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The FailureNo. 10

The state executed a man it later cleared, then released a killer.

Shakhty, Soviet Union1978–1994

Timeline · No. 10

Two failures, one system

Event1978 · Yelena ZakotnovaSource: Supreme Court of Russia, ruling Jun 30, 1993 · Rostov Regional Court, verdict Oct 1992
Event1983 · Kravchenko executedSource: Supreme Court of Russia, ruling Jun 30, 1993 · Rostov Regional Court, verdict Oct 1992
Missed chance1984 · Chikatilo held · releasedSource: Supreme Court of Russia, ruling Jun 30, 1993 · Rostov Regional Court, verdict Oct 1992
The catch1990 · arrestedSource: Supreme Court of Russia, ruling Jun 30, 1993 · Rostov Regional Court, verdict Oct 1992
Event1991 · Kravchenko clearedSource: Supreme Court of Russia, ruling Jun 30, 1993 · Rostov Regional Court, verdict Oct 1992
Event1993 · 40+ murders upheldSource: Supreme Court of Russia, ruling Jun 30, 1993 · Rostov Regional Court, verdict Oct 1992
Event1994 · executedSource: Supreme Court of Russia, ruling Jun 30, 1993 · Rostov Regional Court, verdict Oct 1992
  • The line
  • Event
  • Missed chance
  • The catch
Notation
The line
Time, left to right. Down the screen on a phone.
Event
A fact on the record.
Missed chance
The system had him and let him go.
The catch
The error that ended it, knocked out of line.
Open case
No one charged.
A wait
Time passes and nothing moves.
Data table
Two failures, one system
YearEventNotation
1978Yelena ZakotnovaEvent
1983Kravchenko executedEvent
1984Chikatilo held · releasedMissed chance
1990arrestedThe catch
1991Kravchenko clearedEvent
199340+ murders upheldEvent
1994executedEvent

Drawn from: Supreme Court of Russia, ruling Jun 30, 1993 · Rostov Regional Court, verdict Oct 1992

The case

Shakhty, Soviet Union · 1978–1994

Shakhty, Soviet Union, 1978. Yelena Zakotnova, nine, was murdered. Aleksandr Kravchenko was executed for it in 1983 and cleared in 1991. Officially, her murder is unsolved. In 1984, police held Andrei Chikatilo carrying a knife and rope. A lab typed scene evidence as one blood group, his blood as another. Released, he killed for six more years. He was convicted of more than forty murders of women and children.

The mechanism

How did one system execute a man it later cleared and release a killer?

Yelena Zakotnova, nine, was murdered in Shakhty in 1978. Aleksandr Kravchenko was executed for it in 1983 and cleared in 1991. Officially, her murder is unsolved. In 1984 police held Andrei Chikatilo and released him after one blood test. The state needed a culprit, and trusted one test.

Official doctrine called serial murder a Western disease, so for years the public was not warned. The state needed a culprit, and trusted one test.

The rule

When the system refuses to count, the count rises.

The record

No. 10 · The Failure

Sources

  1. Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, criminal panel — cassation ruling, Jun 30, 1993: amended the Rostov verdict of Oct 14, 1992, found the Zakotnova count and several others unproven, upheld the death sentence

  2. Lenta.ru, Nov 22, 2020 — trial records from the archives: acquitted on appeal of eight murders, including Yelena Zakotnova’s

  3. Aleksandr Kravchenko — executed Jul 5, 1983; conviction annulled by the Supreme Court in 1991 (Komsomolskaya Pravda; Diletant)

  4. Robert Cullen, ‘The Killer Department’ (1993) — investigation history

Transcript52.6 s
  1. 0:00

    Claim

    The state executed a man it later cleared, then released a killer.

  2. 0:05

    Case

    Shakhty, Soviet Union, 1978. Yelena Zakotnova, nine, was murdered. Aleksandr Kravchenko was executed for it in 1983 and cleared in 1991. Officially, her murder is unsolved. In 1984, police held Andrei Chikatilo carrying a knife and rope. A lab typed scene evidence as one blood group, his blood as another. Released, he killed for six more years. He was convicted of more than forty murders of women and children.

  3. 0:35

    Mechanism

    Official doctrine called serial murder a Western disease, so for years the public was not warned. The state needed a culprit, and trusted one test.

  4. 0:45

    Rule and source

    When the system refuses to count, the count rises. Source: Russian Supreme Court, 1993.

Educational analysis. Adjudicated cases only. Victims named with respect.

Questions

Who was Yelena Zakotnova?

Yelena Zakotnova was nine. She was murdered in Shakhty, in the Soviet Union, in December 1978. Officially, her murder is unsolved.

Who was Aleksandr Kravchenko?

Aleksandr Kravchenko was executed in July 1983 for the murder of Yelena Zakotnova. His conviction was annulled in 1991.

Why was Andrei Chikatilo released in 1984?

Police held him in September 1984 carrying a knife and rope. A lab typed scene evidence as one blood group and his blood as another. He was released, and he killed for six more years.

Was Andrei Chikatilo convicted of Yelena Zakotnova’s murder?

He confessed to it and was convicted of it in 1992. Russia’s Supreme Court found that count unproven in 1993. Officially, her murder is unsolved.

What was Andrei Chikatilo convicted of?

More than forty murders of women and children. Russia’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence on June 30, 1993.