Handcuffs for the Ripper: how Andrei Chikatilo was caught
On November 14, 1990, Issa Kostoyev, an investigator at the USSR Prosecutor's Office, ordered him to be placed under surveillance. On November 20, he was arrested on his way home from the polyclinic in Novoshakhtinsk district. This was how the criminal activities of one of the bloodiest serial killers in the history of criminology were suppressed. Izvestia recalled how it was.
Failed teacher
Andrey Chikatilo was born in 1936 near Kharkov, in early childhood he survived the German occupation. At school, he suffered from myopia and was the subject of ridicule. His unsuccessful first love also affected his psyche. He shut himself down and began to lead a double life. He later got married, raised two children, and outwardly it was a happy family. The killer graduated from the Akhtyrsky Technical College of Communications, went to work laying power lines, wrote articles in regional newspapers. Then he entered the Rostov University Faculty of Philology, from which he graduated in 1970 with a degree in Russian Language and Literature.
He became a head teacher at a boarding school in Novoshakhtinsk. He was vindictive and vindictive, diligently hiding his psychological abnormalities. But I couldn't always control myself. He locked himself in the classroom with one of the schoolgirls and tried to persuade her to be intimate. The girl, fleeing from the maniac, jumped out of the window.
I had to give up my teaching career. From now on, he could not work as a teacher. Probably, he was afraid himself, he realized that he would give himself away. He became a supplier. This job, which involved constant business trips around the Rostov region and beyond, suited him.
Photos of victims of the maniac Andrey Chikatilo in the Central Museum of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation
The ripper maniac committed his first murder in 1978. The victim was a 9-year-old second grade student, Elena Zakotnova. A year later, Alexander Kravchenko was mistakenly shot for this crime... Chikatilo was then interrogated as a witness.
In 1982, Chikatilo committed seven murders according to the same scenario. At the bus stop, he would meet a schoolgirl or a schoolboy and invite them to watch an interesting movie on the VCR, treat them to chewing gum. Sometimes he asked conscious pioneers to carry a heavy bag home. Along the way, in a wooded area, the maniac gouged out the victims' eyes, cut out body parts, and raped them. The bodies were found with dozens of stab wounds. The operatives realized that a maniac or a "gang of psychos" was operating in the area. Many incriminated themselves under pressure from the investigators. But the real criminal remained elusive, not so much because of his cunning and "criminal talent," but because of a monstrous and surprising combination of circumstances. Then the investigators lost the developments that could lead to Chikatilo, then during the examination the doctors incorrectly determined his blood type...
Odyssey of the OBHSS agent
On September 14, 1984, police officers Alexander Zanosovsky and Shaikh-Akhmed Akhmatkhanov detained Chikatilo, who molested girls on public transport. A towel, a kitchen knife, a jar of vaseline, a bar of soap and two coils of twine were found in his briefcase. A strange set! Chikatilo explained that all this is necessary on a business trip. He served 15 days in the bullpen. Two police agents were placed next to him, who were supposed to talk to the detainee. Apparently, the killer didn't give himself away in any way. He was tried as a supplier for minor theft of socialist property (several meters of linoleum were missing from his cargo). Chikatilo served a symbolic term and was released.
Aviator Park near the city of Rostov-on-Don, where Andrei Chikatilo committed four murders
By the way, he was a freelance employee of the Rostov regional police through the OBKHSS and helped to expose several robbers of socialist property. Apparently, the sophisticated criminal mind believed that, having become more familiar with the methods of the police, he would be able to evade prosecution. And indeed, it worked for a long time.
How do you explain such an obsession with killing? The reason is not in public life, not in wars and crises. This is an anomaly, a serious, black disease that can manifest itself at any time, in any country. Another thing is that law enforcement officers must reliably protect society from murderers and rapists. Serial criminals appear where the operational and investigative services are not working enough. And after the first crimes, Chikatilo came to believe in his impunity. And, unfortunately, with good reason.
A trail of blood
In several regions of the country, they were looking for a maniac who terrified the south of Russia. Chikatilo himself, as an activist of the people's militia, was even involved in these searches. And he tried to find out as much as possible about the investigation. Having received an orientation towards the criminal, he even allowed himself to joke with familiar policemen.: "According to such signs, one in three can be detained. Are the hat and glasses special signs? I'm wearing a hat and glasses too!"
Psychiatrist Alexander Bukhanovsky drew up a surprisingly accurate portrait of the then-unknown killer: "The alleged perpetrator has a specialized secondary or higher education. Philosophy, history, and psychology should be better for him; he works in a production environment with a clearly observed schedule, for example, in a supply organization."
