Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - 30 Year Retrospective: “The Red Ripper” Andrei Chikatilo Pt. 2

Episode Date: October 20, 2022

Andrei’s murders don’t go unnoticed. A pattern emerges: young victims, bodies mutilated, left in isolated patches of wilderness. But even with police on high alert, the serial killer eludes capture until 1990 — when his twelve-year reign of terror finally ends. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of rape, violence, and murder, including the murder of children. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. In March 1989, 52-year-old André Chiquatillo walked through the frigid air of Shakti, a Soviet city in southern USSR. Despite the cold, he decided to take a detour home, past the railway station. The roundabout route wasn't aimless. He was looking for something. And when his eyes locked on 16-year-old Tanya Rajova, he knew he'd found it.

She had dirty hair, tattered clothes, and the hollow look of someone who would do anything for a drink. Andre offered Tanya some booze, and through her drunken haze, she agreed to follow him to his daughter's apartment. There he had the run of the place. Once they were alone, he pushed Tanya to the living room floor and tried to have sex with her. At first, she tolerated the advance, but soon it became clear Andre couldn't perform. As he grew visibly frustrated, alarm bells went off in Tanya's mind. If he couldn't have sex, why did he lure her into his apartment? Now she wanted out.

She yelled and threatened to call the police. Andre pleaded with her to be quiet, but she only grew louder. Desperate to stop her screaming, he grabbed a folding knife and slashed it across her mouth. Tanya, frozen in shock, finally fell silent. The blood pouring down her neck sparked something in Andre. He stabbed Tanya until he climaxed. Andre hadn't killed indoors in a long time and wasn't used to hiding a body, but when he noticed one of his daughter's thick kitchen knives, he knew what he had to do. And if he was to finish quickly, he needed to start sawing. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson.

This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. October 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the conviction of André Chiquetillo, one of the most prolific serial killers in history. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of Serial Killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. Last time we witnessed Andre faced famine and emasculation in the Soviet Union during the 1930s.

We saw his hunger for control drive him to murder a nine-year-old girl. This first homicide unleashed an insatiable monster who roamed the USSR, leaving dozens of mutilated victims in his wake. This time, we'll see how a crumbling economic state allowed Andre to avoid capture and continue a historic killing spree, until a pivotal mistake dropped him directly into the hands of police. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Bonnie and Clyde, the lonely hearts killers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

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Meet your match on ZipRecruiter. Transport your senses with Sol de Janeiro's limited edition perfume mist collection. At Sephora, spritz on lush notes of rainforest orchid and crisp sea breeze with hafresco paraizo. Embrace of floral and fruity scent inspired by Rio's nude beach with chiqui bikini. Or capture sun-kissed bliss with limonada gelada, where zesty Brazilian lemonade accord meets coconut milk and golden brown sugar. Don't miss Sol de Janeiro's limited edition perfume mist collection only at Sephora. If you turned on a USSR state-sponsored TV station in the 1980s, you'd think communism was on the rise, the economy was thriving, and the country was mere days away from crushing its enemies. But the truth was a little different. The once powerful Soviet Union was staring down the barrel of economic and political collapse.

The same nation that launched Sputnik spurred a nuclear arms. race and hosted the Olympic Games was now incapable of feeding and clothing its own citizens. Even worse, young Soviets began to question communism, the ideological glue that held the government together. The state propaganda was relentless and mostly effective, and the KGB rooted out and squashed political opposition. But despite the lack of government transparency, it was hard for everyday citizens not to see the chaos around them.

Lines formed outside of bread shops. People walked around with holes in their shoes and clothes. And worst of all... Between 1982 and 1984, an influx of children were vanishing across the Southern USSR, and in some cases, their bodies turned up mutilated beyond recognition. Though the Soviet media and authorities tried to keep things quiet, rumors about these horrible murders spread amongst the public. At least one person swore they saw a state official,

black limousine picking up a child off the street. Others wondered if a monstrous beast lived among them. After all, there were teeth marks all over the corpses. Genitals chopped off, eyes gouged out. What human could be capable of such things? Nobody suspected Andrei Romanovich Chiquetilo, an educated family man and supplies clerk with strong communist pride. He hardly fit the stereotype.

