Anatoly Onoprienko: the most bloodthirsty killer of Ukraine. Biography Documentary film about Onoprienko

The other day, the bloodiest man died of a heart attack in Zhytomyr prison No. 8 Serial killer Ukraine Anatoly Onoprienko.

He has the blood of at least 52 people on his hands. However, during the consideration of his case, the killer said that he needed 360 more souls. His weapons are a sawn-off shotgun, an ax and a knife, with which he once cut a boy from his stomach to his throat. Before last day throughout his life, Anatoly convinced that he could not commit murder himself, and higher power ordered him to shoot people.

Anatoly committed his first murders during the Soviet Union - in the summer of 1989 - together with his friend, Afghan War veteran Sergei Rogozin. Together, using Onoprienko’s gun, they shot and robbed people on the highway. The first victims of the maniac were the couple, who were simply walking to their car. Onoprienko shot them in cold blood. Later, during the consideration of his case, he will say that he received “neither pleasure nor benefit” from these murders.

Over the course of a year, he and his accomplice shot people near cars on the highway. In total, Onoprienko killed 9 people in 1989. Among them was an 11-year-old boy who was sleeping peacefully in the car. He burned the corpses along with the transport.

Bloody carnage at the call of voices

Video: Serial killer Anatoly Onoprienko - documentary film

Anatoly Onoprienko is the bloodiest maniac in Ukraine. Having killed 9 people, Anatoly travels illegally throughout Europe and tries to achieve political asylum abroad. According to his stories, in other countries he worked in factories. In particular, in Germany, he chopped meat at a plant.

However, in 1995 he was deported to Ukraine. But no one arrested him at the airport. So he takes on a new series of murders. This time he does not attack travelers, but enters houses and shoots entire families throughout Ukraine. In just one year he managed to kill 43 people. Among them, 10 are children. According to him, he killed the children “because he did not want to leave them orphans.” Onoprienko himself was raised by his grandparents, who then sent him to a boarding school.

“I have never regretted anything, and I don’t regret anything now,” he will say in court. The first victims of Onoprienko's new series of murders were the Zaichenko family, whom he brutally shot, took their wedding rings, warm clothes and burned the corpses in the house. Then in a day the maniac could kill up to 7-9 people. “When everyone was sleeping, I came in. First he shot the owner, then his wife, who begged: “Don’t shoot,” stabbed a 6-year-old and strangled a three-month-old baby. Then he set the house on fire,” Anatoly said about the scenario of one of the murders.

The serial killer visited another family home before the New Year - December 31, 1995. The Kryuchkov couple and their two twin daughters were brutally shot. The body of one of the girls was found under the table. Before her death, she bit her hand to the bone out of fear of Onoprienko. Most of all, the maniac massacred people in the village of Bratkovichi, where he visited from time to time.

Onoprienko's weapons

From the beginning, Onoprienko shot his victims from a sawed-off TOZ-34 hunting rifle. Throughout the entire period of bloody murders, he used a firearm. However, in the second period of murders, after returning from abroad, Onoprienko helps himself to exterminate families also with axes, hammers and a knife. On February 27, 1996, he destroyed the Bondarchuk family. The maniac hacked to death two children and their neighbor with an axe. And during his last murder, on March 22, 1996, near the village of Bratkovichi, he cut a child from the stomach to the throat with a knife.

Then his collection of deaths was replenished by 7 more souls. “I look at it like an animal. Like a predator looking at a sheep,” Onoprienko explained during interrogation in 1997.

Voices from space ordered to kill

It is not known exactly why Anatoly Onoprienko began to kill. During interrogations and during court hearings, he often talked about the “voices” that gave him tasks. In particular, according to him, “higher powers” ​​ordered three series of murders. The first - 9 people - are for dying communism. The second - 40 people - are against neo-nationalism. And the third series of victims was supposed to protect humanity from the plague of the 21st century.

Onoprienko was supposed to take 360 ​​souls. But his arrest prevented him. “I couldn't do it myself. I had a good upbringing. I was a communist, I sailed abroad on the largest liner in the USSR. There, when applying for a visa, everyone was checked very carefully. I don't know why I did this. There are probably some forces on Earth and in space that influence humans. They influenced me,” Onoprienko said during his last interview.

Anatoly Yuryevich Onoprienko, (Ukrainian: Anatoly Yuriyovych Onoprienko, born July 25, 1959 in the village of Laski, Zhytomyr region) is a Ukrainian serial killer. Nicknames: "Ukrainian Beast", "Terminator" and "Citizen O". Between 1989 and 1996, he killed 52 people: 9 victims from June 14 to August 16, 1989 and 43 victims from October 5, 1995 to March 22, 1996. At the same time, there remains a large number of episodes incriminated against him, but not proven.

[edit]Birth and life before the murders

Anatoly Yuryevich Onoprienko was born on July 25, 1959 in the village of Laski in the Zhitomir region. He is the youngest, his older brother Valentin Onoprienko (born 1946) is 13 years older than him. Father Yuri Onoprienko participated in World War II and was decorated for bravery, but then was convicted twice and abused his wife and son. (My father went to the front at the age of 14, rose to the rank of sergeant, he had awards for bravery. He worked as a locomotive fireman, a driver, and was engaged in trade. He was convicted twice: the first time for stealing a piece of lard, the second time for borrowing money from relatives and did not return, in 1970 Yuri Onoprienko was sentenced to a settlement and lived in the city of Frolovo, Volgograd region, where he died.)

When Anatoly was 3 years old, on September 15, 1962, his mother died of heart failure.

He was raised by his grandfather, grandmother and aunt, who themselves required care for themselves, and at about 7 years old his older brother and father, who did not want to take him into their families (his father married again and had another son from his new wife, and Valentin married early and had three children at once, but received a small salary as a rural teacher) Anatoly was handed over to Orphanage in the village of Privotnoye. Subsequently, in one interview, Onoprienko said that this predetermined his fate - according to him, 70% of orphanage graduates end up in prison.

After the orphanage, he entered the forestry technical school, from where he was later expelled for poor academic performance.

After the army, he got a job at a naval school, served in the navy, and mainly made money by smuggling. After his dismissal in 1987, he began his career as a firefighter, became a department commander, and joined the Communist Party. He was even a deputy party organizer in the city of Dneprorudny, Zaporozhye region

Murders

Onoprienko killed with a hunting rifle. In the first series of murders in the summer of 1989, committed with his partner Sergei Rogozin, a veteran of the Afghan war (but Onoprienko committed the murders himself), he used his officially registered gun with a scope for hunting in the dark. After the murders, he is almost detained by the police during a chase. He flees to Europe, trying to obtain political asylum and citizenship different countries: Canada, Greece and Spain. Having achieved nothing, Onoprienko, confident that the police are looking for him in Ukraine, continues to travel illegally throughout Europe. What he did during his travels remains unknown; Onoprienko himself claimed that he was involved in thefts and occasionally worked as a loader at various enterprises. He also denies committing murder at the time.

