Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Chessboard Killer” Alexander Pichushkin Pt. 1

Episode Date: November 16, 2020

One of Russia’s most prolific serial killers was an avid chess player. First introduced to the pastime by his grandfather, the young Alexander Pichushkin finally found something he could excel at. But in 1992, his competitive urges were drawn to a different kind of game… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, Parcasters. I'd like to take a moment to let you know that we'll be taking a break next week for the Thanksgiving holiday. But don't worry, we do have a very special treat lined up, so stay tuned for that. I'd also like to take this opportunity to say thank you. Your loyalty and support is what makes this show possible. And this year more than ever, it has meant so much to us. From all of us here at Parcast, we wish you a very happy Thanksgiving. Thanks for listening. nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. It was a merciless winter's morning in Moscow, the kind of bitter cold that sets deep in your bones. Dawn was breaking over the snow-covered forests of Bitsa Park, a stretch of urban wilderness in the city's southwest. Much of Moscow was still asleep, and the park was quiet. There was little movement save for the rustling of the trees in the wind, but just below the frozen ground, a young woman was fighting for her life.

Maria Viracheva was 19 years old. She was three months pregnant, and was trapped in a well, desperate to make it back to the surface, but her way was blocked by a heavy iron manhole cover. Maria pushed at the cover with every ounce of strength she had left. but the cover weighed 90 pounds, and she couldn't move it more than a few inches. She tried to call for help, but her voice was hoarse and faint, lost to the wind. Despairing, she didn't know what else to do, and her time was running out. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson. This is Cereal Killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers.

Today, we're delving into the horrific saga of the chessboard killer, Alexander Pichickin. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other originals from Parcast for free on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Today, we'll look at Pichikin's upbringing in Moscow, the physical and psychological trauma that shaped his personality, and how the competitive streak behind his chess obsession also drove him to kill. In part two, we'll follow Pichikin's escalating murder spree in the early 2000s, his capture and the confession that stunned law enforcement.

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Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. Alexander Pichuschkin's first loss came before his first birthday. Born on April 9th, 1974, Pichickishkin was still a baby when his father walked out on the family. He grew up with no memories of his father at all. Pitchushkin's mother, Natasha, was left to raise her infant son alone. Still, at least she was in familiar surroundings. She lived in the same two-bedroom apartments since she was 11 years old, on Kersenkaia Street in Moscow. The apartment was basic, chilly, and charmless.

Part of one of the Soviet Union's first public housing projects. But it had one thing going for it. It was only a six-minute walk from Bitsowski Park. Known by locals by its true, shortened name Bitsa, the park is a sprawling stretch of forest that covers around seven square miles. Filled with silver birch trees and glittering streams, the park offers residents a reprieve from Moscow's concrete jungle. Bitsa Park was a huge part of Pichikin's childhood. Growing up, his mother and grandfather often took him there for walks or to play in the playground.

And it was in the park that a freak accident changed Pichikitschkin forever. One afternoon when Pichuschen was four, his mother took him to play on the swings. While her back was turned, Pichikin fell backward off the swing, landing hard on the ground. As he sat up, dazed, the swing swung back around and hit him in the forehead. He was never the same after that day. 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 she has to has done a lot of research for this show.

Thanks, Greg. According to Pichuschkin's mother, her son's personality darkened after the accident. He became angry and volatile, prone to wild mood swings and sudden outbursts. It's possible that the head trauma Pichuschkin suffered caused lasting damage to an area of his brain called the frontal lobe,

which was still developing at the age of four. The frontal lobe controls impulse regulation and personality expression. Research has shown that frontal lobe trauma can cause problems with emotions and anger, and interfere with the production of dopamine, which is known as the feel-good neurotransmitter. Research also indicates that there may be an association between head injury and homicidal behavior. According to a 2014 study by Scottish and Swedish researchers, one in four serial killers suffered either a head injury or an illness affecting the brain during their first.

formative years. In any case, the accident in 1978 had a profound impact on Pichikin's childhood. Details about his early life are sketchy, and we don't know the exact dates for many key events. But here's the timeline as we understand it. After the accident, Natasha worried that Pichickin's cognitive problems were affecting his studies, so she took him out of his regular school and transferred him to an institution for children with learning disabilities. This transfer may have come. as a relief. Pichuschkin was a shy child, and even before the accident, he struggled to fit in at school. His classmates physically and verbally bullied him, which only made him more withdrawn and

angry. But not everybody knew Pichuskin as a volatile kid. His neighbor, Svetlana Mortyakova, remembers him as a sensitive and polite boy who was devoted to animals. On one occasion, she found the young Pichchkins sobbing in a stairwell in their apartment building. The boy's pet cat died that day, and he was inconsolable. According to Svetlana, he was speechless with grief. This doesn't line up at all with the typical image of a burgeoning serial killer. Cruelty to animals is famously considered an early warning sign for homicidal behavior. But by all accounts, Pichchchkin enjoyed the company of animals more than people.

