2 comments about HUNTING THE DEVIL.

1. Andrei Chikatilo was the most infamous Russian serial killer of all time, and with good reason. His reign of terror was as long as his court antics were bizarre. He is in the first rank of cannibal killers, right up there with more familiar monsters like Jeffrey Dalmer and Ed Gein. Although within the police state of the Soviet Union he was able to operate much longer. But this book is as much about the pursuer as the pursued, indeed Inspector Issa Kostoev really takes center stage. The story is told from a copýs perspective and even details the politics that surround the investigation. Especially interesting are the appearances of other less well-known deviants that Kostoev encounters along the way (like Anthony Slivko). Also of interest were the cat and mouse techniques that Kostoev used to break Chikatilo during interrogation, and how the killerýs party affiliation helped him early in his career. There is a lot of interesting stuff here, but those seeking understanding of the why of what Chaikatilo did must look elsewhere.



2. I'm not a big fan of the serial killer genreóbe it on the thriller shelves of the bookstore, or on film (Se7en and Manhunter are the only two serial killer movies I've ever really liked). However, this story about the hunt for Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo is fascinating, despite not being particularly well written. I had never heard of Chikatilo, but from the late '70s to late '80s he killed at least 53 women and children in the Rostov province of Russia. His methods and predilections were particularly gruesome, as he favored slowly stabbing or hammering his victims to death before eviscerating them, masturbating over them, and sometimes cooking and eating part of them. This is a man who left the house every day with a knapsack containing a knife, change of clothes, and small cooking pot, just in case the opportunity presented itself.
   
   Longtime Russian expert Lourie tells the story mostly through the eyes of Issa Kostoev, the special investigator who led the years-long quest to bring Chikatilo to justice. The investigators were hampered by the randomness of the killings, the relative lack of research into DNA in the Soviet Union, the lack of criminal psychology as a discipline, as well as the laziness and sloppiness of local police, who had botched previous efforts (at one point they had actually arrested Chikatilo, only to release him). Since Lourie relies on interviews with Kostoev, it's hard to know how accurate the picture of the investigation is, but the story he tells is compelling and will certainly appeal to those with an interest in the procedural aspects of criminology. The investigator's own life story is fascinating; an Ingush from the Caucuses, his family was deported to the Kazakh steppe during WWII by Stalin. There, he lost brothers and sisters to famine, and his thirst for justice was bred. By the book's end, he has been made a General and is being asked by his countrymen to come home and lead the political struggle for full restoration of the homeland.
   
   Lourie's reliance on the single source is sometimes a fault, as Kostoev's own preoccupations are given precedence. There is rather an overemphasis (and occasional repetitiveness) on the thought processes involved in the interrogation and getting a confession from Chikatilo. A writer more experienced in writing about crime would likely have cut some of the fat here. One also feels like there might have been a little more drama wrung from the hunt, not to mention a greater vividness to the details. These might be found in one of the three other books written about the case (none of which I've read): Comrade Chikatilo: The Psychopathology of Russia's Notorious Serial Killer by Mikhail Krivich, The Killer Department: Detective Viktor Burakov's Eight-Year Hunt for the Most Savage Serial Killer of Our Times by Robert Cullen, or Red Ripper: Inside the Mind of Russia's Most Brutal Serial Killer by Peter Conradi. There's also a film called Citizen X that's been made about the hunt, although it's hard to to imagine Irishman Stephen Rea passing himself off as Ingush!

No comments about Russian Wolves.

No comments about The Red Ripper: Inside the Mind of Russia's Most Brutal Serial Killer.

No comments about The Killer Department: The Eight-year Hunt for the Most Savage Serial Killer of Our Times.

4 comments about Hunting the Devil/Pursuit, Capture and Confession of the Most Savage Serial Killer in History.

1. This is the story of Andrei Chikatilo, a sadistic sexual serial killer convicted in Rostov of 53 murders of women and children (although he undoubtedly committed more). Lourie focuses on detective Issa Kostoev, who led the years-long investigation that finally caught Chikatilo, but not before an innocent man was executed for his first murder.
   
   This book provides an interesting insight into the Russian legal system as it struggled to capture Russia's very own "Jack the Ripper."



2. The subject matter of this book - Andrei Chikatilo - is extremely interesting, though unbelievably dark, and the book itself lives up to the task. Chikatilo was one of the most terrible serial killers in history, with 53 official victims (and a few unofficial ones more), and certainly one of the most savage and furious. Here is a man who had orgasms while mutilating genitals and used his knife as some sort of [...]replacement, not to mention the rest.
   
   What I especially appreciated in the book is how is the narrative is shared between the killer and those looking for him, more especially Issa Kostoev, the man in charge of arresting the "Rostov Ripper". As the title of the book suggests, you will learn quite some interesting things about how the pursuit of this killer was led, and what kind of problems the hunting had to face; and that will be quite stunning. Corruption, treason, base sexual desires, etc, etc. While hunting for the Devil, there will be many demons on the way: police officers abusing their functions to beat and rape arrested people, all sorts of mentally challenged perverts thought to be potential killers, etc. The whole thing has a feeling of intense dystopia and is quite stunning.
   
   Both lives this book is concerned with, Issa Kostoev and Andrei Chikatilo, are cast against a background of falling empire, as the USSR slowly went to its demise. It's almost eerie how Chikatilo's own fall coincides with that of the Soviet Block. It's very interesting, because in a way, it all begins with it, and ends with it. Kostoev, as a child, suffered from Stalin's unjust removing and persecution of his whole people (in which he lost many a sibling) and Chikatilo as a child had to go through hard times too (though not quite comparable).
   
