not match the semen in evidence. He was released. After a massive investigation, Chikatilo was arrested again in 1990. Confronted by a psychological profile prepared by Dr. Alexander Bukhanovsky, he confessed to 55 murders. Though Chikatilo claimed to be unable to control his actions, psychiatrists found him legally sane. Charged with 53 counts of murder and 5 counts of child molestation, he was tried in a cage to protect him from victims' relatives. Found guilty of all but one murder, Chikatilo was executed by a gunshot to the back of the head in 1994.
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