In the autumn of 1984, Chikatilo almost got caught. At night, at the Rostov-on-Don bus station, he met a "troubled" girl and, perhaps, planned to take a walk with her to the nearest forest plantation. However, his strange behavior interested the police officers on duty. A decently dressed citizen who was talking to a slovenly tramp seemed suspicious to the officer, and Chikatilo was taken to the police station. Ropes, a knife and Vaseline were found in his briefcase.
The man explained that he worked in supply, packed parcels with rope, cut rope with a knife, and used Vaseline to soften chapped skin. The explanations seemed convincing, but citizen Chikatilo was still sent to the temporary detention center "pending clarification." The operatives had information that, judging by the biological traces on one of the victims, the maniac must have had blood type 4. Chikatilo had type 2. He was released.
In early 1986, when tensions in society reached their peak, a guatemala mobile database real hunt was declared for the serial killer. Operation "Forest Belt", which involved hundreds of people, cost the state almost ten million rubles. Plainclothes police officers were on duty in the streets, bus stations and stops of the Rostov Region, paying attention to all suspicious men. "Frivolously" dressed policewomen rode in commuter trains, trying to catch the killer "with bait". Even military helicopters were used in the search for the maniac. In the evenings, vigilantes patrolled the cities and villages.
Unfortunately, almost everyone who wanted to could join the vigilantes, and Andrei Chikatilo decided to take advantage of this circumstance. Together with other responsible comrades, he participated in the hunt for himself, and, of course, at that time the series of murders stopped. Operation "Forest Belt" allowed to identify many violations and solve about a thousand crimes, but it did not contribute to the capture of the "Rostov maniac". In 1987, he began killing again.
Chikatilo's last victim
Alexander Lyskin
Photo - © Alexander Lyskin / RIA Novosti
Chikatilo was caught only in 1990, shortly after he committed his last murder. On November 6, 1990, not far from a suburban platform, in a small copse, he raped and stabbed a young girl. A patrolman on duty at the station noticed a well-dressed citizen coming out of the forest. Small twigs and leaves were stuck to the suit and hat of this decent-looking man. The patrolman checked the suspicious citizen's documents and wrote down the name in his notebook: Chikatilo.