He was Andrei Chikatilo--a forty-two-year old factory clerk, married with children. Possessed by a monstrous blood lust, he targeted easy prey--boys, girls, defenseless young women. Usually he would lure them away from bus stops with the promise of a ride or a meal. Leading them into a lonely stretch of woods, he would pounce like a werewolf, committing unspeakable atrocities on his victims, often while they were still alive. (Cutting out their tongues, biting off their nipples, slicing off their noses, gouging out their eyes, devouring their geinitals--these were just a few of the horrors he perpetrated.) So fierce was his appetite for human blood that, during one four-week span in 1984, he butchered no less than six young victims.
Chikatilo's unwitting accomplice in these hideous crimes was the Soviet totalitarian system. According to Communist dogma, crime could not exist in a classless people's republic like the USSR. Rather than admit that they were wrong, Soviet authorities covered up Chikatilo's monstrous spree. As a result, during the "Mad Beast's" twelve-year reign of terror, Soviet citizens didn't even know that a serial killer was on the loose. Instead of being on their guard, they were left vulnerable to his advances.
The police finally nabbed Chikatilo in 1990. He was charged with a staggering fifty-three murders, though the true total may have been even higher. At his trial, he was kept locked inside a steel cage to protect him from his victims' relatives. He was executed in 1994.
For a compelling dramatization of the case, Citizen X is highly recommended. It's a 1995 made-for-cable movie (available on video) starring Stephen Rea, Donald Sutherland, Max von Sydow, and--in a chilling portrayal--Jeffrey DeMunn as Chikatilo.
"I felt a kind of madness and ungovernability in perverted sexual acts. I couldn't control my actions, because from childhood I was unable to realise as a real man and complete human being.
"My inconsistent behavior should not be misconstrued as an attempt to avoid responsibility for any acts I have committed. One could argue that even after my arrest, I was not fully aware of their dangerous and serious nature. My case is peculiar to me alone. It is not fear of responsibility that makes me act this way, but my inner psychic and nervous tension. I am prepared to give testimony about the crimes, but please do not torment me with their details, for my psyche would not be able to bear it. It never entered my mind to conceal anything from the investigation. Everything which I have done makes me shudder. I only feel gratitude to the investigating bodies for having captured me. "
