15 Gruesome Facts About Andrei Chikatilo, The Rostov Ripper

Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo (also known as the Rostov Ripper, the Forest Strip Killer, the Butcher of Rostov, and the Red Ripper) was a serial killer active in the former Soviet Union who killed 56 people between 1978 and 1990. He is one of several well-known Soviet serial killers, and inspired the Chessboard Killer. His 12-year killing spree was one of the longest in history.

Upon his final arrest, Chikatilo confessed to his crimes, showing little remorse for his victims. In fact, he seemed proud of his crimes. As he put it while on the stand, "I was like a crazed wolf. I just turned into a beast, into a wild animal."

Chikatilo was born in the Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union) in 1936. He was sentenced to death in 1992, and killed in a death chamber by a single gunshot wound in 1994. 

After finishing high school, Chikatilo attended college at Rostov University via correspondence courses. He had first tried to get into Moscow State University, but despite his good high school grades, he was not admitted, possibly because of his father's blemished military record.

After finally completing his degree from Rostov and spending three years in the Soviet military, where he worked as a border guard in Central Asia and then for the KGB, Chikatilo went to work as a teacher.

His first molestation victim was a 15-year-old girl whom he locked in his classroom. He was fired from that teaching job - as well as a few others - for the same reasons. He eventually gave up teaching and began working as a supply clerk for a company in Rostov, a job that gave him plenty of opportunities to travel around the country.

As with most serial killers, the murders committed by Andrei Chikatilo followed a pattern - all the victims were stabbed and slashed in very gruesome ways. Some had their eyes gouged out, while others were disemboweled. All of the bodies were found in isolated areas, usually the wooded outskirts of town, within a decent walking distance of bus and train stations. Also, only a half-hearted attempt was made to bury or hide the bodies. These were all Chikatilo's "calling cards" that made it easy for law enforcement to connect the deaths. 

Serial killer Alexander Pichushkin needed someone to look up to and he chose a fellow murderer, Andrei Chikatilo. Pichushkin's goal was to out-kill Chikatilo and he did. Chikatilo killed 56 people, a mix of men, women, and children, while Pichushkin claimed a body count of 61 - only 3 short of his goal of killing as many people as there are squares on a chessboard. 

Another serial murderer, the Granny Ripper - Tamara Samsonova - admitted to a friend that she was obsessed with Chikatilo. Samsonova was convicted of killing 11 victims, all people who lodged in her apartment building. She apparently used a hacksaw to cut up their bodies before burying them, and may have eaten parts of them as well. 

Witnesses claimed to have last seen Olga Stalmachenok walking off of a bus with a middle-aged man. He was "innocently" leading her by the hand, and the two looked like your typical father and daughter, except that she was actually on her way to her parents' house, and he was a serial killer. Chikatilo led Stalmachenok to the isolated farming area of Novoshakhtinsk, where he killed her. He stabbed her over 50 times, disemboweled her, and ripped open her chest before abandoning her body where it lay. She was his ninth victim. 

Andrei Chikatilo's official body count stands at 56, according to his confession. Although most of his early victims were young girls, he was not overly discerning at the end, and killed young boys and a number of women as well. He was charged with 53 deaths - 18 women, 14 girls, and 21 boys. His oldest victim was 29-year-old Tatyana Petrosyan, while his youngest was seven-year-old Igor Gudkov. 

Every serial killer starts off with a first victim that usually sets the tone for the rest of the murders that follow. In the case of Andrei Chikatilo, that first victim was Yelena Zakotnova. She was only nine years old when Chikatilo managed to lure her into his house. There, he tried to rape her but failed, so he began to stab her in the abdomen. As he did so, he ejaculated onto her body. After this, he strangled her to death and then tossed her body into the Grushevka River. Chikatilo only became more gruesome and violent after this. 

Larisa Tkachenko was a 17-year-old student when she was approached by Andrei Chikatilo at a bus stop. She became his second victim. He talked her into going with him to a secluded area for some quiet time talking and drinking alcohol. However, once the two reached a forested area near the Don River, Chikatilo attempted to rape Tkachenko. He was physically unable to follow through with his plans, so he beat her to death with his fists, strangled her, stuffed mud into her mouth, and then mutilated her dead body with a stick and his teeth. In the process, he bit off one of her nipples. Then, rather than bury her body, he covered her with leaves and the pages of newspapers he was carrying on him at the time. 

Andrei Chikatilo's trial began in April 1992. Throughout the trial, he tried several times to be found innocent on the grounds of insanity, but every evaluation that he went through found him to be completely sane. Chikatilo spent his time in the courtroom locked in a special iron cage, both for his own protection and to keep everyone else in the room safe. He was found guilty and sentenced to both death and 86 years in prison on October 15, 1992. 

Lyubov Biryuk, Andrei Chikatilo's third victim, was only 13 years old. She was walking home past a secluded bus station when he attacked her, dragging her into a heavily wooded area along the path. There he ripped off her clothing and proceeded to stab her to death. She was stabbed at least 22 times in her neck, head, chest, and pelvic area. The coroner found wounds in her eye sockets as well, proof that Chikatilo had gouged out her eyes. Apparently, the first stab wounds - those to her neck - were done from the back. Chikatilo didn't waste any time in killing her once he had her alone. 

Many jokes have been made about people purchasing things that fit the category of a "serial killer kit." Andrei Chikatilo actually had one. When he was finally stopped by Detective Alexander Sanosovsky in September 1984, Chikatilo had a briefcase filled with his killing tools, including a knife, rope, Vaseline, and a towel.