Onoprienko was distinguished by his resourcefulness. After he is deported back to Ukraine, law enforcement agencies Ukraine does not meet and arrest the killer. Onoprienko, believing that they are still looking for him, has been at Boryspil airport for a long time, awaiting arrest. However, seeing that no one is interested in him at the airport, he freely leaves for Kyiv. Later, at the train station, he feigns madness. He is sent to a psychiatric hospital named after. Pavlova in Kyiv. While hospitalized, he takes advantage of the “free exit” and conceives and commits several crimes. After some time, he learned that those murders had not been solved. After leaving the hospital, he begins a new series of murders. In the second series in 1995 and 1996, Onoprienko acted alone. He killed with a sawn-off shotgun made from a TOZ-34 hunting rifle, stolen from a hunter he knew. This sawn-off shotgun was found by the police in the room in which Onoprienko was detained (in the apartment of his mistress Anna Kozak, where she lived with her children). Items were also found there, in particular, jewelry and a video recorder, which were stolen from the victims. Onoprienko's victims were couples, entire families, groups of people, but also individuals - in the second series of murders he could kill up to 7 people in a day (in one episode he killed 8 people in 2 days). He chose the places for his crimes so that they formed a cross on the map of Ukraine. In total, he killed 52 people, 11 of them minors. There was an episode where he had sexual intercourse with a woman he killed.

Methods

In the summer of 1989, Onoprienko killed couples (twice) and a group of people in or near cars on Ukrainian highways. In 1995-1996, he selected poorly protected private houses in villages in the west and center of Ukraine, entered them at night or early in the morning and killed everyone, including small children (so as not to “leave them orphans,” as he said). In addition, he killed random passers-by who met along the way in the same places, and sometimes shot at people from a car. The village of Bratkovichi, Lviv region, especially suffered at the hands of Onoprienko. When internal troops were brought into Bratkovichi, Onoprienko simply changed the place of the murders - he switched to other villages.

Investigation

For the 1989 murders, Onoprienko and Rogozin miraculously escaped punishment, as Onoprienko's lawyer Ruslan Moshkovsky talks about in detail in his interview. The search for the criminal after the second series of murders (however, it was not yet known that there was one killer at work - there were different versions) began in March 1996, after 8 families were brutally murdered in their homes. Most of the victims were in remote villages in the Lviv region near the border with Poland. In total, thousands of people took part in the “hunt” for Onoprienko, including ordinary operatives patrolling “critical” areas.

Motive

Onoprienko's motive is not exactly known. He himself claimed that some higher powers ordered him to carry out three series of murders: the first (9 people should be killed in it) was against communism, the second (40 people) - against nationalism, the third (360 people) - against the plague of the twenty-first century. If you believe some sources [source not specified for 105 days], it was Onoprienko’s lawyer who told him to explain his motives this way. Some believe [source not specified 105 days] that he killed only for the sake of material assets, which he carried away from crime scenes.

Detention and trial

In March 1996, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and specialists from the Prosecutor's Office detained 26-year-old Yuri Mozola as a suspect in several brutal murders. For three days, 6 employees of the Lviv SBU and a representative of the prosecutor’s office “interrogated” Mozola in the prosecutor’s office building using torture by fire, electric shock and beatings. Mozola refused to confess to the crimes and died during torture. All 7 people responsible for his death were sentenced to prison terms. 17 days later, the real killer was detained - Onoprienko, about whom someone reported to the local police officer - it was said that in such and such an apartment at Anna Kozak's there lived a suspicious person who seemed to be hiding. Seeing the policemen entering, Onoprienko, who had just woken up, rushed to the bag with the sawn-off shotgun, but was captured. Onoprienko was sentenced to death on March 31, 1999, but due to Ukraine’s intention to join the Council of Europe, the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment (then President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma appealed to a number of international organizations with a request to make an exception from the moratorium on the death penalty, especially for Onoprienko). Onoprienko's accomplice Rogozin was sentenced to 13 years in prison. At the moment, Onoprienko is serving his sentence in Zhytomyr pre-trial detention center No. 8.

Personal life

ex-wife Irina (Onoprienko) until 1989

son Dmitry Anatolyevich (Onoprienko)

Anatoly Onoprienko is, along with Chikatilo, one of the most bloodthirsty killers of the former Soviet Union.

Anatoly Yuryevich Onoprienko (Ukrainian: Anatoly Yuriyovych Onoprienko; July 25, 1959, Laski village, Zhytomyr region - August 27, 2013, Zhytomyr) - Ukrainian serial and mass murderer. Between 1989 and 1996, he killed 52 people: 9 victims from June 14 to August 16, 1989 and 43 victims from October 5, 1995 to March 22, 1996. Sometimes Onoprienko is called the most cruel maniac of the 20th century. At the same time, the question of Onoprienko’s exact motives remains unanswered. The crimes of Anatoly Onoprienko led to fierce debate about the appropriateness of the death penalty in Ukraine

Childhood
Anatoly Onoprienko was born on July 25, 1959 in the village of Laski, Zhytomyr region. He was the second child in the family (the first was his brother Valentin, born in 1946). Their father, Yuri Onoprienko, went to fight at the front at the age of 14, where he received the rank of sergeant and military awards. After the war, he worked as a fireman and tried to work in trade as a driver. Was convicted twice for minor crimes.

Later, Yuri Onoprienko married a woman who worked as a milkmaid and pig farmer on a collective farm. She bore him two sons. Yuri was an alcoholic and abused children. When Anatoly was 1 year old, his father left his family and went to another woman, who later gave birth to his son.

When Anatoly was 3 years old, on September 15, 1962, his mother died of heart failure. Little Tolya was raised by his grandmother and aunt, about whom he would speak with warmth for the rest of his life.

Problems with Anatoly’s upbringing grew more and more. Father did not take Anatoly with him. My brother got married very early and raised 3 children. He and his wife worked as a teacher at school and received a small salary, which all went to the family. It was decided to send Anatoly to an orphanage. This event greatly offended little Anatoly. Later, due to the absence of a family with his father and brother alive, Anatoly was often teased with offensive words, which he remembered for the rest of his life. He was often beaten by older people. He ran away from the orphanage several times to his native village, but he was always caught and returned back. The food in the orphanage was very poor. The only one who visited him was his grandmother, whose death he would take especially hard. He himself spoke about his period in the orphanage:
“The orphanage gave me great strength. Life there was no different from prison or army. Our orphanage was also fenced, and it was forbidden to go outside the fence. When I was little, I didn’t understand that this was a prison, I thought it was a school. There was strictness. There were a lot of overage boys, 19 years old. What did they do to us!...”

Already in the orphanage, he began to beat his peers and stabbed them with sharp objects. He stole a lot, mostly small things. He often skipped classes and ran into the forest, where he liked to make fires. Anatoly loved fire. Despite the violence, growing up, Anatoly gained a certain authority in the orphanage. He had friends whom he loved very much, and later regretted parting with them after the orphanage.

