WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.339 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we are 00:00:02.339 --> 00:00:05.780 opening a file that sits right at the intersection 00:00:05.780 --> 00:00:09.640 of, well, neurology, sociology, and just pure 00:00:09.640 --> 00:00:11.880 nightmare fuel. Yeah, it's a heavy one. We've 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:13.779 covered serial offenders before, but there's 00:00:13.779 --> 00:00:16.120 usually a sense of chaos to them, right? A lack 00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:20.260 of structure. Today's subject is, he's different. 00:00:20.620 --> 00:00:23.899 He tried to impose this rigid, almost mathematical 00:00:23.899 --> 00:00:26.899 structure on murder. It's a case that feels less 00:00:26.899 --> 00:00:29.839 like a crime story and, you know, more like a 00:00:29.839 --> 00:00:32.539 grim psychological experiment. Just gone horribly 00:00:32.539 --> 00:00:34.840 wrong. We're talking about a man who treated 00:00:34.840 --> 00:00:37.399 Moscow like a game board. And his citizens like 00:00:37.399 --> 00:00:40.259 pawns. We are talking about Alexander Petrishkin. 00:00:40.500 --> 00:00:42.820 The press had a few names for him. The Bitsa 00:00:42.820 --> 00:00:45.060 Park Maniac was one, which is terrifying enough. 00:00:45.820 --> 00:00:48.619 Just the location itself. But the name that really 00:00:48.619 --> 00:00:50.520 stuck, the one that tells you everything you 00:00:50.520 --> 00:00:52.820 need to know about his psyche, is the chessboard 00:00:52.820 --> 00:00:55.520 killer. That name, the chessboard killer, it 00:00:55.520 --> 00:00:57.780 just it immediately reframes the violence, doesn't 00:00:57.780 --> 00:00:59.740 it? It suggests that for him, this wasn't just 00:00:59.740 --> 00:01:01.960 about the act of killing. It was about completion. 00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:05.620 It was about filling a quota, specifically the 00:01:05.620 --> 00:01:08.939 64 squares on a standard chessboard. 64 lives. 00:01:09.060 --> 00:01:12.000 That was the goal. And to understand how someone, 00:01:12.140 --> 00:01:16.099 anyone arrives at that specific horrifying ambition, 00:01:16.439 --> 00:01:18.620 we have to look at the source material we've 00:01:18.620 --> 00:01:21.109 pulled for today. Yeah. What are we working with? 00:01:21.290 --> 00:01:23.530 We have a really detailed breakdown of his life, 00:01:23.829 --> 00:01:26.989 court transcripts, psychological evaluations, 00:01:27.250 --> 00:01:30.049 and a lot of context on what Moscow was like 00:01:30.049 --> 00:01:32.750 in the 90s and early 2000s. Yeah. Because the 00:01:32.750 --> 00:01:35.680 environment here is, I think. Just as important 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:38.060 as the man. Absolutely. The setting is crucial. 00:01:38.299 --> 00:01:40.000 We're looking at a timeline that stretches from 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:44.200 1992 all the way to 2006. 14 years. 14 years. 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:46.900 14 years of operating in one of the most populous 00:01:46.900 --> 00:01:48.819 cities in the world. And for the most part, he 00:01:48.819 --> 00:01:51.079 was completely undetected. He was convicted of 00:01:51.079 --> 00:01:54.299 49 murders. Officially? Officially 49. But he 00:01:54.299 --> 00:01:56.659 claimed the number was 60, maybe even higher. 00:01:56.799 --> 00:01:59.099 He was actively trying to correct the court. 00:01:59.260 --> 00:02:01.579 Trying to get credit for more kills. Yeah, which 00:02:01.579 --> 00:02:05.260 is just a whole other level of psychopathy. It's 00:02:05.260 --> 00:02:08.759 a mindset we absolutely need to untack. But before 00:02:08.759 --> 00:02:10.419 we get to the horror, we have to start with the 00:02:10.419 --> 00:02:12.860 why. This is the mission for this deep dive. 00:02:13.419 --> 00:02:16.280 To try and figure out if Alexander Petushkin 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:19.219 was a product of a broken brain, a broken home, 00:02:19.379 --> 00:02:23.039 or, you know, a broken society. Or is it? Is 00:02:23.039 --> 00:02:25.289 it all three? I think that's the big question, 00:02:25.389 --> 00:02:28.710 right? Nature versus nurture is the cliche. But 00:02:28.710 --> 00:02:31.409 in this case, we have a very specific, very tangible 00:02:31.409 --> 00:02:34.289 nature element, a traumatic brain injury. Right. 00:02:34.389 --> 00:02:37.009 And that collides with a very specific nurture 00:02:37.009 --> 00:02:40.419 element, social isolation and... Well, the entire 00:02:40.419 --> 00:02:42.500 collapse of the Soviet Union happening around 00:02:42.500 --> 00:02:44.280 him. So let's start at the beginning, the origin 00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:47.020 story. Because when you look at the early reports 00:02:47.020 --> 00:02:49.280 on Petrushkin, born in 74 in the Moscow region, 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:52.240 there aren't any immediate red flags. He wasn't, 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:54.759 you know, setting fires or torturing animals 00:02:54.759 --> 00:02:57.259 as a toddler. No, not at all. By all accounts, 00:02:57.360 --> 00:02:59.879 he was a sociable kid, a happy kid. He lived 00:02:59.879 --> 00:03:02.300 on Kursonskaya Street with his mother. The father 00:03:02.300 --> 00:03:05.000 left early, which is a common trope, sure. But 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:07.280 it didn't seem to define his early years. He 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:09.539 was, by all accounts, engaging. He played with 00:03:09.539 --> 00:03:12.099 other kids. Went to the accident. We need to 00:03:12.099 --> 00:03:14.360 spend some real time on this because he fell 00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:17.039 off a swing. Sounds like something that happens 00:03:17.039 --> 00:03:19.139 to every kid on a playground. Yeah, it sounds 00:03:19.139 --> 00:03:22.020 so minor. But this wasn't a scraped knee. This 00:03:22.020 --> 00:03:25.180 was something else entirely. It was a catastrophic, 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:28.379 pivotal moment. He was young, playing on a swing 00:03:28.379 --> 00:03:31.680 set. He falls backward. Now physics takes over, 00:03:31.759 --> 00:03:34.389 right? The swing seat, which is... Heavy. Oh, 00:03:34.430 --> 00:03:37.210 yeah. Those old Soviet era swings were solid 00:03:37.210 --> 00:03:39.710 metal. Exactly. So it swings forward, reaches 00:03:39.710 --> 00:03:42.449 its apex and comes swinging back like a pendulum. 