October 10, 2007
MOSCOW, October 10 (Itar-Tass) - Muscovite Alexander Pichushkin, detained on charges of a series of murders in Moscow's Bitsa Park, has confessed to another 14 murders and attempted murders.
Pichushkin said at the Wednesday hearing that he compiled a list of acquaintances in 2001 whom he marked as future victims.
"Among the slain, there were 29 persons I knew and 34 strangers," he stated. In all, the defendant has confessed to 19 of the 52 crimes he stands accused of.
The next hearing is due on Thursday.
On Tuesday, he pleaded not guilty on one murder charge. During the questioning, he confessed to four murders and described them. The victims were his college mate Odinchuk, acquaintance Yevgeny Pronin and colleagues Larisa Kulygina and Marina Moskalyova.
When charged with the murder of Vladimir Ushakov, Pichushkin stated that on that day, "he had a corpse Volodya by name, but that his last name was not Ushakov."
He explained that it became clear for him because of the witnesses' testimony in court: "there was a 20-year difference; and in addition, they differed in height."
As for his victims, the suspect said he sought to murder persons he knew well. He also shed some light on drinking alcohol with his victims. "It was a kind of ritual," Pichushkin said.
At the beginning of the Tuesday session, he admitted 63 murders and attempted murders.
Asked by the judge if he admits his guilt the defendant said, “I will speak on all the episodes, there are 63 of them.” The judge noted that this trial is considering the case on 52 counts (including the murder of 49 people, as for the rest - the investigators have failed to find any documentary evidence or bodies of the killed). Pichushkin replied that he intended to tell the court about 11 more victims.
According to the bill of indictment, prosecutors accuse him of a series of murders, namely 52 episodes of slayings, including three attempted murders. Of the slain victims, 46 are men and three are women, Moscow Prosecutor Yuri Semin said earlier.
Pichushkin started to give testimony in court by telling about the first murder he committed when he was 18. He killed his fellow student in a vocational training school - Odinchuk in 1992. The defendant confessed that already then he was planning to commit murders, but as he lacked the experience he wanted to find an accomplice. With this end in view he “took notice of Odinchuk, because he knew him and he was a tough guy.” However, according to Pichushkin, although Odinchuk at first agreed to the proposal of the defendant, then he refused and started to avoid him in every possible way. “When I realized that it was just a game for Odinchuk and for me it was not, then I decided that he will be the first (victim),” said Pichushkin.
Later, Pichushkin lured Odinchuk to the Bitsa Park and killed him. Odinchuk became his first victim.
“Pichushkin resumed his criminal activity in 2001,” Semin said.
During the six months before his arrest in June 2006, the suspect committed five murders with particular cruelty. The last crime was committed in the Bitsa Park on June 13, 2006.
“Seeking to slay as many people as possible in the south-western district of Moscow, Pichushkin marked people who abused alcohol and struck an acquaintance with them. He then won their trust and, under the pretext of remembering the memory of the diseased, invited them to the Bitsa Park premises. After treating them to alcohol, he brought them to a helpless state which he used to kill them by various methods,” the Moscow prosecutor said.
A psychiatric test found Pichushkin sane.
His lawyer Pavel Ivannikov stated in court that “Pichushkin admits everything stated by the prosecutors, the question is the cause and effect of what he did and why.”
“Pichushkin fully admits his guilt, but does not repent,” Ivannikov said at an earlier hearing.