All of the murders are said to have been recorded on a chessboard according to Alexander Pichushkin, the ‘Chessboard Killer.’ It was one victim for each square on the chessboard. While Alexander Pichushkin said he had killed sixty-one, he was aiming to kill sixty-four people. Most of the kills took place over five years in Moscow’s southern suburbs called Bittsa Park.
Due to the killings taking place in Bittsa Park, Alexander Pichushkin was dubbed the ‘Bittsa Maniac’ by the Russian media. He has never denied the chargers of murder. Asides being guilty of forty-eight murders, Pichushkin is also guilty of three counts of attempted murder. If Pichushkin managed to kill those three, that would’ve been sixty-four murders total.
However, Pichushkin denied that in court. He said he would have continued killing if he wasn’t arrested by authorities. It was a relative or one of the victims that was instrumental to Pichushkin’s arrest.
Back in 1996, Russia’s government seemed to have abolished the death penalty in most cases. The murders took place back in 1992 before Pichushkin was arrested in June 2006. He would either drown his victims in the sewer or bludgeon them to death. This was after Pichushkin would drink with them. Pichushkin would get them drunk and then commit the murders.
Pichuskin stated to the court: “I alone decided the fate of 60 people… I was judge, prosecutor, and executioner.” He called the kills as a ritual of handwriting.
A defense request to clear Pichushkin of eighteen murders was denied by the jury. A life sentence was recommended by the prosecution.
Before Pichushkin, there was Andrei Chikatilo who had killed fifty-three women and children in Rostov. Chikatilo was convicted of the crimes and was executed in 1994, two years before moratorium on the death penalty.
Only difference is: Chikatilo was executed and Pichushkin will serve life behind bars.
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