The exception to that rule was his grandfather, who he was close to. As Pichuskin neared adolescence, his grandfather recognized a natural intelligence in the boy and wanted to help him harness it. He also felt that Pichikin needed a father figure to keep him in line. By this time, Natasha had another child. She gave birth to her daughter Katya in 1982 when Pachishkin was eight. Between her growing son and her infant daughter, Natasha's two-room apartment was getting very crowded. So when her father suggested that Pichikin come and live with her. with him, she agreed. Pichuskin, grateful for a change of scenery, packed up his scarce belongings to move to his grandfather's

home. His grandfather encouraged him to develop intellectual interests outside of his studies. To that end, he introduced him to Russia's national pastime, Chess. Chess has a long and proud history in Russia. Since soon after the revolution in 1917, the game had been funded by the state, promoted by politicians, and hailed as a way for Russia to dominate on the international stage. The Soviets saw chess as more than a game. It was an embodiment of their ideals, requiring skill, strategy, and discipline.

For the teenage Pichuskin, chess was a breakthrough. After years of struggling at school, here at last was an opportunity to excel, to be admired and celebrated. He was a natural, and his grandfather soon declared that he was ready to show off his skills in public. The ideal place for the teen to make his debut was Bitsa Park. The park was vast and versatile, popular with cross-country skiers in the winter, lovebirds in the summer, and joggers all year round.

But for chess players, it was an arena. Petchuskin began playing public chess games in the park, opposite much older men who had been playing their entire lives. He was an outstanding player, and in the game he found a competitive outlet for the rage and alienation, simmering inside him. Petushkin also found a sense of belonging among the chess players. He felt more kinship with these vodka-drinking strategic masterminds than he ever did with his fellow students at school.

But his happiness was short-lived. When Petchuskin was still a teenager, his grandfather died. Having lost his own father before he was old enough to form memories, the loss of this father figure hit him hard. Picheskin fell into a deep depression. He moved back in with his mother and half-sister, and the three of them crammed into the same old apartment where the living room doubled as a second bedroom. The claustrophobic living situation likely added

to Pichikin's spiraling mental state. Perhaps seeking an outlet, he adopted a dog, taking refuge in his love of animals. He spent hours in Bitsa Park, taking long walks with his dog among the birch trees, and drinking to dull the peasant. pain of his loss. And when he felt up to it, he went back to playing chess. But now, without his grandfather's stabilizing influence, the mood of the matches was darker. Even when Pichuschkin won,

he didn't seem happy, and the huge quantities of vodka he drank probably didn't help. Petchikin thrived on the feeling of control, chess gave him. Seeing the look in his opponent's eyes as he realized he had lost, was intoxicating. But these fleeting moments no longer satisfied his craving for dominance. Likewise, chess no longer occupied his mind the way it used to. No matter how many games he won, Pichchuskin couldn't escape the hopelessness of his real life. He left school with few qualifications and took a job stacking shelves at a local supermarket. He longed for a way to stand out, to be exceptional in the eyes of the world. In 1992, he found an unlikely role model.

That year, as Pichuschen turned 18, headlines across Russia were dominated by the trial of the Soviet serial killer, André Chichotillo. Accused of 52 murders, Chichotillo was the most prolific killer in Russia's history, earning him the nickname, The Butcher of Rostov. Most Russians watched in horror as Chichotillo's gruesome crimes were recounted by the media, but for some macabre reason, Pachushkin was inspired. Watching Chichotilla's assent, the way an ordinary man could rise from humble beginnings to become the talk of the nation, sparked something in the deeply competitive Pichikin. He didn't just want to be like the extraordinary killer.

He wanted to outdo him. He fantasized about beating the butcher of Rostov at his own game, not chess, of course, but murder. And so began a one-sided competition that would consume Pichikin for years to come. Coming up, Pitchhchen goes on his first killing expedition. Listeners, here's a show you do not want to miss. When it comes to love, every story is unique. Some play out like fairy tales, and some don't.