After the orphanage in 1976, he came to his father, who was already living with his third wife. He tried to make peace with him. The three of them traded vegetables. However, they did not live together for long: their family had a conflict over money and Anatoly left. In 1983, Anatoly came to his father for the last time in his own car. He wanted to reconcile with him and even give him his car as a sign of friendship. But Yuri Onoprienko was afraid of revenge from his son and pretended to be sick so as not to communicate with him. Anatoly left and never saw his father again.

Youth
After completing 8 classes in the orphanage, Anatoly entered the Malinsky Forestry College. He studied poorly, but constantly fought and drank, committed thefts. I completed only 2 courses, after which I joined the army. There he was often beaten. After the army, he entered the Naval School, where he was actively involved in sports, including karate. At the same time, Anatoly lived well: he earned a lot, was popular with girls, being a sailor, he traveled all over the world. During his travels, he became very envious of people in the West who lived richer than the population of the USSR. Onoprienko joined the CPSU. He was involved in theft and smuggling, but was never caught in this. In 1986, due to a conflict with his superiors, he left shipping forever.

Onoprienko began working as a firefighter. Many envied him: he had a wife, a son, a big house, a lot of money and expensive things. Onoprienko bought a hunting rifle and joined the Society of Hunters and Fishermen. Onoprienko worked well, had positive characteristics, and rose in rank. In the fall of 1989, Onoprienko unexpectedly abandoned his family and, taking all the family savings, left in an unknown direction. He didn't let anyone know about himself for 6 years.

First series of murders

Shortly before the series of murders, Onoprienko witnessed an unpleasant scene. He dated a girl, and then caught her together with his close friend, who, secretly from him, indulged in intimate relationships. A fight ensued, during which the friend severely beat Onoprienko, robbed him, and then disappeared. Onoprienko greatly valued friendship and could not forgive such a betrayal.

At the beginning of 1989, in the city of Dneprorudny, Anatoly Onoprienko met Sergei Rogozin (born July 16, 1962). Rogozin was a professional military man who served in Afghanistan, had a number of awards and headed the city council of internationalist soldiers. Rogozin was married, he had a little daughter, and he himself worked on a collective farm. Onoprienko and Rogozin became friends. Together they were engaged in business and trade. Later Onoprienko would speak about his friend like this:
“We had normal friendly relations. I am still friends with his former partner Ira. I know him as a physically developed, secretive, non-greedy, good-natured person."

Rogozin fell into psychological dependence from Onoprienko. Anatoly convinced him to go into criminal business. He suggested robbing people who fell asleep right on the road in their cars at night. Onoprienko promised to take on the most difficult moments. Rogozin agreed.

Onoprienko committed his first murder on June 14, 1989. That day, he and Rogozin were returning by car from the Novgorod region, where they were selling cherries. Onoprienko, who was sitting behind the wheel, suggested that his friend commit a robbery of some car. Rogozin hesitated, but agreed. At night, on the highway in the Sinelnikovsky district, Onoprienko noticed a Zhiguli with a trailer. People were sleeping in it (the lights in the car were turned off). Onoprienko, who was armed with a hard drive, gave instructions to Rogozin: he was to drive slowly along the road until Anatoly gave him a signal. If successful, Rogozin was supposed to drive up to him; if Onoprienko himself was injured, his partner was supposed to hide.

Onoprienko approached the Zhiguli with a weapon in his hand. A married couple, Oleg Melnik and his wife (both born in 1958), slept there. Onoprienko shot the sleeping Melnik, then forced his wife to get out of the car and go towards the forest. The woman came out, but began screaming and calling for help, as a result of which he shot her too. Onoprienko pulled out all valuable items from the car. He hid the corpses behind a forest belt, covering them with earth and branches. Onoprienko ordered Rogozin to follow him, after which he got behind the wheel of a robbed Zhiguli, drove it far away and burned it. Rogozin guessed that a murder had occurred, but Onoprienko hinted to him that if he contacted the police, he would kill his wife and daughter. The loot was later sold.

On July 16, 1989, Onoprienko and an accomplice, under similar circumstances, killed another married couple. The car of the dead was burned. The proceeds that went to the killers were very large - the couple took with them valuable items and a lot of money. The bodies were burned. Rogozin was very nervous about the murders, while Onoprienko was very calm about what was happening. In August 1989, Onoprienko and Rogozin went to Odessa. Anatoly deceived his accomplice, saying that they were going to sell the loot; in fact, he was planning to commit a new robbery. On August 16, 1989, Onoprienko robbed a car, killing a family of 5 people who were in it. Onoprienko himself, many years later, during interrogation, will tell that he did not want to kill, but the head of the family began to resist, and he shot him, and then decided not to leave witnesses. At the same time, killing 5 people brought very little income. Onoprienko began to burn the corpses, but before setting the fire he saw that one of the victims, a young girl, was still alive. To finish her off, he stabbed her several times in the back with a hunting knife.

Departure for Germany

On the same day, Onoprienko was almost caught. While he was driving a stolen car, a traffic police post followed him, ordering him to stop. The car in which Onoprienko was driving looked suspicious, which attracted the attention of the police. Onoprienko accelerated. A chase began, but he managed to escape, after which the maniac burned the car (according to other sources, they caught up with him, but Onoprienko paid off by giving the policeman 8 rubles). Afterwards, the police had the first clues - descriptions of Onoprienko’s appearance and car, but not even the slightest suspicion fell on him. Onoprienko himself took the last murder quite hard. He was afraid that he would be killed and robbed, just as he did with his victims. He also had some pity for the victims. Onoprienko even thought about suicide. True, 9 years later he admitted that he then stopped regretting what he had done, that he enjoyed the killings and, without hesitation, would repeat the same thing again.

A month after the events that happened to him, Onoprienko went to travel around Europe. He traveled to many countries using fake documents. He was deported back to Ukraine several times for illegal residence, but Onoprienko immediately returned abroad again with the help of fake documents. He settled in Germany, where he worked as a landscaper, dishwasher and cook. He asked for political asylum in Germany, but was refused.

Onoprienko was involved in theft in Germany (he thought that if he went to a German prison, he would receive citizenship). He went to Vienna, where he was briefly imprisoned for robbing a store. He returned to Germany after serving his sentence. There he continued to steal and rob. He was nevertheless sent to prison, but it did not help him with the issue of German citizenship. In prison, Onoprienko was subjected to severe beatings. There he decided that after a certain time he would commit 300 murders in Germany. He spent a month in prison, after which it was decided to send Onoprienko to a psychiatric hospital. Onoprienko fled from the hospital, joining the Mormons. Onoprienko lived in illegal emigration for about 4 years, until in the spring of 1994 he was finally deported from Germany to Ukraine.