00:03:42.810 --> 00:03:46.009 And it struck him directly in the forehead. The 00:03:46.009 --> 00:03:48.550 source material mentions damage to the frontal 00:03:48.550 --> 00:03:50.669 cortex. I know we hear that term a lot in these 00:03:50.669 --> 00:03:52.949 kinds of profiles, but can we like break down 00:03:52.949 --> 00:03:54.909 what that actually means for a developing child? 00:03:55.250 --> 00:03:58.550 OK, so think of the frontal cortex as the CEO 00:03:58.550 --> 00:04:00.969 of the brain or maybe a better analogy is the 00:04:00.969 --> 00:04:03.669 braking system for your car. It's responsible 00:04:03.669 --> 00:04:06.830 for impulse control, decision -making, social 00:04:06.830 --> 00:04:10.250 behavior, understanding consequences. When you 00:04:10.250 --> 00:04:12.210 have a thought like, I'm angry, I want to hit 00:04:12.210 --> 00:04:14.590 that person, the frontal cortex is the part that 00:04:14.590 --> 00:04:17.089 steps in and says, whoa, hold on, bad idea, don't 00:04:17.089 --> 00:04:19.790 do that. So if you damage the brakes. The car 00:04:19.790 --> 00:04:23.069 doesn't stop. And because Petrushkin was a child, 00:04:23.250 --> 00:04:26.689 his brain was still wiring itself. This wasn't 00:04:26.689 --> 00:04:28.949 damage to a finished structure. This was damage 00:04:28.949 --> 00:04:31.649 to the very foundation while the house was still 00:04:31.649 --> 00:04:34.089 being built. The experts and the sources all 00:04:34.089 --> 00:04:36.689 speculated that this injury permanently impaired 00:04:36.689 --> 00:04:39.350 his ability to regulate aggression. And the change 00:04:39.350 --> 00:04:41.569 was immediate, wasn't it? It wasn't a slow burn. 00:04:41.850 --> 00:04:43.910 It was like a switch flipped. Night and day, 00:04:44.029 --> 00:04:46.269 he became hostile. He became impulsive, both 00:04:46.269 --> 00:04:49.009 verbally and physically. And this leads to the 00:04:49.009 --> 00:04:51.350 second real tragedy of his childhood, the reaction 00:04:51.350 --> 00:04:53.670 of the adults around him. This is where the nurture 00:04:53.670 --> 00:04:56.470 part just starts to completely fail him. His 00:04:56.470 --> 00:04:58.810 mother, dealing with this suddenly aggressive, 00:04:59.089 --> 00:05:02.199 difficult child, decides to transfer him out 00:05:02.199 --> 00:05:04.259 of mainstream school. She moved him to a school 00:05:04.259 --> 00:05:06.980 specifically for children with learning disabilities. 00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:10.540 Now, in the context of the Soviet educational 00:05:10.540 --> 00:05:13.560 system of the 80s, we have to be clear. This 00:05:13.560 --> 00:05:15.540 wasn't a supportive environment in the way we 00:05:15.540 --> 00:05:17.160 might think of it today. No, it was a dumping 00:05:17.160 --> 00:05:19.279 ground. It was often a place of warehousing, 00:05:19.420 --> 00:05:22.860 yeah, and a place of massive stigma. Huge stigma. 00:05:23.019 --> 00:05:25.819 So by moving him there, she inadvertently just 00:05:25.819 --> 00:05:28.120 slapped this label on him. When he would see 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:30.660 his old friends from the mainstream school or 00:05:30.660 --> 00:05:32.860 just kids in the neighborhood, they knew where 00:05:32.860 --> 00:05:34.939 he went to school now. They started calling him 00:05:34.939 --> 00:05:37.920 that retard. That is just brutal. You take a 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:41.089 kid who already has a... You know, a biological 00:05:41.089 --> 00:05:44.490 inability to regulate his own anger. And then 00:05:44.490 --> 00:05:46.069 you give him a target. You poke the bear every 00:05:46.069 --> 00:05:48.269 single day. Exactly. It just intensified his 00:05:48.269 --> 00:05:50.970 internal rage. He felt superior to the other 00:05:50.970 --> 00:05:52.810 kids at the special school because he didn't 00:05:52.810 --> 00:05:55.290 actually have a low IQ. He had an impulse control 00:05:55.290 --> 00:05:58.410 problem. But to the outside world, he was less 00:05:58.410 --> 00:06:00.990 than. That creates a very dangerous pressure 00:06:00.990 --> 00:06:04.529 cooker. A narcissist who is being treated like 00:06:04.529 --> 00:06:07.149 he's stupid. He needed a way to prove he wasn't 00:06:07.149 --> 00:06:10.639 stupid. He needed an outlet. And this is where 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:13.220 his grandfather enters the picture. This feels 00:06:13.220 --> 00:06:15.660 like the one moment, the one fork in the road 00:06:15.660 --> 00:06:18.480 where things could have gone differently. It 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:20.360 really is the sliding doors moment, isn't it? 00:06:21.199 --> 00:06:23.360 Petrushkin's maternal grandfather was the only 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:25.959 one who seemed to see past the behavioral issues. 00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:28.339 He saw that Alexander was actually quite bright. 00:06:28.500 --> 00:06:30.620 He saw the kid underneath. Yeah, he realized 00:06:30.620 --> 00:06:32.540 the special school wasn't challenging him, it 00:06:32.540 --> 00:06:35.360 was just containing him. So he took Alexander 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:38.449 in. He moves him out of the mother's house. Yes, 00:06:38.550 --> 00:06:41.649 he brings him into his own home. He wants to 00:06:41.649 --> 00:06:44.509 nurture that intellect that he sees in him. And 00:06:44.509 --> 00:06:48.269 the tool he chooses is chess. Which, I mean, 00:06:48.290 --> 00:06:50.569 it makes perfect sense. It's logical. It's quiet. 