Moscow: Russia’s notorious serial killer Alexander Pichushkin, sentenced to life imprisonment in 2007 for 48 murders, has informed investigators of his willingness to confess to 11 additional killings, according to a statement from the country’s penal service released on Saturday.
Now 50, Pichushkin carried out a brutal killing spree between 1992 and 2006, predominantly targeting vulnerable individuals such as homeless people, alcoholics, and the elderly. His crimes were centered around Moscow’s Bitsevsky Park, a sprawling green area in the southern part of the capital.
Dubbed the “Chessboard Killer” by Russian media, Pichushkin claimed during interrogation that his goal was to place a coin on each of the 64 squares of a chessboard to mark a victim for every square.
Since his conviction, he has been serving a life sentence at the Polar Owl prison, a maximum-security facility located in the remote Arctic region of Russia.
On Saturday, the Federal Penitentiary Service announced via Telegram that Pichushkin had expressed readiness to disclose details of 11 more murders involving both men and women. These alleged crimes had not previously been confirmed.
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Authorities have long suspected that the real number of Pichushkin’s victims exceeds those for which he was officially charged. During his 2007 trial, he claimed to have murdered 63 people, though prosecutors only brought charges for 48 murders and three attempted murders due to insufficient evidence on the rest.
Should Pichushkin be formally charged and convicted for the newly claimed murders, his total confirmed victim count could rise to 59, making him the second most prolific serial killer in Russian history—behind former police officer Mikhail Popkov, who was convicted of 78 murders.