Second series of murders

At that time, poverty, unemployment and colossal inflation, as well as crime, reigned in Ukraine. Onoprienko was without money, and in such a situation he experienced severe psychological stress. In addition, he was afraid that he would be arrested for the murders he had committed. On May 31, 1994, Onoprienko was arrested at the Kiev railway station. He did not threaten anyone, but he behaved very inappropriately. Under arrest, Onoprienko realized that he was not even suspected of 9 murders. Onoprienko was sent to the city psychiatric hospital named after Pavlov. There he felt very bad: he was constantly forced to take strong medications and was fed poorly. He ran away from the hospital several times, but was returned. Once, while escaping, he even managed to rob the apartment of an elderly woman. He spent three and a half months in a mental hospital. Onoprienko was discharged with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, paranoid form.

After being discharged, Onoprienko again went to Germany and again illegally. There he spent a year, leading a wandering lifestyle, and sometimes earning a little money in different places. He was again deported to Ukraine. Anatoly had no money or housing, and he went to Narodich, Zhitomir region, where his brother Valentin lived. Valentin was glad to meet his brother and allowed him to live at his home. Many relatives by that time thought that Anatoly had died.

Time passed, but Anatoly did not get a job. This complicated an already difficult situation. During this time, Onoprienko developed a strong hatred for all rich residents of Ukraine and those who live better than him. He constantly thought about starting to kill. In October 1995, he robbed a hunter he knew, stealing a TOZ-34R hunting rifle, a knife, a cartridge belt and overalls from his house. No one could have thought then that Onoprienko committed this theft. Anatoly made a sawn-off shotgun from the gun so that it would be convenient to use and carry with him everywhere.

At the end of October 1995, he began killing again. From October to December 1995, he killed 7 people. At the same time, the maniac behaved self-confidently, was in no hurry and left the crime scenes after a few hours. Thus began the second series of murders. By that time, he no longer lived with his brother - on November 4, 1995, Onoprienko left him. Soon murders became commonplace for Onoprienko. At short intervals he went to rob and kill. As a rule, he killed several people at once, after which he took their property. During one of these robberies, Onoprienko killed a dog that began barking at a stranger. During another robbery, he massacred a family of 4 people (the Zaichenko family), including a 3-month-old baby. Many years later, Onoprienko was still unable to give an answer as to why he killed an infant child (later, however, he would say that he killed children so that they would not remain orphans). In addition, Onoprienko sometimes raped his victims (there was even an episode when he had sexual intercourse with the corpse of a murdered woman). On the night of January 17, 1996, in the village of Bratkovichi, Lviv region, he killed 7 people at once. Among them was a family of 5 people, as well as 2 more random victims. In total, Onoprienko committed 12 murders on Bratkovichi territory.

Onoprienko committed his last murder on March 22, 1996. He killed a married couple, their young daughter, and the dead woman's deaf sister. He robbed them, and on leaving he killed their dog. It is known that the police had the opportunity to prevent the crime or at least save someone from the family, but this was not done.

Consequence

At first, the investigation examined the crimes committed separately. After the murder of 7 people on January 17, 1996, the investigation came to the conclusion that all the episodes of group murders associated with robberies were connected and were committed by a person acting alone. The case of a series of murders was taken under the control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. According to one of the witnesses who saw Onoprienko in the dark, an identikit was compiled.

The case gained resonance, but there was little evidence and the investigation stalled. Onoprienko himself closely followed the investigation into his case, as far as possible - he read everything that was written about his crimes and searches. Panic began throughout Ukraine. Several tens of thousands of police officers took part in the search for Onoprienko, and many more suspects were checked. One of the investigators in the Onoprienko case spoke about this period as follows:
“For me personally it was a very difficult period, as, indeed, I think, for anyone who would become the head of the operational group, and subsequently the operational headquarters. After all, then no one was eager to lead this group. Everyone understood that the situation was not easy: you can rise high, but you can also very easily “rattle.” At that time I had a working, but very tough relationship with the minister. He said: if you don’t open it, you’ll leave. Yes, I understood this myself, and gave my word to leave if we didn’t catch the maniac. This is how it should be, I think, because you have to give a personal answer to someone in any situation... But experiences are one thing, but action is another.”

At the same time, police officers made a number of serious mistakes, committing official crimes. One of the double murder cases was initially written off as an accident. Later, they tried to accuse an innocent person of the same murder. In the Onoprienko case, innocent people were repeatedly arrested, but their alibis were usually confirmed very quickly. There were other mistakes too. In connection with the attempted murder of one of Onoprienko’s victims (this was the only case when the victim remained alive after meeting with the maniac), at first they refused to initiate a criminal case at all. Onoprienko several times managed to deftly escape from police traps, although posts were placed on almost all roads; This happened mainly due to police negligence. Onoprienko was arrested three times, but almost immediately released, so he easily convinced investigators of his law-abidingness.
Arrest

On April 14, 1996, Anatoly Onoprienko was arrested in the city of Yavorov. There he lived in the apartment of his common-law wife Anna Kozak, where he was arrested. There was certain circumstantial evidence against Onoprienko, which led to his arrest. According to some sources, Onoprienko was betrayed to the police by his half-brother Pyotr; according to others, his partner Anna ( latest version very doubtful). Onoprienko did not resist arrest. A search was carried out in the apartment, as a result of which numerous evidence was found that proved Onoprienko’s involvement in the murders.

Onoprienko was sent for interrogation, where he was charged with 40 murders. Investigator Bogdan Teslya, who conducted the survey, talks about what is happening:
“At first, he categorically denied any involvement in the murders, sticking to one version: that he lives in Yavorov with his friends, often travels abroad, and all the things found in the apartment were bought by him. But throughout the long conversation, he was often confused, and one detail was also noted: wherever he was, born, worked, visited, it was there that the murders were committed.”

However, Onoprienko later confessed to all the murders, including those crimes in which he was not suspected. A total of 52 episodes of murder were identified. The investigation went on for a long time and was active: Onoprienko was taken for investigative experiments, numerous searches were carried out, and evidence was collected. All this was accompanied by numerous difficulties. Investigators were afraid that local residents might kill Onoprienko, so he was led under especially heavy guard, and sometimes they put a bulletproof vest on him. He was not taken to Bratkovichi - there was too great a risk of people's lynching. However, Onoprienko himself behaved calmly and happily talked about his crimes in every detail. He had an excellent memory, which amazed investigators.

However, the investigation passed without incident. Onoprienko behaved calmly and politely, did not try to escape, and only occasionally teased the investigators. In his cell he read a lot, did meditation and gymnastics. Onoprienko claimed that he had a prophetic gift, which was passed on to him from his grandmother (she was a fortune teller). Onoprienko was treated well - due to the particular fame of the case, almost all the actions of the investigation were observed from the outside. The investigation lasted 2 and a half years. During this time, no one ever visited Onoprienko. Only lawyers visited him - Onoprienko had 5 of them in total. None of them took the case seriously, since everyone knew what the court verdict would be. Within two weeks, Ruslan Ivanovich Moshkovsky, appointed by the court, became Onoprienko’s lawyer. Onoprienko had enough with him a good relationship, even though there were difficulties at first. In prison, in exchange for bags of food, he gave interviews to newspapers. Onoprienko assessed his living conditions in prison as quite good, and expressed his readiness to continue to sit there.