He seemed like an average middle-aged citizen, hardly a threat. And just as they had throughout his childhood, many treated him like a doormat, even people at work. Andre frequently traveled for work overseeing the delivery of construction materials. But at the factory, his bosses constantly dressed him down. They even ordered him to leave in the middle of meetings, like a naughty student. Life at home wasn't much better. His teenage children didn't seem to respect him. His son often called him a casuel, a Russian word meaning goat. It was a serious insult in Russia, yet the young man seemed to feel comfortable throwing it in his father's face. Andre's wife, Theodosia, grew frustrated with his long absences and yelled at him.

He shrank from her words, never daring to defend himself. But as soon as Andre was alone, he transformed from a pathetic, kicked puppy into a vengeful, hungry wolf. Andre lured vulnerable people, sex workers, children, the unhoused, to isolated patches. of wilderness, sometimes with the promise of food and alcohol. Poverty in the USSR turned people into drifters, desperate for a meal, a ruble, or any sort of comfort, and Andre was happy to take advantage of that. In the woods, he often attempted rape, but faced with his own impotence, the only release Andre could truly count on was murder and mutilation. By 1984, he'd killed 17 people, and his horrific appetite was nowhere near sated. Luckily for Andre, he had plenty of space to

hunt. Work often sent him to Rostafandandan, a bustling port city. Its crowded streets allowed Andre the freedom to move about unnoticed. It also had its fair share of vulnerable people, which was perfect for his needs. In late February 1984, Andre ran into 44-year-old sex worker Marta Raya Bienka. He may have met her at a bus station since Andre often found his victims at transit hubs. Together, the pair went to Aviators Park, a dense forest in Rostovandan. They walked deep into the trees and found a place where nobody could see them. They possibly attempted sex first, but at some point, Andre brutally murdered Marta. Deep in the woods, it's likely that nobody hurt her screams. Marta marked an interesting change in Andre's pattern. Until now, Andre had only

only killed people under the age of 25. He had a strong sexual preference for children, but now he'd murdered an older woman. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or a psychiatrist, but we have done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. According to a 2018 study published by Eastern Illinois University's Clinical Psychology Department, Andre's tendency to choose specific victims classified him as an organized killer. That's someone who's calculated about their murders. Now that he killed older women, too, it's possible he was becoming less organized. Perhaps his thirst for blood was too urgent to control. Once Marta was dead, Andre brushed himself off and walked back to the

Aviator Park walkways, as though returning to his leisurely stroll. The next day, someone found Marta's body, but there was no evidence connecting it to Andre. There rarely was. Andre was cunning and always covered his tracks. For instance, he sometimes tied his victims up with rope, but he didn't leave the cords or strands lying around. The only thing he did leave at his murder scenes were tiny traces of semen and blood, none of which the police had detected yet. Even though Andre had flown under law enforcement's radar, he wasn't above attracting distrust in other parts of his life. Andre's co-workers had picked up on his anti-social behavior, so when equipment at his factory went missing, suspicion immediately fell on Andre. The plant encouraged him to find a new job.

To add insult to injury, they also pressed criminal charges. Fiodosia, ever the dedicated wife, stormed into the factory to defend her husband, who she said was too shy to speak for himself. She was right, but while Fiodosia directed her frustration at the company, Andre blew off steam in other ways. Instead of job hunting, Andre hunted for victims. He carried, a bag filled with knives, rope, and basaline, just in case he managed to lure someone into the woods. He stayed out late and slept on dirty benches overnight, looking for ideal targets. He ignored his duties as a husband, father, and academic, and the more time he spent on the prowl, the worse his life became.

