The Rostov Ripper

I usually outline American serial killers in my blogs. I decided to change it up a bit, and turn my attention to foreign serial killers, because they typically aren’t as well known to us as American murderers. However in my opinion, it seems some of the most wild serial killers were from other countries. For this week’s entry, I decided to research Andrei Chikatilo, who was born in Ukraine in 1936. He was born during a relatively bad famine in the area, which took a toll on the community during the time (There were rumors that people turned to cannibalism when they couldn’t get their hands on food, but I can’t confirm this). Chikatilo was a sexually frustrated man who ended up murdering at least 53 young people between 1978 and 1990. He was under the radar for the majority of this time period because of unsophisticated forensic technology and lack of media coverage on the murders.

The Crimes

Andrei began his string of criminal behavior will sexual assault. He was a school teacher, and he was constantly relocating to new schools because parents were complaining that he was sexually assaulting their children. He then began with his long string of murders. He took advantage of younger people who were running away to the city to try and make a better life for themselves. However, they were usually by themselves and were therefore more willing to enter dangerous situations with strangers. Andrei could easily lure these young men and women into nearby forest where he could then attack them. He would rape, stab, and mutilate the bodies, and eat their sexual organs.

The Psychological Profile

His murders are not the most fascinating aspect of this case. Andrei had hydrocephalus, which caused many issues. One of the biggest issues was his inability to hold an erection, but he could still ejaculate. Because of this, his only “normal” sexual interaction (age 15) caused him to be bullied and ridiculed when he immediately ejaculated. He was already a target for bullying because his father served in the war and was captured by the Germans. The community saw his father as weak and cowardly for allowing himself to be captured. Andrei took the brunt of this mockery from many people in his town. He began associating sex with violence after he was bullied for being sexually inadequate, which most likely led to his desire to rape and murder his victims. Additionally, the hydrocephalus caused him to constantly wet the bed. I find this to be an interesting little tidbit since the stereotype surrounding serial killers is that they are bed-wetters.

One thing that I find interesting are the rituals that serial killers carry out with each murder that makes them unique. Andrei Chikatilo in particular would mutilate the eyes of each of his victims. His reason for doing so was because he believed that his victim’s eyes held a picture of him even after they died. I don’t think this means he had any remorse, but just that he felt like the eyes of his victims would give him away. This ritual also allowed the investigators to link each of the murders together to know there was a serial killer on the loose.

His Eventual Capture

Communism caused the media to not report on sexual assault and serial murder because they wanted to portray that those kinds of crimes cannot happen in a communist society. So, his murders went unnoticed by the general public so no one felt the need to put their guard up.

Additionally, Andrei Chikatilo had a condition that caused his blood type to be unidentifiable unless there was an actual sample of blood. Because of this, the only DNA collected from the crime scenes was semen that was believed to be blood type AB. However, Andrei kept escaping police detection because he had blood type A. Eventually, one day police noticed that he was assaulting a woman at a train station, so they began putting a heavy surveillance on him, which eventually led to his arrest. Horrifyingly, when he was captured, he had traces of rotting flesh in his digestive tract.

He was declared sane and fit to stand trial. He acted obscenely in the courtroom, having manic episodes and stripping naked in front of the audience. He was declared guilty on 52 murder cases and sentenced to death. So, on February 14, 1994 he was executed by a shot to the back of the head.

Naturally, there is a movie based off of Andrei Chikatilo, like most notorious serial killers. It’s called Citizen X. I have not personally seen it, but it has relatively good reviews. It seems to have a lot of the facts straight about the murders, but of course Hollywood always exaggerates the true story.

For further reading:

Andrei Chikatilo