Onoprienko's case took up 99 volumes. During the investigation, he betrayed Sergei Rogozin, his accomplice in the first series of murders. Rogozin was arrested. At first he denied any involvement in the murders. Onoprienko himself would later say that he regretted betraying his friend. He explained it this way:
“The police insisted: you must have an accomplice. They needed an accomplice, they needed a gang, because when there is a gang, I am still normal, sane. And when I’m alone, it’s easier for me to become a fool. The investigators told me specifically: look for the second one. And Rogozin himself could go to the police, repent and tell how it happened in 1989. I analyzed all the pros and cons and decided to name it myself. »

Unlike Onoprienko, Rogozin had a special, professional and highly paid lawyer, whose services were paid for by the relatives of the arrested person.

Trial

The upcoming trial caused great emotional tension in Ukrainian society. On November 23, 1998, the trial began at the Palace of Justice in the city of Zhitomir. Due to the lateness of lawyer Rogozin, the hearing began an hour later. Onoprienko behaved calmly and answered the judge’s first questions with some irony. Rogozin, on the contrary, behaved politely and was very worried about what was happening.

The reading of the indictment lasted 3 days. It was also announced that the examination showed that Onoprienko was completely sane. These days the courtroom was crowded, but soon there were fewer and fewer people wanting to watch the trial. Onoprienko was accused of murder, rape, theft, banditry and a number of other crimes. In addition, civil claims were filed against Onoprienko for moral damages in the amount of 2 million 380 thousand hryvnia, 5 million Polish zlotys, 1 thousand US dollars and 300 thousand Russian rubles. At first, Onoprienko admitted his guilt and tried in every possible way to shield Rogozin. In addition, Onoprienko demanded that the lawyer be replaced with “at least 50 years old, a Jew or half-Jew by nationality, economically independent, with international practice.” But since Onoprienko did not have the money for this, the court rejected his request. After this, Onoprienko refused to testify. The defendant was kept under heavy security.

The trial continued with short breaks. Some witnesses were afraid to come to court - they were afraid that Onoprienko would escape from custody and kill them. The process took place generally without incident, but a lot of emotions were expressed. The victims demanded that Onoprienko be executed right in the courtroom; many found it difficult to restrain themselves. The atmosphere became tense as relatives of the victims spoke about the murders of their loved ones. From time to time Onoprienko agreed to answer questions, but his testimony was very vague, superficial and could not influence the case in any way. Onoprienko only refused charges of banditry, while willingly accepting guilt of murder. True, from time to time he changed his testimony, refusing and again confessing to the murders accused of him. The criminal said that he wanted to draw “a cross on the body of Ukraine” with the corpses of people. This is what he said about the murder of the Zaichenko family:
“I went to Malin to draw a cross. I talked about him before. Why I killed the children, I don’t know. The woman was still alive, she asked not to kill, because she had Small child. I took a knife from the kitchen and stabbed him several times in the neck and stomach"

Despite occasional problems with witnesses, the trial was completed on March 3, 1999. The prosecutor asked for Onoprienko to be sentenced to death, and for Rogozin - 15 years in prison. Ruslan Moshkovsky said that he generally agrees with the accusation, but asks that Onoprienko be acquitted of charges of banditry. Rogozin's lawyer said that his client was only an unwitting accomplice in the crimes, and asked to commute his sentence. Onoprienko refused the last word. Rogozin spoke his last word for about 40 minutes. After this, the court went to pronounce a verdict.
Sentence

The sentence in the Onoprienko case was 4 weeks, without days off. On April 1, 1999, the judge spent a total of 12 hours reading out the verdict (taking breaks from time to time). By that time, Onoprienko's trial had already lost its resonance. There were very few victims in the courtroom, although everyone was warned in advance about the date of the verdict. Most of those in the room were journalists. Onoprienko had no relatives, but Rogozin’s sister and wife did.

On the same day, the reading of the verdict was completed. The court sentenced Onoprienko and Anatoly Yuryevich to find guilty of all episodes of the crime (including 52 murders) and impose capital punishment - death by firing squad. Rogozin was sentenced to 13 years in prison; numerous mitigating circumstances were taken into account: service in Afghanistan, the presence of a small child, cooperation with the investigation. The court ordered Onoprienko to compensate moral and material damage to the victims in more than 200 thousand, and Rogozin - about 40 thousand hryvnia. Since the defendants did not have that kind of money, the court decided to confiscate the defendants’ property (Onoprienko had his own small house, and Rogozin had a good car). The stolen items (except for the sawn-off shotgun, which was evidence) were returned to the owners.

The verdict was met with applause from the audience. Onoprienko, while reading the verdict, showed the judge his middle finger, and after hearing the verdict, he drew a cross on his forehead. Rogozin greeted the verdict nervously. Rogozin’s lawyer said that he would appeal the verdict because he considers it “too harsh.” Onoprienko's lawyer said that he agreed with the verdict, but was ready to submit a petition for pardon to the Supreme Court and the President of Ukraine.

The trial lasted 4 months. At the time of sentencing, Onoprienko was 39 years old, Rogozin was 36 years old. Onoprienko himself would later comment on the verdict:
“People now don’t value life, they start throwing out some of their nationalistic, chauvinistic, fascist outbursts over little things. And in order to get their brains in, they must see all these horrors themselves: generals must see these horrors, politicians, then they will immediately stop wanting to fight...”
Further events

Moszkowski appealed the verdict. Onoprienko himself did not submit any petitions, since he claimed that he wanted death for himself. True, he also did not withdraw the lawyer’s cassation statement. Rogozin also appealed the verdict. At the end of August 1999, the criminal panel of the Supreme Court of Ukraine made a decision. Onoprienko was cleared of several minor crimes, but the sentence remained the same, and Rogozin's sentence was reduced to 12 years. The last place Onoprienko could apply was to the Pardons Commission under the President of Ukraine, where Onoprienko’s petition could be read by the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma himself.

Such a petition was sent. And Onoprienko was lucky. The fact is that at that time there was a difficult political situation in Ukraine. Leonid Kuchma was preparing for presidential elections. The country was preparing to join the Council of Europe. The demand of this organization was the complete abolition of the death penalty in Ukraine. The execution of the sentence for Onoprienko was delayed for political reasons. Any careless step could cost Kuchma political career. Kuchma himself was a supporter of execution for Onoprienko. He was quite specific about this:
“I don’t see any other punishment other than the death penalty. I am ready to appeal to all international organizations, because such non-humans should not exist on our land. »

He asked the Council of Europe for permission to make an exception for Onoprienko and allow him to be executed, but he was refused. In 2000, Leonid Kuchma signed an order to completely abolish the death penalty in Ukraine.
Life in prison. Death

Onoprienko's life in prison was quiet. He behaved normally and did not conflict with anyone. He rarely gave interviews and did so reluctantly. For some time he corresponded with a journalist from Moscow. She sent him money and asked him to give an interview. They even had something of a correspondence romance, but then it ended. Onoprienko never gave an interview.

