Supermarket worker enjoyed ‘perpetual orgasm’ from murdering 49 people | World | News
During the trial, psychologists revealed that a Moscow supermarket worker convicted of murdering 49 people described his five-year killing spree as “constant orgasms”. Alexander Pichushkin, known as the “chessboard killer,” preyed on defenseless individuals in Bitsevsky Park, a large forested area south of Moscow where locals wandered, played chess, and drank vodka on benches under the trees.
The 33-year-old man, who lived with his elderly mother in a nearby high-rise block, was luring older men, mostly acquaintances from chess games, to secluded spots. He was offering to share vodka next to his beloved dog’s grave and then hit him from behind with a hammer.
Pichushkin began killing in 1992 when he was 18, but took a break in 2001 when he launched a relentless campaign to terrorize the Russian capital until he was arrested in 2006.
Prosecutors said he dreamed of outdoing Soviet-era serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, who was executed for 52 murders, by claiming there was a victim for each of the 64 squares on the chessboard.
Although most of the victims were elderly men, three were women and one was a child. His cruelty was clearly visible in cases where corpses were found with small stakes driven into their skulls.
Psychologist Mikhail Vinogradov attributed the murders to deep anger over the death of his grandfather, who raised Pichushkin for a while and taught him chess. Vinogradov noted that Pichushkin himself described his criminal career as “constant orgasm” and pointed out that the crimes had a “sexual subtext”.
But experts at the Serbsky Institute in Moscow declared him sane and fit to stand trial.
Neighbors remembered Pichushkin as a kind and animal lover in his youth. Someone remembered finding her in tears over the death of her cat.
His mother traced the behavioral changes to a childhood head injury resulting from a swing accident when he was four years old; This situation was compounded by his father’s abandonment and subsequent losses.
Pichushkin reportedly told investigators: “Life without killing for me is like life without food for you.” He added: “I felt like a father to all these people because I was the one who opened the door to another world for them.”
His downfall came when his final victim, a female colleague named Marina Moskalyova, left a note detailing her before disappearing. Surveillance footage located him with her and led to his capture.
During the highly publicized trial, in which he appeared in a glass cage, Pichushkin showed no remorse and demanded more victims be added to his tally. He was convicted of 48 murders and three attempted murders and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The case exposed the vulnerability of Moscow’s outcasts – alcoholics, homeless people and the elderly – living in a park once seen as a place of peaceful recreation. Pichushkin’s humble day job as a supermarket clerk masked a predator perfectly adapted to everyday life.
His crimes highlighted broader problems in post-Soviet Russia, where serial killings periodically shock the country.
However, Pichushkin’s chilling self-description – equating carnage with unceasing enthusiasm – underlined the deep psychological abyss behind one of the most prolific killers.