00:06:50.730 --> 00:06:53.430 It requires focus. Yeah. All things Pichishkin 00:06:53.430 --> 00:06:55.790 desperately needed help with. And it's culturally 00:06:55.790 --> 00:06:58.250 massive in Russia. Right. Being good at chess 00:06:58.250 --> 00:07:01.209 isn't just a hobby there. It's a sign of sophistication 00:07:01.209 --> 00:07:04.149 and intelligence. For Pichishkin, mastering chess 00:07:04.149 --> 00:07:06.709 was a way to say to the world, I'm not the retard 00:07:06.709 --> 00:07:09.449 you think I am. I can outthink you. And he was 00:07:09.449 --> 00:07:12.350 good at it. He was excellent at it. The grandfather 00:07:12.350 --> 00:07:14.889 encouraged him to play exhibition games in Bitsa 00:07:14.889 --> 00:07:17.069 Park. Now, Bitsa Park is huge. We mentioned that. 00:07:17.129 --> 00:07:19.689 It's this massive forest inside the city limits. 00:07:19.870 --> 00:07:23.209 Right. And it had this whole culture of elderly 00:07:23.209 --> 00:07:25.689 men sitting on benches playing chess all day. 00:07:25.850 --> 00:07:28.089 So Petushkin starts going there to play against 00:07:28.089 --> 00:07:30.810 them. But there's a dark side to this, too. Yeah. 00:07:30.829 --> 00:07:32.610 It wasn't just about the sport for him, was it? 00:07:32.689 --> 00:07:36.910 No. For Petushkin... chess became a channel for 00:07:36.910 --> 00:07:39.569 his aggression. Psychologically, he wasn't playing 00:07:39.569 --> 00:07:41.569 for the beauty of the game. He was playing to 00:07:41.569 --> 00:07:44.670 dominate. He found this deep satisfaction in 00:07:44.670 --> 00:07:47.069 just destroying the opponent. It was a safe way 00:07:47.069 --> 00:07:49.930 to exert power. It was a safe, socially acceptable 00:07:49.930 --> 00:07:53.170 way to exert total power over another man. I 00:07:53.170 --> 00:07:55.910 control your pieces. I control your fate. And 00:07:55.910 --> 00:07:58.350 for a while, that was enough. The violence was 00:07:58.350 --> 00:08:00.550 contained to the 64 squares of the board. For 00:08:00.550 --> 00:08:03.370 a while. But then the grandfather died. And this 00:08:03.370 --> 00:08:05.209 seems to be the collapse of the dam. This is 00:08:05.209 --> 00:08:07.529 the moment everything breaks. It was a massive 00:08:07.529 --> 00:08:09.769 emotional blow. I mean, the grandfather was his 00:08:09.769 --> 00:08:12.350 anchor, his only advocate, the only person who 00:08:12.350 --> 00:08:15.870 truly respected him. When he died, Petrushkin 00:08:15.870 --> 00:08:17.670 lost his housing. He had to move back in with 00:08:17.670 --> 00:08:19.850 his mother and he lost his guidance. His whole 00:08:19.850 --> 00:08:22.250 world fell apart. And the grief didn't manifest 00:08:22.250 --> 00:08:25.310 as, you know, tears. It manifested as drinking. 00:08:25.930 --> 00:08:29.610 Heavy, heavy drinking. He began consuming huge 00:08:29.610 --> 00:08:32.649 quantities of vodka. Now, looking at the source 00:08:32.649 --> 00:08:35.429 material, he claims this was to dull the pain, 00:08:35.529 --> 00:08:38.289 but also to calm his aggression. He was self 00:08:38.289 --> 00:08:40.649 -medicating. He knew something was wrong. I think 00:08:40.649 --> 00:08:43.110 he did. He knew there was something violent bubbling 00:08:43.110 --> 00:08:45.370 up inside of him, and he tried to drown it. But 00:08:45.370 --> 00:08:47.190 he kept going to the park? He did. He kept playing 00:08:47.190 --> 00:08:50.049 chess. But now the whole dynamic changed. He 00:08:50.049 --> 00:08:51.970 wasn't just playing. He was drinking with these 00:08:51.970 --> 00:08:53.649 older men, and he noticed something interesting. 00:08:54.009 --> 00:08:56.840 What was that? He could handle his liquor. He 00:08:56.840 --> 00:08:58.960 could drink massive amounts of vodka and still 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:02.299 standing, stay coherent, while these older, often 00:09:02.299 --> 00:09:05.059 frail men would pass out or get sloppy drunk. 00:09:05.320 --> 00:09:07.759 That's a very dangerous realization for a predator. 00:09:07.960 --> 00:09:10.580 I am stronger than them. I am more clear -headed 00:09:10.580 --> 00:09:13.299 than them, even when we're both drinking. And 00:09:13.299 --> 00:09:15.679 that physical superiority started to merge with 00:09:15.679 --> 00:09:18.120 his intellectual superiority from the chess game. 00:09:18.279 --> 00:09:21.059 He started to view these men not just as opponents, 00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:24.259 but as weak. As disposable. Exactly. Before we 00:09:24.259 --> 00:09:26.720 get to the actual killing, there's this really 00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:29.559 disturbing escalation that involves a video camera. 00:09:29.879 --> 00:09:33.039 This really creeped me out in the notes. It's 00:09:33.039 --> 00:09:35.100 not a murder, but it's almost worse than its 00:09:35.100 --> 00:09:37.539 intent. It's the rehearsal. It's the bridge from 00:09:37.539 --> 00:09:40.740 fantasy to reality. He developed this sinister 00:09:40.740 --> 00:09:43.340 hobby, as the sources call it, where he would 00:09:43.340 --> 00:09:46.139 take a video camera and threaten children. There's 00:09:46.139 --> 00:09:48.539 a specific chilling account of him holding a 00:09:48.539 --> 00:09:51.700 young child upside down by one leg out of a window. 00:09:51.860 --> 00:09:54.740 And he's filming this the whole time. He's filming 00:09:54.740 --> 00:09:57.100 himself holding the child and he's narrating. 