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Russia was watching with bated breath as the trial of vicious serial killer Andre Chichotillo unfolded. But instead of being horrified by Chichotillo's crimes, which included murder, rape, and mutilation, Pichushkin was envious. Fiercely competitive by nature, Pichischikin wanted to outdo Chichiketillo. He wanted to become a killer even more legendary

than the Rostov Butcher, but he didn't want to do it alone. Petchuskin was a misfit at school, and his early experiences of bullying made him something of a loner. But his late grandfather helped him gain social confidence by teaching him to play chess and taking him to play public games in Moscow's Bitschews, Park. Being a part of the chess-playing community helped Pichickens see that he wasn't so unusual after all. And though he didn't have much in common with most of the other teens at school, there was

one boy who he thought might understand his impulses. On the afternoon of July 27, 1992, Pichickin invited his former classmate, Mikhail Odechuk, to accompany him to Bitsa Park. When Odechuk asked what he wanted to do there, Pichikchuskin nonchalantly told him it was a killing expedition. He wanted to murder someone that day, and he wanted Odechuk to be his accomplice. When Odechuk agreed to accompany him to the park, Pichuschkin was thrilled.

Finally, he had found a kindred spirit, somebody who understood his new, dark impulses. But when they reached Bitsa, Pichikin noticed a change in Odechuk. Pichchuskin tried to engage him in conversation as they walked, sharing observations about people they passed, and wondering aloud who would make the perfect victim. Petchuskin suggested that their best bet was someone who was alone,

perhaps homeless, someone who wouldn't be missed. Odichuk didn't respond. He seemed uneasy and kept trying to change the subject. Petchuskin realized, with a prickle of anger, that Odechuk had never taken this killing expedition. tradition seriously. He was only here as a joke. Petchuskin thought Odichuk was making fun of him, and after so many years of mockery at the hands of his classmates, Petchuskin couldn't tolerate that from a friend. As dusk settled over the park, the young men wandered deep into the forest.

It seemed as if there was nobody around for miles. Realizing this, Petchuskin seized his moment. When Odichuk's back was turned, Petchuskin was turned, hit him hard in the head with a hammer. As Odichuk crumpled to the ground, Petchuskin kept hitting him. He struck more than 20 times, fracturing his friend's skull and killing him within minutes. After Odichuk stopped breathing, Petchuskin left his body where it lay and headed back towards his apartment on the north side of the park. He'd walked this path countless times, often after winning a chess game, and none of those victorious highs. compared to this feeling.

But like most thrills, it faded quickly. The next day, Odichuk's body was discovered in the forest, and police arrived at Petchuskin's door. In seconds, his euphoria gave way to panic. There's very little reporting from this time, so we don't know exactly what led the police to Petitzchen. It's likely that witnesses saw the two men walking to the park together that afternoon, but Petchishkin insisted he had no

nothing to do with Odichuk's death, and investigators had no evidence against him. Apparently, the 18-year-old was a convincing liar, so they let him go. There are conflicting accounts of what Petchuskin did after this. Many reports state that he didn't kill again for nine years until the year 2001, but according to another report, he killed someone else in the year 1992. Here's how that story goes. Petushkin was in love with his neighbor Olga, a girl around his own age, but she didn't feel the same way. And when she rejected him, Pichuskin was furious.

He murdered Olga's boyfriend, Sergei, by pushing him out of a window. Because he died by falling from a building, the police dismissed Sergei's death as suicide. It suggested that Petchkin murdered Olga too, but this doesn't seem to have been proven. Either way, Pichuskin took a long hiatus from killing after that. We have no way of knowing exactly why he stopped for so long. Perhaps being questioned by the police spooked him, or it's possible that the fate of his idol, André Chichotillo, gave him pause. In October of 1992, Chichotillo was sentenced to death.

Two years later, he was executed by gunshot, which might have put a dampener on Pichikin's desire to emulate him. Whatever his reasons, the pause is striking, but it's not as unusual as you might think for a serial killer to stop killing. In a 2008 study on serial murder, the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime found that murderers will sometimes stop when they find a different outlet for their emotions, or when sources of stress in their lives disappear. According to the report, certain events or circumstances in a murderer's life can make him less likely to pursue more victims.

