Taking “Can You Top This” to a New Level

For years, Russia claimed Andrei Chikatilo as its most prolific serial killer. That “honor” has now been superceded, at least unofficially:

MOSCOW, Oct. 24 — A former supermarket worker, nicknamed the “Bittsa

Maniac” in the Russian news media after the wooded park where he lured

victims into drinking sessions before killing them, was found guilty of

murdering 48 people in Moscow today.

The worker, Aleksandr Y. Pichushkin, 33, testified during the trial

that his initial murder was “like first love.” He often killed his

victims by bashing their heads with a blunt object or drowning them in

a sewer. Saying he hoped to become Russia’s

most prolific serial killer, he confessed to killing 63 people, one shy

of his goal of one murder for each square on a chessboard.

He

was trying to best the bloody toll of Andrei Chikatilo, dubbed the

Rostov Ripper, who was executed in 1994 for raping and murdering 52

people.

Pichushkin was caught when one of his final victims left a note stating she was going for a walk with him – something he knew in advance but didn’t deter him from killing her. “I burnt myself, so there’s no need for the cops to take credit for catching me. I’m a professional.” Um, that’s one way of putting it, I suppose…