The diligent editor of I’m Sorry I Had To Kill That Guy asks “is chess a sport?” Not in this instance. From the Guardian’s
Bagila Bukharbayeva.
A Russian man who claimed he wanted to record a murder for every square on a chessboard was found guilty yesterday of killing 48 people in Moscow.A jury took less than three hours to convict Alexander Pichushkin, 33, of the murders, most of which occurred over five years in a sprawling park in southern Moscow. After the five-week trial he was also found guilty of three attempted murders. The judge read out the hour-long verdict to a courthouse packed with journalists and relatives of victims.
Most of Pichushkin’s victims were killed in Bitsevsky Park, and the serial killer became known as the “Bitsa Maniac”.
Pichushkin boasted of killing 63 – one short of filling up the chessboard – but prosecutors were only able to find evidence for 48 murders.
Prosecutors said Pichushkin lured his victims to the park by promising them vodka if they would join him in mourning the death of his dog. He killed most of his victims by throwing them into a sewage pit after they were drunk, and in a few cases strangled or hit them in the head, prosecutors said. Beginning in 2005, he began to kill with “particular cruelty”, the prosecutor said.
Let’s spare a thought for the real victims of this tragedy — how difficult do you think it will be for the Brainbombs to write a song about chess?