Because eventually, Andre's secret activities became hard to hide. Neighbors in Shakti had noticed the middle-aged man acting strangely around children, hovering by little boys and girls. Fiedosia heard the whispers about Andre's behavior. They had echoes of their time in Nova Shoktinsk, where his abuse of students blew up their lives. Fiodosia brushed off the rumors this time. Sure, her husband acted inappropriately around children,

but she seemed to believe he was too weak to do anything about it. She couldn't have been more wrong. In late March of 1984, Andre claimed another victim, a 10-year-old boy named Dima. This time, the murder was in an area close to Andre's hometown of Shakti. After stabbing the child 54 times and leaving his body in a housing estate, Andre walked calmly away. But this time, he left a partial footprint.

At least in other cities, Andre could rely on some anonymity, but now he couldn't even be bothered to leave town. And with the footprint, it seemed like he was being less careful. Over the next six months, Andre killed 12 more people around the USSR. Everywhere he traveled became a hunting ground, from cities to the outskirts of rural towns. Nobody was safe. But in his murderous rampage, Andre probably didn't consider that this trail of chaos would eventually lead directly back to him.

Coming up, Andre finds himself in handcuffs. The floorboards creak. The walls, they moan. The house seems vacant, but you're not alone. This October, Parkast invites you to celebrate the spookiness of the Halloween season with all new episodes of haunted places. From an infamous murder farm in Indiana to the ghostly tombs and palaces of ancient Egypt, visit the world's most haunted destinations,

and find out what happens when a soul leaves the body, but doesn't leave the grounds. Enjoy new episodes of haunted places all month. long, free, and only on Spotify. Snoring, gasping during sleep, feeling fatigued, ask your doctor about Zepbound, terseptite. The first and only FDA-approved prescription medicine for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and adults with obesity. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical

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2. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop Zepbound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia. If you're nursing, pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills. Taking Zep bound with a sulfonel urea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsened kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-99 or visit Zepbound.lily.com. Now back to the story. By the fall of 1984, 47-year-old Andre Chiquatillo had murdered over 30 people, and the police were still

nowhere close to catching him, but it wasn't for lack of effort. For over a year, law enforcement quietly investigated the murders across the Rostov region. And while authorities in Moscow suspected a serial killer, local precincts examined each homicide as an isolated incident, unaware of their connection to a broader spree. The lack of coordination could have been due to the USSR's approach to policing. Since Soviet propaganda claimed that crime was as good as impossible in a communist state, the media didn't utter a word about the murders. It's also possible that the authorities in Moscow kept these police forces in the dark.

To keep up appearances, regional cops solved each case quickly. They did this by finding the most likely local suspect instead of the right suspect. But every time they threw a new man in prison, they discovered yet another body. Thankfully, someone was looking at the bigger picture. In 1983, a senior investigator from Moscow named Vladimir Kazakov was asked to study the surge of homicides in the southern region. Vladimir quickly noticed a pattern. Child victims, bodies left in the woods, savage mutilation. When anyone found a new body that fit these parameters, Vladimir added it to his file.

These killings were eventually dubbed the Forest Path murders. In the summer of 1983, the public prosecutor's office sent Vladimir to Rostov-Undon with a group of specialists. It was past time for a federal investigation. The team studied the cases looking for commonalities. They port over the victim's last seen locations, the places they'd been buried, and, of course, the disfigured state of their bodies. Using this information, psychiatrist Alexander Bukanovsky created a psychological profile of the men they were looking for. He determined the so-called Forest Path murderer was mentally ill and antisocial, but managed to keep a normal job and perhaps even a wife. He also suggested that the killer was sexually troubled.

