1990: A 350-Officer Manhunt Could Not Stop the Rostov Ripper Killing Again
Soviet authorities refused to admit serial killers existed, so the public had no idea a predator was stalking the region’s railway stations, gouging out his victims’ eyes before vanishing back into the crowds. Andrei Chikatilo had been doing this for years by the time investigators finally grasped his pattern and threw everything they had at stopping him: roughly 350 officers in uniform and plain clothes, stationed on platforms and lurking among commuters at stations across the region.
It made no difference. On this day in 1990, a man named Viktor Tishchenko simply went to collect some train tickets and crossed paths with Chikatilo, becoming his latest victim despite the massive police presence meant to prevent exactly this. The killer’s capture was still weeks away.