00:09:57.100 --> 00:09:59.820 He says to the camera, you are in my power now. 00:09:59.899 --> 00:10:03.039 I am going to drop you and you will fall 15 meters 00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:06.690 to your death. My God. That is pure sadism. It's 00:10:06.690 --> 00:10:08.529 not about the kill at that point. It's about 00:10:08.529 --> 00:10:11.529 the terror in that child's eyes and the absolute 00:10:11.529 --> 00:10:14.250 total control he has in that moment. And he would 00:10:14.250 --> 00:10:16.629 watch these take back over and over. He needed 00:10:16.629 --> 00:10:19.509 to relive that rush of power. But as with any 00:10:19.509 --> 00:10:21.529 addiction, and we have to view this kind of psychology 00:10:21.529 --> 00:10:24.330 as an addiction cycle, the high from the tapes 00:10:24.330 --> 00:10:26.470 started to fade. He needed the real thing. He 00:10:26.470 --> 00:10:28.629 needed the real thing. Which brings us to 1992. 00:10:29.669 --> 00:10:32.769 He is 18 years old. The Soviet Union has just 00:10:32.769 --> 00:10:35.370 collapsed. The world is completely upside down. 00:10:35.610 --> 00:10:38.169 And Pichushkin decides it's time to start his 00:10:38.169 --> 00:10:40.850 game for real. And the first victim is Mikhail 00:10:40.850 --> 00:10:43.730 Odichuk. And this is fascinating because Odychuk 00:10:43.730 --> 00:10:46.429 wasn't a random target. He was a classmate. In 00:10:46.429 --> 00:10:49.230 fact, according to Pichishkin, he was a co -conspirator. 00:10:49.350 --> 00:10:51.309 Wait, wait, a co -conspirator. So they planned 00:10:51.309 --> 00:10:54.009 this together. Allegedly, yes. They met to plan 00:10:54.009 --> 00:10:56.990 killing 64 people together. It was a shared fantasy, 00:10:57.149 --> 00:10:59.509 a folie a deux. They apparently discussed the 00:10:59.509 --> 00:11:02.070 whole chessboard concept. Wow. But when the rubber 00:11:02.070 --> 00:11:06.169 met the road, July 27, 1992, Odychuk got cold 00:11:06.169 --> 00:11:08.690 feet. So they meet in Bitsa Park, presumably 00:11:08.690 --> 00:11:11.299 to find their first victim. Right. That's the 00:11:11.299 --> 00:11:14.559 plan. And O .D. Chuck says, I can't do this. 00:11:14.679 --> 00:11:17.159 I don't want to do this. He tries to back out. 00:11:17.259 --> 00:11:19.519 And Petrushkin doesn't just see this as a friend 00:11:19.519 --> 00:11:24.080 changing his mind. He sees it as a betrayal, 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:27.679 personal insult. He felt teased. That's the specific 00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:30.159 word used in the reports. He felt humiliated. 00:11:30.519 --> 00:11:32.940 So all that aggression, he turned it on to O 00:11:32.940 --> 00:11:36.259 .D. Chuck. He strangled him and threw his body 00:11:36.259 --> 00:11:38.679 into a sewer entrance there in the park. And 00:11:38.679 --> 00:11:41.139 just like that. The co -author of the plan becomes 00:11:41.139 --> 00:11:43.779 the first square on the board. The very first. 00:11:43.980 --> 00:11:45.700 Now, here's the part that makes me want to just 00:11:45.700 --> 00:11:48.179 scream at the history books. The police investigated 00:11:48.179 --> 00:11:50.039 this, didn't they? Oh, yeah, they did. Odichik 00:11:50.039 --> 00:11:53.179 was reported missing. He was last seen with Pachishkin. 00:11:53.519 --> 00:11:55.659 The police brought Pachishkin in for questioning. 00:11:56.019 --> 00:11:58.480 And get this, Pachishkin admitted meeting him. 00:11:58.620 --> 00:12:01.080 He didn't even deny it. Nope. He said, yeah, 00:12:01.120 --> 00:12:02.899 we hung out in the park for a bit, but then I 00:12:02.899 --> 00:12:04.659 left him there and went home. He just played 00:12:04.659 --> 00:12:06.820 it completely cool. And because he had hidden 00:12:06.820 --> 00:12:09.000 the body so well in the sewer system. Nobody. 00:12:09.580 --> 00:12:12.059 No crime. Exactly. And we have to remember the 00:12:12.059 --> 00:12:15.440 context. This is 1992 Moscow. The country is 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:18.399 in absolute freefall. The police are underfunded. 00:12:18.440 --> 00:12:20.159 They're overwhelmed. They're dealing with the 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:23.419 explosion of the Russian mafia. A missing 18 00:12:23.419 --> 00:12:26.200 -year -old boy. I mean, it's tragic, but it wasn't 00:12:26.200 --> 00:12:30.139 a top priority. So they let him go. If they had 00:12:30.139 --> 00:12:31.779 just pushed a little harder, if they had checked 00:12:31.779 --> 00:12:34.440 the sewers, I mean, history changes. But they 00:12:34.440 --> 00:12:37.899 didn't. And then, strangely, he stops. There's 00:12:37.899 --> 00:12:41.440 a long hiatus. A really long one. From 1992 to 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:44.700 2001, that's nine years. Now, some criminologists 00:12:44.700 --> 00:12:46.639 think he might have killed during this period 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:48.779 and we just don't know about it. But the official 00:12:48.779 --> 00:12:51.500 record says he was dormant. What woke him up? 00:12:51.500 --> 00:12:54.299 What brought him back? In 1996, Russia placed 00:12:54.299 --> 00:12:57.000 a moratorium on the death penalty. It was part 00:12:57.000 --> 00:12:59.139 of their process of joining the Council of Europe. 00:12:59.480 --> 00:13:02.240 Petrushkin later claimed this reignited his interest. 00:13:02.539 --> 00:13:04.960 That seems so counterintuitive. Usually killers 00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:07.269 don't really care about the law. Was he saying 00:13:07.269 --> 00:13:09.509 the stakes were lower now? Or maybe that the 00:13:09.509 --> 00:13:12.330 system had become soft. I mean, he viewed himself 00:13:12.330 --> 00:13:15.409 as a predator, a wolf. And if the state wasn't 00:13:15.409 --> 00:13:17.029 going to be a wolf anymore, maybe he felt he 00:13:17.029 --> 00:13:19.809 had to step in. It's a completely twisted logic. 00:13:19.889 --> 00:13:22.529 But for him, the lack of a death penalty might 00:13:22.529 --> 00:13:24.730 have removed the final psychological barrier. 00:13:25.029 --> 00:13:27.990 So we fast forward to 2001. The sewers period 00:13:27.990 --> 00:13:30.980 begins. And this is. This is the bulk of his 00:13:30.980 --> 00:13:32.620 crimes. We really need to slow down and look 00:13:32.620 --> 00:13:35.299 at this period because between 2001 and 2005, 00:13:35.580 --> 00:13:39.940 he attacks 36 people. 