numbers written on 61 of the
squares, they were horrified.
After scrolling through evidence
from previous murders, they
realised they had finally caught the
‘Bitsa Beast.’
After that, his nickname soon
changed to ‘the chessboard killer.’
Knowing there was no escape,
Pichushkin admitted to everything.
‘I had to get to know the person
better, at least to hear his voice, to
talk to him, to know his plans and
dreams,’ Pichushkin admitted from
his prison cell.
‘It was important to kill the
human being.’
He was nothing less than a
dangerous moster.
In his confession, Pichushkin
played games with police, changing
the number of victims.
He first listed that he’d killed 48
victims, then he said it was 49, then
61, before stating he’d killed so
many, he’d lost count.
Eventually, with the evidence
from the chessboard and the bodies
that were found, Pichushkin was
charged with 49 murders and three
attempted murders.
‘It brought me colossal pleasure,’
he admitted.
‘It is compatible to an orgasm.’
Every murder was a satisfactory
fulfilment for Pichushkin.
In October 2007, standing from a
glass box, Pichushkin stood trial.
The court room was packed.
Pichushkin was standing trial for
murders that totaled more than
Jeffrey Dahmer’s, Jack the
Ripper’s and Son of Sam’s
all combined.
During his trial, Pichushkin
appeared proud of his crimes.
He claimed his work was not
murder, but, ‘the hand of God.’
‘I felt like the father of all
these people, since it was me
who opened the door for them to
another world,’ he admitted.
After a five-week trial, it took
jurors three hours to decide on a
guilty verdict for the 49 murders
and three attempted murders.
However, Pichushkin was
unsatisfied with this and asked for
11 more victims to be added to his
body count.‘I thought it would not
people,’ he reasoned.
Pichushkin was handed a life
sentence in prison.
Judge Vladimir Usov deemed
that the first 15 of them should be
spent in solitary confinement.
The judge said that Pichushkin
should receive psychiatric treatment
for; ‘a personality disorder
expressed in a sadistic inclination
towards murder.’
With such a prolific serial killer
off the streets, Moscow was now a
little safer.
i h b d
i
Syomin said.
However, many of the family
victims were unsatisfied.
‘He should have been treated
as an exceptional case and given
a death sentence,’ Tatiana
Vlasova, whose son Vladimir
was among the victims, said.
When Pichushkin’s
grandfather taught him how to
play chess, he hoped it would
challenge his intelligent mind.
Unfortunately, all it d
create a chess playing
Russia’sAlexander
Pichushkin
murderedmore people
thanthreenotorious
serial killers combined
1
2
3
TE
fa
He claimed his work
was the ‘hand of God’
He would play
chess at Bitsa Park
and hunt his victims
The trial gave him the
attention he craved