   Richard Lourie does a great job of not only exposing the facts of the affair (and he had a ton of document for this, as well as having been with Issa Kostoev personally, attending Chikatilo's trial, having all the documents of the case, including audio-tapes and all) but also in putting all of it in perspective and giving the reader a good insight of Russia and of a society not quite functioning, and changing. The reader is made to follow Kostoev in that long pursuit of that demonic killer which took many years, and many lives.
   
   The writing is gripping; I read the whole book in two readings, reading for 5 hours each time or so. This is truly the best kind of "true crime" I have read, because it does not lose itself into cheap novelisation while suing narrative devices to shape the whole thing into a convincing and riveting book.
   
   I haven't read any other book on Andrei Chikatilo, but this one is definitely a classic on that killer, if only for the documents available to the author, who speaks Russian and knows Russian culture, a fact that is very important and whose impact you can feel reading the book.
   
   The range covered here is impressive: the killer, the dysfunctions of the system, the life of Kostoev as he pursues Chikatilo, Russia, history, etc. It's always relevant and very informative. However, none of these overshadow the gruesomeness of the killings, and you won't be spared details, so not a book for the faint-hearted.
   
   Most definitely one of the best books of the kind, and undoubtedly among the very best books on Chikatilo, if not the best.



3. You will not sleep well after reading this book...that is how shocking, sad, demented, and torturous the subject and the man of this book is. What a horrible fiend who killed for his own deranged reasons, which are disgusting and terrifying at the same time. Wickedness comes in many places, and this man was truly awful. A very interesting and well-written account.



4. This book arrived promptly and in good condition. I've not yet read it.
   
   I'm extremely pleased with both the vendor and the product.
   
   Dr. John E. Touchton Sr.

2 comments about Red Ripper.

1. Bizzare on both ends, the killer as well as the cops. If you like serial killer books this is unbelieveable!



2. What makes Chikatilo fascinating is that it took so long for him to be caught, and the reasons for this delay. He was incredibly lucky, in some ways, but the structure of laws, customs and means of communication in the Russia of the time are the real reasons for his long career as a killer. Conradi explains all of this clearly. What is not so clear are the details of how all of the info he presents was acquired. Did the author have access to confession documents, or interrogation documents? If so, the readers would sure like to see them included in the book. Overall, a very readable, informative book.

4 comments about KILLER DEPARTMENT, THE: Detective Viktor Burakov's Eight-Year Hunt for the Most Savage Seria.

1. It is a very good book, but the sentinces seem to last forever, and ever with its never ending desciptions. But, Im not saying you should'nt buy it. Even though the sentinces run on, I was still interested by it; with its' amazing sense of thrill, and excitment. Buy it if you like long thrillers.



2. The gut-wrenching angle = "Its been 2 weeks.He's due another.He may even have a live child with him right now, who's moments away from being left like this one."(mutilated+killed 53+)NON-FICTION/TRUE-CRIME.
   Of course there are gory visuals thru-out.But the psychological context given to the deeds, is terrifying.
   The police are followed (via fieldwork and paperwork)thru their horror of what they keep coming across, and their desperation of having no clue how to make use of it.
   Their are endless mess-ups and frame-ups leading to unforgivable injustices to innocents, and close-calls with the killer.One incident will make you violently livid toward those who let him to the streets again, inspite of the most blatantly damning behaviour imaginable.
   The 'confession'(at end of book)in the killer's own words, is amazing in that it gives his angle of scenes dealt with from the 'unknower's' angle thru-out the rest of the book.He himself knew that at least 30 of his kills should never have seen possibility.

   Some chapters are far too incidental.(some would rightfully drop it a star for that)But, most of it just makes your heart drop - at the deep suffering of an unknown man, being such that he is always losing against his froes of deep rage, so ruining children beyond recognition.
   (bonus in this book=u get great feel for the harsh everyday life in Russian society)




3. Led by the brilliant movie "Citizen X" I was compelled to read the book, and the only solution to a ten-year hunt of secondhand bookstores was of course Amazon. The real Viktor Burakov is more hard-boiled than Stephen Rea's portrayal in the movie, Burakov's portrait on the back cover is wreathed in smoke amidst piles of decadent Soviet paperwork. Chikatilo is one of the most savage psychopaths to have roamed the twentieth century, and thrived amidst a strange miasma of the non-existence of the serial killer in the perfect Soviet society, and the armies of incompetents drenched in vodka that served for Russian law. The book is brutally frank in an almost professionally-detached coroner's way, but by getting into the minds of the participants, author Robert Cullen still manages to imbue the book with emotion and feeling. It is a rare occasion when the movie may be even better than the book, but "The Killer Department" is certainly one of the most unique insights into Soviet Russia's underbelly. The book is also a snapshot of the USSR as it transitioned into Glasnost and Perestroika, but ultimately it is about an eight-year duel between two minds, one a classic hard cop, and the other the deranged product of the cannibalistic Ukrainian famine who suffered from bed-wetting and brain short-outs.



4. This was a chilling book and a good read! The vendor shipped it promply and it was in good condition. I was extremely satisfied.
   
   Dr. John E. Touchton Sr.

No comments about Comrade Chikatilo: The Psychopathology of Russia's Notorious Serial Killer.