Play Book Tag discussion

by Mikhail Krivich - 3 Stars

Andrei Chikatilo was accused and convicted over fifty-three savage and sadistic murders young boy and girls as well as women ages eight to twenty-four throughout Russian territory over a twelve year period beginning in 1978. He was almost caught after the first murder, but there was a previously convicted man, Aleksandr Kravchenko, in the area who had a prior rape and murder conviction. Even though he had obviously turned his life around it was just easier for authorities to pin the murder on him rather than follow the clues leading to Chikatilo. Sadly, Kavchenko was wrongly executed and Chikatilo was emboldened and learned from his mistakes. Securing jobs that allowed for an unusual mobility in Soviet Union at the time further aided his ability to elude capture, as he often committed the atrocities while traveling on business.

Chikatilo came to my attention when I read Child 44, a fiction work loosely based on Chikatilo. Loosely is correct because the only thing the two have in common is that the main characters of both books were Russian serial killers. In Tom Rob Smith fiction account the Soviet culture of promoting a Utopian society created the atmosphere for which the killer went undetected. That was not the reality. While authorities definitely made mistakes, they aggressively pursued the case, subject half a million people to questioning and testing. As a result 1,000 unrelated cases were solved.

The book is difficult to read. The murders are disgusting. I'm used to reading difficult subject matter as it relates to war studies, but this was even hard for me to get through. It is also a bit unsatisfying because of the time of publication Chikatilo is convicted but awaiting appeals. I had to look up the conclusion of the story. I don't know that I can recommend it, but it was interesting to see how Soviet police investigation worked and how the case was solved.