Type of Victims
Chikatilo victims ranged from ages seven up to the age of forty five. Most serial killers would usually would have one type of victim, not Chikatilo he was unique in the fact that he targeted many types of people. He would target young boys and girls and women of all ages. His victims would have nothing in common overall besides being human. The ages of the young boys varied from age 7-16, and the females he would target were of all ages, but mostly young teenagers. He would also target runways and young vagrants at bus stations or railway stations. When he would murder and rape older women it was typically prostitutes or homeless tramps who could be lured away with ease. He would promise these women by offering them alcohol, drugs, or money. Chikatilo also had a couple victims who were mentally handicapped one boy and one girl.
Modus Operandi / Methodology
The way that he lured and then killed his victims was very similar and in some cases almost identical to one another. Chikatilo would wonder around these areas (bus or train stops) trying to find targets that appeared hopeless and in need. He then would approach the victim and begin to act friendly and act as if he was a nice kind man by offering them candy, a short cut, or offer to show them a cool stamp or card collection. They would then agree to his offer and follow Chikatilo into a near by forest or very secluded place. Once he led his victim into his trap he would usually overpower his victims and tie them up with a rope. After they were tied up he would attempt to have intercourse with them. Chikatilo was unable to gain or maintain an erection during the time he was attempting to rape them. This would cause him to go into a huge uncontrollable rage. He would then pull out his knife and stab the victims time after time in the genital area, trying to feel the sensation of sex. He enjoyed doing it so much that he would almost always ejaculate from the pleasure he got out of these brutal encounters. Almost everyone of his victims was found by investigators to have had their eyes gouged out by the knife. His very first victim’s name was Yelena Zakotnova, a 9-year-old girl. Chikatilo lured her to an abandoned house he had purchased a while before. He then attempted to rape her but like every other case in which he could not become erect he became angered. Once the girl began to struggle, he choked her and stabbed her three times in the abdomen. While he was knifing her he ejaculated in the process because of the stimulation he got from this strange pleasure. He then took the body and threw it in a river where it was found two days later.
Prison Sentence
Chikatilo was arrested for the first time on September 13, 1984 when he was discovered by investigators to have committed thefts at one of his former work place’s. He was found guilty of theft and sentenced to one year in prison. Chikatilo was a suspect for all of these unexplained murders but since his blood type was A and the blood type that was discovered on the victims was type AB, Chikatilo was not a suspect for very long. Chikatilo was then released quickly 3 months after he was put in prison. He had escaped his fate that time, but in November 1990 he was caught by undercover investigators. He was put in custody and brought before a judge in April of 1992 where he confessed to 56 murders. On October 15, 1992 Chikatilo began a trial that lasted nine months. In the August of 1994 Chikatilo was found guilty for 52 of the 53 murder charged against him. Chikatilo was sentenced to death sixteen months later, on February 14, 1994. Chikatilo was taken into a sound prood cell and shot in the back of the head.
Work Cited
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Chikatilo
http://twistedminds.creativescapism.com/most-notorious/andrei-chikatilo/
http://twistedminds.creativescapism.com/most-notorious/andrei-chikatilo/