- Alexander Pichushkin
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Alexander Pichushkin 
Background information Birth name Alexander Yuryevich Pichushkin Also known as The Bitsa Park Maniac
The Chessboard KillerBorn 9 April 1974
Mytishchi, Moscow Oblast, RussiaKillings Number of victims: 48-60+ Span of killings 1992–14 June 2006 Country Russia Date apprehended 16 June 2006 
Alexander Yuryevich "Sasha" Pichushkin (Russian: Алекса́ндр Ю́рьевич Пичу́шкин, born 9 April 1974 in Mytishchi, Moscow Oblast), also known as The Chessboard Killer and The Bitsa Park Maniac, is a Russian serial killer. He is believed to have killed at least 49 people and up to 61–63 people in southwest Moscow's Bitsa Park, where several of the victims' bodies were found.
Contents
Murders
Pichushkin committed his first murder as a student in 1992 and stepped up his crimes in 2001.[1] Russian media have speculated that Pichushkin may have been motivated by a macabre competition with Russia's most notorious serial killer, Andrei Chikatilo, who was convicted in 1992 of killing 52 children and young women in 12 years.[2] Pichushkin has said his aim was to kill 64 people, the number of squares on a chessboard.[3][4] He later recanted this statement, saying that he would have continued killing indefinitely if he had not been stopped.[5]
Pichushkin primarily targeted elderly homeless men by luring them with vodka. After drinking with them, he would kill them, hitting them on the head with a hammer. He then stuck vodka bottles in their skulls to ensure that they did not survive. He also targeted younger men, children and women. He would always attack from behind to avoid spilling blood on his clothes.[6] He claimed that while killing people he felt like God as he decided whether his victims should live or die. "For me, life without killing is like life without food for you," he once said. "I felt like the father of all these people, since it was I who opened the door for them to another world."[7] Experts at the Serbsky Institute, Russia's main psychiatric clinic, have found Pichushkin irrecuperable.
According to the documentary, "Serial Killers",[8] Pichushkin, once apprehended, led police officers to the scenes of many of his crimes in Bitsa Park. He demonstrated a keen recollection of how the murders were committed, often acting them out in great detail, which has been committed to film. He also revealed that a number of the murders he committed were not done in his preferred method (hammer blows to the back of the head), but by throwing his victims down into the sewers underneath Bitsa Park (although one of his victims did survive the ordeal).
The murder of Marina Moskalyova, 36, in the summer of 2006, was his last. When a metro ticket was found in her possession at the time her body was found, authorities were able to view the last footage of her alive from surveillance tapes of the Moscow metro system, where she was walking on the platform accompanied by Pichushkin.[9]
Trial and imprisonment
He was arrested on 15 June 2006, and convicted on 24 October 2007 of 49 murders and three attempted murders.[10] He asked a Russian court to add an additional 11 victims to his body count, bringing his claimed death toll to 60 and 3 surviving victims.[11] During the trial, he was housed in a glass cage.[12] It took Judge Vladimir Usov an hour to read the verdict: life in prison[13] with the first 15 years to be spent in solitary confinement.[10]
References
- ^ "Russian chess player on trial for 49 alleged murders". Agence France-Presse. News.com.au. 2007-09-14. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22416817-663,00.html. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
- ^ "'Chessboard killer' revels in death". Associated Press. CNN. 2007-10-09. Archived from the original on 2007-12-15. http://web.archive.org/web/20071215164721/http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/10/09/russian.killer.ap/index.html. Retrieved 2009-04-10.[dead link]
- ^ "Investigators believe 62 murdered by "chessboard killer"". RIA Novosti. 2007-08-01. http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070801/70097233.html. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
- ^ "Russian suspected of 62 murders". BBC News Online. 2007-08-01. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6926680.stm. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
- ^ "Russia 'chessboard killer' guilty". BBC News Online. 2007-10-24. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7059939.stm. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
- ^ "Serial Killer in Moscow killed 52 people". Russia Today. Dailymotion. 2007-11-12. http://www.dailymotion.com/channel/blog/video/x3ghxv_serial-killer-in-moscow-killed-52-p_blog?from=rss. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
- ^ Chua-Eoan, Howard (2007-09-12). "The Grandmaster of Murder?". Time. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1661084,00.html?xid=feed-cnn-topics. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
- ^ http://www.wintv.com.au/mount_gambier/tvshow/item/25764
- ^ "Serial killer on trial: Moscow's grandmaster of murder". The Independent (London). 2007-09-14. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/serial-killer-on-trial-moscows-grandmaster-of-murder-402313.html.
- ^ a b Bukharbayeva, Bagila (2007-10-24). "Russian Convicted of 48 Murders". Associated Press. http://www.mail.com/Article.aspx?articlepath=APNews%5cGeneral+World+News%5c20071024%5cRussia_Serial_Killer_20071024.xml&cat=world&subcat=&pageid=2. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
- ^ Sweeney, Conor (2007-10-09). "Russian serial killer says murder is like love". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL0914187920071009?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
- ^ Lowe, Christian (2007-10-24). "Russian 'chessboard killer' convicted of 48 murders". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL247048420071024?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
- ^ "'Chessboard killer' gets life". InTheNews.co.uk. 2007-10-29. http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/autocodes/countries/russia/chessboard-killer-gets-life-$1158010.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-29.
External links
Categories:- Russian serial killers
- Russian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
- Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Russia
- 1974 births
- Living people
- Russian people convicted of murder
- People convicted of murder by Russia
- People from Moscow Oblast
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