These can include increased participation in family activities, sexual substitution, and other diversions. But there's no indication that Pitchikin's life improved for the better during this time. As his teenage years drew to a close, he settled into a mundane and lonely existence. He went to work at the supermarket and then came home to the two-room apartment he shared with his mother and half-sister. There's no record of girlfriends or any significant relationship outside of his family. For nine years, Petchuskin's life continued in this unremarkable vein.

Nobody gave him much thought, and certainly nobody had any idea of the darkness that was brewing within his troubled mind. His ordinary life proved to be the perfect smokescreen. Petchuskin spent the decade plotting, devising a way to meld his two greatest obsessions, chess and murder. The image of the chessboard was never far from his mind. He saw it when he was walking alone in the park, when he woke up in the morning, and in the moments just before he fell asleep at night. He imagined each of the board's squares as a death. If he could fill up the entire board, one victim per square,

he would have killed 64 people, a total far greater than Chichotillo's 52. Over the years, the plan crystallized in his mind. He had killed once and gotten away with it. He knew he could do it again and better if he went in with a strategy. On May 17, 2001, almost nine years after he killed Odichuk, Kachushkin was finally ready to put his plan into action. Now 27, he had spent his entire adult life preparing for this moment. The image of the chessboard loomed in his mind as he walked across Bitsa Park that night,

heading for a familiar spot. As always, the chess exhibition area was populated by old men, moving ponds and nights around in between swigs of vodka. Pichuskin was still a regular at the chess tables, and he knew many of these men well. He approached a fellow regular Yevgeny Pronian and invited him to take a walk through the park. He told Yevgeny that today was a sad day.

It was the anniversary of his beloved dog's death. The dog was buried, in bits a park, Pichuschkin explained, and he wanted to visit the grave and raise a toast. After Pichikin promised to split his bottle of vodka, Yevgeny agreed to go with him. Petchuskin led him through the park to a secluded clearing where he said his dog was buried. Producing the vodka from his pocket, Pichuskin poured Yavgani a drink. The two talked for a while. Petchuskin was in no rush.

He found it interesting to spend time talking to a man who was destined to. to die. But finally, the moment came. When Yevgeny wasn't looking, Pichuskin struck. He smashed the vodka bottle hard into the back of the man's head, knocking him unconscious. A familiar, intoxicating feeling of power flooded through him, but Petchchkin learned from his previous mistake. He wasn't about to leave this body out in the open for the police to find. He had a plan. A network of sewers serving most of Western Moscow runs beneath Bitsa Park, accessible by wells at ground level. Pichikovkin dragged Yedgeny's unconscious form to a nearby well and dropped him in, leaving him to fall 30 feet into the sewer.

Petchuskin knew that if the head trauma and the fall didn't kill him, Yevgeny would surely drown in the fast-flowing and filthy water. Just like that, it was over. Petrushkin's plan was a success. Nothing remained to suggest a murder even took place. When he arrived home that night, he greeted his mother and sister as usual, then went straight to his bedroom and took out his prize possession, his chessboard. There are different accounts of exactly how Petitigin kept track of his kills.

Some reports say he drew crosses on his chestboard. Others say he placed coins onto the squares for each murder. And yet another account suggests that, that he kept a drawing of a chessboard in a notebook, then wrote the date of each kill onto a different square. Though the details about his chilling scorecard are fuzzy, it's clear that killing Yevgeny cracked something open for Petushkin. Now that he knew how smoothly his plan could work, he was unstoppable.

Over the next eight weeks, he killed nine more men using the same MO each time. He picked his target and invited them to take a walk to his job. dogs grave with him, luring them with the promise of free vodka. When they reached his favorite secluded spot, Petchuskin hit his victim over the head, dragged them to the well, and threw their unconscious body into the sewer to drown. It's difficult to find reliable details of the names and ages of Petchkin's victims from this era. There are a couple of reasons for this. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, there were some growing pains as the state adjusted to a new structure. As a result, record-keeping deteriorated significantly.

Also, Petchuskin made a point of targeting victims whose place in society was already fragile. Men without permanent homes or close family whose absence might go unnoticed for days or even weeks. That also means that they were less likely to show up in official records, and when they did, the police were less motivated to investigate. Just as Petchuskin hoped, the Wells proved to be a perfect, place to dispose of a body. The sewer system was so large and unwieldy that even if the bodies washed up and could be identified, nobody could possibly trace them back to bits of park or to him. After a couple of months of completely undetected murders, Petushkin concluded his summer

spree on July 21st, 2001. That day, he murdered a man named Victor Volkov. It was his 10th kill in two months, and his chess board was filling up vast. But he was careful. He kept the board hidden away in a safe place where nobody could find it. Nobody in his life noticed anything amiss. Petchuskin had always been quiet and withdrawn, and his mood didn't change when he started murdering people.