Onoprienko was in solitary confinement, where he spent about 17 years. In prison, thieves tried to kill him several times, but the guards prevented it each time. Onoprienko himself did not complain about anything. He read a lot, mostly science fiction. In prison he started smoking. According to his own admission, he hoped to one day go out and kill again. In 2000, erroneous information about Onoprienko’s death appeared in the Ukrainian media. During his imprisonment, none of his family or friends ever visited him. On his card, taped to the door of his cell, it was written that Onoprienko was prone to suicide, escape and attack. Onoprienko behaved in a disciplined manner, but sometimes howled at night, which horrified the people nearby. Onoprienko did not express any regret about what he had done. He refused to work. He read all the time, in addition, he had a TV in his cell. He stated that Anatoly Kashpirovsky often appears to him in his dreams and talks about life in freedom. In one interview, Onoprienko stated:
“It’s easiest to judge. Others believe that I am a maniacal killer, but in fact I am the biggest victim. I saw it all and did it all, I suffered more than anyone. Well, what did they see, after everything they came, cried, screamed and that’s it, and I did all this. And you killed these innocent children who look at you and so on and so forth. For a normal person, this is, as they say, impossible…. »

Shortly before his death, he gave his last interview. He gave it to the Ukrainian television channel ICTV. In it, he told correspondent Yulia Kruk about his views on the events that happened many years ago. Onoprienko said that he still did not understand why he killed people. He also said that he would not apply for clemency and believes that the death penalty is quite acceptable for him. Onoprienko, who was skeptical about religion, suddenly decided to confess to the prison priest a week before his death. He repented and declared his desire to receive communion.

On August 27, 2013, Onoprienko died of heart failure in Zhytomyr prison No. 8. Onoprienko was buried at the expense of the state in a secret place. Victor Korol reacted to Onoprienko’s death this way:
“On the hands of this non-human is the blood of 52 innocent victims, including children, even babies, and many families of the victims received this news with relief, since they were still afraid that Onoprienko would someday leave prison and take up his old ways again, especially that he expressed such an intention. There is no forgiveness for him - he killed mercilessly, cruelly, unarmed, sleeping, and weak, receiving some kind of sadistic satisfaction from this. And he didn’t repent. Now he's gone, thank God. I ended up with what I deserved.

Anatoly Yurievich Onoprienko(Ukrainian Anatoly Yuriyovych Onoprienko; July 25, 1959, Laski village, Zhytomyr region - August 27, 2013, Zhitomir) - Soviet and then Ukrainian serial and mass murderer. Between 1989 and 1996, he killed 52 people: 9 victims from June 14 to August 16, 1989 and 43 victims from October 5, 1995 to March 22, 1996. Sometimes Onoprienko is called the most cruel maniac of the 20th century, comparable only to Chikatilo. At the same time, the question of Onoprienko’s exact motives remains unanswered. The crimes of Anatoly Onoprienko led to fierce debate about the appropriateness of the death penalty in Ukraine.

Early biography

Childhood

Anatoly Onoprienko was born on July 25, 1959 in the village of Laski, Zhitomir region. He was the second child in the family (the first was his brother Valentin, born in 1946). Their father, Yuri Onoprienko, went to fight at the front at the age of 14, where he received the rank of sergeant and military awards. After the war, he worked as a fireman, driver, and tried to work in trade. Was convicted twice for minor crimes.

Later, Yuri Onoprienko married a woman who worked as a milkmaid and pig farmer on a collective farm. She bore him two sons. Yuri was an alcoholic and abused children. When Anatoly was 1 year old, his father left his family and went to another woman, who later gave birth to his son.

When Anatoly was 3 years old, on September 15, 1962, his mother died of heart failure. Little Tolya was raised by his grandmother and aunt, about whom he would speak with warmth for the rest of his life.

Problems with Anatoly’s upbringing grew more and more. Father did not take Anatoly with him. My brother got married very early and raised 3 children. He and his wife worked as a teacher at school and received a small salary, which all went to the family. It was decided to send Anatoly to an orphanage. This event greatly offended little Anatoly. Later, due to the absence of a family with his father and brother alive, Anatoly was often teased with offensive words, which he remembered for the rest of his life. He was often beaten by older people. He ran away from the orphanage several times to his native village, but he was always caught and returned back. The food in the orphanage was very poor. The only one who visited him was his grandmother, whose death he would take especially hard. He himself spoke about his period in the orphanage:

Already in the orphanage, he began to beat his peers and stabbed them with sharp objects. He stole a lot, mostly small things. He often skipped classes and ran into the forest, where he liked to make fires. Anatoly loved fire. Despite the violence, growing up, Anatoly gained a certain authority in the orphanage. He had friends whom he loved very much, and later regretted parting with them after the orphanage.

After the orphanage in 1976, he came to his father, who was already living with his third wife. He tried to make peace with him. The three of them traded vegetables. However, they did not live together for long: there was a conflict in their family over money and Anatoly left. In 1983, Anatoly came to his father for the last time in his own car. He wanted to reconcile with him and even give him his car as a sign of friendship. But Yuri Onoprienko was afraid of revenge from his son and pretended to be sick so as not to communicate with him. Anatoly left and never saw his father again.

Youth

After completing 8 classes in the orphanage, Anatoly entered the Malinsky Forestry College. He studied poorly, but constantly fought and drank, committed thefts. I completed only 2 courses, after which I joined the army. There he was often beaten. After the army, he entered the Naval School, where he was actively involved in sports, including karate. At the same time, Anatoly lived well: he earned a lot, was popular with girls, being a sailor, he traveled all over the world. During his travels, he became very envious of people in the West who lived richer than the population of the USSR. Onoprienko joined the CPSU. He was involved in theft and smuggling, but was never caught in this. In 1986, due to a conflict with his superiors, he left shipping forever.

The trial of Anatoly Onoprienko

Anatoly Onoprienko is one of the most brutal killers, who began his “career” back in the USSR, whose terrible adventures are also well known to foreign criminologists. At the peak of his fame, in the mid-90s of the 20th century, he topped the rating of the most bloodthirsty killers over the last 200 years, compiled by the France-Presse news agency. I must say, not in vain. In just six months, this maniac took the lives of 52 people, almost as many as Chikatilo did in two decades. So the trial of this killer, who has one of the longest “track records” in modern criminology, was called the “trial of the century.”

Anatoly Onoprienko

Anatoly Onoprienko was born in a small village in the Zhitomir region in 1959.

The boy's father left the family soon after the birth of his son, and when Tolya was not yet five years old, his mother died. Until the age of seven, the future serial killer lived with his grandfather, grandmother and older brother, and then “loving relatives” took the boy to an orphanage.

