THE RED RIPPER Inside the Mind of Russia's Most Brutal Serial Killer.

Hardback. BCA Reprint. He was a soft-spoken grandfather. The 'perfect' famiy man. A former Russian literature teacher. And a serial killer. His name...Andrei Chikatilo. Beneath Chikatilo's model-citizen exterior lurked the warped mind of one of the most prolific and evil serial killers of all time. He lured drunks, prostitutes and innocent children to deserted spots in order to commit acts of almost unthinkable depravity. At his sensational 1992 trial, amid the anguished cries of victims' loved ones and watched in his cage by the world's media, Chikatilo admitted to murdering 53 women and children over a 12yr period. What sort of person could commit such crimes - repeatedly? What had happened in the past to turn Chikatilo into such a monster? Why did it take the police six more years to catch him, despite an initial arrest in 1984? The author, a British journalist based in Moscow, has, in answering these questions and more, unearthed a whole wealth of new information. Based on interviews with key figures in the case - from the police who finally caught Chikatilo to the psychiatrist who helped track him down, the author gives a chilling insight into a damaged mind in a damaged society. Illus. + Chronology. 258pp. 8vo h/back. Browned pp. o/wVg+ in Vg. dw.