Despite the frequency of his kills that summer, he never seemed to lose control. His violence was as careful and methodical as his chess game. He even timed his murders to fall in the afternoon, so he wouldn't miss his favorite TV show. He tried to be home by 8.30 every night to watch the French soap opera, the Duchess de Montserra. Petchkin eased his pace a little in the fall and winter of 2001 and 2002, though he still murdered five people during this period. It's unclear exactly why he slowed down.

Maybe people were more reluctant to take long walks with him in the park once the weather turned cold. Moscow's winters are brutal. Temperatures fall to below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and snow is thick on the ground for months. But Petushkin didn't ease up for long. Before the end of winter in 2002, he was back on the hunt, and his old MO was getting stale. Craving a challenge, he set his sights further afield than the park.

That February, he prowled the streets of Moscow, unnoticed in the crowds of commuters, eyes peeled for the perfect victim. He found her sooner than he imagined. Coming up, Petchikin's first female victim puts up a fight. Gold Bond knows that every glow-up starts with radiant skin. So choose Gold Bond Cocoa Butter Glow

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Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak. and get your trip right. Kayak, got that right. Now back to the story. By the winter of 2002, 28-year-old Alexander Pichuskin was flying under the radar as one of the deadliest serial killers in Russia's history. Nine years after his first murder in 1992,

Petushkin embarked on a frenzied killing spree in the summer of 2001. By the start of 2002, he had murdered at least 11 days. people, luring them into the sprawling forests of Bitsa Park with the promise of free vodka. He knocked his victims unconscious, then dumped them into the sewer system to drown. With every kill, he felt more powerful and more unstoppable. Petushkin was well on his way to his ultimate goal, to kill enough people to fill every one of the 64 squares on a chessboard. But he was getting bored of the same old routine and the same old victim.

For the past nine months, he'd targeted older men who'd spent their days hanging around Bitsa Park, playing chess and drinking vodka. Both in killing and in life, Pitchikin's lack of interest in women or any romantic partner is striking. There's no indication that he ever had a girlfriend or even showed an interest, except for the unconfirmed story about him killing a romantic rival in 1992. Then again, Pichikin made a point of picking victims who wouldn't be missed. It's possible he avoided women for this reason. They were less likely to live alone. But on February 23, 2002, he took the risk. That afternoon, Pichikin crossed paths with Maria

Viracheva, a 19-year-old woman who was three months pregnant. Maria's boyfriend, Sergey, was an acquaintance of Pichikin. So he recognized Maria immediately when he saw her outside the Kakoskaya Metro Station. Maria was distraught. She just had a huge argument with Sergei, and she was afraid he was going to leave her. Pichuskin approached her and offered her some company. For Pichuskin, the coincidence was almost too good to be true. He always liked to get to know his victims at least a little before killing them.

The closer he was to a person, the better he knew them. The more he enjoyed the kill. Statistically, this makes Pichuskin an outlier. In a 2009 study conducted by Penn State University, researchers examined gender differences in serial killer behavior. They found that male serial killers were almost six times more likely to kill a stranger than female serial killers, who were more likely to kill a person they already knew. Male serial killers were also more likely to hunt their victims before the kill, the study

found, and tended to pick strangers. Pichikin was definitely a hunter, but he often targeted people he knew, usually men he had met playing chess at the park. Though these don't seem like particularly close relationships, Pichikin got more of a thrill out of killing acquaintances than strangers, and he knew Maria well enough to know that he would enjoy killing her. But targeting Maria forced Pichikin to change his M.O. Trying to lure a pregnant woman to the park with alcohol wasn't going to work.