After finishing eight classes, Onoprienko went to study at a technical school, deciding to become a forester, but did not receive a diploma because he was drafted into the army. After demobilization, Anatoly chose a different specialty and entered the naval school in Odessa (graduated in 1986). By the way, before this, the guy managed to complete the program for grades 9, 10 and 11 in just three months (!) high school! Having received the coveted “crusts” of a sailor-motor operator, he made several overseas voyages. However, after Anatoly was convicted of dishonesty and petty theft, he was written off. The guy quickly found new job, becoming the boss fire department in the city of Dneprorudny, Zaporozhye region. But the quiet life of this man was not attractive.

In 1989, Onoprienko began his “career” as a serial killer. The maniac's first victims were a married couple, who he shot dead in front of their own car. By the New Year, Anatoly’s “account” already had nine victims; Among others, an eleven-year-old boy who was sleeping in a car died at the hands of Onoprienko. Then the sadist killed four more people inside the car. The executioner burned the bodies of the dead in cold blood. At that time, Anatoly acted in company with Sergei Rogozin, an Afghanistan veteran.

Onoprienko understood that now they would be looking for him, and decided to get away. From 1989 to 1995, he traveled around Europe illegally, without a visa; twice the criminal was expelled to his homeland - from Germany and Austria. It is difficult to say what Anatoly did during these years. In his own words, he was a simple worker. Nevertheless, law enforcement agencies have reason to assert that abroad Onoprienko was engaged in the same robbery, burglary and petty robberies. By the way, the killer, having been expelled from Europe in 1994, flew to Kyiv, but did not go to his relatives or friends. Instead, he decided to play the role of a mentally ill person and stood on one leg at the Boryspil airport all day on August 31. As a result, the police sent Onopienko to a psychiatric hospital. Then the maniac managed to fool the doctors - he was diagnosed with “paranoid syndrome” and registered. After this, the maniac escaped from the clinic and, after robbing the apartment, went to Germany.

Anatoly finally returned to Ukraine only at the end of 1995 and again began to kill, now acting without accomplices, in cold blood, according to a well-established scheme. At the trial, the killer calmly said: “I never regretted anything, and I don’t regret anything now.” Onoprienko began his bloody “tours” in western Ukraine, shooting the Zaichenko spouses and their two children. Then the maniac managed to get hold of only a few things: he took away wedding rings, some jewelry, and warm clothes. And when he left, he set the house on fire to cover his tracks. The next victims of the killer were a family of four: Onoprienko shot the adults, stabbed a six-year-old child, and strangled a three-month-old baby. The killer set the house on fire again.

On December 31, 1995, Anatoly once again went “hunting”. In the village of Bratkovichi, Lviv region, he broke into new house Peter and Maria Kryuchkov. In addition to the spouses, Mary’s two nineteen-year-old twin sisters were in the building. The killer, whom investigators dubbed the “Terminator,” shot all four. He cut off the finger with the wedding ring from the owner’s wife, and tore the earrings out of the ears of one of the girls with the meat - they were lying next to the body, since they turned out to be just jewelry. A girl, trying to escape from a maniac in the kitchen, bit her hands to the bone in a fit of horror. Not far from the burned house of the Kryuchkovs, the task force discovered the bodies of two more men: apparently, these people witnessed the crime. By the way, Onoprienko was not able to get hold of someone else’s goods that time, since the Kryuchkovs had almost no valuable things; All the money that Peter earned abroad, he invested in a new house.

On January 5, in the Zaporozhye region, near the Berdyansk-Dnepropetrovsk highway, a maniac killed four people: two men fiddling with a broken car, a random passer-by and a policeman. The next day, the investigating authorities received four more corpses. Onoprienko not only took rings and earrings from one of the murdered people, but also took off her shoes, and also grabbed two bags of groceries. January 17 - another tragedy in Bratkovichi. The unfortunate village has become main arena actions of the monster. This time, its residents buried seven fellow villagers - a family whose youngest member was only six years old, and two random witnesses to the murder. By the way, a maniac killed in Bratkovichi more people than died here in World War II!

After returning from Europe, Onoprienko decided to go to his brother in Narodich. He didn’t intend to get a job, but he didn’t want to be a dependent, so he found easy way solution to the problem - theft. Later, Anatoly again tried to go abroad illegally, but this time he was unlucky. Then he moved to Yavorov, Lviv region, where his cousin, who had the rank of captain, served. For a month, the killer lived with relatives, and then the daughter-in-law began to insist that her husband find another place to live for his gloomy brother, who kept a gun under his bed. Then the captain introduced thirty-seven-year-old Anatoly to thirty-four-year-old Anna Kozak, who had her own apartment. The woman worked in a garrison hairdresser, managed to divorce her husband and raised two children alone. Anna was looking for support in life; She took the bait on Anatoly right away. And he tried not to disappoint the woman.

Having decided on his place of residence, the maniac began a second series of murders. From December 1995 to April 16, 1996, he took the lives of 43 people. Among his victims was even a ten-month-old baby!

Anna Kozak, meanwhile, seemed quite happy: she met a reasonable, calm man who treated her children better than their own father. And even with her, Anatoly behaved as if he were a boy in love. Kozak had no suspicions that Onoprienko was leading a double life. The killer explained his frequent absences by trips to his brother and odd jobs, while he continued to travel around Ukraine, destroying entire families. So, on January 30, four people became his victims in the Kyiv region (two of them were children). Three weeks later, the Dubchak family died in Oblevsk (Zhitomir region). Onoprienko shot the father and son, and beat the mother and daughter to death with a hammer that came to hand. On February 27, the Bondarchuk family from the Lviv region and their neighbor joined the sad list of victims of the maniac. In this case, two children were hacked to death with an ax by a serial killer. You can talk about Onoprienko’s adventures for a long time, but is it worth it? All the crimes of this monster are equally terrible and bloody. The last time Anatoly successfully “hunted” was near Bratkovichi on March 22, 1996, destroying a family of five. The killer cut the youngest of the children with a knife from the stomach to the throat. During the three months spent with Anna, the maniac managed to kill 38 people.

Meanwhile, the investigation team worked in emergency mode. However, one note should be made here. The fact is that Onoprienko could have ended up behind bars at the very beginning of his terrible “activities.” In 1989, he and Sergei Rogozin were “identified”; all the evidence was there, all that remained was to charge the accomplices with several murders, and here it was. For some unknown reason, they stopped digging under Onoprienko at the last moment.

It took too long to identify the serial killer. Finally, law enforcement agencies received information about the maniac’s place of residence. The operation to detain him became the largest in the entire history of Ukraine: the police, internal troops, and the SBU were involved in the case; The participants in the operation had heavy weapons and even armored vehicles! In total, more than 100,000 (!) people were involved in the search and capture of the maniac.

The horror of six bloody years ended unexpectedly simply. On April 16, a sleepy Onoprienko calmly opened the door to the police. He believed that it was Anna Kozak who had returned home. The maniac had a long period of imprisonment in solitary confinement ahead of him, since there was a significant delay in the start of the trial.