It was a fairly accurate picture of André, and it narrowed the focus of the search down to people with a history of sexual crimes. but forensics proved equally important. Using meticulous detective work and lab analysis of soiled clothes and corpses, Vladimir and his team found semen on nine of the victims. After testing it, the forensic specialist found that each sample belonged in the same group, A-B. This meant it all likely came from one person. Now, with a DNA trail to follow, the manhunt could finally begin. Though the existence of the Forrest Path murderer was withheld from the public,

law enforcement jurisdictions were alerted about the serial killers MO. Every policeman was to be on high alert. In September 1984, a police detective patrolled a suburban railway in Rostov. Though others might be bored by the mundane scene, this officer kept his eyes peeled. All area law enforcement had been told about a murderer on the loose, so he was ready to flag anyone suspicious. That's when he noticed a tall, well-dressed man with a professional-looking bag.

looking bag. The figure approached every girl, teenager, and woman who stood alone, trying to make conversation. It was Andre. The official could tell something was off, so he took Andre in for questioning. Andre was very forthcoming. He told the officer his name, occupation, and status in the Communist Party. But at some point, Andre's bag was checked. Inside was an unexpected collection of knives, rope, and vassaline. It appeared to be some sort of murder kit. It's hard to say how Andre felt at this moment. He must have known it was the end of his killing career. And with the USSR's use of the death penalty, it could also be the end of his life.

Investigators peppered Andre with questions about past victims. Then they realized his shoe size matched the partial footprint that Andre left when he murdered the young boy near Shakti. It was a breakthrough that filled them with hope. The Forrest Path murderer was in their grasp at last. Then came the final. test, experts extracted Andre's blood to compare it to the semen they had found on nine of the victims. If his blood was A-B, a match, they definitely had their man.

But professionals were shocked by the results. Strangely enough, Andre was blood type A. They checked repeatedly, but to no avail. The reason Andre's blood exonerated him was somewhat astounding. It was his semen on the victims, but Andre seemed to have an extremely rare condition. in which his blood group did not match his sperm group. According to researchers, the chances of anyone having this condition are astronomically small. The odds that a person with this condition became a monstrous serial killer are practically unimaginable.

Andre was released after a few months, just in time to face the burglary charges filed by his former employers. That December, a judge found Andre guilty of stealing equipment from his job. However, the official decided not to sentence him to any jail time. There was no evidence that man was adjudged to society. With all this scrutiny, Andre decided to get his act together. He finally got a new job as an engineer, and he moved with Fiadocia to the city of Novicherkosk. He spent time with his adult children and doted on his new grandchild, and most importantly, the 48-year-old stopped killing.

Meanwhile, investigators didn't know what to make of the silence. Vladimir and his team consider the possibility that the forced murderer had, had died, moved elsewhere, or was imprisoned for another crime. Or perhaps there was a more worrisome reason. The killer was just taking a break. Many thought the perpetrator must be insane. But if he was just lying low, it meant that he was still out there. And that he was cold and calculated.

It isn't uncommon for serial murderers to take time between kills. This is referred to as a cooling off period. According to a study done by Forensic Science International, Mind and Law, the length of these periods of time are individual to the person, and various factors affect how long they're able to suppress their urges. For an organized killer like André, with a job and a family, he was possibly more capable of cost-benefit analysis. He therefore might have been able to stop his violent compulsions once his freedom was in jeopardy. But of course, André's period of self-control eventually came to an end. In the summer of 1985, after 11 months on

his best behavior, Andre was in Moscow for work. While smoking near the airport, a teenager named Natalia Poclishtva approached and asked to bomb a cigarette. Natalia seemed like she hadn't had a good meal in a while, so Andre offered to buy her a drink and some food, but only if she had sex with him. Natalia agreed, and together they went to a nearby neighborhood. There, Andre led her into the woods and killed her the same way he destroyed so many other lives, by stabbing her first, then strangling her. Her body was discovered the following day by a man picking mushrooms. Word of her murder traveled to Vladimir. The frenzied number of stab wounds sent a clear message. His serial killer was back. This time, Vladimir wasn't alone in searching for this predator.

