Andrei Chikatilo: serial killer case study

Andrei Chikatilo

The case of Andrei Chikatilo will go down in criminal justice records as among the most bizarre and bloodthirsty cases in history. Chikatilo was known as "The Beast of the Ukraine," and for good reason. According to information provided through the Crime and Investigative Network (www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk) Chikatilo, in the end, confessed to 56 murders. He was caught in 1990, and part of his confession was that he ate "intimate parts" of the bodies of his victims, which included children and vagrants.

SUMMARY of CHIKATILO'S LIFE: The "Beast of the Ukraine" was born on October 16, 1936, in a village called Yablochnoye in rural Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union). There was much hardship in the Ukraine at that time, according to Crime and Investigation Network (CIN), due to the policies of Stalin. The Soviet dictator reportedly caused a famine because he insisted on enforcing "agricultural collectivization" (which means that all workers shared a small amount of the harvest which they were forced to produce through hand labor). The hardship that resulted from these communist policies was being felt during the time Chikatilo was a child and was just growing up.

Moreover, Chikatilo had a physical problem called "hydrocephalus" (water on the brain) as an infant, which, CIN reports, resulted in "genital-urinary tract problems later in life, including bed-wetting" well into his life and "the inability to sustain an erection." On the subject of his bed-wetting, the Wikipedia Encyclopedia reports that when his father was off at war against the Nazis, he "had to share a bed with his mother." And when he wet the bed, which happened "frequently," his mother "beat and humiliated him" (http://en.wikipedia.org).Apparently the grim details of his personal life have been revealed and it is reported, again by CIN, that Chikatilo could ejaculate but could not sustain an erection, a situation that would cause any man to suffer some psychological problems.

As if that wasn't bad enough, war with Germany was raging and the Ukraine sustained massive bombing raids by the Nazis. So Chikatilo was growing up in a time of food shortages and war, which doesn't excuse the brutal behavior he exhibited, but does explain his background and sets the table for what was to come later in his life. And on top of all that, his father was drafted and sent to war against Germany, where he got captured; and when he did finally return home, he was "vilified" by his community for being captured by the Nazis. This harassment spilled over into young Chikatilo's life as he was called a "coward" and was bullied very roughly in his school.

All of these matters built up as obstacles to a normal life, and when Chikatilo tried to be a normal boy and get girls to hang out with him, he failed. So he got desperate and reportedly (according to CIN) "...overpowered a young girl, ejaculating immediately during the brief struggle" and as a result of that he received "even more ridicule." And so the story goes that this incident "colored all future sexual experiences, and cemented his association of sex with violence."

When Chikatilo tried to get an education, he failed an entrance exam to Moscow State University, but he wound up with a job as a telephone engineer. In time, his sister moved in with him and arranged for him to meet a local girl, Fayina, whom he married in 1963. They had two children and all seemed fairly normal for Chikatilo during that time.

If he had a problem getting erection, then a reader wonders how he was able to impregnate his wife. According to Wikipedia, "...his marital sex life was minimal and that he would ejaculate on his wife and push the semen inside her with his fingers." In 1971 he began teaching school, and the evil inside him became obvious at that time. "A string of complaints about indecent assaults on young children forced him to move from school to school," CIN explains. He did manage to escape those episodes and ended up teaching at a mining school in Shakhty, near Rostov.

CHIKATILO BEGINS HIS KILLING SPREE: His first documented killing occurred on December 22, 1978. He reportedly lured a nine-year-old girl named Lena Zakotnova into an old shed, where, while trying to rape her, and control the struggling girl, he "slashed her with a knife, ejaculating whilst doing so" (CIN). This reported ejaculation confirmed his "psychological connection between violent death and sexual gratification..." And in fact Chikatilo got away with that killing when another criminal was arrested and confessed to the killing. His next victim was a 17-year-old-woman whom he reportedly "strangled, stabbed and gagged with earth and leaves" to keep her from crying out for help. That killing also provided him with a sexual release, and he went on from there to terrify and slaughter over fifty other victims.

According to Crime Library (www.crimelibrary.com),when the first victim, that nine-year-old girl, was found, her body was "mostly bones." This is a very gruesome series of descriptions, but when a reader multiplies the sickeningly gruesome scenes over fifty times, it is beyond imagination how hideous and gross these crime scenes must have been. In the case of the first victim, someone was searching for firewood in a forested strip of land that had been planted to reduce the possibility of erosion. The bones had "small patches of leathered skin" on them and there was "some black hair hanging from the skull."

It appeared from her "postmortem posture" that she had tried to "fight her attacker"; two ribs were broken (probably by a knife) and there were "numerous stab wounds" in the bones and in the eye sockets, "as if to remove the eyes." Similar gouges were found in the "pelvic region." The crime investigators could be very sure it was Zakotnova's body when they found a white sandal and a yellow bag that contained the brand of cigarettes that she had been sent to purchase.

In the Potvin Spotlight / Newsly report (http://thepotvinreport.wordpress.com),writer Jill Hater first mentions that Josef Stalin killed tens of thousands of people, which of course is much worse than Chikatilo, but ruthless dictators are what they are, and a twisted psychopath like Chikatilo seems far more atrocious somehow. Meantime, Hater explains that Chikatilo "started killing on weekends or after parties, but he never really meant to get addicted." Hater writes with a cryptic slant to her narrative, but she does point out an incident in her piece that is not found elsewhere in the literature. She mentions that other men were accused and even put to death for crimes that Chikatilo himself committed. Once though the police were suspicious when they saw Chikatilo walking around with a handbag; the police never asked to see inside the handbag, lucky for Chikatilo because he had two breasts (cut off recently) inside.

The Wikipedia report indicates that Chikatilo developed a habit of approaching young runaways and vagrants at bus stations and railroad stations. He apparently used money or candy or other enticements to lure these victims into woods and killed them viciously. When he had a young woman in his sick little clutches, "typically" he would try to rape the female, but unable to achieve an erection, he would be sent "into a murderous fury, particularly if the woman mocked his inability to perform" (Wikipedia).

A special investigating unit from Moscow police department, including forensic analyst, Victor Burakov, had found six of the 14 bodies of his victims prior to 1983. The obvious potential suspects were mentally ill citizens in the area where Chikatilo lived, and "known sex offenders." There were a number of men who admitted to the crimes "only under prolonged and often brutal interrogation," but Wikipedia explains that they were "usually mentally handicapped youths."

Interestingly, Chikatilo was arrested and held for investigation of a "minor theft" of one of his former employers in 1983, and sentenced to a year in prison. But after serving three months of the year's sentence, he was freed in December 1984. He didn't kill again until 1985, when he murdered two women in separate incidents. After that he didn't kill again until May 1987.