Alexander Yuryevich Pichushkin

1. Alexander Yuryevich Pichushkin Алекса́ндр Ю́рьевич Пичу́шкин

2. SOURCES • http://www.biography.com/people/alexander-pichushkin-396824 • http://www.murderpedia.org/male.P/p/pichushkin-alexander.htm • http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/oct/24/russia • http://www.biography.com/people/alexander-pichushkin-396824 • http://www.gq.com/about/alexander-pichushkin • http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7059939.stm • http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-chessboard-killer/ • http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/serial-killer-on-trial-moscows-grandmaster-of-murder-402313.html • http://thechessboardkiller.tumblr.com/ • http://www.hellhorror.com/killers/serial_killer/73/Alexander-Pichushkin.html

3. General Information • Born April 9, 1974 Mytishchi, Moscow, Russia • Number of victims: 49 Known, with over 60 speculated. (His goal was to kill a person for every tile on a chessboard, they found a chessboard in his home with a date on all but 2 tiles, supposed to be the dates for each murder.) • Date of Murders: 1992-2006 • Given Names: “Chessboard Killer”, “Bitsa Park Maniac”

4. Contradictions in Modern Media • Not many contradictions occur, since most of the data ire factual evidence. • Some sites do state that he was psychotic, while this was found to be incorrect.

5. CHILDHOOD • Pichushkinstarted out as an average child. He was sociable and happy. An unfortunate event that would change the fate of more than 43 lives. As a young child, Pichushkin suffered brain trauma in an accident; he fell backwards out of a swing, and as it came back, it. Experts speculate that this caused damage to the frontal cortex of his brain, this type of damage can cause the brain to produce poor impulse regulation and a tendency to cause aggressive behavior. Of course this isn’t the only reason as to y he started killing, but clearly initiated the direct reason: bullying coupled with aggression.

6. Continued childhood • After his brain trauma, Pichushkin’s learning abilities suffered. He did not perform well in school, and was not involved in any activities. He was bullied by the children at his school for having this learning disability, and would continue to be for the rest of his academic life. • His grandfather recognized that Pichushkin was highly intelligent, and felt that his innate talents were being wasted, he wasn't involved in any activities at home, and the school he was enrolled in catered more towards overcoming disability, rather than exceptional achievement. He took Pichushkin to live with him to try to encourage him to achieve more. He became interested in chess, and after he became proficient, his grandfather introduced him to exhibition games where he could play competitively. He found a place to channel his anger; on the chess board. He was an extremely talented player, and dominated the game.

7. His personality as a Child • Pichushkin's neighbor, Svetlana Mortyakova, remembers Pichushkin as a pleasant young man, always polite and someone who loved animals. She once found him in tears in the stairwell of the apartments they shared, grieving over the death of his cat. • The early years of his life were very influential on his personality. He had grown up with no father, was bullied by other children, and had overly aggressive behavior. These things can be directly linked to his future atrocities.

8. Death of His Grandfather • After his grandfather’s death, Pichushkin had no choice but to move in with his mother and enroll into a mainstream school. The death of his grandfather greatly affected Pichushkin. He eventually began to consume large amounts of vodka in order to cope with his depression. He continued to play at exhibition games, and joined the men in drinking, unlike them, his skills at chess were not hindered by alcohol.

9. Obsession with Dominance • Pichushkin soon began to bully smaller children and video taping the incidents. In one video, he held a child by one leg, holding him outside a window saying: "You are in my power now... I am going to drop you from the window... and you will fall 15 meters to your death...“ He viewed these videos in an effort to reaffirm his supremacy. He liked the idea of being in control of people, which would soon develop into something much more brutal.

10. First Murder • The first actual murder Pichushkin committed was in 1992, when he pushed another teenage boy out of a window. The police questioned him, but declared the death a suicide. "Это первое убийство, это как первая любовь, это незабываемо" - Александр Пичушкин

11. Stepping Up His Crimes • Pichushkin started his actual killing spree I 2001, in Bitsevski Park, Moscow. This led to his name, the“Bitsa Park Maniac.” The majority of his victims would be killed and, subsequently, left at this park.

12. Modus Operandi • Pichushkin’s methods were basically the same every time, with some cosmetic differences. Most of his victims were old men, with only three being women. He would usually invite his victim to drink vodka. When they were thoroughly intoxicated, he would take a hammer or similar object, and hit them in the back of the head. Most of the time he would shove the empty vodka bottle through the wound afterwards. He would dispose of the bodies in the sewer system by simply dumping the bodies in the drainage shafts, sometimes the victims wouldn’t be dead, but would drown in the shaft. One person actually survived this situation.

13. Motive • There are many speculations as to why Pichushkin murdered people in the manner that he did. Experts at Moscow's Serbsky Institute, Russia's main psychiatric clinic, declared that Pichushkin was not mentally ill and was fit to stand trial. Some psychologists found various reasons as to why he murdered the way he did, but it is more logical to think that all the factors played some sort of role in shaping his mins.

14. Explanations • Psychologist Mikhail Vinogradov believes Pichushkin’s murders were the result of his grandfather’s death. As he may have felt as if his grandfather “abandoned him.” This would correlate with the fact that a majority of his victims were old men. • Vinogradov also says there was a “sexual subtext” to the killings. Pichushkin himself said his criminal career was a “perpetual orgasm.” He enjoyed killing people. • "For me, life without killing is like life without food for you. I felt like the father of all these people, since it was I who opened the door for them to another world."

15. Competition with another killer • “He dreamed of surpassing Chikatilo and going down in history," Moscow prosecutor Yuri Syomin said at his trial. He was referring to Andrei Chikatilo, Russia’s most notorious serial killer, who mutilated and ate his victims. It is likely that this is yet another motive. In order to become a notorious killer, he believed that he must beat Chikatilo by killing more people.

16. life During His Killing Spree • Pichushkin worked in a supermarket and stayed with his mother, Natalya, in a high-rise block in the south Moscow suburbs. This is where he had lived for the majority of his childhood. He never seemed to be suspicious to people. Of course, he didn’t have any friends and stayed very distant from society, as he was very reclusive.

17. Arresting the Chessboard Killer • He was arrested on 16 June 2006, and convicted on 24 October 2007 of 49 murders and 3 attempted murders. They used security cameras to track his movements after he had killed his last victim.