'Chessboard' serial killer insists toll is higher

A deranged mass killer who wanted to record a murder for every square on a chessboard was formally found guilty today of killing 48 people in Moscow.

Alexander Pichushkin, aged 33, had already boasted in court that he actually killed 63 people, one short of his target, and was angry with prosecutors who said they could not find evidence to back his claim.

A jury took less than three hours to convict him of the murders, most of which occurred over five years in a sprawling park in southern Moscow.

The judge took an hour to read the verdict while Pichushkin, standing inside a reinforced glass cage, leaned against the wall and stared at the floor.

The courthouse was packed with relatives of victims who had closely followed the five-week trial.

Pichushkin will be sentenced later. Russia has suspended but not abolished the death sentence.

Most of the victims were killed in Bittsa Park, and Pichushkin became known as the “Bittsa Maniac.”

Prosecutors said he lured his victims, many of them homeless, to the park by promising them vodka if they would join him in mourning the death of his dog.

They say he killed 11 people in 2001, including six in one month. Most of his victims died after being thrown into a sewage pit while they were drunk, and in a few cases strangled or hit them over the head, prosecutors said.

In 2005 he changed methods, hitting his victims with a hammer, then sticking an unfinished bottle of vodka into their shattered skulls.

Pichushkin was finally arrested in June last year after a woman left a note at home saying that she was going for a walk with him and was then found dead.

He said he was aware of the note but killed her anyway.

“I burned myself, so there’s no need for the cops to take credit for catching me,” he said during the trial. “I’m a professional.”