Russia’s ”Chessboard Killer” Alexander Pichushkin showed no remorse on Thursday when he addressed a Moscow court for the final time after being found guilty of a series of 48 murders.
Instead of asking for lenience, he taunted the court, which on Wednesday found him guilty on all charges.
”For 500 days I have been under arrest and for all this time you have all decided my fate. At one time I alone decided the fate of 60 people,” he said. ”I alone was the judge and prosecutor and the executioner. I was God. I alone fulfilled all of your functions.”
Arrested on June 16 last year, Pichushkin earlier told the court he intended to kill 64 people, one for each of the squares on a chessboard, giving rise to his nickname in the media.
He is due to be sentenced on Monday.
Pichushkin claims to have killed 63 people in all, 29 of whom he knew. Most were killed in the sprawling Bitsa Park on the outskirts of Moscow.
The only thing he objected to was the court’s portrayal of his crimes as displaying ”particular cruelty” in the way he bludgeoned many of his victims with a hammer before throwing them down an open drain.
”This was a kind of ritual, my style, my handwriting. Neither the prosecutor nor the investigators know what happened between us in the woods,” he told the court on Thursday.
As Russia currently has a moratorium on the death penalty, he faces a maximum of life in prison. Defence lawyers are asking for a 25-year term.
Investigators said Pichushkin aimed to claim more victims than infamous Soviet-era serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, who was convicted in 1992 of murdering 52 people. — Sapa-AFP