He was joined by Issa Kosteuf, deputy head of the investigative branch of the public prosecutor's office. Issa was one of the best detectives in the USSR, and after working with Vladimir, he was convinced the Forest Path murderer was an issue of national security. A federal task force was created with Issa and Vladimir at the helm. Their crew started small, but quickly grew to dozens of full-time officers and experts. It was one of the largest manhunts in Soviet history. With so many resources, the team developed a long list of suspects, 25,000 of them. There was an unintended upshot.

By following every single lead, the group ended up solving hundreds of unrelated crimes, 95 murders, and 245 sexual assaults just to see if their killer was behind them. But their efforts weren't always heroic. The task force targeted people with sex-related criminal history. Since the USSR considered homosexuality a crime, at least 105 gay men were criminally prosecuted during this process. and the task force real target, Andre, still alluded them. Andre might have noticed the serious uptick in police activity.

He decided it was time to take another hiatus. The next year, 1986, was quiet for Andre, but it was transformative for his nation. The year before, Democratic-leaning politician Mikhail Gorbachev had become the Soviet Union's new leader. Thanks to his new policy of transparency, the government gave more information to the press, along with permission to publish it. Issa jumped at the chance to put a spotlight on the murders. He hoped visibility would lead to new information and alert the public that they needed to protect themselves. When the news came out, it sparked people's horror and fascination, as well as their resentment over being kept in the dark. But going public only seemed to lead to fear, not breakthroughs.

That's because the task force was dealing with the chaos that came with a change in their government, which made it impossible to track their murderer. Andre continued to slip under the radar, but he couldn't stay quiet forever. After nearly two years of patiently waiting, Andre needed his outlet. In the spring of 1987, he traveled to a tiny village called Revda in the Ural Mountains. Maybe Andre knew that the town was far enough to escape the notice of the task force. He used the seclusion to kill a 13-year-old boy. That year, Andre took two additional lives, and the next year,

Next year, three. A slower pace than usual, but his murders were no less violent. Andre's hiatus seemed to have given him a renewed focus, and his mutilations became more precise. Instead of hacking away at fingers and lips, he learned to slice into the skin with a surgeon's touch, removing whatever body parts he pleased. But no matter how skilled he became at killing, Andre couldn't hide from the police forever. Coming up, Andre and the Soviet Union both go down together. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session.

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and no wire comfort that last all day. All over smooth, all-day comfort. Vanity Fair lingerie. Anywhere is at Target today. Now the end of the story. By the end of 1988, 52-year-old Andre Chiquatillo had killed a stunning 40 people, and after escaping police detainment, he likely felt unstoppable. In March of 1989, he spotted 16-year-old Tanya Rojova outside of Shakti's railway station.

By now, he could identify a target from a mile away. She looked displaced and desperate, like nobody would miss her. her if she vanished. Andre hadn't picked up a victim this close to home in a while, but he was feeling lucky. His daughter's apartment was only a few blocks away, and she wasn't home. He wouldn't kill Tanya, not indoors where the cleanup was nearly impossible. He'd only rape her, he told himself. The keys to the empty flat jingled in his pocket. He offered Tanya a warm meal and some good booze. The teenager likely knew all about letcherous men like Andre, whose promises of food, came with the price of sex, but she was hungry, cold, and bored.

They walked to the apartment where he made them a meal. Tanya was unimpressed by the spread, but she begrudgingly let Andre push her onto the floor. However, when he couldn't perform sexually, Andre grew frustrated. Tanya realized something had shifted. Perhaps thinking it would keep her safe, she threatened to tell the authorities about him. Andre, frantic and overcome with the urge to silence Tanya, grabbed his folding knife and cut her mouth. As usual, seeing the blood sent Andre into a frenzy.

He stabbed Tanya until she was dead and he reached his climax. But Andre faced an issue. He hadn't meant to murder Tanya. And now he was left with a body in his daughter's apartment. So Andre took a large kitchen knife and sawed off Tanya's limbs one by one. He wrapped each leg and arm in its own bundle of cloth. and tossed the pieces on a snow sled he found in a nearby courtyard. Then he dragged her into the snowy night.

