In its eagerness to join the
European Union (EU) the Ukraine had in the meantime complied with EU
requirements in suspending its death sentence, however and in 1999 Onoprienko
was therefore being held in tiny, 9-by 5 feet (2.7 by 1.5-metre) cell at the
nineteenth century prison in Zhitornir, 8 miles west of Kieve, his fate was
being decided. Because Onoprienko relished killing even the toughest guards on
death row took no chances with him.
The first time I killed I shot
down a deer in the woods” he later reminisced. ‘I was in my early twenties and
I recall feeling very upset when I saw it dead. I couldn’t explain why I had
done it, and I felt sorry for it. I never had that feeling again. Onoprienko’s
first human were a couple whom he had seen standing by their Lada car on a
motorway. ‘I just shot them he said it’s not that it gave me pleasure, but I
felt this urge. From then on it was almost like some game from outer space.’
After that he terrorized the Ukraine for
months, slaughtering men, women and children alike, wiping out entire families
in cold blood, battering children and raping one woman after having shot her in
the face. To me killing people was like ripping up a duvet he explained. Men, woman, old people,
children – they are all the same. I have never felt sorry for those I killed.
No love, no hatred, just blind indifference. I don’t see them individuals, but
just as masses.’ On one occasion he had killed a young girl who was praying,
having just seen him kill both of her parents. ‘Seconds before I smashed her
head I ordered her to show me where they keep their money” he said. ‘She looked
at me with an angry, defiant stare and said “No I won’t “. That strength was
incredible. But I still felt nothing.
The Ukraine had been plunged into panic
when Onoprienko’s savagery reached its climax in early 1996, when he committed
about forty murders in three months. The determined force that he used was
almost unbelievable: he blew the doors off homes on the edges of villages,
gunned down adults and beat children with metal cudgels, stealing money, jewellery
stereo equipment and other valuable items before burning down his victims’
homes. ‘To me it was like hunting. Hunting people down” he explained. I would
be sitting, bored, with nothing to do. And then suddenly this idea would get
into my head. I would do everything to get it out of my mind, but I couldn’t.
It was stronger than me. So I would get in the car or catch a train and go out
to kill.’
For his part, Onoprienko – who
claimed that he was a good natured person and a sensitive music-lover –
maintained that he was possessed. I’m not a maniac” he said.
It’s not that simple. I have been
taken by a powerful force, something telepathic or cosmic, which drove me. For
instance, I wanted to kill my brother’s first wife I hated her. I really wanted
to kill her, but I couldn’t because I had not received the order. I waited for
all the times, but it did not come… I am like a rabbit in laboratory, part of
an experiment to prove that man is capable of murdering and learning to live
with his crimes. To show that I can cope, that I can stand anything, forget
everything.
Onoprienko was finally caught
after the Ukraine
had staged its biggest manhunt, which involved 2,000 police officers and than
3,000 troops. He was eventually arrested in April 1996 at his girlfriend’s
house, near the Polish border, as the result of an anonymous tip-off.
During his trial, which took
place in his home town of Zhytomyr,
Onoprienko stood locked within a metal cage in courtroom. He described himself
as ‘the devil’ `and boasted about being the world’s greatest serial killer. He
expressed no remorse for his crimes, continuing to claim that a higher force
had driven him to commit them. He is driven by extreme cruelty” disagreed Dmytro
Lypsk, the presiding judge at his trial. ‘He doesn’t care about anything only
about himself.
Five judges, including Lypsky,
sat on the judgement on Onoprienko During his four months trial. It took three
hours to read out their verdict, after which Lypsky told the court: ‘In line
with the Ukraine’s
criminal code Onoprienko is sentenced to death By shooting. In March 1997,
however, the Ukraine was admitted
to the council of Europe, and in compliance with EU rules the Ukraine’s
President, Leonid Kuchma, announced a moratorium on capital punishment. Yet
Onoprienko’s crimes had caused such revulsion in the Ukraine that commuting the serial
killer’s death sentence to 20 years in jail caused outrage. Even Onprienko
himself refused to ask for his sentence to be commuted, instead insisting that
he4 should be executed and warning:
If I am ever let out I will start
killing again. But this time it will be worse, ten times worse. The urge is
there. Seize this chance because I am being groomed by Satan. After what I have
learnt out there I have no competitors in my field. And if I’m not killed I
will escape from this jail and the first thing I’ll do is find Kuchma and Hang
him from a tree by his testicles.
