Ukraine to Try Self-Confessed Serial Killer
November 23, 1998 - 0:0
KIEV A Ukrainian man who has boasted of killing 52 people including 10 children, in a murder and robbery spree lasting six years, goes on trial on Monday in Zhitomir in the west of this former Soviet republic. Anatoly Onopriyenko, 39, says he has no regrets about the crimes with which he has been charged and for which if convicted he could be sentenced to death.
There is no better killer in the world than me. Anyone who wants to measure up to me can always try... I have no regrets, no remorse and I would do it again if I could, Onopriyenko said in a statement handed to AFP by his lawyer Ruslan Moshkovsky. Onopriyenko was merciless and killed in cold blood, according to judicial authorities, who have described him as the biggest killer in the history of Ukraine and of the Soviet Union. Onopriyenko confessed after his arrest in April 1996, to having killed 42 adults and 10 children between 1989 and 1996, according to the investigating magistrate Ivan Dovbishchuk. I was accomplishing a mission.
I don't believe in God but in a supreme force, said Onopriyenko. In addition to his confession, the authorities found at his home irrefutable proof of his guilt, notably the murder weapon; a sawn-off hunting rifle, and various objects stolen from his victims, Dovbishchuk said. The first part of the trial will be devoted to reading the conclusions of the investigators.
These fill 103 volumes, said Stepan Biletsky, spokesman for the regional court, adding that the trial would last for several months. Onopriyenko, who the prosecution says is mentally sane, faces the death penalty if he is found guilty of the charges against him of premeditated murders with aggravating circumstances. For all the murders, Onopriyenko followed the same gory ritual. He would choose isolated houses, first killing all the men with his shotgun and then massacring the women and children with a knife, axe or hammer.
He spared nobody, then after looting the houses, he sometimes set fire to them, said Dovbishchuk. He even suffocated a three-month-old baby in its cot with a pillow. The murderer left no witnesses alive and the investigation dragged on for several years. We finally got him when we found a hunting rifle at his home, that a friend of his brother's had reported as having been stolen, Dovbishchuk said.
He said forensic tests had shown the rifle to be the murder weapon. Most of the murders 43 out of 52 were committed between October 1995 and March 1996 in the regions of Zhitomir, Kiev, Odessa, Lviv, Dnepropetrovsk and Rivne. But according to the prosecution, Onopriyenko also murdered three families, killing a total of nine people, in 1989 with the aid of Serhi Rogosin, 36, who was also arrested in April 1996 and who will also be on trial on Monday. Rogosin, who has admitted being present but who claimed to have had no part in the murders, is accused of complicity and also faces a possible death sentence.
The motive for all the crimes was robbery, according to Dovbishchuk. Onopriyenko stole everything. He even cut off the fingers of his victims when he was not able to pull off their wedding rings, the magistrate said. He did not kill for pleasure... he killed to eliminate all the witnesses of his robberies, he said. I am a professional thief, Onopriyenko has boasted in prison, where he has received not a single visit in the two years he has been detained.
I started to get in trouble with the law when I was sent to an orphanage at the age of seven, said Onopriyenko, adding: There, I stole everything I could get my hands on. Onopriyenko who is of medium height and athletic build, was born on July 25, 1959 in Zhitomir. His mother died when he was four and he grew up in an orphanage.
In 1977, he earned a certificate as a forest warden and after his military service, worked as a sailor, fireman and market vegetable seller. In 1989, he left illegally for the west, staying in Germany, Austria, France and Greece. He was deported from Germany in 1994 but returned there illegally the following year. He was arrested shortly afterwards and after serving six months in jail for theft, was sent back to Ukraine. My role will be to try to explain his acts and to try to attenuate his crimes in the eyes of the public and to provide him with moral support, his lawyer said.
I think he wants to live but I am not sure I will be able to avoid the death penalty, said Moshkovsky, adding: I will try all the same to find mitigating circumstances like the orphanage and the bad influence of life on the street. (AFP)
There is no better killer in the world than me. Anyone who wants to measure up to me can always try... I have no regrets, no remorse and I would do it again if I could, Onopriyenko said in a statement handed to AFP by his lawyer Ruslan Moshkovsky. Onopriyenko was merciless and killed in cold blood, according to judicial authorities, who have described him as the biggest killer in the history of Ukraine and of the Soviet Union. Onopriyenko confessed after his arrest in April 1996, to having killed 42 adults and 10 children between 1989 and 1996, according to the investigating magistrate Ivan Dovbishchuk. I was accomplishing a mission.
I don't believe in God but in a supreme force, said Onopriyenko. In addition to his confession, the authorities found at his home irrefutable proof of his guilt, notably the murder weapon; a sawn-off hunting rifle, and various objects stolen from his victims, Dovbishchuk said. The first part of the trial will be devoted to reading the conclusions of the investigators.
These fill 103 volumes, said Stepan Biletsky, spokesman for the regional court, adding that the trial would last for several months. Onopriyenko, who the prosecution says is mentally sane, faces the death penalty if he is found guilty of the charges against him of premeditated murders with aggravating circumstances. For all the murders, Onopriyenko followed the same gory ritual. He would choose isolated houses, first killing all the men with his shotgun and then massacring the women and children with a knife, axe or hammer.
He spared nobody, then after looting the houses, he sometimes set fire to them, said Dovbishchuk. He even suffocated a three-month-old baby in its cot with a pillow. The murderer left no witnesses alive and the investigation dragged on for several years. We finally got him when we found a hunting rifle at his home, that a friend of his brother's had reported as having been stolen, Dovbishchuk said.
He said forensic tests had shown the rifle to be the murder weapon. Most of the murders 43 out of 52 were committed between October 1995 and March 1996 in the regions of Zhitomir, Kiev, Odessa, Lviv, Dnepropetrovsk and Rivne. But according to the prosecution, Onopriyenko also murdered three families, killing a total of nine people, in 1989 with the aid of Serhi Rogosin, 36, who was also arrested in April 1996 and who will also be on trial on Monday. Rogosin, who has admitted being present but who claimed to have had no part in the murders, is accused of complicity and also faces a possible death sentence.
The motive for all the crimes was robbery, according to Dovbishchuk. Onopriyenko stole everything. He even cut off the fingers of his victims when he was not able to pull off their wedding rings, the magistrate said. He did not kill for pleasure... he killed to eliminate all the witnesses of his robberies, he said. I am a professional thief, Onopriyenko has boasted in prison, where he has received not a single visit in the two years he has been detained.
I started to get in trouble with the law when I was sent to an orphanage at the age of seven, said Onopriyenko, adding: There, I stole everything I could get my hands on. Onopriyenko who is of medium height and athletic build, was born on July 25, 1959 in Zhitomir. His mother died when he was four and he grew up in an orphanage.
In 1977, he earned a certificate as a forest warden and after his military service, worked as a sailor, fireman and market vegetable seller. In 1989, he left illegally for the west, staying in Germany, Austria, France and Greece. He was deported from Germany in 1994 but returned there illegally the following year. He was arrested shortly afterwards and after serving six months in jail for theft, was sent back to Ukraine. My role will be to try to explain his acts and to try to attenuate his crimes in the eyes of the public and to provide him with moral support, his lawyer said.
I think he wants to live but I am not sure I will be able to avoid the death penalty, said Moshkovsky, adding: I will try all the same to find mitigating circumstances like the orphanage and the bad influence of life on the street. (AFP)