36 people. That is just 00:13:39.940 --> 00:13:42.080 a staggering number. That's almost one a month 00:13:42.080 --> 00:13:44.179 on average, though they were often clustered 00:13:44.179 --> 00:13:47.259 together. And the modus operandi, the method, 00:13:47.340 --> 00:13:50.539 was brutally, chillingly consistent. Walk us 00:13:50.539 --> 00:13:52.379 through a typical event. It always starts with 00:13:52.379 --> 00:13:54.159 the hunt in the park, right? It starts with the 00:13:54.159 --> 00:13:56.289 hunt. He would go to Bits of Park. He's dressed 00:13:56.289 --> 00:13:58.370 normally. He's a warehouse worker. He doesn't 00:13:58.370 --> 00:14:00.610 look threatening at all. He finds a solitary 00:14:00.610 --> 00:14:03.649 man, usually elderly, often homeless or, you 00:14:03.649 --> 00:14:06.710 know, down on his luck. And he offers them a 00:14:06.710 --> 00:14:09.110 drink. The universal icebreaker. But he doesn't 00:14:09.110 --> 00:14:10.769 just say, let's get a drink. He invites them 00:14:10.769 --> 00:14:13.610 to mourn his dead dog. A dead dog. It was his 00:14:13.610 --> 00:14:16.970 go -to ruse every time. He would tell the victim, 00:14:17.149 --> 00:14:20.029 my dog is buried here in the woods and I'm going 00:14:20.029 --> 00:14:22.389 to visit his grave. Come have a drink with me 00:14:22.389 --> 00:14:25.049 to toast his memory. It's genius in a sick way. 00:14:25.480 --> 00:14:27.799 It invokes sympathy. It explains why they need 00:14:27.799 --> 00:14:30.340 to go deep into the woods to find the grave. 00:14:30.440 --> 00:14:33.740 And it introduces the alcohol immediately. And 00:14:33.740 --> 00:14:36.220 not just any alcohol. He had a specific brand 00:14:36.220 --> 00:14:39.799 he always used. Golden Magic Vodka. Golden Magic. 00:14:40.350 --> 00:14:42.090 It sounds like something you'd buy at a gas station 00:14:42.090 --> 00:14:45.490 for a dollar. It cost about 38 rubles. So, yeah, 00:14:45.549 --> 00:14:48.649 pennies. It was rot gut. But Petrushkin had this 00:14:48.649 --> 00:14:50.850 weird obsession with it. He actually claimed 00:14:50.850 --> 00:14:52.909 he used that specific brand because he didn't 00:14:52.909 --> 00:14:54.950 want to spoil the victims with expensive vodka. 00:14:55.250 --> 00:14:57.950 That is such a chillingly dehumanizing detail. 00:14:58.169 --> 00:14:59.769 Yeah. You're about to die, but you aren't worth 00:14:59.769 --> 00:15:01.370 the good stuff. Right. So they walk into the 00:15:01.370 --> 00:15:04.009 woods. They get to a secluded spot, usually near 00:15:04.009 --> 00:15:07.129 a sewage well or a manhole. They drink. The victim 00:15:07.129 --> 00:15:09.769 gets intoxicated. And then Petrushkin strikes. 00:15:10.330 --> 00:15:13.269 Almost always from behind. A hammer blow to the 00:15:13.269 --> 00:15:15.950 head, or sometimes he used the empty vodka bottle 00:15:15.950 --> 00:15:18.990 itself. Just blunt force trauma to the back of 00:15:18.990 --> 00:15:21.950 the skull. And then the disposal. This is why 00:15:21.950 --> 00:15:24.389 it's called the sewers period. Bitsa Park has 00:15:24.389 --> 00:15:27.769 this whole network of underground sewage canals. 00:15:28.289 --> 00:15:31.669 Patrishkin would drag the body to a manhole or 00:15:31.669 --> 00:15:34.639 a well and just... dump them in. And the current 00:15:34.639 --> 00:15:36.799 would just take them away. Exactly. And this 00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:39.059 is crucial. Sometimes the victims weren't even 00:15:39.059 --> 00:15:41.919 dead yet. The autopsy reports that were eventually 00:15:41.919 --> 00:15:44.399 done showed that many of them actually drowned 00:15:44.399 --> 00:15:47.259 in the sewage. That is a pure nightmare. And 00:15:47.259 --> 00:15:49.500 practically speaking, this is why he got away 00:15:49.500 --> 00:15:51.700 with it for so long. The bodies weren't just 00:15:51.700 --> 00:15:53.799 hidden. They were being actively flushed out 00:15:53.799 --> 00:15:56.139 of his hunting ground. And think about the victims. 00:15:56.879 --> 00:16:00.169 Elderly, homeless, alcoholics. In early 2000s 00:16:00.169 --> 00:16:02.529 Moscow, these were the invisible people. When 00:16:02.529 --> 00:16:04.509 they went missing, families often just assumed 00:16:04.509 --> 00:16:07.190 they had drifted away or died of exposure. The 00:16:07.190 --> 00:16:09.049 police weren't launching massive manhunts for 00:16:09.049 --> 00:16:11.149 homeless men in the park. He knew that. He was 00:16:11.149 --> 00:16:13.009 preying on the people that society had already 00:16:13.009 --> 00:16:15.710 forgotten. He was. But he wasn't just killing 00:16:15.710 --> 00:16:18.149 them. He was marking them. There was a signature. 00:16:18.649 --> 00:16:21.590 Yes. This is where the organized killer profile 00:16:21.590 --> 00:16:24.549 really comes in. He would often impale the open 00:16:24.549 --> 00:16:28.220 skull wound with a stick. or sometimes the empty 00:16:28.220 --> 00:16:31.059 vodka bottle. Why? I mean, what is the psychological 00:16:31.059 --> 00:16:33.220 point of that? It's a signature. It's a claim 00:16:33.220 --> 00:16:35.240 of ownership, like an artist signing their work. 00:16:35.360 --> 00:16:37.899 But some psychologists and the sources also suggest 00:16:37.899 --> 00:16:41.460 it was a way to, you know, keep the spirits of 00:16:41.460 --> 00:16:44.580 the victims from escaping or conversely, a way 00:16:44.580 --> 00:16:47.600 to plug the hole he made. It's ritualistic. It 00:16:47.600 --> 00:16:49.659 signifies that this isn't a robbery gone wrong. 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:52.960 This is a ceremony. 36 people attacked. It's 00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:54.580 just hard to wrap your head around the fact that 00:16:54.580 --> 00:16:56.899 no one noticed a pattern. Well, bodies were being 00:16:56.899 --> 00:16:59.259 found occasionally, usually miles and miles away 00:16:59.259 --> 00:17:01.980 in water treatment plants. But because the decomposition 00:17:01.980 --> 00:17:04.839 and the water damage were so severe, police couldn't 00:17:04.839 --> 00:17:07.039 always identify the cause of death. They often 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:09.420 ruled them as accidental drownings or falls. 