Chikatilo was the ultimate opportunist

There is an explanation for Chikatilo's apparent indifference to the nature of his victims. He was not so much a rapist in the usual sense of the word as a sadist forever trying to take out his own feelings of inferiority and inadequacy on others. Misunderstood and looked down upon by society, he was convinced that he was different from other men, but at the same time would not accept it. He was desperate to prove to himself and to others that he was normal, yet ironically, he chose the most abnormal way in which to do so. For Chikatilo, there was no getting away from the fact that he obtained his sexual fulfillment from domination and from the suffering of others, from seeing the agony of his victims. For this reason, the cries of pain of a little boy were just as stimulating as those of a woman.

In most cases, Chikatilo appears to have started out with the aim of rape- either heterosexual or homosexual - and almost all his attacks began with attempts at intercourse. But his later claim, in his own defence, that he had not initially intended to kill appears little more than an attempt to deceive not just investigators but also himself. He knew his own sexual tastes well enough to be aware in advance of which things would arouse him. And conventional intercourse was not one of them. He needed blood and he needed suffering and every attempt he made at sex in those years ended in it. Sometimes, as with the killing of Tany Ryzhova in his daughter's flat, the first blow was struck to silence the screams of a victim. Other times, it was pure sadism. Underlying his actions was the certainty that every blow he struck with his knife or hammer or stone would bring him one step closer to orgasm.

When he was interviewed after his capture, Chikatilo made clear that he never set out in search specifically of a man or of a woman. If the victim turned out to be an adult woman, all was well. But it was just as good if it was pre-pubescent girl or a fourteen-year-old boy. He was the ultimate opportunist - the main thing for him was to kill.

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