By Katherine Ramsland

(Continued)

advertisement

Psychologist Mikhail Vinogradov interpreted the attacks as the result of anger at his grandfather for abandoning him, although they also had a "sexual subtext" in that they were committed to produce pleasure. Pichushkin had actually described his criminal career as a "perpetual orgasm." It was his goal, he bragged, to kill 64, to match the number of squares on a chess board.

Three people did survive his attempts to murder them by throwing them in a sewage pit, and one of them identified him as the culprit. He confirmed how the Maniac operated.

Check-Mate

Serbsky Institute

At the Serbsky Institute, Pichushkin was subjected to several months of psychiatric evaluations and judged to be competent to stand trial. He was charted with 49 murders and three attempted murders. At the fifteen-minute preliminary hearing on August 13, 2007, from a glass cage he asked to be tried by a jury rather than before a panel of judges, and Judge Andrei Subarev accepted this request.

The judge also ruled that the trial, starting September 13, should be open to the public — probably what Pichushkin had hoped, given his desire for fame. However, being deemed just shy of Chikatilo's record probably irks him. He might just take the stand to make his claim for the record. When asked by reporters why had had killed, he only remarked, "Such is the situation."

Next Page

Previous Page

By Katherine Ramsland

For more daily crime news