00:17:09.579 --> 00:17:11.839 He was using the city's own infrastructure as 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:14.579 his accomplice. He absolutely was. But then, 00:17:14.660 --> 00:17:17.839 in 2005, something shifts. The Sears period ends, 00:17:18.039 --> 00:17:20.970 and the open period begins. Why change a winning 00:17:20.970 --> 00:17:23.829 strategy? He was completely invisible. Why stop 00:17:23.829 --> 00:17:26.890 hiding the bodies? He got arrogant. It's a classic 00:17:26.890 --> 00:17:29.970 escalation. The satisfaction of the secret was 00:17:29.970 --> 00:17:33.609 wearing off. He wanted the notoriety. He wanted 00:17:33.609 --> 00:17:35.329 the city to know there was a predator in the 00:17:35.329 --> 00:17:39.990 park. From 2005 to 2006, he stops dumping them 00:17:39.990 --> 00:17:42.349 in the sewers. He just leaves the bodies right 00:17:42.349 --> 00:17:44.750 there in the open for anyone to find. He wants 00:17:44.750 --> 00:17:47.150 the headlines. He craves them. And the violence 00:17:47.150 --> 00:17:50.329 escalated, too. The attacks became more frenzied, 00:17:50.329 --> 00:17:53.789 repeated hammer blows. He was practically obliterating 00:17:53.789 --> 00:17:56.269 the faces of the victims. And the geography changed, 00:17:56.410 --> 00:17:58.349 too. This is the part that really makes me shiver. 00:17:58.509 --> 00:18:01.150 He stopped hunting random strangers deep in the 00:18:01.150 --> 00:18:04.140 woods and started hunting. Well. practically 00:18:04.140 --> 00:18:06.579 on his own doorstep. It's unbelievably bold. 00:18:06.740 --> 00:18:08.480 It's almost suicidal when you think about it. 00:18:08.539 --> 00:18:10.980 He started targeting people he knew, his neighbors. 00:18:11.319 --> 00:18:12.880 Let's look at the map from the sources. He lived 00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:15.539 on Kirsten Skaia Street. Right. In a huge complex 00:18:15.539 --> 00:18:18.480 of high -rise apartment blocks, 10 of his last 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:20.740 victims live in that same four -building complex. 00:18:20.920 --> 00:18:23.339 Ten. Ten. Four from building number two, two 00:18:23.339 --> 00:18:25.140 from building number four, three from building 00:18:25.140 --> 00:18:27.160 number six, and one from building number eight. 00:18:27.420 --> 00:18:29.119 So he's killing the guy he sees at the mailbox. 00:18:29.420 --> 00:18:31.440 He's killing the guy he rides the elevator with 00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:34.880 every day. It completely destroys the concept 00:18:34.880 --> 00:18:38.339 of stranger danger. These people trusted him. 00:18:38.460 --> 00:18:40.980 They knew him as Sasha from down the hall. When 00:18:40.980 --> 00:18:42.940 he said, hey, let's go for a walk and have a 00:18:42.940 --> 00:18:45.640 drink, they didn't think twice. He was familiar. 00:18:45.980 --> 00:18:48.019 But how did he think he would get away with that? 00:18:48.299 --> 00:18:50.960 If you kill your neighbor, eventually someone 00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:53.680 is going to connect the dots. Hey, you know, 00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:55.500 the last time I saw Yavin, he was walking out 00:18:55.500 --> 00:18:57.640 with Sasha. That's the thing. I think he might 00:18:57.640 --> 00:19:00.420 not have cared anymore. Or his narcissism was 00:19:00.420 --> 00:19:02.099 just so high, he thought he could talk his way 00:19:02.099 --> 00:19:05.019 out of it like he did back in 1992. But this 00:19:05.019 --> 00:19:08.779 proximity, this boldness, it's ultimately what 00:19:08.779 --> 00:19:11.240 doomed him. Which brings us to the final victim, 00:19:11.500 --> 00:19:16.500 June 2006, Marina Muskaliova. Marina was 36 years 00:19:16.500 --> 00:19:18.920 old. She worked with Pachushkin at a local grocery 00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:21.240 store. He invited her for a walk in the park. 00:19:21.460 --> 00:19:23.680 Now, unlike the homeless man or some of the elderly 00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:26.200 neighbors, Marina was actually a little suspicious. 00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:29.700 The notes say she hesitated. She did. People 00:19:29.700 --> 00:19:31.779 in the neighborhood were starting to get weird 00:19:31.779 --> 00:19:34.200 vibes from Petrushkin. The rumors were starting. 00:19:34.720 --> 00:19:37.019 But he was persistent. She eventually agreed 00:19:37.019 --> 00:19:40.180 to go. But she did something very, very smart. 00:19:40.539 --> 00:19:43.119 Something that saved who knows how many future 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:45.720 victims. She left a note. She wrote a note for 00:19:45.720 --> 00:19:48.819 her son. It said, I'm going for a walk with Petrushkin. 00:19:48.920 --> 00:19:51.259 And she left Petrushkin's phone number right 00:19:51.259 --> 00:19:53.660 there on the paper. Okay, and here is the detail 00:19:53.660 --> 00:19:56.339 that makes absolutely no sense to me. Petrushkin 00:19:56.339 --> 00:19:59.539 knew about the note. Yes. She either told him 00:19:59.539 --> 00:20:02.779 or he saw it. The sources are a bit unclear on 00:20:02.779 --> 00:20:05.559 how, but he knew that if she disappeared, there 00:20:05.559 --> 00:20:07.880 was a literal paper trail pointing directly at 00:20:07.880 --> 00:20:10.519 him. And he killed her anyway. He did. He walked 00:20:10.519 --> 00:20:13.339 her into the park. He attacked her. He left her 00:20:13.339 --> 00:20:16.190 body to be found. Why? I mean, if you know you're 00:20:16.190 --> 00:20:18.069 going to get caught, why do it? It doesn't track. 