(chains clinking) (gates shut)
(distorted audio screeching)
- (narrator) His nickname is the Chessboard Killer.
And he racks up more bodies than Jeffrey Dahmer, Son of Sam,
and Jack the Ripper combined. - Jesus.
- Whoa! Okay. - (narrator) Russia has never seen
anything like Alexander Pichushkin, the Chessboard Killer.
- 60 people! - (narrator) It starts
as whispers among neighbors. - Sheesh!
- (narrator) "A monster must be living in the woods."
- (woman) Actually likes to befriend them before he kills them.
- Oh my god. - (woman) He will invite them
for a walk through Bitsa Park. He will give them vodka.
When they become under the influence, he will hit them over the head
and throw their bodies down a well. - Huh!
- (woman) During the search of Alex's mother's house,
they find a chessboard. - (narrator) The spaces
on the chessboard are numbered. Pichushkin tells police
each number represents a victim. - That is creepy.
- He's like, "When I hit 64, we'll be good."
- That's some [censored] up [censored].
- What makes him not stop? Like, wha-- 60?!
- (narrator) Only two spaces are blank.
- What?! - (man) There are 64 squares
on the chessboard, which means he killed 62.
- Wow. At least! - (man) The police
charged him with only 48... - Holy [censored].
- (man) ...and that actually upset him.
- (narrator) Pichushkin earns the nickname the Chessboard Killer.
Alexander Pichushkin gets what he wants:
the title of most notorious serial killer in Russian history.
- Only life in prison? (laughs) Wow, which means he's still alive.
- I would like to know if there was rhyme or reason to it.
Like, "She looks kind of like a queen."
"Oh, that one's a bishop." - He thinks of this as a game.
He thinks of himself as intelligent, superior to other beings.
I know because I used to be part of the chess club,
and so many of us thought we were superior to other people
even though they weren't complete nerds.
But this guy needs to be compensating for something
because that is ridiculous.
- (narrator) It was a case that almost defied belief.
Someone was killing elderly women in Mexico, strangling them
with a stethoscope. - Oh!
- That's crazy. - (woman) This is the very first time
in Mexican history that police named and profiled a serial killer.
- The first time? - (woman) Nickname El Mataviejitas.
- What does that mean? - (woman) This means
the little old lady killer. - Wow. They have a word for that.
- (woman) Grandmothers are thought as... grandmothers of the nation.
It is because they were elderly women
that police deploy a whole task force...
- That makes sense. - (woman) ...to find this
specific serial killer. - (narrator) The person
the police caught defied their profile of a serial killer.
- A vieja herself! - (narrator) Her name was
Juana Barraza. - What in the world?!
- (woman) Juan Barraza is a professional
lucha libra wrestler... - Luchador.
- Whaaat?! - (woman) ...that has been profiled
as the very first female serial killer of elderly women
in Mexico City. - It makes me wonder
what her relationship was with her mom and her grandmother.
- They make a point to say that the police created a task force
for this case because of how important old ladies are to their culture.
- Grandmas are like the centerpieces of families.
They are the glue, 'cause Brazilian, so still like a Latina culture.
They're seen as like figureheads in most families.
So, to knock a granny down is... (whistles)
- (narrator) On November 3rd, 2003, 35-year-old Yang Xinhai was arrested
by police in the province of Hebei in Cangzhou, China for the murders
of at least 67 people in a two-year time period.
The motive for the killings, according to Yang,
was that he had been dumped by his girlfriend and wanted
to take his anger out on society. - What?! You-- wha--
- Oh my gosh. It's such a pity party! It's always a pity party, man.
Everyone's just-- "Ah, feel bad for me.
I gotta do this, 'cause my life sucks so much."
It's like, bro, come on. - You get rejected by a girlfriend,
and you decide, "67 people seems like a fair exchange for my pain"?
- (narrator) Across the provinces of Anhui, Hebei, Henan, and Shandong,
Yang would enter family homes and commit what is known
as familicide, the act of killing an entire family.
- Wow, the whole family? - (narrator) In many cases,
the women were raped and the pets were also killed.
The murders and rapes would continue for the next three years,
totaling over 67 murders of men, women, and children,
23 rapes, and 10 serious injuries.
- Because of a relationship, a failed relationship? That's insane.
He was insane. - I think maybe it's an excuse.
- That's an excuse. You're like, "My girlfriend dumped me."
No, you are (taps) mentally unstable! You just wanted an excuse
to kill people, so you're like, "This vaguely upset me.
Let me go murder 67 people, lalala." Wh-- I'm okay.
I'm not. But I'm like, I'm great. I'm not.
- (narrator) Karl Denke, a native of one of the small Silesia villages.
He sold leather suspenders, belts, shoes, and shoelaces.
- Oh, no. - (narrator) Denke began selling,
quote, "meat goods," end quote... - No.
- (narrator) ...that he packaged in neat little pickle jars.
- I already know where this is going. - (narrator) With the food shortages
that ran rampant during post-World War I Germany
and the surrounding European countries,
his products saw high volume in sales. - (groans uneasily)
- (narrator) People were starving and saw the local meat dealer
to be somewhat of a salvation. December 21st at approximately
1 PM that afternoon... - Oh, no. No way.
- (narrator) ...a young man covered in blood ran
to his local police station and claimed that Denke tried
to kill him with a pickaxe. - Oh my god.
