Andrei Chikatilo: The “Russian Ripper”

Andrei Chikatilo killed 14 young girls, 21 boys, and 18 women between 1978 and 1990. He came to be known as the “Russian Ripper” for the brutal nature of his crimes, in which he stalked, murdered, and cannibalized his victims.

Andrei Chikatilo, known as the Russian Ripper and Butcher of Rostov, stalked and killed over 50 children. Within a month of his arrest and conviction, Chikatilo was executed by Russian security.

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Born in the Ukraine in 1936, Chikatilo was known as a modest, intelligent man who enjoyed playing chess. His education from Rostov University included degrees in Russian language and literature, engineering, and Marxist-Leninism. During his career as a killer, Chikatilo was married, with two children, a boy and a girl about the same ages as many of his victims. He was considered a steady wage earner, never forceful or violent with his children. By the time he was arrested in 1990 for the “Forest Strip Murders” in the town of Novocherkassk, near Rostov, Chikatilo seemed to be a gray-haired grandfather living a reclusive lifestyle—but was far from it.

Life had been hard for Chikatilo. His older brother Stepan had been abducted and cannibalized during the Ukrainian famine of the 1930s. He grew up fearful and insecure, wishing for a successful career. His chances for success had been thwarted in part by his father, who, after World War II, was sent to a prison camp for allowing himself to be taken prisoner by the Germans. Everything Chikatilo did, including his military experience, he perceived as inconsequential. Indeed, his employment record was disturbing. He first worked as a dorm monitor at a local mining school. His history of peeping through keyholes and wandering into girl's toilets eventually led to his termination.

[Page 71]Chikatilo's forced relocation to Shakhty, in the south of Russia, meant a reduction in job status and quality of life for his family. Suffering from low selfesteem and a pronounced sense of inferiority around groups of people, he harbored a “hero fantasy” to compensate for his sense of failure. He became a master at manipulating and molesting children of all ages. His increased attraction to children gradually stifled any desire for his wife. As a manifestation of his own selfhate, he admitted his “sexual weakness” to the police but explained to them that his interest in children was something from his distant past; now that he was married, with children, he had overcome such urges. To the police, the explanation seemed plausible enough. Unfortunately for dozens of children, Chikatilo's pedophilia would not be examined closely enough to see through his deception.

By this time, he had murdered two children. His first victim in 1978 was 9-year-old Lena Zakotnova. He lured her to a dilapidated shack he used for a private retreat, stabbed her several times, and threw her in a nearby river to die. A scarf had been tied around her eyes. Considering the amount of evidence Chikatilo left behind, his capture should have been inevitable. A bungled investigation and a desire by investigators to close the case led to the confession and conviction of another man. Meanwhile, Chikatilo's progressively violent fantasies fueled his next murder of 17-year-old Larisa Tkachenk, whom he strangled and mutilated.

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