Monday, October 21, 2013

The Butcher of Rostov's Last Meal: Serial Killer Supper Series, Part III

Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo - fittingly dubbed the Butcher of Rostov and the Red Ripper - holds the dubious distinction of being one of the most prolific and disgusting mass killers of modern times. To be sure, there are, in the West at least, more famous serial killers - Son of Sam, the Zodiac Killer, Dahmer, Bundy - but in my research I have not come across one who chose his victims with more calculated coldness, or seemed to carry out his crimes with such absolute depraved gusto and complete lack of remorse.

Between 1978  and 1990 he killed over 50 women, boys, and girls. Impotent in his "normal" life, Chikatilo stabbed and often eviscerated his victims, achieving sexual pleasure from their bleeding and dying cries. He sometimes bit or chewed off parts of their faces, and he claimed that he chewed on the uterus of at least one of his victims. He gouged out his early victims' eyes, believing an old folktale that held that the last moments of death were recorded on the retinas of the dead.

The 1995 film Citizen X is a fascinating (fictionalized) look at the frustrating multi-year investigation and the difficulties of finding such a monster in a society which held that serial killers were a manifestion of Western decadence and therefore could not exist in a Communist nation. Indeed, Chikatilo wasn't caught and tried until after the dissolution of the Soviet empire; his trial was the first major media event of the post Soviet period.

During his trial he was kept in a cage in the courtroom, from which he exposed himself, yelled, sang, and refused to answer questions.  He was found guilty of 52 counts of murder and five counts of sexual assault and sentenced to death, though it is believed he is responsible for many more deaths. He was executed in February, 1994, with a bullet behind his right ear.

His last meal? Porridge with a bit of beef.
But because you, dear reader, are not (I presume) a serial killer and therefore deserve better, I made a delicious dish of red wine braised short ribs with polenta to share with you.
This is more of a method than a recipe. Salt and pepper 2 - 3 pounds of short ribs and dredge in flour. Sear in a Dutch oven over high heat until crusty and brown. Remove to a plate. Saute diced carrots, onions, and celery until soft. Add garlic. Deglaze with 2 or 3 cups of dry red wine. Add the ribs back to the pot and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add 2 cups of beef or veal stock and bring to a boil. Throw in a handful of fresh herbs - thyme, rosemary, parsley - cover, and bake at 350 F for 2 - 3 hours, until the meat is falling off the bone. Skim the fat off of the liquid (this is easier if you let it cool a bit), shred the meat and serve over polenta, drizzled with the cooking liquid.

Serve with a dry red wine, or, if you'd like to pretend you're on death row in Russia, perhaps with a bit of ice cold vodka.

I have not been able to find confirmation of this, but one source I read claims that as Chikatilo was being led to his execution, he begged, "Please don't shoot me in the head. The Japanese want to buy my brain."
Further reading: Comrade Chikatilo: the Psychopathology of Russia's Most Notorious Serial Killer
Serial Killer Supper Series, Part I: The Dusseldorf Ripper
Serial Killer Supper Series, Part II: The Blonde Borgia





20 comments:

  1. If I were ever to be so lucky as to know what my last meal would be I would hope it would be something as delicious and nourishing as this one. Although nourishing wouldn't necessarily be a requirement of one's last meal I suppose since, well, um, you know. I love that your pictures look like they might be POV shots from the depraved mind of Mr. Comrade Chikatilo. Or from my mother's stained Jr. League cookbook. I don't know which.

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    1. Is there a noticeable difference between the mind of a maniac and a Junior League cookbook??

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    2. I wonder if any last meal at all really would not just be some sort of ridiculous attempt at a failed distraction to what would be coming - the end of your life. Or is the feeling of a nicely full belly that important if you have to prepare yourself for this?

      On another note... the use of the expression "depraved mind" for someone like Chikatilo does not seeem adequate to me. This was obviously a tortured person (but you have to read the Wikipedia page to understand this), to the point of having lost all feelings and any humanity for his fellow beings. When I see "depraved", I tend to think of someone wealthy and powerful, using money and influence to satisfy depraved desires. Although the judge presiding at his trial treated Chikatilo as if he were not crazy, I think you have to be in order to do the things he did.

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    3. Interesting, I have not actually read the Wikipedia page, though I did read "The Psychopathology of Russia's Most Notorious Serial Killer." ... I think "depraved" can apply equally to someone like Chikatilo, and to someone wealthy, as you describe .. like, say, Trump. Both have lost their humanity.

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    4. What about the rest of us, Trix?
      Do you think we are all that holy?
      We have our dark side don't we... what about yourself?

      http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Yr5AKbHPanA/UAxrkZkdH1I/AAAAAAAAE3M/nlmEIW-OVTE/s1600/df_muchomas_templomayor_skulls_trix.png

      Besides... how can you compare Trump with Chikatilo (I am not going to go into politics here)?

      My point was that Chikatilo's "depravity" as you want to call it came about, or at least was fostered, by his own experiences in the Ukrainian Holodomor, or at least its aftermath, compounded with severely emotionally traumatizing experiences in his youth and later. I can even easily see an element of revenge in his acts for the utter frustration he had to endure during the time he worked as a teacher. This would obviously have added to the final point where he reached the point of no return.

      There is really no point in saying how depraved or evil Chikatilo was. The real Chikatilo probably died in his soul long before he even became a serial killer.

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    5. Everyone has a dark side, and as dismal a view as I take of human nature, at least *most* don't turn that nature into serial murdering or biting peoples' faces. .. and yes, I can easily compare Trump to the worst of the worst.

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  2. Your filter choices lend a "decades gone by" feel - I like it!

    A meal like this would be far too fine to be wasted on a serial killer's last meal. Perhaps, he should have been fed some bits and pieces of his own face... Karma and all that...

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    1. Ha, I have a feeling the Russian prison version of this meal contains significantly more gristle ...

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  3. A truly vile creature. Why do such people exist, I wonder?

    Now, I was really struck by this causal phrase: "in my research"— I have to wonder what's up next from your files...

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    1. I suspect there are more people like this in the world than we would care to imagine ...

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  4. Another brilliant addition to the series. A Cannibal who likes meat and porridge... an old peasant combination from the beginning of time. The Irish were big on meat and porridges in the middle ages before potatoes changed their diet completely. A man like this makes you wonder how far away from wild beasts we really are ( well, lately there's a lot that makes me think we not far at all from brutish beasts -- sad really).

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    1. The only thing that makes us different from beasts is that we have thumbs and can cause more damage. Also, beasts kill to eat, not for fun ...

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    2. What about being able to calculate Pi?

      And maybe Socrates, Michelangelo and Da Vinci were just a bit less close to wild beasts than the rest of us?

      And yes indeed, wild beasts kill because of the instinct which makes them kill for food (herbivores sometimes kill too but then it is for defending themselves) whereas here we are dealing with madness and someone's humanity which was destroyed.

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    3. Hmm, one could argue we were only ever able to calculate Pi (or anything else) thanks to our thumbs .. ;)

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    4. No - thanks to our neocortex.

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    5. ... which is of very little use without thumbs to manipulate tools and record thought ...

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  5. Gosh..I got goose bump while reading how he had tortured his victims...man...not sure he even deserved that delicious looking porridge..

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  6. Loving your serial killer series! Wow he really was crazy besides all hid crimes. And too bad for him you were not there to fancy up his last meal as you have. Looks delicious!

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  7. Yikes...I think I'll have nightmares tonight. He is the definition of a mad man. But your braised short ribs are the antithesis of a bad dream! YUM!

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  8. Again, so incredibly well-done! Everthing ties together seamlessly!

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