It was not for nothing that the preparation of the parties for the trial took so much time. Firstly, the materials of the Onoprienko case barely fit into 100 substantial volumes. And secondly, certain problems arose with financing: it was necessary to pay for travel and accommodation for almost 500 witnesses. Reporters from around the world also attended the trial. They were interested not only in the maniac himself, but also in the person who would have the bitter mission of acting as the lawyer for the most ruthless killer in the last 200 years.

The trial of Onoprienko began on November 24, 1998. The maniac’s defender at the trial was Ruslan Moshkovsky, whom the press immediately dubbed “the devil’s advocate.” It is interesting that already during the trial the killer demanded that his lawyer be replaced, so that he must be a Muscovite, a Jew by nationality, over 50 years old and with twenty years of practice. Onoprienko's request was rejected, and Moshkovsky had to drag this cart to the end. Ruslan Ivanovich later gave an extensive interview in which he spoke about his client, his “exploits” and about the trial itself, which foreign criminologists began to call “the trial of the century.” To this day, journalists from Germany, Sweden, and Russia come to see the “devil’s advocate.” Moshkovsky, who was once accused of agreeing to defend this monster, explained: lawyers are not asked for consent to participate in such cases. During the trial of a maniac who is facing capital punishment, a defense attorney is appointed - go and work. So all that remains is to say a warm “thank you” to the authorities who assigned such a “fun” task to you. In general, Moshkovsky had to console himself with the fact that “someone still has to do a thankless job,” and then go get acquainted with the case (100 volumes of 250–300 pages each) and his client.

Over the course of four months, Ruslan Ivanovich had to listen a lot from the relatives of the victims; he was literally bombarded with anonymous messages and threats. No one seemed to be interested in the fact that the “devil’s advocate” himself considers the death penalty to be a fair sentence in this case. He simply honestly fulfilled his duty and brought the matter to an end, and then filed a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court of Ukraine asking for a mitigation of the punishment. Moshkovsky did this for purely professional reasons, bearing in mind that a person of his profession often has to put emotions aside. So, say, like a surgeon who, when taking up a scalpel, will not figure out who is lying on the operating table - a bandit or an ordinary law-abiding citizen.

First of all, the “devil’s advocate” decided to make sure that his client was not forced to take on someone else’s guilt. This was not done by accident. After all, just three weeks before the maniac was detained in Lvov, overly zealous police officers tried to pin Onoprienko’s sins on twenty-nine-year-old Yuri Mozola, who was eventually tortured to death. And this is not the only similar episode in this case. So, after Anatoly and his accomplice shot the Vasilyuk family of Poles, the investigation was taken under special control (of course, it was foreigners who suffered!). As a result, the police arrested two drug addicts - a man and a woman. After “heartfelt” conversations with law enforcement officials, one of the suspects hanged himself in prison, and the second died in the hospital. But it was then that the operatives had information that pointed to Onoprienko and Rogozin! Moshkovsky claims that the criminal duo was deliberately allowed to escape punishment, and then Onoprienko’s hunting documents, which included a 12-gauge gun with a device for night shooting, disappeared somewhere. Most likely, the fact was that Rogozin, who was the subject of the investigation, was the chairman of the Society of Afghans, that is, a well-known and respected person.

In a conversation with a lawyer, the killer calmly stated that there was no violence against him and that the sins of others were not “labelled” on him. Onoprienko said: “Ruslan Ivanovich, everything that I am accused of is mine. These hands are up to the elbows in blood.” The maniac willingly testified and did not seem to repent of what he had done. He deliberately shocked the public, trying to convince others that a normal person could not do such a thing. However, when it came to defense, Anatoly behaved smartly, prudently, using all opportunities, which surprised even the professionals. The court decided to conduct a second medical examination of the accused. For this purpose, a candidate came to Zhitomir from the Pavlovsk hospital medical sciences Andrey Tsubera. So, the psychiatrist came to a clear conclusion: Onoprienko is healthy, and all his stories are nothing more than a simulation.

So, after collecting the maximum amount of evidence and conducting all conceivable examinations, the case was sent to court. It is difficult to say who was protected more thoroughly and from whom in the hall where the trial was taking place - those present from the maniac or himself from those around him. Almost all participants in the meetings demanded the death penalty for Onoprienko, and most insisted that the monster’s death be as painful as possible. And could it be otherwise if Onoprienko quite calmly admitted to killing more than fifty people, and at the same time was clearly proud of his “exploits”?! So, he easily agreed to talk in detail about the murders of children, and at the same time asserted: the young victims did not evoke in him not only a drop of compassion, but also no emotional outburst at all. The killer behaved defiantly and declared that he was a “hostage of justice.” Onoprienko explained his actions simply: they say, a certain voice from above ordered him to kill. This behavior of serial killers is far from new. Onoprienko, who used a “blank” that had already set criminologists on edge, forcing one to seriously think about the fact that the person under investigation was suffering from a serious mental illness, spoke a lot about his motives and was clearly far-fetched. He planned three series of murders for himself, and each of them was supposed to serve “for the good.” The first included nine victims (against dying communism), the second - 40 (against neo-nationalism), and the third - 365 (against the "plague of the 20th century"). Onoprienko explained these numbers simply. They say that the dead are also remembered on the ninth, 40th day, and also every year. Anatoly committed the first series of murders together with Sergei Rogozhin, and then began to act alone. In the second episode, as the maniac cynically emphasized, he somewhat “exceeded the plan”, sending 43 people to the next world. He, you see, had just begun the implementation of the third series, but the arrest disrupted his plans, preventing him from “saving humanity from AIDS.” As for the geography of the crimes, it should have resembled a cross on the body of Ukraine. This nonsense, with an attempt at least to suggest schizophrenia, seemed to have several goals: Onoprienko enjoyed “playing for the audience” and at the same time sought to make himself look more abnormal than he actually was.

It is interesting that the maniac failed to attribute the atrocities to a thirst for profit. He did not have any special profit from the crimes he committed. Onoprienko actually killed one of his victims for... a bucket of herring, which he then brought to his brother.

The trial of the maniac lasted about four months. Finally, the hearing ended, and on March 31, 1999, the monster was sentenced to death. Since there was a lot of noise in the hall (many of those present shouted insults and curses at the defendant), the judge had to announce the verdict several times. Sergei Rogozin was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Since then, lawyer Moshkovsky, by the way, has been trying not to conduct criminal cases at all, preferring to resolve housing and civil disputes.

In 2000, a moratorium on the death penalty came into force in Ukraine, and the sentence against the maniac was not carried out. Nevertheless, residents of many Ukrainian cities organized a collection of signatures under an appeal to the president demanding to suspend the moratorium - especially for Onoprienko. However, the serial killer is still held in the Zhytomyr prison. The guards say that the maniac behaves calmly, decently, reads a lot and hopes. go free! After all, after 11 years of imprisonment, he has the right to apply for pardon. But we must not forget: at one of the court hearings, Onoprienko firmly said: “If I manage to get out, I will start killing again.”