The Soviet Jack The Ripper

Andrei Chikatilo was sentenced to death for 52 murders

His nicknames were the Butcher of Rostov, the Red Ripper, and the Rostov Ripper. His name was Andrei Chikatilo, and he killed, sexually assaulted, and mutilated at least 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990 in the USSR. He would eventually confess to 56 murders but would be sentenced to death for his 52 murders in October 1992, and then executed in 1994.

What made Chikatilo’s story unique was not what he did, but where he did it — the Soviet Union maintained that serial murder couldn’t possibly happen in a communist society, leading Chikatilo to get away with his crimes and not be held accountable for a very long time.

Most of Chikatilo’s crimes were committed in Rostov Oblast, an area in southwest Russia on the border of Ukraine. According to Biography, Chikatilo was a former schoolteacher who experienced a difficult childhood in Ukraine. He had one sexual encounter as a teenager that led to him getting mocked and ridiculed, and he would later commit many sexually violent acts.

This is the story of how Andrei Chikatilo committed his crimes and evaded accountability for so long, as well as the story of how the diligent efforts of a forensic analyst and psychiatrist finally brought justice to his victims.

Early life

Chikatilo was born in Yablochnoye, a village in rural Ukraine in the Soviet Union. He was born on October 16, 1936. When…