Instead, he told her he had several boxes of brand new camera equipment, hidden in a safe place inside Bitsa Park. He made her an offer. If she helped him move the heavy cameras, he would give her half of them to sell, so that she could provide for herself and her baby. He told her, don't waste your time grieving. You'd be better off making some money. Maria agreed to go with him. She followed him to the park and let him lead her deep into the forest, towards a concordial. well, where Pichikishkin said the cameras were hidden. By the time they reached the well,

it was getting dark, and Maria was antsy. She had to wake up early for work the next morning and hadn't planned on being out this late. Pichikin slowly lifted the iron manhole cover off the well and told Maria to come closer. As she approached him, he grabbed her and pushed her head first towards the well. Adrenaline flooding through her, Maria tried desperately to grip onto the edge of the well. Enraged by her resistance, Petushkin grabbed her by the hair and started slamming her head hard into the concrete wall. Disoriented and in pain, Maria had one clear thought, he will kill me like this. She had no choice but to let go and fall into the darkness. Maria landed in a sewage pipe around 25 feet below the mouth of the well. The water was deep,

and the current was powerful enough to sweep her away, so powerful that she was trapped underwater for a while. But Maria was a fighter. She wanted to live. After she caught her breath, she took off all of the heavy winter clothes that were weighing her down. Without her jacket and boots, she was able to swim more easily and managed to find her footing.

She planted her hands and feet firmly at the sides of the pipe and made her way through the darkness. Her head throbbing with pain, pain, her heart pounding. Maria eventually made it to another well. This one had a ladder attached to its side, and she was able to climb all the way up. But once she reached the top, the 90-pound manhole cover was almost impossible for her to move. She pushed with all her strength, but only managed to dislodge the cover by a few inches. By this stage, Maria had been in the pipe all night. It was now dawn, and a few early rises were taking

morning walks in bits of park. One woman stopped, frozen in horror, as she saw the manhole cover moving. From underneath the cover, Maria could see only a sliver of the world, just enough to watch helplessly as the woman fled. It was over. After fighting so hard to survive, she knew she was going to die, inches from freedom. But within minutes, the woman returned, bringing two security guards from a nearby garage. As they drew closer, they heard Maria's faint cries for help. The guards removed the manhole cover, lifted the exhausted, terrified woman out of the well, and called an ambulance. Against all the odds, Maria survived. At the hospital, she breathed a sigh of relief as the doctors confirmed that her unborn baby was also unharmed. But her ordeal wasn't over yet.

Maria wasted no time telling the police what happened. But when an officer came to question her at the hospital, he didn't seem very interested in the extraordinary story she told him. This could have been an easy arrest. Maria knew exactly who her attacker was and could identify him by name. And Petushkin was not a powerful man. The police had no vested interest in protecting him. And yet...

What happened next is incomprehensible. Perhaps the officer was lazy, or maybe he had some other reason for not wanting to investigate. Whatever the case, his goal that day wasn't to find out the truth from Maria, but to keep her quiet. So he blackmailed her. Maria grew up in a rural area where job prospects were scarce. She moved to the capital to build a better future for herself, but special paperwork was required to live in Moscow at the time, Perhaps suspecting what her answer would be, the officer asked Maria for her papers. Maria told him the truth.

She didn't have the documentation. The officer shook his head. He told her that if she stayed quiet about being attacked, then the police would overlook her, quote, illegal habitation in Moscow. She was forced to sign a statement saying that she fell down the well herself by accident. If that officer made a different choice and the police, and the police had arrested Pichuskin that day, dozens of lives might have been saved.

Instead, as Maria lay in her hospital bed traumatized and defeated, Petchuskin was going about his normal business at work. There was a spring at a step that day as he stacked the supermarket shelves. As far as he was concerned, his latest murder had gone off without a hitch. He believed that Maria was dead. Her body lost to the labyrinthin sewer system, That meant another square on his chessboard was filled. Petushkin basked in the memory of Maria,

the feeling of power he felt as she disappeared into the black void of the well. But he didn't dwell for long. Like any chess player worth his salt, Pichuskin was already planning his next move, and his twisted game was only just beginning. Thanks again for tuning into serial killers. We'll be back soon, with part two, where we'll explore Pichickens' snowballing murder spree through the early 2000s.

For more information on Alexander Pichuskin, amongst the many sources we used, we found Peter Savodnik's 2009 article on the chessboard killer, featured in GQ, extremely helpful to our research. You can find all episodes of serial killers and all other originals from Pardcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cuddler, sound designed by Mike Ramos, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro,

Carly Madden, and Bruce Kitovich. This episode of Serial Killers was written by Emma Dibdin, with writing assistance by Joel Callan, fact-checking by Haley Milliken, and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood. Serial Killers stars Greg Poulson and Vanessa Richardson. Don't forget to check out Our Love Story, the newest Spotify original from Parcast. Every Tuesday, discover the many pathways to love, as told by the actual couples who found them.

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