- (narrator) A few hours later, after the conclusion
of the interrogation, people found Denke dead
in his cell, having hanged himself with a handkerchief.
Police thought the suicide odd and traveled to Denke's residence
to do some investigating on their own.
After all, what did they think they would find from a man
so well respected in his own community?
The first findings made at Denke's house
during the search were bones and pieces of meat.
- Yeah, what would they find? - (narrator) The latter were
in a salt solution found in a wooden drum.
There were altogether 15 pieces with skin.
Police also found human flesh that appeared half-eatened
and assumed, without any real evidence,
that Denke must have consumed the pieces of flesh before his arrest.
Police also assumed that human meat that they discovered
in the Denke residence must have been sold
in the, quote, "pickled jars," end quote, that Denke peddled
throughout the town. Even though Denke may not have eaten
some of his victims or even sold their meat,
he did use human parts to make the various products
that he sold, including... - (groans loudly)
- (narrator) ...but not limited to belts of human skin,
suspenders from dried and leathered tendons,
and even an attempt to make a hat of human skin.
- That actually reminds me of something
that my grandmother would say...
"Don't eat everyone's cooking." - Interesting, though,
he's the only one so far that's tried to profit off the murder.
- He treated this like a business. He made pickled meat
so it was indistinguishable. If you pickle the meat,
then you don't question where that meat comes from, right?
And then you take the parts of the human,
because he's so efficient, to make clothing.
So, he literally treated humans like we treat cows.
- The city was starving, and they didn't have food.
And so, it makes you think, like, did he think he was
doing society a favor by providing food?
- (narrator) The real-life Dexter killer who murders criminals.
Meet the man from Brazil whose exploits in life
probably have inspired the TV show character.
- Wow. - (narrator) Pedro Rodrigues Filho
was born in a farming village of Santa Rita do Sapucaí
in Minas Gerais, Brazil. - (squeaks) That's my state.
I'm from Minas Gerais! That's where I'm from!
Hometown pride. - (narrator) While he was still
13 years old, he had a heated argument with an older cousin.
Things must have escalated from verbal to physical...
- 13. - (narrator) ...during which he tried
to kill the boy. - Dang. Oh, man.
- (narrator) Filho drew his first blood a year later
when he killed the vice mayor of their town, who fired his father
after being suspected of stealing. According to reports,
the now so-called Pedrinho Matador, or Killer Petey,
would kill drug traffickers after robbing them of their goods.
Having heard about how his father
butchered his mother... - Whoa.
- (narrator) ...Filho set his eyes upon his old man.
- He-- what? What?! - (narrator) At the time,
the older Filho was detained and awaiting trial in a city jail.
He went into his father's holding cell,
and there, he killed him. It happened that while being
transported to prison, he was riding along
with a known rapist. By the time the police went
to open the back of their transporter,
the other prisoner was already lifeless.
- This guy is able. - (narrator) Filho immediately claimed
responsibility for the crime. Inside the prison, Filho sort of
became a punisher who reportedly killed
almost 50 of his fellow inmates. - What?!
- (narrator) Filho was originally sentenced to 128 years in prison.
- Oh my god. - (narrator) And with the subsequent
murders he committed behind the bars, it got extended to 400 years.
- Pffft! - (narrator) The funny thing is...
(mouse clicks) - (laughs) I'm sorry.
- Damn! Wow! What?! (chuckles) What?!
- It went from 100 years to 400 years! I was like...
- (React and Izzy chuckle) - (narrator) Under the Brazilian law,
the maximum prison sentence a convict is allowed to serve
should not exceed 30 years. - What?
- (narrator) Having been imprisoned since 1973,
Filho got his freedom in 2007. - What?!
- What?! - (narrator) Pedro Rodrigues Filho
is now 65 years old... - What?!
- (narrator) ...and according to recent information
is now a totally changed man. - Uh, no, he's not.
- (narrator) He has since been working on an autobiography
and a YouTube channel... (mouse clicks)
- He has a YouTube channel. - What?
- (narrator) ...where he purportedly advises young people to avoid
the life of crime. - He almost killed his cousin.
He killed for his dad, and then he killed his dad.
And then he just started killing other people that he deemed criminals.
But what is he? - You have someone who is pretty much
a self-proclaimed vigilante going after horrible people.
And people are gonna view that differently
to the point where he got released. - The Brazilian justice system,
similar to the American justice system,
isn't exactly just all the time. So, he could just be murdering people
who didn't actually do anything. - It's interesting,
'cause they do compare him to Dexter. And it's like in the way
that he would kill criminals. But we can all convince ourselves
that what our wrongdoing is is right if we try hard enough.
- This reminds me of the musical Chicago.
What do you do after you're a serial killer?
I'm going to make media and become rich!
- People are watching this guy actively? Jesus!
- Maybe we need to cut this segment out,
because he's not coming after me! (laughs) I'm like...
- Hey, Pedro. Hi, bestie. Oi! Which is just "hi."