However, the snow was thinning, and the sled kept snagging on the ground. When Andre tried tugging it over a railway, the heavy load caught on the tracks. He pulled, grunting with all his might. Suddenly, Andre heard a voice call out. He looked up, startled to see a man walking toward him. Andre froze, likely running through all the things that gave him away, Tanya's screams, a splotch of blood, maybe even a stray finger left in the wake of his sled. The stranger caught up to him and nodded a greeting.

Andre braced himself for the man to interrogate him or run for the police. Instead, the man offered to help. Relief flooded through Andre. Together they lifted the heavy sled over the tracks and into smoother snow. The man went on his way, completely unaware, his hand was inches away. away from the cut-up limbs of an innocent teenager. Andre dumped the body parts into some large pipes by the railway. It was a close call, but Andre had escaped yet again.

Unfortunately, this meant he could continue searching for victims. Throughout the rest of 1989, Andre killed four additional people, and these new victims didn't escape the sharp eye of investigators Vladimir and Isa. They'd notice that the perpetrator they dubbed the Forest Pass killer discarded the recent bodies near railways and bus stations. Once this new pattern emerged, the task force hatched a plan. They knew their murderer must be clever, since he'd avoided them for so long. So they decided to smoke him out.

Authorities posted heavily decorated and armed officers at most of the major travel hubs in popular cities, but at a few remote locations, they hid undercover police. The goal was to force Andre to these seemingly less guarded areas. and catch him in action. In the fall of 1990, Sergeant Igor Rivikov stood in plain clothes at a nearly empty railway stop near Shakti. As a young officer, Igor hated waiting in the afternoon rain. But then Igor noticed a tall, well-dressed man emerged from the nearby woods. It was Andre.

Igor watched Andre approach the station, then bend down to wash his hands in a water spigot. The sergeant noticed a large bandage on the man's finger, as well as a rust-colored stain on his cheek. Coming from the forest, it could have very well been mud or berries. But Igor wondered if maybe the stain was blood. The officer approached Andre and took down his information. Andre calmly answered his questions, and after a few minutes, Igor let him go. But as he watched Andre step onto the train, the young cop felt a pit in his stomach.

A few days later, police found 22-year-old's Vatlanakarostik's body in the same woods Andre had walked out of. Her tongue and nipples were cut off of her body. Clearly it was the work of the Forrest Path killer. Local investigators quickly found young Igor's report. Word traveled to the task force who dug into Andre's background. They discovered his history of touching children, plus the travel requirements from his job seemed to align with the nonsensical pattern of killings. So far, Andre was looking guilty. The investigators started tailing him on his work commute from Nova Chakas to Rostov. They noticed that every time he boarded the train, he sat next to a lone young person. Later that November, officers watched Andre try to pick up a boy. The 54-year-old

seemed agitated, as if desperate to lure the child off the train. But when a group of people swarmed into the car, Andre stormed off. His attempt spoiled. It was the last straw. The force didn't want to risk another child's life. So later that after, afternoon, three officers arrested Andre outside a cafe. In his bag, they found his rope and knives. Andre didn't struggle at all. Investigators took his blood and once again faced disappointing results. The blood and semen types weren't a match, but when they tested his semen alone, it matched the sperm trace they'd found at a crime scene. Even with this development, the surest way to prove Andre's guilt was to gain a confession. Andre was quiet at first, but eventually,

professed to paying sex workers because he was mocked for his impotence. He even admitted sexually assaulting children, but blamed it on his upbringing and mental health. He had an excuse for everything and played the victim. Perhaps it was his only way of sharing his side of the story, but no matter how much he rambled on, no matter how much he said, Andre refused to admit murder. Detectives were desperate. They needed answers and time was running out. Thankfully, they had one last trick up their slaves. On November 29th, Andre waited for his daily interview with a police officer, but instead of a cop, psychiatrist Alexander Bukanovsky, the same man who wrote the psychological profile on

