Further Reading for The Chessboard Killer & Sarah Brady

ALEXANDER PICHUSHKIN: The Shocking True Story of The Chessboard Killer

Saving Grace: The True Story of a Mother-to-be, a Deranged Attacker, and an Unborn Child

Info

Episode: 23

American media and true crime fans have a fixation on American criminals and it’s a rare case when an international murderer manages to break into the American consciousness. I mean, if I’m being frank, it’s amazing to me that international killers never get any mention in these corners. Particularly, killers from Russia, because those dudes are straight up brutal and have these absurd body counts. Alexander Pichushkin is just such a killer.

Pichushkin is colloquially known as The Chessboard Killer for the claim he made after his arrest that he aimed to kill 64 people, one for each space on the chess board. It sounds exotic, but he later recanted this statement, admitting that he’d probably keep on killing because let’s face it, serial killers don’t stop until someone stops them.

The Chessboard Killer’s MO was murder by blunt force trauma. He would offer vodka to local homeless and then lure them to a spot where he could rush them from behind and bludgeon them to death. His gruesome signature move was stuff the bottle of vodka he drank with them into the gaping head wounds that resulted from the hammer blows.