Motive Monday: Andrei Chikatilo
He looked like a ghost in plain clothes: gray, forgettable, swallowed by Soviet streets. Yet Andrei Chikatilo, the “Butcher of Rostov,” turned that invisibility into his greatest disguise.
For over a decade he prowled train stations and bus depots, preying on the vulnerable while a state too proud to admit the truth looked the other way. His trial revealed not just a killer, but a system rotting from denial.
Full write-up here.
What do you think?
How do you interpret the Soviet state’s refusal to acknowledge a serial killer in its midst?
What does Chikatilo’s trial spectacle say about justice when grief floods the courtroom?
Where do you draw the line between individual monstrosity and the failures of the system that let him thrive?
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