Andre several years prior, walked through the door. At first, Alexander was friendly. As investigators watched from a distance, they were shocked at how well the two seemed to get along. Then Alexander offered to read the criminal profile he created. created based on the murders. Interested, Andre agreed. The psychiatrist read his findings. He described a middle-aged man whose education, work and family, masked sexual confusion and torment. As Alexandre spoke, tears ran down Andre's face. That's when he started talking. It's possible that in order to confess,

what Andre really needed was understanding. According to a 2021 study published in organizational behavior and human decision processes, verbally acknowledging someone's emotions can help them trust you. Andre had been keeping a sexually twisted, murderous part of himself hidden for decades. When Alexander read the profile, it acknowledged the deepest and most repressed part of Andre's psyche. It seemed to unleash everything he'd been holding back. Andre poured his heart out to Alexander. He admitted he had killed dozens of the victims the police charged him with. In fact, he was responsible for much more.

Once he shared his secret, it seemed he couldn't stop talking about it. Andre went on about how he picked victims and demonstrated his killing tactics on dummies. She even drove around with police pointing out the bodies they hadn't found. Fidocia visited him in prison. She needed Andre to sign the family savings over to her. Despite having witnessed at least two red flags over the last couple decades, she was shocked by his actions. It's hard to know exactly how she felt facing him behind bars, knowing what he'd done.

After all, she created an alibi on the night he killed his first victim. Perhaps she couldn't shake the guilt of knowing she could have saved so many more lives. But Fiaodosia only asked her husband why he did it. He couldn't give her an answer. In fact, he could barely look at her. So she left and never came back. Andre wasn't the only one experiencing a downfall. While he sat in prison, something happened that he and millions of other Soviets could never have imagined, the dissolution of the USSR.

With foreign and domestic relations crumbling, not to mention a coup that weakened his power, Gorbachev stepped down in December of 1991. Boris Yeltsin took over as the newly formed president of Russia. For many Russians, this transition was scary. The communist government, with a communist government with all of its harshness had provided a moral code. Now the country was going through an immense change, and Andre Chiquatillo's face was in every newspaper. Some were terrified, a new crop of gruesome killers was just over the horizon. Russian media crowned Andre with a new moniker, the Red Ripper. It was an apt nickname. Red conjured up the image of blood, but it was also the symbol of communism and the bygone era of the USSR.

In 1992, 17 months after his arrest, Andre was led into a courtroom and placed in an iron cage. Dressed in a 1980 Moscow Olympic Games shirt, rumpled prison pants, and a newly shaved head, he looked like a crazed, captured beast. The victim's families cried and cursed him. They wanted only one thing in return for the loss of their children, Andre's life.

They got their wish. On October 14, 1992, Andre was found guilty for 52 out of the 53 murders he'd been charged with. His punishment? Execution. On Valentine's Day in 1994, Andre was driven from a cell to a secret building in Rostov. It was the same city where so many children brutally died by his hand. A state official placed a gun just below Andre Chiquatillo's right ear and pulled the trigger. The reign of the Red Ripper was over. Andre has said he was a mistake of nature.

He knew he had to be destroyed. The statements seemed to be a glimmer of clarity in an otherwise depraved and treacherous existence. And despite decades of ripping children to pieces, Andre knew he'd never fill the hunger within. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. We'll be back soon with a new episode. For more information on Andre Chiquitillo,

amongst the many sources we used, we found The Red Ripper, inside the mind of Russia's most brutal serial killer by Peter Conradi, extremely helpful to our research. You can find more episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Stay safe out there. Cereal Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Carrie Murphy,

with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Nick Johnson, Trent Williamson, and Carly Madden. This episode of serial killers was written by Kit Fitzgerald, edited by Ben Carrow and Kate Murdoch, fact-checked by Catherine Barner, research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood, and produced by Bruce Kitovich. Serial Killer stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buck slot machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is giving one person a $1.6 million dream package. The biggest prize in Yamava's history.

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Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up, getting ready for bed, is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat.

Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.