00:20:18.309 --> 00:20:20.410 There are two main theories. One is that the 00:20:20.410 --> 00:20:22.690 compulsion was just too strong. He physically 00:20:22.690 --> 00:20:25.650 couldn't stop himself even if he wanted to. But 00:20:25.650 --> 00:20:27.569 the other theory and the one Petrushkin himself 00:20:27.569 --> 00:20:31.269 later pushed is that he was just done. Suicide 00:20:31.269 --> 00:20:34.150 by arrest. Exactly. He said in an interview later, 00:20:34.309 --> 00:20:36.430 I just couldn't go on. I was severely depressed 00:20:36.430 --> 00:20:39.269 at the time. He claimed he effectively handed 00:20:39.269 --> 00:20:41.029 himself over to the police because he wanted 00:20:41.029 --> 00:20:43.529 the game to end. But I think he also wanted the 00:20:43.529 --> 00:20:47.119 credit. So Marina's body is found on June 14th. 00:20:47.319 --> 00:20:50.500 The police find the note, but they also find 00:20:50.500 --> 00:20:52.799 a Metro ticket in her pocket. And that ticket 00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:55.200 was the nail in the coffin. It gave him a time 00:20:55.200 --> 00:20:57.619 stamp. They pulled the CCTV footage from the 00:20:57.619 --> 00:21:00.400 Metro station, and there they were. Marina and 00:21:00.400 --> 00:21:03.740 Pichushkin walking together, smiling, just hours 00:21:03.740 --> 00:21:06.400 before her death. It's undeniable proof. They 00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:10.539 arrest him on June 16th, 2006. And I have to 00:21:10.539 --> 00:21:12.809 imagine the police were expecting a fight. They 00:21:12.809 --> 00:21:15.670 were expecting denial lies. Instead, they got 00:21:15.670 --> 00:21:17.869 a performance. Petrishkin didn't just confess. 00:21:17.950 --> 00:21:20.009 He opened the floodgates. He seemed relieved. 00:21:20.130 --> 00:21:22.210 He wanted to tell them everything. Starts bragging. 00:21:22.289 --> 00:21:25.170 Oh, absolutely. He takes him to the park. There's 00:21:25.170 --> 00:21:27.309 actual footage of this. Him handcuffed, walking 00:21:27.309 --> 00:21:28.970 the police through the woods, pointing out spots. 00:21:29.349 --> 00:21:30.970 Here's where I killed this one. Here's where 00:21:30.970 --> 00:21:33.210 I killed that one. He demonstrated a phenomenal, 00:21:33.430 --> 00:21:36.230 almost photographic memory for detail. And this 00:21:36.230 --> 00:21:38.210 is where the chessboard motivation really comes 00:21:38.210 --> 00:21:41.230 out into the open. Yes. The police charged him 00:21:41.230 --> 00:21:44.990 with 49 murders. And Pichushkin got angry. He 00:21:44.990 --> 00:21:46.970 actually got offended. He said, no, no, you're 00:21:46.970 --> 00:21:50.029 shortchanging me. He claimed the number was 60. 00:21:50.289 --> 00:21:54.049 He wanted credit for every single square he had 00:21:54.049 --> 00:21:57.150 filled. He was keeping score. Literally. Police 00:21:57.150 --> 00:21:59.809 found a chessboard in his apartment. He had been 00:21:59.809 --> 00:22:02.309 marking off squares with dates. And in some cases. 00:22:02.869 --> 00:22:06.049 Names. He had 61 squares filled in his mind, 00:22:06.170 --> 00:22:08.390 if you count the attempted murders that he considered 00:22:08.390 --> 00:22:11.269 wins. He was only three away from completing 00:22:11.269 --> 00:22:13.650 the entire board. What happens when the board 00:22:13.650 --> 00:22:16.490 is full? Did he ever say what the plan was then? 00:22:16.730 --> 00:22:18.269 He said he would have just bought another board. 00:22:18.509 --> 00:22:20.549 That chills me to the bone. Bought another board. 00:22:20.609 --> 00:22:23.609 Like it's just a grocery list. No end game. It 00:22:23.609 --> 00:22:25.630 speaks to the infinite nature of his hunger. 00:22:26.009 --> 00:22:28.269 He wasn't trying to achieve a specific goal and 00:22:28.269 --> 00:22:31.930 then retire. The killing was the lifestyle. Let's 00:22:31.930 --> 00:22:34.130 talk about the competition aspect. Because he 00:22:34.130 --> 00:22:35.789 wasn't just competing with himself and the board. 00:22:35.849 --> 00:22:38.809 He was competing with history. Right. Andrei 00:22:38.809 --> 00:22:42.230 Chkatilo, the butcher of Rostov. He was the Soviet 00:22:42.230 --> 00:22:45.109 Union's most prolific, most infamous serial killer 00:22:45.109 --> 00:22:48.930 with 52 victims officially. Petrushkin was obsessed 00:22:48.930 --> 00:22:51.450 with him. He wanted to beat Chikatilo's high 00:22:51.450 --> 00:22:54.569 score. It's the gamification of murder. It is. 00:22:54.750 --> 00:22:57.569 And during his interrogation, he made some statements 00:22:57.569 --> 00:23:00.369 that really just give us a window into his God 00:23:00.369 --> 00:23:03.750 complex. He said, quote, I felt like the father 00:23:03.750 --> 00:23:06.640 of all these people. It was me who opened the 00:23:06.640 --> 00:23:08.680 door for them to another world. He didn't see 00:23:08.680 --> 00:23:12.599 himself as a murderer. He saw himself as a reaper? 00:23:12.900 --> 00:23:16.059 A psychopomp? A deity? He believed he was the 00:23:16.059 --> 00:23:18.579 one deciding who lived and who died. And that 00:23:18.579 --> 00:23:20.759 gave his own meaningless life ultimate significance. 00:23:20.880 --> 00:23:23.339 He said, life without murder is like life without 00:23:23.339 --> 00:23:26.240 food for you. That quote, life without murder 00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:28.880 is like life without food. That's not a motive. 00:23:28.940 --> 00:23:31.799 That's a biological imperative in his mind. It 00:23:31.799 --> 00:23:33.539 reframes everything. He's not killing for money. 00:23:33.680 --> 00:23:35.859 He's not killing for sexual gratification in 00:23:35.859 --> 00:23:37.619 the traditional sense. He's killing for like 00:23:37.619 --> 00:23:39.779 physiological regulation. He claimed he needed 00:23:39.779 --> 00:23:42.279 to like oxygen. When he wasn't killing, he felt 00:23:42.279 --> 00:23:45.079 like he was suffocating. The trial in 2007 must 00:23:45.079 --> 00:23:47.400 have just been a circus. It was intense. They 00:23:47.400 --> 00:23:50.339 kept him in a glass cage, an aquarium basically, 00:23:50.420 --> 00:23:52.779 in the courtroom. This was for his own protection 00:23:52.779 --> 00:23:54.539 from the victim's families, but also because 00:23:54.539 --> 00:23:57.369 he was just so unpredictable. Did he show any 00:23:57.369 --> 00:24:01.509 remorse at all? Zero. None. He smirked. He paced. 