Investigator Issa Kostoev
In 1990, Chikatilo committed 8 more murders. While checking police reports, investigator Issa Kostoev noticed a notable surname that appeared in the 1984 case — Chikatilo. In August 1984, an unknown woman and a twelve-year-old girl were killed near Tashkent. And on July 31, 1985, an eighteen-year-old girl was raped and killed in the area of the Aviation platform near Domodedovo near Moscow. These murders were reminiscent of the Rostov series. Kostoev decided to check whether Chikatilo could have committed these atrocities. And it turned out that just at that time he went on business trips to Uzbekistan and Moscow. This became the starting point for the arrest of the criminal. He was followed and arrested in Novoshakhtinsk in the early morning of November 20. The investigators no longer doubted that this was the "ripper."
Photos of Andrey Chikatilo immediately after his arrest against the background of a map of the search area
The capture group was led by Vladimir Kolesnikov, head of the criminal police of the Rostov Department of Internal Affairs. Chikatilo did not offer serious resistance to the police. After his arrest, the maniac did not confess to anything for several days, but under the pressure of facts and evidence, he began to willingly talk about his crimes. The doctor recorded a wound on the index finger of Chikatilo's right hand about two weeks ago, scratches from nails on his face and bite marks from the victim who resisted him.
"Please take my life"
The psychiatrist Bukhanovsky, who found an approach to the maniac, provided great help to the investigation. It was to him that Chikatilo was the first to tell about his atrocities. And first he confessed to the long-ago murder of Elena Zakotnova in the village of Grushevka. Her remains were found where Chikatilo had indicated. However, for several more weeks the ripper did not talk about the details: he claimed that his psyche could not withstand such memories. But the investigators and the psychologist managed to squeeze detailed stories out of him.
The psychiatrist began the conversation from afar, began to tell the killer about his life, about his character. And he hit the nail on the head. Chikatilo was stunned that this outsider had unraveled his "unique" inner world. But he considered himself the only one, incomprehensible... After that, the ripper couldn't lock himself in. This was important for the investigation, because it was about crimes committed in different years. The confessions of the maniac helped to restore the details of many crimes of the past.
Irina Belova from Shakhty, who almost became another victim of the maniac, acts as a witness for the prosecution in the case of Andrei Chikatilo.
When he was charged with 35 murders on November 30, Chikatilo fully admitted his guilt. He began to talk in detail about his crimes — for 6-7 hours a day, he drew diagrams that were surprisingly accurate. He was identified by witnesses. He confessed to twenty more murders, previously unknown to the investigation. 55 victims... 53 cases were confirmed, and two cases were closed due to lack of evidence. One day he wrote a petition to the prosecutor's office.: "I ask you to take my life as a mistake of God."
The hunted beast
In April 1992, the trial of Chikatilo began in Rostov-on-Don. The criminal case consisted of 220 volumes. To protect the killer from possible lynching by the victims' relatives, the bench he was sitting on was fenced off with an iron cage.
At the trial, Chikatilo did everything to be declared insane and replaced the death penalty with compulsory medical treatment. Yes, he still clung to life. He did everything he could: striptease, make faces, and burst into tears. The court could not help but take into account that the maniac carefully thought out the murders, selected in advance everything that was necessary for bloody deeds, and skillfully hid from exposure. And the forensic psychiatric examinations (there were several of them) recognized that the maniac was sane.
Andrey Chikatilo during the trial
On the advice of his lawyer, he made strange statements, delaying the trial. He claimed that he remembers the famine of 1933, although he was born later, then he said that he defended the White House in Moscow in August 1991. Then he demanded that the trial be moved to Ukraine, as he was a Ukrainian by nationality.
A cruel lesson
On October 15, 1992, the court sentenced Andrei Chikatilo to death by firing squad. There was applause in the courtroom after the verdict was announced. For two years, journalists were constantly writing about him. It was a time when tens of millions of people read the press carefully, and the "Rostov ripper" became the first maniac in the USSR and in Russia, whose surname was well—known. The Soviet Union was collapsing, and Russia was plunging into a series of radical reforms. Even against this background of information, the Chikatilo case caused a shock reaction. The gory details of his crimes were chilling. It seemed like this only happened in movies, but he lived next to us, studied next to us, worked next to us...
A relative of Andrei Chikatilo's victim became ill in the courtroom during the hearing
Is it possible to identify such villains in advance, before they start committing crimes? According to Bukhanovsky, there was only one chance — if it was possible to identify Chikatilo's mental deviation at an early stage and stop it. Unfortunately, they couldn't do it.
Years have passed, but this dark story is not forgotten. Books, films, and research on psychology and criminology are still devoted to Chikatilo. This is a lesson for us forever. And for law enforcement officers — the experience of dealing with the most dangerous and unpredictable criminals.
The author is the deputy editor—in-chief of the magazine "Historian"
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
