True Crime Friday: Andrei Chikatilo, The Rostov Ripper
Andrei Chikatilo murdered and mutilated 21 boys, 14 girls, and 18 women during his reign of terror in the Soviet Union now known as Russia. Chikatilo is one of the most savage serial killers in the world. According to the Los Angeles Times, Chikatilo started killing in 1978. He was finally captured in 1990 after he had murdered 53 people. He would rip his victims apart with his teeth and a knife sometimes while they were still alive. That is how he earned the moniker the Rostov Ripper. He was able to get away with murders because he was a member of the Communist Party, well educated, and married with children. He also murdered people on the margins of society known as the less dead.
The Early Childhood of Andrei Chikatilo
He was born October 16, 1936 in the Soviet Union. According to Chikatilo his childhood was terrible! His mother tortured him for being a bed wetter and they happen to share one bed since his father was away fighting in the war. His mother blamed Chikatilo for neighbors cannibalizing his older brother even though Chikatilo was not even born when this terrible event happen. He was bullied at home by his mother making him afraid of women while also hating women. His father was in the Red Army and was captured which brought shame to the Chikatio family name.His parents were farm workers during the Joseph Stalin reign. Because of Stalin’s Collectivization Farm Policies there was mass famine across the country. Chikatilo's parents were both farmers and they live in a one room shack. There was no compensation for their work they received the right to cultivate a plot of land behind their one room shack. The family rarely had enough food to eat. They often ate grass and Chikatilo did not eat bread until the age of 12. Chikatilo childhood was nothing but severe because of poverty, ridicule, hunger, and war. Chikatilo, as a child saw horrible things done to his mother and neighbors while the Nazi’s occupied Ukraine which was a part of the Soviet Union at that time. Things such as: fires, bombing and shootings. Chikatilo and his mother were forced to watch their own home burn to the ground by German soliders.
Chikatilo's mother was raped by a German solider and in 1943 gave birth to a baby girl named Tatyana. Because Chikatilo's father was fighting in the war, he could not have fathered the baby girl. Since Chikatilo and his mother lived in a one room shack he may have witness his mother being assaulted. At home, Chikatilo and his sister were constantly berated by their mother. Tatyana later recalled their father was a kind man. Their mother was harsh and unforgiving toward her children.
The Victims of Andrei Chikatilo
- Larisa Tkachenko (17)
- Lyubov Biryuk (13)
- Lyubov Volobuyeva (14)
- Oleg Pozhidayev (9)
- Olga Kuprina (16)
- Irina Karabelnikova (19)
- Sergey Kuzmin (15)
- Olga Stalmachenok (10)
- Laura Sarkisyan (15)
- Irina Dunenkova (13)
- Lyudmila Kushuba (24)
- Igor Gudkov (7)
- Valentina Chuchulina (22)
- Unknown woman (18-25)
- Vera Shevkun (19)
- Sergey Markov (14)
- Natalya Shalapinina (17)
- Marta Ryabenko (45)
- Dmitriy Ptashnikov (10)
- Tatyana Petrosyan (32)
- Svetlana Petrosyan (11)
- Yelena Bakulina (22)
- Dmitriy Illarionov (13)
- Anna Lemesheva (19)
- Svetlana Tsana (20)
- Natalya Golosovskaya (16)
- Lyudmila Alekseyeva (17)
- Unknown woman (20-25)
- Akmaral Seydaliyeva (12)
- Alexander Chepel (11)
- Irina Luchinskaya (24)
- Natalya Pokhlistova (18)
- Irina Gulyayeva (18)
- Oleg Makarenkov (13)
- Ivan Bilovetskiy (12)
- Yuri Tereshonok (16)
- Unknown woman (18-25)
- Alexey Voronko (9)
- Yevgeniy Muratov (15)
- Tatyana Ryzhova (16)
- Alexander Dyakonov (8)
- Alexey Moiseyev (10)
- Helena Varga (19)
- Alexey Khobotov (10)
- Andrei Kravchenko (11)
- Yaroslav Makarov (10)
- Lyubov Zuyeva (31)
- Viktor Petrov (13)
- Ivan Fomin (11)
- Vadim Gromov (16)
- Viktor Tishchenko (16)
- Svetlana Korostik (22)
Lady Justice
Chikatilo confessed to fifty-six murders but was tried for fifty-three murders in April, 1992. He was convicted for fifty-two murders in October 1992. Chikatilo was executed by a bullet to the head in February, 1994.Reference
Andrei Chikatilo - WikipediaAndrei Chikatilo - Quotes, Childhood & Death (biography.com)
Details You Didn't Know About Serial Killer Andrei Chikatilo (grunge.com)
Andrei Chikatilo | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers
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