Anatoly Onoprienko murdered 52 people in a period of 7 years. He had a complete disregard for life and saw himself as a hunter and his victims as sheep to be slaughtered. He murdered families because a family of his own had been taken from him. He was sentenced to death, but is now awaiting his sentence in prison. He has no regrets and says, ,It’s cruel, but I’m driven like a robot to kill. I don’t feel anything.,
Biography
Anatoly Onoprienko was born on July 25, 1959 in Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine. When he was 4 his mother died. He lived with relatives for a while, but eventually his father gave him to an orphanage while keeping his older brother. Presumably this was because Onoprienko was fathered by another man. This created lifelong resentment and anger towards his father. He later claimed that after this he started hearing voices telling him to do very violent things. Onoprienko was a sailor for a while and tried to gain asylum in Germany, Denmark and Greece. He was unsuccessful and settled in Ukraine. He had no fixed abode and wandered through the country.
Crimes
Onoprienko committed the most murders in the 3 months before he was captured. He committed his first murder in 1989 when he attacked a couple who had broken down along the road. That same year he committed a murder together with his friend Sergei Rogozin. They met at the gym and committed burglaries together. At one point they were caught by the residents of the house they were robbing at the time. Onoprienko and Rogozin then decided to massacre the entire family; father, mother and 8 children. A few months later he broke off all contact with Rogozin. Shortly afterwards, Onoprienko murdered a family of 5 who were sleeping in a car. He wanted to steal the car, but then decided to kill all the occupants.
It took 6 years before Onoprienko would strike again. His modus operandi was to choose a remote house, kill the father, then the wife, then the children. He usually shot the parents while mutilating the children with a knife or axe. He then took valuables and set the house on fire. The first murder he committed in this way was on December 24, 1995. He murdered his father, mother and two young sons. Just nine days later he murdered a family of 4 in the same manner. He was seen by a man and Onoprienko decided to kill him too. Then on January 6, he murdered three people in 3 separate incidents. Just 11 days later he murdered a family of 5 and two witnesses who were unlucky enough to see him at work. Two weeks later on January 30, 1996, he murdered a woman, her two children and a male visitor. About a month later he murdered a family of 4 and a neighbor who had seen him. His last kill was on March 22 when he slaughtered a family of four.
He was caught because his cousin, Pyotr Onoprienko, found his stash of weapons. He threw Onoprienko out of his house. Onoprienko then told Pyotr that he would kill his entire family on Easter Sunday. Pyotr then called the police. In the meantime, Onoprienko had moved to his girlfriend Anna’s house. The police arrested him there on April 16, 1996. During the search they found more than 120 items from the various crime scenes. Once in custody, Onoprienko confessed to 52 murders he committed over the past 6 years.
Trial
The trial against Onoprienko was greatly delayed because, under Ukrainian law, a defendant has the right to read all evidence collected against him before the trial begins. In addition, the trial was delayed by another law that states that the court must reimburse all travel expenses of witnesses. Since there were 400 witnesses in this trial, the court could not afford this. Ultimately, the Ukrainian government made money available.
Onoprienko underwent a series of examinations by psychiatrists and was eventually declared sane and fit to stand trial. In November 1998, the trial against Onoprienko began. Like Chikatilo, who had been tried for 52 murders a few years earlier, he was kept in a cage to protect him from angry relatives. During the trial, Onoprienko said nothing. Four months later, Onoprienko was sentenced to death on March 22, 1999.
What happened after the trial?
After the trial, Onoprienko was interviewed several times. He stated that he committed his murders at the behest of higher powers who wanted to destroy humanity. He also says he should never be released because he would continue killing. ,Only this time it will be ten times worse,, Onoprienko explains.
Sergei Rogozin, who murdered a family together with Onoprienko in 1989, was ultimately sentenced to 13 years in prison.
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