00:24:01.609 --> 00:24:03.829 He treated the court like an audience. He was 00:24:03.829 --> 00:24:06.509 finally the star of the show. The retard from 00:24:06.509 --> 00:24:08.509 the special school was now the most feared man 00:24:08.509 --> 00:24:11.509 in Russia. In his mind, he had won. He was convicted 00:24:11.509 --> 00:24:15.109 of 49 murders and three attempted murders. The 00:24:15.109 --> 00:24:18.190 sentence? Life imprisonment. The judge, Vladimir 00:24:18.190 --> 00:24:21.430 Yusov, ordered that the first 15 years be served 00:24:21.430 --> 00:24:23.730 in solitary confinement. Solitary confinement 00:24:23.730 --> 00:24:26.349 for 15 years straight. I mean, that breaks people. 00:24:26.430 --> 00:24:28.690 That turns the brain to mush. And Petrushkin 00:24:28.690 --> 00:24:30.670 actually appealed the sentence. He claimed it 00:24:30.670 --> 00:24:33.029 was too harsh. He asked for it to be reduced 00:24:33.029 --> 00:24:35.650 to 25 years. The audacity is just unbelievable. 00:24:35.869 --> 00:24:38.529 I killed 60 people, but this lonely cell is a 00:24:38.529 --> 00:24:41.549 bit much, guys. The appeal was obviously denied. 00:24:41.849 --> 00:24:44.509 So where is he now? It's 2025. Is he still in 00:24:44.509 --> 00:24:47.039 that cage? He is. He's at the Polar Owl Colony. 00:24:47.079 --> 00:24:50.640 Polar Owl. Sounds pleasant. It's a penal colony 00:24:50.640 --> 00:24:53.559 deep in the Arctic Circle. It's one of the harshest 00:24:53.559 --> 00:24:56.099 prisons on Earth. It's where Russia sends the 00:24:56.099 --> 00:24:59.680 lifers who are never, ever getting out. He spends 00:24:59.680 --> 00:25:02.500 his days in a small cell surrounded by nothing 00:25:02.500 --> 00:25:05.880 but snow and ice. He's unmarried, no children, 00:25:06.099 --> 00:25:08.380 just him and his memories of the chessboard. 00:25:08.910 --> 00:25:11.789 It's a bleak ending, but a fitting one. But before 00:25:11.789 --> 00:25:13.650 we wrap up, I do want to touch on the cultural 00:25:13.650 --> 00:25:16.430 impact. Because weirdly, he kind of got what 00:25:16.430 --> 00:25:19.269 he wanted in the end. He's famous. He is. True 00:25:19.269 --> 00:25:22.069 crime culture has immortalized him. There is 00:25:22.069 --> 00:25:24.450 a Finnish death metal band, Torture Killer, that 00:25:24.450 --> 00:25:27.309 wrote an entire album about him called Sewers. 00:25:27.450 --> 00:25:29.869 Wow. Podcasts like My Favorite Murder and Last 00:25:29.869 --> 00:25:31.910 Podcast on the Left have covered him. Books have 00:25:31.910 --> 00:25:34.109 been written. He wanted to be a legend, a boogeyman, 00:25:34.170 --> 00:25:36.519 and well... We gave that to him. It really makes 00:25:36.519 --> 00:25:40.000 you wonder if by telling these stories, we're 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:42.140 feeding the beast for the next guy. It's the 00:25:42.140 --> 00:25:44.359 ultimate paradox of true crime, isn't it? We 00:25:44.359 --> 00:25:46.180 need to understand the evil to prevent it. But 00:25:46.180 --> 00:25:48.460 in doing so, we sometimes glamorize the monster. 00:25:48.660 --> 00:25:50.299 So let's try to bring this back to something 00:25:50.299 --> 00:25:52.519 grounded. We've looked at the brain injury, the 00:25:52.519 --> 00:25:55.880 bullying, the vodka, the chess. And we come right 00:25:55.880 --> 00:25:57.460 back to that central question we started with. 00:25:57.579 --> 00:26:00.579 Was it the swing? Was it the school? Or was he 00:26:00.579 --> 00:26:03.039 just born wrong? There's a quote from him that 00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:06.859 I think. sums up the tragedy and the sheer absurdity 00:26:06.859 --> 00:26:10.180 of it all. He was asked why he did it, why he 00:26:10.180 --> 00:26:12.220 didn't choose a different path, and he replied 00:26:12.220 --> 00:26:14.619 with a question of his own. What should I have 00:26:14.619 --> 00:26:17.799 done instead? Grow cucumbers. Grow cucumbers. 00:26:18.279 --> 00:26:21.200 It's such a mundane, such a bizarre alternative. 00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:24.099 But it shows his complete lack of moral imagination. 00:26:24.970 --> 00:26:27.250 In his mind, the only two options for a human 00:26:27.250 --> 00:26:30.430 life were legendary serial killer or vegetable 00:26:30.430 --> 00:26:32.730 farmer. He couldn't conceive of a middle ground 00:26:32.730 --> 00:26:35.170 where he was just a guy living a life not hurting 00:26:35.170 --> 00:26:37.329 anyone. It really highlights the banality of 00:26:37.329 --> 00:26:39.970 evil. He wasn't a criminal mastermind. He wasn't 00:26:39.970 --> 00:26:43.049 a demon. He was a warehouse worker who fell off 00:26:43.049 --> 00:26:46.089 a swing, got bullied, drank cheap vodka, and 00:26:46.089 --> 00:26:48.309 decided that killing was his hobby. And that's 00:26:48.309 --> 00:26:49.849 the most terrifying part. He was the neighbor 00:26:49.849 --> 00:26:51.829 next door. He was the guy you play chess with 00:26:51.829 --> 00:26:54.069 in the park. He was invisible until he decided 00:26:54.069 --> 00:26:56.759 he wasn't. And that leaves us with a final thought 00:26:56.759 --> 00:26:59.680 for you listening. We like to think that monsters 00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:02.640 look like monsters, that they have horns or glowing 00:27:02.640 --> 00:27:05.640 red eyes, but sometimes they're just the guy 00:27:05.640 --> 00:27:08.599 offering you a drink to toast a dead dog. At 00:27:08.599 --> 00:27:11.099 what point did the accident end and the choice 00:27:11.099 --> 00:27:13.599 begin? That's the line we'll never truly be able 00:27:13.599 --> 00:27:17.380 to draw. Thank you for listening to this deep 00:27:17.380 --> 00:27:19.180 dive into the mind of the chessboard killer. 00:27:19.579 --> 00:27:21.720 It's been a heavy one. Take care of yourselves. 00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:24.329 And be careful who you play chess with. See you 00:27:24.329 --> 00:27:24.670 next time.