The Crime Book

292

See also: Jack the Ripper 266–73 ■ Ted Bundy 276–83 ■ Colin Pitchfork 294–97

T

he official party line was

that there were no serial

killers in the USSR – but

from early 1983, when the mutilated

bodies of numerous young women

and children were found in the

wilderness around Rostov-on-Don,

the authorities were forced to

reassess. The wound patterns were

so striking that police were forced

to admit that a single predator was

responsible for at least six murders.

Following extensive surveillance,

a detective arrested Andrei

Chikatilo. He was carrying a knife

and rope, and resembled a man

suspected of murder. They obtained

a sample of his blood, but it was

found to be Type A; the killer’s

semen indicated a blood type of AB,

so Chikatilo was released.

In 1990, a spike in the killings

encouraged the police to step up

their activity. On 6 November,

Chikatilo was spotted leaving the

woods near Donleskhoz station. His

knees and elbows were stained and

his cheeks smeared red. The

undercover officer looked over his

earlier papers and filed a report.

When a young woman’s body

was found in the same woods,

Chikatilo’s name resurfaced. He

was arrested and a sample of his

semen taken. It was discovered to

be type AB – Chikatilo was a rare

individual whose blood type

differed from that of his semen.

Chikatilo confessed and was

executed in February 1994. ■

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Union of Soviet Socialist

Republics (USSR)

THEME

Serial mutilators

BEFORE

1944 Los Angeles resident

Otto Wilson kills and

eviscerates prostitutes to

satisfy a perverse erotic desire.

AFTER

1985–99 Peter Dupas murders

at least three women in

Melbourne, Australia. He

removes the breasts from his

victims as souvenirs.

1992–93 Robert Napper

sexually attacks dozens of

women in southeast London,

and kills three of them. He

keeps body parts from his

victims as trophies.

Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo,

during court hearings in 1993, which

revealed the full horror of his 52 brutal

killings to a stunned Russian public.

A MISTAKE

OF NATURE

ANDREI CHIKATILO, 1978–90

292-293_Chikatilo_Jeffrey_Dahmer.indd 292 02/12/2016 15:04

293

See also: Jack the Ripper 266–73 ■ Ted Bundy 276–83

J

ust before midnight on

22 July 1991, a distraught

young man with a handcuff

dangling from his wrist approached

two Milwaukee police officers. He

said that some “freak” had tried to

restrain him. The three men headed

back to the aggressor’s apartment.

They were greeted at the door by

the tenant, Jeffrey Dahmer.

Dahmer tried to talk his way out

of the situation, but the appalling

stench of death gave him away. In

Dahmer’s bedroom, an officer found

Polaroid photos of nude male bodies

in varying stages of dismemberment.

The background in the photos

indicated that they had been taken

in the very same room. Dahmer

was immediately arrested. The

police then searched his apartment

and discovered boxes, a 215-litre

(57-gallon) drum, a freezer, and a

fridge filled with human body parts.

Several painted skulls and a human

skeleton hung from his showerhead.

Back at the police station,

Dahmer confessed to the murders of

17 young men, and engaging in

necrophilic acts with their corpses.

Dahmer also admitted that he had

experimented with cannibalism, by

eating the body parts of his victims.

Trial and death

Dahmer’s trial began on 30 January

1992. The purpose of the trial was to
      determine whether or not he was
      criminally responsible for his actions.
      Despite persuasive arguments from
      both sides, he was declared sane,
      and received 15 life sentences. He
      was beaten to death with a metal bar
      by a fellow prison inmate Christopher
      Scarver on 28 November 1994. ■

SERIAL KILLERS

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Ohio and Wisconsin

THEME

Necrophilic killings

BEFORE

1947–52 Ed Gein steals

bodies from cemeteries in

Wisconsin and makes

keepsakes from the remains.

1964–73 Edmund Kemper

embarks on a crazed spree

of necrophilia, serial killing,

and cannibalism in his

native California.

1978–83 Dennis Nilsen

strangles and kills around

12 men at his home in London,

England. He stores some of the

bodies under the floorboards.

AFTER

1994–2004 Sean Gillis rapes

and murders eight women in

Louisiana. He is unable to

account for the brutality of

his mutilations.

I WAS SICK

OR EVIL, OR

BOTH

JEFFREY DAHMER, 1978–91

I acted on my fantasies

and... everything

went wrong.

Jeffrey Dahmer

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