Overview
- Pichushkin pursued a 64‑victim goal mapped to chessboard squares and kept a board marked with coins representing victims.
- His 1992–2006 spree centered on Bitsa Park, where he lured victims with alcohol, bludgeoned them, and pierced their skulls with sticks or bottles.
- Police closed in after coworker Marina Moskalyova disappeared, aided by her note identifying a meeting with him before she vanished.
- He told investigators that killing gave him purpose, saying he “killed in order to live.”
- He is incarcerated at Polar Owl, a remote Arctic supermax, and is widely described as Russia’s second‑most prolific serial killer after Mikhail Popkov.